Palestinians and Israelis in Rome - long

[Averbuch]

Avner
this is very important and beautifully written
Thanks
Tova
  -----Original Message-----
  From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]On Behalf Of AVNERH
  Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2002 1:15 AM
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
  Subject: Palestinians and Israelis in Rome - long


  Dear list

  I would like to use our experience in Rome for sharing some learnings (in
addition to Harisson`s)about using open space in extreme situations of
conflict.

  First I would like to use this opportunity to thank Harisson for the great
work that he has done in Rome, being completely neutral, caring to people
and sensitive to the tides, gliding with the energies and enable the
participants to be fully and genuinly there. Starting the 3rd day with
closure that enable people to work through what happened to them in the last
2 days was briliant. It freed the energies of the people to use all the
afternoon, evening and some of the day after to take full responsibility and
to plan very significant projects.

  Preparing the meeting was extremely complicated and took so much energies
from many people. I will try to give a simplified taste and learnings from
it.

  Sponsorship: The initiator was an Italian NGO manager(Nicoletta from
Dionysia international center) that together with the Italian foreign
ministry were interested in bringing 20 Israelis and Palestinians on the
issue of forgivness. A local sponsor- Daniel Kropf (an Italian
buisnessman)who participated in our training was added later and offered the
open space. He enabled to enlarge the number to 50 because he trusted that
OS can create intimacy with larger numbers of people.The topic was changed
to building trust because we are not yet in a position of forgive - we still
shoot.

  Building the groups: This process took more than 2 months with a lot of
pulling and pushing from all sides. On the Israelis the trend was to bring
people you know and only in the last week we managed to enlarge
significantly the variety to represent almost all sectors of society. On the
Palestinian side there were different groups beccause the Italian initiator
invited one Palestinian leader to choose the rest of the group and the local
sponsor chose another. It took them some time (and crisis) to create a joint
list of participants. The groups consisted from people from the buisness
sector, writers and media, public figures, education, government officials,
university and facilitators.

  Facilitators: At the beginning Tova and myself were invited. Then we
thought to bring Carol, an Israeli Palestinian (that took the OS training
this year) to work with us to create a balance, but she was not accepted by
some of the Palestinians, without knowing her, because she is not a `real`
Palestinian. We decided to go abroad and hesitated between non jews
Americans and Europeans (Europeans are perceived by Palestinians as more
neutral than Americans).  Harisson recomended on Michael Pannwitz but since
he couldn`t come Harisson changed his plans and came.It was decided that
together with a `real` untrained Palestinian woman we will assist Harisson
as natives to keep the space open. Tova and Carol came as participants.

  Steering comity: It was a real Chaos, we never met all of them to work
together. Some we didn`t see at all because they could not get out of their
city.

  The day before: We wondered if and how much preparation/training the
people need before they start. At the end Nada, a Serbian woman and the
expert (to my taste)in non violent comunication (Marshal Rosenberg) gave us
only 1 hour of participative lesson on needs: The existence of honorable and
valued need behind all manifestations of anger and hostility and the
benefits in acknowledge that. She drew a lot on her experiences in working
with childeren and adults during and after the war in Yeguslavia. Nada
participated in the OS, and the people found that what they learned from her
as very meaningfull.

  The press: The group decided not to cover the meetings in order to ensure
free speach.A press conference was schedueled to the end with the intention
that the group will decide what to say. They decided not to tell who was
there and what were the issues. The reasons were the fear of sabotage and
refraining to reduce the experience to words.

  There were many incidents of the cruel reality along the meeting, as
invading twice to the home city of some of the Palestinians participants,
and killing of Israeli citizens. Finally as an illustration that on coming
back to Israel/Palestine Israeli members of the group arranged from Rome a
military escort to accompany some of their Palestinians new friends to their
homes (in the middle of a combat there), and also brought back to jerusalem
family members of another friend.

  Summary: The event was a big sucess to compare with other
Israeli-Palestinians meetings which are usually (so I heard) very much in
control of exact planning who, what, when.  The group decided not to reveal
so the only thing I can say is that it was the first time that the
Palestinians met not only the humanistic left but almost all the dimensions
of Israeli society.For many Israelis it was the first time to meet and talk
with Palestinians. This brought to much deeper levels of mutual
understandings and friendships, and freed a lot of energies to actualize
meaningfull passions that can make a difference.

  I came back with a heavy burden of responsibility.It seems that someone
turned on the light at the end of the tunnel.

  It is long but I hope it is usefull.



  Avner Haramati

  Jerusalem

  avner at oganim.com






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