Ines wrote

Ines wrote an article for an Austrian youth magazine, which is provided by her organisation ("Evangelische Jugend"). Ines translated the text and you can read it here:

Meeting of minds among adolescents – „future through cooperation“

dialogue4thefuture

Diary entry of the dialogue until:
„We are not part of the problem, but part of the solution!“

Participants:
8 Hungarians: Alex, Misi, Vicky, Adri, Kinga, Peter, Ezster, Zsofi;
8 Palestinians: Reem, Anas, Lina, Ibrahim, Tareq, Mais, Safa, Samer;
4 Austrians: Martin, Christina, David, Caro;
6 Israelis: Sahar, Lilach, Koren, Sharon, Naama, Yoni

and all of them were impressive;

Custodians:
1 Hungarian: Eszter
2 Palestinians: Wisam, Mazen (Parents Circle)
1 Austrian: Hans
2 Israelis: John, Ariella (Parents Circle)

Prearrangement team: Evelyn Nöbauer (Camp leader), Veronika Schwaiger, Hans Steinmaurer, Roland Werneck, Ines Hauser, Olivier Dantine
Leaders of the workshops: Manfred Rühl, Klaus Pahr, Lisa Kolb, Leyla Helbich, Michael Ingber

Visitors: Paul Gulda, Marwan Abbado, Aiosha Biz, Bert Kenyeri

Organisation of event: Dagmar Lassmann (Diakonie-Auslandhilfe, Roland Werneck-Evangelsiche Akademie Wien, Silke Dantine – Concentrum Stadtschlaining, Ines Hauser-Evangelische Jugend Österreich, Parents Circle – Families Forum, Hungarian Interchurch Aid (HIA)

Who is the problem? Generally, it’s “the others”, the foreigners, those we don’t know and don’t want to get to know. I remember a text about “foreignness”, its final (ironic) sentence is: “Being a foreigner is a crime which cannot be compensated anymore”. This sentence may be absolutely agreed with, if the matter is rest with foreignness, if not even xenophobia. Those two weeks of “meeting of minds” showed me a lot, in other words, proved that black is white and that being foreign, being strange, in whatever way, must never be seen as “a crime”. In those two weeks we got to know each other, conducted conversations, were shocked, cried and laughed with each other and finally uncovered: “We are not part of the problem, but part of the solution!” Well organized workshops helped us uncovering this: Through games which made us discuss for finding corporate solutions. Through background information and intense examination of the history and policy of Israel and Palestine. Through the theatre of the oppressed that made particular feelings for one’s opposition obvious. Through trips to Vienna, the Neusiedler See (lake) and other experiences which connect each other. We got to know insights into other cultures, every day situations and traditional cuisines. Comprehension questions moved us to question already posed questions, experiences and muddle to saddle the horse from the back. Pictures which moved us from our secure campsite into frightening scenes to Israel/ Palestine. The way to the army in one or more months. Together, way above the Austrian, Hungarian, Israeli and Palestine borders – for 14 days – living together with others and experiencing things with others and about others… All those workshops, corporate experiences and especially the will and wish to unite different nationalities, point of views and personalities in such an extraordinary camp helped us to recognise that we have made a big step towards the solution…however solution is defined.
Much more could be written about those fourteen wonderful days. But it is sure that it will be much more interesting to read the participants’ experiences in the blog.

Evelyn wrote...

Thank you so much, It has been a great and wonderful time to stay with you. I’m proud and really honoured that I had the chance to spend such a great 14 days with you all. Everyone is back home and I hope you’ve had a save trip especially the Palestinias as your journey is the one with the most obstacles. You’ve been a such a wonderful group, I can’t describe it in words but I try.
Interested, dedicated, sensitive, cordial, lovely, and so on. I’m looking back in a bit melancholy – it’s raining today – and I’m a bit sad. I’m sitting here thinking about you and I look at my t-shirt and read the words you’ve written. Thanks for the Sweathart, Big Love, Big Mama und the Queen of the Camp and the nice lines I’ve got from you all. Thanks for the great team-work and punctuality – did you realize we have added 15 more minutes .... hihihi?
Samer my Big Love you have forgotten to write something on my shirt? Thanks for your lines on the letter. You are a great person!
Sahar, you worte on my shirt „At Malkar“ and on my paper „Ha Malkar“. And you always told me to say „Any malkar“ – do you want to confuse me???
Yoni, till now I don’t know what has made you laugh so heartily – did I understand it right – it was only the sound how I shouted „Hansi“? I can’t help laughing heartily when looking back at the water sequence.
Sharon, you really are a great fotographer and I’ll never forget you too.
Koren, thanks for „you are so cool and so kind”. You are also a cool guy.
Liliach, thanks for your message on the blog, you are wonderful.
Naama, you are my singing Sweetheart, you wrote “I’ll never forget you, I wish you the best”. Same to you.
Reem, Safa, Lina, Mais, you wrote“ I´ll stay in touch with you, you have a nice smile, the best and only the best to our Queen”. I see you the same way.
Ibrahim, thanks for “the best Leader in this camp, stay lovely. helpfull”. I think you’ll do something great and will play an important role in the Dialogue.
Anas, Tareq, thanks for the compliment „my mother in Austria“.
Tareq I’m happy that I look like your mother too.
Kinga, Sophie, Eszter, Adri, Alex, Vicky, Peter and Misi you are all sweet and lovely. Christina, Martin and Dan, we are not too far away from each other. I’m looking forward to seeing you again.
Thousend thanks to the team, to Hansi, our master for the blog and video-workshop and for taking care for the austrian youths, to Veronika, our Dancing Queen, to Ines, the handcrafts master and Campnewsletter columnist, to Roland, the man for organizational stuff. Insider – where is Roland, the opera-singing, vietnamese werewolf... hihihi Thanks to the extended team Eszter, I’ll never forget your mischievous laugh and your wit. But please bear in mind not to bring too many girls to a camp... this brings hard work. Ariella , you are such a cordial and clever woman. John, it’s been a pleasure for me to have you as a balanced, always smilinges person in the camp. By the way, because of you I wasn’t the eldest in the camp ...hihihihi Mazen, thanks for your kooperative team-work. Wisam, I wish you new insights and perceptions on what concerns freedom of women. Manfred and Klaus, you’ve asked the participants after your outdoor activities what their highlights were. Your co-operation was super and for me the highlights of both days were you. Manfred, you’ve triggered a „game addiction“ with your werewolf-game, which thrilled all youths of the participating countries. Tom, thanks for your free-spirited manner. The juggling-workshop was real fun. Lisa and Leyla, the theater-workshop contributed figuratively to new perceptions of the participants. Michael, thanks for your historical backgrounds. For some paricipants a lot was new and discussions could become alive. Olivier and Silke, thanks for being so spontaneous when taking care of our various issues.
A camp can only be so successful when many great people are on site, who unterstand the youths and respond to them. I think we did it – alltogether!
I’ll never forget you. I love you all. It was a great pleasure to be the camp-leader of the international youth camp 2007 „Zukunft durch Begegnung“ „- „Dialogue 4 the Future“ in Rechnitz.
Es war mir eine große Ehre und Freude Camp-Leiterin des Internationalen Jugendcamp 2007 „Zukunft durch Begegnung“ - „Dialog 4 the Future“ in Rechnitz zu sein.

Evelyn Nöbauer

Austrian Radio

The report about the camp in Ö1 (Austrian Radio) will be broadcasted on Thursday, 26th of July at 18:25.
To open the live-webradio just click here. Sorry again, just in german :-(

Online gallery

Click here to see some new impressions of the camp.

Comment 2 (German)

Olivier Dantine, pastor near Rechnitz and supporter of the camp, talked about the camp in the Autrian radio: (Sorry, only german!)

Suche Frieden und jage ihm nach! (Psalm 34,15)

Wer würde diese Aufforderung nicht unterschreiben? Dem Frieden nachjagen. Aber schon diese Formulierung zeigt, dass es eine mühsame Aufgabe sein muss. Dem Frieden nachzujagen verlangt viele Kräfte, es verlangt auch Ausdauer, denn so leicht sind die Träume vom Frieden nicht zu erreichen.

Der gemeinsame Traum von Frieden hat in den vergangenen 14 Tagen 26 Jugendliche aus Israel, Palästina, Ungarn und Österreich verbunden. Sie haben an einem Jugendcamp unter dem Motto: „Dialog für die Zukunft“ im evangelischen Jugendgästehaus im burgenländischen Rechnitz teilgenommen. Es waren zwei Wochen des Lernens, der Begegnung und des gemeinsamen Erlebens.

Dass so eine Begegnung nicht leicht ist, haben die Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer gleich zu Beginn erfahren. Schon in der Vorstellungsrunde waren die enormen Spannungen zwischen Israelis und Palästinensern deutlich. Die palästinensischen Jugendlichen hielten sich nicht lange damit auf, ihre Hobbys aufzuzählen. Ganz wesentlich zu ihrer Identität gehört nun mal die Erfahrung mit der Besatzung durch die israelische Armee. Für die israelischen Jugendlichen, immerhin kurz vor ihrem Militärdienst ein kleiner Schock, gleich so konfrontiert zu werden.

Dass die österreichischen und ungarischen Jugendlichen nicht die Rolle eines neutralen Beobachters spielten, wurde deutlich, als es auch um die Geschichte des Ortes Rechnitz ging. Anhand der schwierigen Geschichte des Umgangs mit nationalsozialistischen Verbrechen gerade in Rechnitz wurde deutlich, dass der Holocaust auch im Nahostkonflikt eine Rolle spielt. Die Erinnerung an den Holocaust ist nun mal ein Teil der Identität in der israelischen Gesellschaft und damit auch der Jugendlichen, und gleichzeitig ein Teil der österreichischen wie der ungarischen Geschichte.

Das aufeinander hören, das Argumentieren ohne das Gegenüber zu verletzen, war für viele Jugendliche ein mühsamer Lernprozess, vor allem wenn man bedenkt, dass es keine theoretischen Diskussionen waren. Für die Jugendlichen ging es um existenzielle Fragen der Angst, der Frustration, der Sehnsucht nach Freiheit. Für die Beteiligten waren das emotionell belastende Diskussionen.

Das Schöne war aber der gegenseitige Respekt, der auch in schwierigen Momenten zu spüren war. In den vielen unterschiedlichen Kooperationsübungen im Rahmen der Erlebnispädagogik war von dem Konflikt kaum mehr etwas zu spüren, ebenso in der Freizeitgestaltung.

Das ist ein großes Hoffnungszeichen. Friedensarbeit heißt ja bei Weitem nicht, Konflikte zu vermeiden. Ganz im Gegenteil. „Es wird nicht aufhören, bis wir anfangen, miteinander zu reden“, heißt ein Motto unserer Partnerorganisation im Nahen Osten, des Parents Circle. Es ist eine Organisation von Israelis und Palästinensern, die ein Familienmitglied in diesem Konflikt verloren haben. Gemeinsam treten sie in der Öffentlichkeit und in Schulen für Versöhnung statt Vergeltung ein.

„Es wird nicht aufhören, bis wir anfangen, miteinander zu reden“. So mühsam dieser Prozess für die Beteiligten sein mag, es ist so wichtig, ins Gespräch zu kommen. Das Sommercamp in Rechnitz ist wohl ein wichtiger Beitrag dazu, denn es setzt bei der Jugend an.

Sicher, wenn wir in Österreich einige wenige Jugendliche ins Gespräch bringen, dann schaffen wir so noch keinen Frieden. Es wird auch in Zukunft noch viel Leid über die Völker im Nahen Osten hereinbrechen. Und doch ist es ein Anfang. Wenn einmal eine Generation aufwachsen wird, für die es normal ist, miteinander zu reden, dann sind die Menschen dem Frieden schon ein kleines Stück näher gekommen. Und irgendwo müssen sie ja anfangen, miteinander zu reden. Warum nicht in Rechnitz?

Und vielleicht beginnen irgendwann auch mehr Menschen zu träumen von der großen Vision des Friedens, wie sie schon bei Jesaja steht:

„Da werden sie ihre Schwerter zu Pflugscharen und ihre Spieße zu Sicheln machen. Denn es wird kein Volk wider das andere das Schwert erheben, und sie werden hinfort nicht mehr lernen, Krieg zu führen.“ (Jesaja 2,4)

Comment (German)

Michael Chalupka (Diakonie) wrote about the camp in a big Austrian newspaper ("Kronen Zeitung), we have the comment only in german, maybe we can translate it later (sorry!):

Friedensgipfel in Rechnitz:

Nachdem das Floß zusammengezimmert und zu Wasser gelassen worden war, wurde es mit großem Hallo gestürmt und jeder der beteiligten Jugendlichen versuchte einen Platz darauf zu ergattern. Eine Szene wie sie an vielen Ecken und Enden Österreichs in diesen heißen Sommertagen gespielt haben und zur Abkühlung der Leiber und Gemüter beigetragen haben könnte.

In Rechnitz im Burgenland hatte der Floßbau aber noch eine andere Bedeutung. „Wir wollen zeigen, dass wir gemeinsam unsere Ziele erreichen und gemeinsam in die Zukunft fahren können.“, hatten sich die 26 Jugendlichen, die im Evangelischen Jugendheim ein Feriencamp verbringen, vorgenommen.

Sie kommen aus Palästina, Israel, Ungarn und Österreich. Und es eint sie ein Ziel: Sie wollen, weit ab von Krieg, Hass und Fanatismus, lernen einander besser zu verstehen.
Veranstaltet wird das Camp, das morgen endet, von verschiedenen Evangelischen Organisationen gemeinsam mit Partnern wie der israelische-palästinensichen Organisation Parents Circle, die sich der Versöhnung zwischen den Opfern des Nah-Ost-Konflikts widmet.

Im Weblog der israelischen Teilnehmer kann man lesen. “Wir hatten einen großartigen Tag. Wir haben die Leiden und den Schmerz der Palästinenser besser verstanden und sie haben verstanden welche Ängste wir durchmachen“.
Natürlich verändert ein Jugendcamp nicht die Welt, aber die Herzen und Hirne junger Menschen, die ihre Welt noch gestalten können.

Lilach says goodbye

Hi everybody ! Yesterday we got home , to Israel , to the air – conditioner , and that means that the camp is really over . I remember that on the first day I thought that two weeks are too much and now I just want to be with all of you for another two . Today , in the morning , I felt emptiness – not to hear the church bells first thing in the morning , not to eat breakfast together , the gathering in the plenaryroom . I don’t want to get all emotional , my eyes are still red from yesterday’s goodbye but I just wanted to say that the activities , the trips , the laughs , the fun and my best two weeks wouldn’t have been the same without you all . We are an amazing group, and we couldn’t ask for better leaders, Roland, Ines, Hansi, Veronika, Mazen, Wisam and Eszter a big big thank you for being there no matter what and for the dancing and discussions. Ariella and John special thank you for being our best team leaders you made this camp a lot more meaningful and important . And last but not least , Evelyn , you were like a second mother for us over the last two weeks and there are really not enough words to thank you . Again, thanks to all who participated and took part in these last two weeks.

I love you all, and miss you =( and wish you all the best.)

Lilach .

Good Bye

The Camp is over and we had to say goodbye on Sunday. It was a great time for all of us. Stay tuned we'll keep on posting some comments and information here.

Reem wrote...

Our life is a book. This book includes a lot of chapters that we must face and live. Our journey to Austria is one of the chapters in this book that started two weeks ago and will finish tomorrow, so we are at the end of this chapter. In addition, it is really one of the chapters in our life that made our voice heard and helped us to listen, talk and trust others. It helped us to talk and tell other people about our country and about ourselves as Palestinians, to listen to other people and understand them. Consequently, it made us trust the others and believe more and more that our issue is just and everything else is not just. Moreover, we learned and thought a lot of things. On the one hand we learned many outdoor activities and every game had a meaning that will stay in our minds forever. We also learned about other cultures, lifestyles, theatre, and history. On the other hand we told the others about the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, who began it and who followed it. In addition, we made a Palestinian evening. It featured a Palestinian food called „Uzi“, the Palestinian National Athem, a traditional dance called „Dabke“ and a Palestinian wedding. Everything is well organized and we are very happy. In my opinion, making this journey is one way of struggling. Finally, in the name of all the Palestinian group, I would like to thank everyone who helped in this project and made it succed. So thanks to the Parents‘ circle organisation, to all the leaders in the camp, to all the participants, and to our Palestinian leaders who helped us a lot. Thank you very much!

Anas wrote...

When I first heard about the idea of coming to Austria I was very excited and I thought that there will be a big argument between the Palestinians and the Israelis and they wouldn´t understand us. But it wasn´t true; our minds, hearts and souls were opened to each other. In the camp we had a good time. I met new people from Israel, Austria and Hungary. They were very good to us. I´ve learned many things about their lives, community and their thoughts. I was interested in the games that the leaders showed us, because every game has a meaning that can effects us in our lives. Unfortunately we have to leave the camp with a sad heart but with an open mind.

Lina wrote...

For everything there is a first time and mine was when I first came to the camp. This is the first time I meet Europeans, especially teenagers, which makes it much more enjoyable and useful. That´s because it will be helpful for them to learn from us and not from the media about our reality. So thanks to all the people who helped make this camp and get everything prepared for us. Moreover, it was a great chance to talk about the conflict. Michael Ingber is a very educated man who helped us understand the conflict better and realize the importance of our struggle, and so get the idea to others after we are truly convinced of it. To be honest, this camp changed a lot of things not only concerning the conflict but also changed things in me as a person. Learning how to listen to others and really listen. Because when you listen carefully you will know how to respond to the ideas that you are discussing with the other person. So, all in all, I would like to say that I loved these 14 days and I hope it will happen again and again.

Tareks comment

Everything in this world has a beginning and an end, and so this camp is gonna end and it was so fast we couldn’t feel the days as they really were. However, everything we saw, heard, felt and played was really good. In this camp we got the opportunity to meet people from many countries. We got the chance to learn a lot about their history, culture and lifestyle, and that really was so great. But the most important thing we could show all the people here was a good picture of Palestine. We showed them that we aren’t terrorists, and that we are normal human beings who suffer from an abnormal occupation, and that we hate blood as a lot of people do. During the first few days of the camp we faced a lot of problems because we didn’t know everyone here, so it was very hard to speak and convince them of what we feel and think. But the activities were very useful to know the others and make good friendships. Then we met Michael Ingber and talked about the conflict. We succeeded to show everyone that we have the most just issue in the world and I really think that we convinced all the people here, even the Israelis, and that was a big success. In this camp we talked about conflict, but after that we had fun and we used the chance to show everyone our culture in Palestine. One way or the other that led us to the conflict again, because when we talked about our culture we showed everyone that it’s connected to Palestine, while the Israelis have a lot of lifestyles and cultures and one history and all of these belong to Europe and America not to Palestine. This clearly proves that this is our land and how much we belong to it and we’ll keep fighting for this. We had a lot of interesting times here in the camp and outside on the lake and in Vienna. We played, laughed and had a lot of fun and these are some of the most important times in my life. I am sure I will never forget these times and these people.

Ibrahims comment

I would like to thank all the people who worked seriously to make this camp a success. This camp was really good because it is important to make new friends from different nations, and especially because I could meet again with the Israeli people that I met before (Sahar, Na’ama). I really reached my goal in this camp, which was from the first day to reach a high level of understanding between each other. From the beginning the Israelis believed that we have the right to our own land. We felt that there should be change in our life. The Israelis felt bad about ugly government actions in the West Bank. I am optimistic because in this camp I learned that there is hope to live in peace with a Palestinian state next to the Israeli state, without check points and assassinations.

TV report

The report about the camp can be watched in the Internet, click here to open it (you need a windows media plugin for your browser)
you can open the wmv-file in an extern player here, the report starts at 7:22;
The files will be online for one week.

Press Conference

Today an official press conference took place here at the camp. Michael Bubik (Diakonie Auslandshilfe), Roland Werneck (Protestant Academy), Ariella Shainok (Parents Circle) and Mazen Faraj (Parents Circle) presented the camp.
You can also read a new report on the homepage of ORF Burgenland (Regional TV).

19.7.: koren and yoni

hi everyone.. how are you? it's koren and yoni again.
we told you we will write in the blog more often..
do you want to know who is our guest today..?
tatatatatadammm!! na'ama!! *yay*
not!! just kidding..
today we had outdoor activities with the great leaders manfred and klaus.. if you can
remember these names it's because we had the first session with them last week.
in the morning, we went to the park with klaus and manferd. we talked about our goals
for the camp and we checked if our goals were achieved and surprisengly most of us almost
achieved their goals. yoni's goal was to expand his horizons and koren's goal was to make
true friendships. during the activity koren was interviewed by the austrian radio station.
it was very exciting to be interviewed.
rememeber our show last night that was about koren's conflict? so today the lady from the
radio recorded and interviewed us.. as you may see koren was interviewed alot.. :)..
yoni said in the interview that when a person dies from each side, it's the same pain.
koren also said that this conflict is an everyday conflict in the israeli families.
as the day went on, we built a raft and sailed on the lake we talked about yesterday,
and we did a great job achieving our goals. it was a good experience and a good team effort.
we learned alot about teamwork... while yoni got a tan in the sun :)..
now you know what is coming up... this is.. na'ama!!
so na'ama tell us about your experience in the camp, your feelings and thoughts.
i want to say that this is the first time i understand that this is the last few days
of this amazing camp. i went through many experiences such as the theatre. today's
activities were very good. i had alot of fun.. and i can't believe i went sailing on
a boat with sharon and koren being the captains. the best part of the day was the nap
i took in the plenary room.. yesterday's evening was fun!!! the dancing part was
hilarious, especialy when evelyn joined us. sharon and i were interviewed for the television
too today.. it's amazing how you can't find the right words when you need them, but it was
fine. i have so many memories which i can't describe on this wonderful camp.
we had a great time and i hope you enjoyed it... love and kisses.
thank you na'ama for the interview.
tommorow we will be in vieanna so stay tuned for tommorow's blog.. it will be worth it!!
have a really good day...

Trip to Vienna

Yesterday we went to Vienna and visited some of the famous places there. We went to Schönbrunn palace, did a tour in the city centre, did some shopping and finally we went to the Prater, a big fun park in Vienna.
It was a great day, although it was really hard because of the heat in the city. (Almost 40 degrees Celsius!)

Our goals

Today the participants finished their work with Klaus and Manfred and worked on the personal goals for the camp of every participant.In the afternoon the group built a raft, which was a symbol for reaching the goals together and a symbol for sailing towards new horizons. It was one of the highlights of the camp.
In the evening we had a concert of to musicians, Marwan Abbado and Aliosha Biz. It was a really great day!

We are in the media

Some journalists visited the camp and you can read and listen about the camp in:
1) Kurier (Austrian Newspaper)
2) Tomorrow (19th of July) on Ö1 (Austrian Radio 1) at 18:55 ("Religion aktuell"); you can listen to it in the internet: Ö1-Webradio
3) On Sunday Olivier Dantine, who is the local pastor here, will talk about the camp also on Ö1 at 6:55 ("Das evangelische Wort")
4) The TV station for the region "ORF Burgenland" will report about the camp in "Burgenland heute" on Friday, 20th of July at 19:oo; you will be able to watch it in the net too, (click here to reach the video-on-demand site)
5) Next week Ö1 will bring a report about the camp for about half an hour in "Journal Panorama".

So you know what to do the next few days ;-)

Comment (Israeli group)

stay tuned huh? good for you!!
since everybody wanted us to continue writing our blog we decided to continue.
as you know we have a guest, our daily guest, and today its... Lilach!! (woohoo)
we are happy to have lilach here but before we will talk with lilach we will
tell about out last few days.
first of all, on sunday we had a trip to the hungarian-austrian border. we went
to sail on a boat called ''the black pearl'' and we sail on Lake Neusiedl.
we had a great time although it was very hot. we just want to remind that
in europe they don't have air-conditioning and it's the hottest two weeks
in austria in a year, so it is very hot!! but we are ok.
anyway, after sailing on the boat, we went swimming in the lake and it was
very fun because everybody splashed evelyn, our manager of the camp.
after getting a tan, we drove home and played 'legirato' the coolest game
ever, and we played it with hans, the blonde austrian leader.
yesterday we had two workshops to choose from: the theatre workshop and the
juggling workshop with tom. we chose the acting workshop with lisa and leyla. it was
very interesting.we learned how to communicate with other people in a different way
from talking. the second workshop was the juggling workshop, and they had fun and
lilach is very good at it! in the evening, we had the palestinian evening which was
very informative and fun because we got the chance to dance traditional wedding
dances.
today, we had a great day! you want to know why? that's because we came to a
better understing of the suffering and the pain of the palestinian and they got
to know and understand what we are going through. that was a very positive
experience. as the day went on, we introduced our shows: the juggling group showed
us their moves, and the acting group showed three scenes which describe various
conflicts. between the three scenes, guess what was chosen.. the yoni's and koren's
scene of course. we had more participants which were very helpful. the conflict
we presented koren's conflict about serving in the army.
in the evening, we had the ISRAELI EVENING!! we had so much fun during the
whole process of making and presenting our culture. we danced an israel
traditional dance called ''Hora'', and everybody danced and had fun.
now after all the ''dry'' details we will talk with out guest.. LILACH!!
hi lilach, please tell us your feelings and thoughts..
you have no idea how fun it is for me to be here in these two weeks.
i learned yesterday how to juggle and this fact still amazes me.
today i was interviewed by a reporter and i felt like a celebrity, like yoni
and koren :).. and i wanted to say thank you tom for teaching me how to juggle
and for having deep interesting conversations. i think our night couldn't have been
better and i had alot of fun.. and that's it..
to add something, this is the first time i meet palestinians and i can understnad their
pain and to relate to this without television and media.
anyway, thank you lilach for being our guest tonight.
we hope you had fun reading our blog today, and we only have four days left
here and we are sure you can't wait for our next postings...
so until next time, we are wishing a good day and a good week...
and of course.. stay tuned!!!

Comment of Samer

Theatre of the oppressed


Today we had a great chance in the theatre with Lisa workshop because we made a lot of scenes that helped us in modelling our problems and solving them. We also enjoyed the Israeli night which had songs and games. Everyone had a great day with amazing presentations from the workshops and the Israeli group. Hopefully, the next days will be as comfortable as today.

Our Palestinian Night

The Palestinian Night was a very special event for us as a Palestinian Group. We have prepared a lot for it. Our program had two parts:

The first was a presentation of the Palestinian Daily Life with the national anthem played on the piano. The second was a traditional Palestinian Wedding.

We used our traditional music and dance and we also involved the audience to participate with us. Everybody enjoyed the wedding which was very special and unique. Also the Dish “Uzi” that we prepared was tasty and people liked it a lot. “Thank God” I hope that everyone in the group enjoyed our presentations and had fun.

Yours in Peace,
Samer Anabtawi

July 16, 07

Thank you!

It is time now to say thank you to some persons, who are working at the camp in the Background. Dagmar Liszt, who is the administrator of the hostel, where we are accomodated, is supporting us in many ways.

Helga, Andrea and Birgit, who are working in the kitchen do a great job. Without them the camp couldn't have such a good atmosphere. Their meals and all the specials, which they are providing are really great.

Big THANK YOU to them!

The team

We just took a picture of nearly all our team-members: It is really great to work together with these men and women.

16th of July

Today Lisa Kolb-Mzalouet, Leyla Helbich and Tom Stark arrived at the camp. Lisa and Leyla did an short introduction to their work with the whole group and they afterwards started a workshop: Their method is "the theatre of the oppressed" and they are working hard with a part of our group until tomorrow. Maybe they will do a short presentation then.
Tom introduced some of the group to juggling in his workshop, but we are still struggling ;-)

At the end of the day we all enjoyed the Palestinian cultural evening very much. We had a traditional Palestinian meal ("Ousi") and after that the Palestinian group presented a photo-sliedeshow about their everyday life and finally they showed us how Palestinia celebrate a wedding. They showed how Palestinians dance and the whole group could join them. It was a really great evening!

trip

Today, was a nice sunny day, we took in the bus in the morning at 10:00 am to the lake on the bordes with Hungary, Austria and Slovakia, it was a great chance for me as a Palestinian to go swim in an opened lake because I don't have the chance in my country to go to the sea.

The cold water of the lake today cooled off all us after the hot discussions that took place in the camp the last two days. We all had a lot of fun, enjoyed our day, the trip in the area and swimming in the lake. This busy day didn't end when we came back to Rechnitz; however it started because we came to prepare for our cultural events tomorow at night...

Samer Anabtawi from Palestine

Comment on July 13th

Friday July, 13^th 2007

I am Mais from Palestine

Today was a hard day. We began our program at 9:00 am and finished it at 9:30 pm, but it was really interesting and full of information. Today came a person called Michael Ingber and brought with him many proofs to a lot of information about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The program from the beginning till the last activity was revolved about facts of the Palestinian- Israeli conflict and the history of Palestine. Moreover, it revolved about the United Nation decisions, the meanings of them and what are the aims behind them. Also how the history changed to other facts which in reality don’t exist.

The most important thing is to look for a solution by taking the real facts in concentration without thinking only about the cause of the conflict, who began it and who followed it or in other way analyze and solve it without violence.

For me, I learned that violence is not the only way to have peace, and everything we heard today made us be sure that our issue is justice and anything else is not justice……

Comment of the Palestinian group

Saturday, July 14 2007:
today,in the begining we had complete our discussion with the israels group and others by showing them a stories from our daily life which can prove our opinions and improve our future.
michael ingber divided us into three groups to discuss the stories and show how are both sides_palestinian and israeli groups_ suffered from different problems.we chose the most two
important story to say.it was a story from palestinian side and the other from israeli side.in our side,reem was telling us a story about the israel soldiers when they entered zababdeh(which
is a town near jenin) and we were in the school,so she tried to collect her siblings,but unfortunatly she found only one
and took him to her uncles house and try to go home ,when she went back home she found, that
Israeli soldiers let their dogs drink and eat from their plate in the other side, Lilach told us her story abot the bomber who bombed himself in the restaurant she was going toand because of this bomber her friend was killed and she was afraid and shut all windows and doors. Then we were together with Michael Ingber, he told us to find common elements which are very important: The Need for Land, Peace, Suffering, Fear, a will to be accepted and loved, historical connection to the land, languages, humanity, holy sites, victims and rights. Then we talked about the solution that we may need a political solution, but we also need to trust each other and to respect other opinions and not teach fear.
I feel that the Palestinians are not the only people who suffer from war, but the Israelis are suffering too. So we need to live in peace.

Friday, July 13th 2007 (Safa)

hi,I am Safa from palestine.
today,we had a discussion with israeli group about some terms,which are important for both sides to learn how to accept the other side opinions with all mistakes because nothing is perfect,so we(the two sides) need someone to help us dealing with the conflict.that is the parents circle organization which try to help us reaching peace.

Trip to the beautiful Neusiedler Lake

Today we got real summer, sun and sunshine.
We started our first trip after breakfast to the Northern part of the Burgenland.
All of us went by bus and some happy people were singing all the way up to Mörbisch, where we got onto a boat.
On the boat lots of interesting information about the Neusiedlersee and the sourounding were told to us.
After that we did a ride with a horsecarriage through the vineyards of the Seewinkel.
Then we became quite hot and as a refreshment we jumpeg into the Neusiedlersee.
It was a very relaxing afternoon in Ilmitz. We lay in the sun and ate lots of ice cream.
About 4.30 pm we left Ilmitz and nearly missed our boat back to Mörbisch.
That was our afternoon, we went back home and had our dinner.

Good night,
Christina
and
Martin

Trip to lake Neusiedl

Today we went to lake Neusiedl, which is situated in the north of Burgenland on the border between Austria and Hungary. We went there by bus, then we crossed the lake with a boat and finally we did a small journey on carriage with horses. In the afternoon we went swimming in lake Neusiedl and in the evening we returned to Rechnitz. It was a very nice day!