...here is a link to the Friends of the Arava Institute's newsletter for January. It offers a few perspectives on the war from students and administration. Look for familiar faces in the pictures.
Friends of the Arava Institute E-News
Be well and lots of love,
Sarah
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Monday, January 05, 2009
Chapter 5: Too much all at once...
For those of you who might be worried about us, and to those who have written or called to check on us: We are safe.
I can't manage (or maybe just don't have the mental capacity right now) to figure out how to put into words for all of you how the violence here has affected all of here at the Arava Institute, as well as in the rest of the country. It's been really hard. It's hard to continue about our daily routines, and especially to keep up with the always-stressful end-of-semester workload when the reality of war and death and the tensions between ourselves and the people we live with and love are all around us at every second.
I want to share with you something that an AIES alum from last semester wrote and posted on an alumni forum that sums up really well the better part of what a lot of us are feeling:
I'm living in Be`er Sheva, in the Palestinian missile range, and I
came for a day to visit in the AIES in Ketura. During my stay here,
and during the conversations I had with both Israelis and
Palestinians I found, as expected, lots of anger and frustrations,
but I did come to realize some things.
I realized that we are going to win.
Why am I so sure? Because when missiles are falling near my home I
can still find it in my heart a place to feel compassion for my
Palestinian friends and their people. Because when they are worried
about their people in Gaza, they are still able in their hearts to
relate to me as their friend, and even invite me to stay with them
where it's safe. Because even in the darkest times, we have a group
here that manages to remember that even if there is an enemy – he is
still a human being.
I don't think that the conflict is about to be over soon, but for me,
every act like these I mentioned is a small victory. A victory to the
same voices that provides me with hope that better days will come.
Keep up the faith my friends, because if we will, we are going to
conquer the hatred and win the fight for a peaceful co-existence.
Peace and love
Dror Paz
There are also a lot of less optimistic feelings. But I want the ones that Dror expressed to win out. And I know the rest of us do too.
Here are some pictures from the demostration that many us (the students) organized and particupated in last Monday. It was born out of the desperate need to do something to make our message of the need for non-violent cooperation heard.
Now back to the paper that I've been putting off for my Environmental Mediation and Conflict Resolution class...
Love to every one of you,
Sarah
P.S. Our parents are here!
P.P.S. Mir is leaving the kibbutz on Wednesday. On top of everything else.
I can't manage (or maybe just don't have the mental capacity right now) to figure out how to put into words for all of you how the violence here has affected all of here at the Arava Institute, as well as in the rest of the country. It's been really hard. It's hard to continue about our daily routines, and especially to keep up with the always-stressful end-of-semester workload when the reality of war and death and the tensions between ourselves and the people we live with and love are all around us at every second.
I want to share with you something that an AIES alum from last semester wrote and posted on an alumni forum that sums up really well the better part of what a lot of us are feeling:
I'm living in Be`er Sheva, in the Palestinian missile range, and I
came for a day to visit in the AIES in Ketura. During my stay here,
and during the conversations I had with both Israelis and
Palestinians I found, as expected, lots of anger and frustrations,
but I did come to realize some things.
I realized that we are going to win.
Why am I so sure? Because when missiles are falling near my home I
can still find it in my heart a place to feel compassion for my
Palestinian friends and their people. Because when they are worried
about their people in Gaza, they are still able in their hearts to
relate to me as their friend, and even invite me to stay with them
where it's safe. Because even in the darkest times, we have a group
here that manages to remember that even if there is an enemy – he is
still a human being.
I don't think that the conflict is about to be over soon, but for me,
every act like these I mentioned is a small victory. A victory to the
same voices that provides me with hope that better days will come.
Keep up the faith my friends, because if we will, we are going to
conquer the hatred and win the fight for a peaceful co-existence.
Peace and love
Dror Paz
There are also a lot of less optimistic feelings. But I want the ones that Dror expressed to win out. And I know the rest of us do too.
Here are some pictures from the demostration that many us (the students) organized and particupated in last Monday. It was born out of the desperate need to do something to make our message of the need for non-violent cooperation heard.
Now back to the paper that I've been putting off for my Environmental Mediation and Conflict Resolution class...
Love to every one of you,
Sarah
P.S. Our parents are here!
P.P.S. Mir is leaving the kibbutz on Wednesday. On top of everything else.
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