Here, with an inspiring account were we are used to hearing stories of
unrelenting violence and bloodshed...

A SHINING WEB OF GOOD HEARTS AND GOODWILL
IN ISRAEL AND PALESTINE
Jack Kornfield Ph.D.

In a recent visit to the peacemaking communities of Holy land, I found
an astonishing (and hardly reported) web of hundreds of organizations
fostering reconciliation and peace in powerful ways among goodhearted
people on all sides.

Careening around the West Bank through armed checkpoints and
guardposts, guided by the wise Sheik Abdul Aziz Bukari and unflappable
Jewish activist Eliyahu Mclean, founders of Jerusalem Peacemakers I
was led to meet with leaders (and sometimes to offer teachings to)
Arab, Israeli, Christians and Druze who were dedicated to planting
seeds of respect and healing in this torn land.

It was a wild ride. We drove around the West bank and through barrier
wall avoiding checkpoints, listening to Santana and the Grateful Dead
(the Sheik lived in California for some years) changing our garb and
hats to fit the need, Arab Kaffia, Jewish yarmulke/kippah, secular
jackets. Sometimes it was like the Marx brothers, sometimes like James
Bond. We met with fundamentalists, mystics, shopkeepers and soldiers
in Hebron and yogis and sages in the desert beyond Jericho. There were
peace marches across Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives for hundreds,
with Muslim, Jewish Christian leaders. And an amazing walk from the
Holocaust Memorial into the Palestinian refugee camps, led by an Arab
leader intent on teaching his people about the painful history of the
Jews in Europe. And thus also helping the Jewish people understand the
Naquba, the catastrophic loss of Palestinian homes and villages in the
1948 war to found Israel. There were the Combatants for Peace, former
Palestinian and Israeli fighters now fighting for each other's well
being. There were the Bereaved parents in Ramallah/West bank and their
partners in Israel. There were the Israeli/Arab women's groups "Beyond
Words" that are working for women's right and planting hundreds and
thousands of olive trees. There is the wise old bearded Chassidic
settler Rabbi beloved on all sides who was mediating between Hamas
fighters and the Israeli Dept of Defense. There is the Holy Land
Trust, run by Semi Awad, a Palestinian center for Gandhi's teaching of
non-violence in the Arab world located a stone's throw from the Church
of the Nativity in Bethlehem. There was Neva Shalom the peace village
founded by a catholic priest for Muslims and Jews, hosting a hundred
Palestinian and Israeli teens who had been meeting for 2 years and
were now bringing their parents from the west bank and Israel together
with tears in their eyes trying to teach them to listen to one
another. There were the widespread activities of a whole group of
Rabbis for Human Rights, and the Interfaith environmental and peace
council meeting at the Sheik's Sufi center in the Arab quarter of the
old city with Bishop's, Imams, Rabbis, and other community leaders.
There was Ipisam the big hearted Arab woman whose name means smile,
who runs empowerment and peace groups for women and ran for political
office (to the chagrin of the local male Muslim leaders) and who
inspires healing work on all sides.

There was Stephen Fulder, Naturopath who opened a large clinic in the
Galilee for the Palestinians in the adjacent village and is teaching
Arab women the ancient tradition of herbal medicine and Stephen's
counterpart, the village Sheik who has spent all his family money
bringing sick Palestinian children across the wall to good hospitals
in Israel. There was Abdulla,the dignified Arab director of the large
Jenin refugee camp, now actively a part of the Middle Way peacemaking
group. And all over these committed people are using the widely
spreading skills of Marshall Rosenberg's Non-Violent Communication, of
Jack Zimmerman's Listening Council, of mediation, mediation,
Mindfulness, of Peter Levine's Trauma Therapy, of Arab practices of
Houdna reconciliation. I spoke to a hall of a thousand people in Tel
Aviv teaching them some of these practices and honoring the widespread
support for these heartening possibilities.

Even though the situation is bad, politically polarized and dire, this
is only on one level. On another there are a hundred groups of
unrecognized common folks, heroes and heroines, tirelessly sowing the
seeds of genuine reconciliation of the future for all who will live in
the holy land. Because the lives of the Israelis and Palestinians are
now so interwoven on this same piece of land, there is clearly no long
term military solution. They know the world is watching and that if
they can show how to live together it will be a symbol for all of
humanity.

I want to tell these stories and get the word out to the media so they
can report on them (otherwise the continually repeated stories about
fear and violence will sow more fear and violence).

And I want to look for funding for some of these brave peacemakers. If
we can send billions of dollars for arms, we can spare a few percent
for peace. This is our true future.

With appreciation for all who read these words,

Dr. Jack Kornfield
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
****************
Ralph Metzner, Ph.D.
Green Earth Foundation
http://www.greenearthfound.org

Motto of the Green Earth Foundation:
Harmonizing Humanity with Earth and Spirit.

For information on the Metzner Alchemical Divination training program:
http://www.metzneralchemicaldivination.org

For information on Ralph Metzner's latest book - The Expansion of
Consciousness:
http://greenearthfound.org/products/book_ce.html