<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=windows-1255" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META content="MSHTML 5.00.2614.3500" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>
<P align=left dir=rtl><FONT face=Arial>Dear list</FONT></P>
<P align=left dir=ltr>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. </P>
<P align=left dir=ltr>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.</P>
<P align=left dir=ltr>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.</P>
<P align=left dir=ltr>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.</P>
<P align=left dir=ltr>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.</P>
<P align=left dir=ltr>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.</P>
<P align=left dir=ltr>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.</P>
<P align=left dir=ltr>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.</P>
<P align=left dir=ltr>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.</P>
<P align=left dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial>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.</FONT></P>
<P align=left dir=ltr>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. </P>
<P align=left dir=ltr>I came back with a heavy burden of responsibility.It seems
that someone turned on the light at the end of the tunnel.</P>
<P align=left dir=ltr>It is long but I hope it is usefull.</P>
<P align=left dir=ltr> </P>
<P align=left dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial>Avner Haramati</FONT></P>
<P align=left dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial>Jerusalem</FONT></P>
<P align=left dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial><A
href="mailto:avner@oganim.com">avner@oganim.com</A></FONT></P>
<P align=left dir=ltr> </P>
<P align=left dir=ltr> </P>
<P align=left></P></FONT></BODY></HTML>