REPORT: "The Messiah" Comes to Neve Shalom
5th Israeli-Palestinian Conference; July 24-26, 2003
Note: This report is brought to you courtesy of Peacemaker Circle International working in partnership with Ruach Shalom in Israel.
From Thursday, July 24 until Saturday, July 26, members and affiliates of
the Interfaith Encounter Association and of the Nablus Youth Federation,
with the generous funding of the European Commission, demonstrated once
again how beautiful yet simple it is for the many peoples of the Holy Land
to live together in peace and harmony.
We gathered together at Neve Shalom to discuss "The Messiah" from the perspectives of Judaism, Islam,
and Christianity. This aptly named (Oasis of Peace) and unique community
of Arab and Jewish Israelis intentionally living together in harmony made
for a perfect and ideal backdrop to the goal of our conference. Far away
from the hustle of city life and the stress of our daily routines, this
small community perched over rolling hills and fields of pastoral beauty
truly became an oasis in time and space, enabling and facilitating our
process of human encounter.
We were some 70 participants in attendance. Among us were Israelis,
Palestinians, and Americans; Jews and Muslims; youth and elders;
Arabic-speakers, Hebrew-speakers, English-speakers, and polyglots;
regulars to interfaith dialogue and those for whom this was the first time
they had encountered "the other." Unfortunately, the journey to this
island of tranquility was anything but serene for the Palestinian
participants. It took them over 6 hours to pass through the necessary
checkpoints in order to reach the conference from Nablus, yet nonetheless
they persevered. All the participants, those who had met "the other"
before and those who had not, came to the conference eager to get to know
each other in a deep way and open to allow the other to get to know them
in similar depth, allowing themselves to overcome their prejudices and
fears and to develop mutual respect and trust.
We began the conference with introductions from the two organizations and
established the ground rules of our dialogue. We then moved to small
groups to make first acquaintances, sharing with each other what we do in
life and why we chose to be involved in interfaith work. Although there
was no set agenda or duration for these meetings, many groups stayed up
talking late into the night. In response to one Palestinian in my group
who had never met a Jew before and asked "What is Judaism?," we talked at
length about the similarities between Judaism and Islam.
On Friday morning we began the three main sessions of the conference.
Each session focused on one of the religious traditions and commenced with
a short presentation on the role of the Messiah in that tradition. In the
Jewish session an Israeli Rabbi emphasized that he was not speaking for
all Jews but rather his personal perspective as only one Jew. He spoke of
how all people can be part of the Messiah themselves by working to repair
the world wherever they come across that which is broken. In that way we
can all work to create a future reality that is better than the one we
have now.
Two Muslim scholars from Nablus recounted the story of Jesus as
related in the Qur'an. They pointed out how, unlike in the New Testament,
in the Qur'an Jesus did not die on the cross but instead ascended directly
to heaven and his expected return will herald the coming of the judgment
day. Since we had no Christians in attendance at the conference, the
Christian perspective was presented by a Jewish Israeli woman who had
studied the New Testament at university. She focused on how in the
Christian traditions, Jesus is seen as both the Son of God as well as the
Messiah. There was a similarity with Islam in that Christians also expect
the return of Jesus - the Second Coming - to herald the end of days and
the beginning of the world to come. Following each of the presentations
participants broke into their dialogue groups where they engaged in long
conversations together, reaching a great depth of mutual understanding and
building strong ties with each other.
Another highlight of the weekend was the Muslim Jum'a prayer and the
Jewish Kabalat Shabbat prayer on Friday. Both were attended by all
participants and provided for many the first glimpse into the devotional
life of others. In all these ways the participants were engaging in the
actual work of building here and now the nucleus of the future: a humanly
peaceful Holy Land.
After less than a day and a half we all sang and danced together in a
Friday evening joint celebration and after two and a half days it was
already time to bid farewell. In the closing session each participant
spoke on what they would take home with them and many people held back
tears as they shared and listened to the emotions expressed around the
room. One Palestinian noted that for the first time he would see even the
Israeli soldiers at the checkpoints as real people no different than those
he had met over the weekend. An Israeli addressed the Palestinians
directly wishing them the "real lives of happiness that you deserve" in
spite of the hardships they endure. An Israeli woman expressed her deep
desire that the next meeting could be held in Nablus and many people
agreed, already looking forward to the next opportunity to meet. With
that we parted ways with hugs and friendship, hoping very much that the
importance and effectiveness of such encounters will be widely
acknowledged and that many more of them will be made possible in the
coming months and years.
As both an outside observer to the work of the IEA as well as a
participant in this conference, I would like to add some personal thoughts
and reflections on this weekend's activities. As a young (22) American
Jew, I was struck by the amazing amount of commonality I shared with my
Palestinian peers. This was not the first time I had met Muslims, Arabs,
or even Palestinians before, so I was not shocked to discover their
humanity or that I was capable of befriending them. But I was surprised
by how little of "the other" struck me as being concretely different. We
all wore similar clothing and listened to some of the same music. We all
were pursuing an education and had dreams for our future. Perhaps most
significant, however, was that we both longed to meet, learn about, and
understand the people we had been taught all our lives were our "enemies."
I spoke in Arabic of my desire to travel in the Arab world and my
Palestinian friends spoke in English about how they longed to study in the
United States. We shared similar fears about pursuing such roads and
faced similar resistance from our communities. I was touched and moved to
see older generations of Israelis and Palestinians sharing meals and
sitting side by side in presentations and dialogue groups, but I was
inspired and imbued with hope to see young men and women from three
countries hanging out after scheduled activities, telling jokes,
discussing movies, and eager to learn more about each other's lives.
Hopefully I will be able to help some of my new friends get student visas
to the U.S. and I will one day be welcomed as a guest in their homes in
Nablus.
In peace and love,
Noah Silverman
10:41:22 AM 
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