Creativity for Peace is the leader in preparing young Israeli and Palestinian women to pave the way for peace in their communities and across borders with compassion, courage, and an understanding of the story of the other.Ma'an reports:
Creativity for Peace trains young Palestinian and Israeli women to partner as leaders by breaking down barriers of anger and prejudice, facilitating friendships, and inspiring action to promote peace.
Young women begin by attending a three-week summer program in Santa Fe, New Mexico. At camp they learn to speak authentically and listen compassionately, share their personal stories – often of the violent deaths of loved ones – and transform anger and prejudice into real friendships. After summer the program continues in Israel and Palestine with year-round training and mentoring.
Campers are 15-17 years old. Our most senior participants are in their late 20s. They are Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Druze, and other religions and ethnicities and include Palestinians from the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel as well as Jewish Israelis.
We have held 16 summer programs with a total of 223 teens. Each camp consists of 14-20 participants, half of whom are Jewish and half Arab.
A group of activists on Friday stopped a conference in occupied East Jerusalem from going ahead that they accused of contributing to the "normalization" of the Israeli occupation.Did the hotel really cancel the event? It is not so clear. The intimidation worked this way:
The conference had been organized by the "Creativity for Peace" group and was set to take place in the Legacy Hotel.
However, the hotel reportedly cancelled the event after they were contacted by the activists.
The hotel management had apparently been unaware of the conference, believing instead that a tourism company had booked the hall.
Some activists allege that organizations aiming to facilitate dialogue and understanding between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians without addressing political realities "normalize" the Israeli occupation.
The young men explained that they were able to go inside the conference room where there Israelis and Palestinians from Jerusalem, the West Bank and the 1948 lands. The young men talked to the Palestinians who refused to listen to them and said that “dialogue is the solution after the long years of Intifada which they participated in”. They also accused the locals of Jerusalem of selling their lands and property to Jews.Here is one flyer that the "activists" took:
The young men added that the participants in the normalization conference withdrew from the room and covered their faces fearing to be photographed.
The young men were also able to obtain a copy of the conference’s agenda which included the names of the participants and their contact information in addition to the work schedule for next month which includes a trip to Jordan for Palestinians and Israeli for three days.
Here is video of the "activists" before they ran into the conference room and frightened the women there to flee. One brave Arab woman argued with them, but saw the camera too late to cover her face..
I cannot find a single article in Arab media that is the least bit ashamed that Arabs deliberately intimidated a conference of young women who have no political agenda and who only want peace.
I cannot find a single statement from Creativity for Peace or any other peace or human rights group that condemns - or even mentions - these actions by "activists."
Because it is not nice to mention that most Arabs are against real peace.