Interview with Eliyahu McLean

<BODY> <H1><A HREF="intro.html">Eliyahu McLean</A></H1> <H4>Introduction</H4> <P>In August 2004 Eliyahu McLean co-organised The Sulha Way.</P> <P>One of his initiatives was to enable a delegation of over 100 Palestinians from Jenin, Ramallah and Bethlehem to attend. Most of them had not mixed with Jews for years and most were tearful about leaving an event that had given them hope. Work with them is planned to continue.</P> <P>Palestinians, religious and secular Jews, Israeli Arabs and foreign guests were among the almost 4,000 people who filled Shuni Park near Binyamina on Tuesday August 17th 2004 for the fourth annual Sulha Way peace festival, which aims to "heal the children of Abraham".</P> <P>Radash Eliyahu McLean called The Sulha Way festival "<I>a meeting of the minds and hearts between Jews, Christians and Muslims who are destined to share this land whether we like it or not</I>."</P> <P>American born McLeans title Radash is a Hebrew acronym for pursuer of peace. McLean, 35, was born to a Jewish mother and Christian father. At the age of 12, he became interested in Judaism, and over the next decade his journey took him through Young Judea, the Israel Action Committee at the University of California, Berkeley, Isralight, Chabad and Jewish Renewal.</P> <P>Seeking to understand the spiritual background of the religions in the Holy Land, he lived and worked with Palestinian construction workers in Jerusalem by day and studied in a yeshiva in the Old City by night, spent two months studying Islam in Egypt, learned fluent Arabic and Hebrew, and herded goats in the Galilee. He was inspired to work more deeply for peace by the death of a Jewish friend in a suicide bombing; the friend's father said "<I>Eliyahu, I'm counting on you to continue your work for peace</I>." </P> <P>Today, McLean travels around Israel and the world promoting co-existence between Arabs and Jews, regularly using his American passport to enter Arab countries and Palestinian villages. In May 2004 he participated in an interfaith peace journey from Amman to Baghdad, where he addressed a crowd of Iraqis while wearing the skullcap, long sidelocks and fringed garment common among religious Jews  he was the only Jew present.</P> <P>The Sulha Way 2004 was such a success that, for the first time ever, Al-Jazeera Television, the most widely-watched network in the Arab world covered live and devoted a positive ten-minute report of a peace event in Israel. Other coverage included the major Israeli TV networks channels 2, 3 and 10, all three Arabic newspapers in Israel, local Arabic cable TV, Israeli newspapers <I>Maariv</I> and <I>Yediot</I>, the <I>Jerusalem Post</I>, <I>Haaretz</I> English, and <I>HaTsofe</I>, the ultra-Orthodox newspaper. International coverage included French and Canadian TV, Radio Colombia, NPR radio, Radio Sawa and reporters from Spain and Germany.</P> <P>After this event, Eliyahu and a delegation of Jews and Muslims from the Sulha made a pilgrimage to Hebron. On the way they were received by the mayor of Halhul and visited the people of Beit Omar and Hebron. They offered a shared prayer at the entrance to the Tomb of Abraham, where Palestinian women and children and an Israeli soldier were so moved that they joined in. The Israeli soldier was moved to tears.</P> <P>In May 2004, Eliyahu visited the American University of Jenin for two days. He was introduced to the student branches of the factions of Fatah, PFLP, Hamas and Jihad. He says: "<I>My discussions with supporters of the Islamic bloc were most interesting. On a political level I found their views towards Israel to be completely uncompromising. When I suggested that if peace negotiations were to be based on the spiritual aspect of their religions  and were to honor Islamic and Jewish religious principles  they agreed wholeheartedly.</I></P> <P>"<I>I made a connection with Khaled (name changed) who works at the university and is dedicated to the path of dialogue and reconciliation. For him the most important work is to maintain a dialogue with the extremists within our respective sides  Israeli and Palestinian  and to help show them that the best path for the future is one of peace and non-violence. He promised to share insights from his internal work and asked that I share with him wisdom from my work within the Israeli religious Jewish world.</I>"</P> <P>Eliyahus friends include both settlers and Sufi sheikhs on the West Bank. "<I>People ask me if Im right-wing or left-wing, I say it takes two wings to fly</I>."</P> </BODY>