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Rarely does more than a week or so go by before something arrives in my inbox from Len and Libby Traubman, a couple that has helped lead a Palestinian/Jewish living room dialogue for two decades. And, opening that message always gives me a boost of hope for the world, even in the midst of bad news. Today was no different. They shared links to videos from an organization called Peace it Together. Check out this video and then, read more to learn about what happens when a Palestinian, an Israeli, and a Canadian spend part of their Summer vacation together, peace-building through film-making.
According to Peace it Together’s web site:
Peace it Together provides a unique dialogue and filmmaking program that offers youth the opportunity to connect deeply with their so-called “enemy” while co-creating short films that can be used as peace-building tools throughout the world.
Our work is centered on three distinct processes:
- Dialogue: learning about and listening to each other
- Filmmaking: engaging in the creative process
- Sustaining the Impact: sharing the films and encouraging others to build peace
Canadian television did a story about this year’s camp. What struck me so powerfully about it (below) was hearing a Palestinian student say that the only Israelis she ever met were soldiers. Even under the best of circumstances, when the people you meet are on duty soldiers living in a dangerous situation, you’ll rarely get to see their humanity just as they will rarely get to see yours. How amazing it is when we get to step out of our trapped existence and spend time with someone who otherwise carries the label of enemy!
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Watching these young people come together and make powerful films gives me hope, even if the films themselves are painful to watch. Hacked was pretty hard. Grave Digging (below) is even harder. Knowing that these Palestinian, Israeli, and Canadian youths are using film to communicate incredible pain and what watching can leave one feeling hopeless, one might choose to wallow in that hopelessness and perhaps give up. BUT, that is NOT, from my perspective, the message. The message is that violence is pointless. Until people stop believing in violence as a tool for security, or as a means to liberation, we’ll all simply keep digging graves.
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According to today’s news reports, Palestinian gunmen killed seven Israelis near the Egyptian border and Israel launched an airstrike that killed six Palestinians, including the person Israel believes led the Palestinian group responsible for the attack against Israelis.
More graves to dig.
I know it is hard to have any hope when news like this arrives. That’s why I’m so grateful that my inbox has little whispers of hope. Young people see the pointlessness of violence and make films to try to get us to see it too.
Click here to check out all ten of this year’s films.
How did you spend your Summer vacation?
Craig, you have some wonderful friends. The first thing I did after viewing the Gravediggers clip (well,actually the second thing…… the first thing was breaking down and crying for a few minutes)
was to express my gratitude in a prayer that people like you and your friends still exist. God bless and thank you for passing on this badly needed shot of hope,
Please read my book, No More Enemies – available online. It suggests a simple but powerful idea: shifting the underlying “enemies paradigm” and getting us out of this trap we’ve been in for so long. It sidesteps ideology and religion and relates to our situation in Israel / Palestine as essentially a design failure, and suggests that we can create a better design – together.
thank you so very much for introducing me to Peace It Together! this is so wonderful, so powerfully healing, liberating, illuminating!! that canada is doing this speaks volumes, especially of its natural peace-making practices which resound throughout the country from this sort of work to Aboriginal healing circles. for those at ubc who conceived & carried out this idea–todah rabah!! i honor you!! this is such good work, so heart-connecting/opening/expanding. i wish everyone everywhere could view all these films, & that other canadian universities would engage in this project! congrats!!