website creator [dropcap]T[/dropcap]his past May, the American Friends of the Parents Circle took a group of 10 board members and supporters on its first Study Tour of Israel and Palestine. The group went with the intentions of listening, learning and leadership. Upon our return from the Tour to Israel and Palestine, we would like to share our experience with you.
It was an intense and meaningful visit to the region. Intense because we met the conflict up close, in our face. We met Palestinian families in their refugee camp and heard from some about their dream to return. There is a nuance of having the right vs. actualizing it. I met a Holocaust survivor who dreamed about the land of Israel and was then met with a never ending nightmare of losing his son in one of Israel’s many wars. We met with Israeli and Palestinian politicians struggling for political survival in a time absent of inspirational leadership. We met the belly of the occupation beast in Hebron standing on a street that used to bustle with markets and commerce now a ghost town in the aftermath of violence. We stood on the Gaza envelope the morning of the 60 deaths watching a plume of smoke rise, hearing gun shots in the distance and smelling the tear gas. We met with the former U.S. Ambassador who put things in perspective that for now, with no solution in sight, we have to make the best of a bad situation.
It was meaningful because despite the ugliness, the despair and the loss of life, there are those that are tireless, that continue to stick to their conviction that understanding and nonviolence and listening and reconciliation are the only way forward and despite all the incidences around them that show otherwise, still believe that peace is possible. The members of the Parents Circle who have paid the highest price to the conflict and the joint Israeli and Palestinian staff insist that the way of violence, hatred, fear and separation will only bring about more bereaved families.
We spent the day with the Parents Circle in the West Bank meeting dozens of Israelis and Palestinians (non-bereaved) who have been part of the Parents Circle programs and came together to talk about difficult issues, plan next steps and determine the way forward to peace and how to make it possible in their worlds, together. We cooked with the bereaved women of the Women’s Group who showed us how to roll stuffed grape leaves and insisted we redo our grape leaves if they weren’t up to their standards (I have to say that my grape leaves got high remarks 🙂 We broke bread together, we laughed, we cried. We went through all of the emotions.
It was not easy to leave our colleagues and new friends just two days after the 60 deaths in Gaza. 60 new bereaved families. We were only consoled by going to a protest that night, all the Israelis and us together, outside of the Likkud building in Tel Aviv shouting slogans for peace.
Our Israeli and Palestinian team goes back to picking up the pieces. They go back to speaking of mutual understanding, trust building, non-violence when the signs around them point otherwise. In an effort to support the Parents Circle staff and ensure that they are empowered and true to their convictions and our mission of reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians, the American Friends of the Parents Circle is committed to bolster their power as a united staff and leaders in nonviolence and peace.
Thank you for being a part of the work that is ours to do.
