Jerusalem Peacemakers newsletter
JerusalemPeacemakers.orgAid, friendship and support for grassroots peacemakers in the Holy Land July 2007 -------------------------------------- Hello friends and supporters, Here is news from our recent peacebuilding efforts in Italy, Northern Israel, Northern Ireland and England, and the US. Read also about the international Clan Maclean Reunion in Scotland and help spread the word about our speaking tour in California. ISRAEL-PALESTINE PEACE NGO FORUM IN TUSCANY, ITALY JUNE 10-13 Over 100 Israeli and Palestinian NGO leaders, we were hosted by the Region of Tuscany for the Israel-Palestine Peace NGO Forum conference. It was an amazing feeling to fly on a charter flight full of leaders working for peace and reconciliation. In Italy we were joined by 60 European NGO leaders after which we formed working groups. Among the VIP's who addressed us for this historic meeting was Avraham Burg, Yasser Abed Rabbo, the VP of the EU Parliament and the foreign and prime ministers of Italy. Italy's prime minister, Romano Prodi, praised all of us present, saying, "While political process may be stalled, you all who are doing the work on the ground are the hope for the future of peace in the Holy Land". ABRAHAMIC REUNION MEETS IN DALIAT EL-KARMEL JUNE 20 On Monday June 19 the Abrahamic Reunion (AR) hosted a gathering of 100 Arabs and Jews in the Druze city of Daliat al-Karmel in the Carmel mountains near Haifa. Hosted by Druze Sheikh Hussein Abu Rukkun, we met to re-affirm the path of building bridges for peace in the Holy Land through inter-religious cooperation. Joining us were top religious and political leaders from the Druze, Christian and Muslim and Ahmadiya communities of the Carmel mountains. See this link for great pictures of this and previous AR events, the Hannukah gathering and the Cyprus retreat: www.flickr.com/photos/jerusalem_peacemakers/sets TRAVELS WITH SHEIKH BUKHARI TO NORTHERN IRELAND AND ENGLAND, JUNE 19-29 Jerusalem Peacemakers co-director, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bukhari and I journeyed to Northern Ireland to speak about our work and learn from the situation in Northern Ireland. We stayed in the Corrymeela Peace and Reconciliation Centre in Ballycastle and spoke to youth from a mixed Catholic-Protestant school and with a visiting college group from America. In Derry, also called Londonderry, we were hosted by John McCourt, a former IRA fighter turned peacemaker, where we spoke to a group of prison wardens and community mediators at the Center for Mediation and Reconciliation and visited the site of the Bloody Sunday events. We addressed an interfaith group in Cambridge and spoke in London at the St. Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation, about: The Temple Mount/ Haram as-Sharif: source for conflict or for peace? We also addressed MP's in the House of Commons and met with the Office for the Middle East Peace Process at the British Foreign office. INTERNATIONAL CLAN MACLEAN REUNION, ISLAND OF MULL, SCOTLAND, JUNE 22-24 I had the opportunity to join 500 other Macleans for the 2007 International Clan Maclean Reunion at the ancestral home of the Macleans, Duart Castle on the Island of Mull in Western Scotland. Wearing a Maclean tartan kilt, I celebrated with fellow Macleans from around the world, listening to choirs sing in Gaelic and joining in Scottish square dancing. On Saturday June 23 we gathered at the castle grounds and were led by a bagpipes band up to the steps of Duart Castle. There we were addressed by Clan Chief Sir Lachlan Maclean. As the only Jewish McLean from Israel, I was quite welcomed! See great pictures of the gathering and a Hasidic Highlander: www.flickr.com/photos/jerusalem_peacemakers/sets/ ALEPH JEWISH RENEWAL KALLAH IN ALBUQUERQUE, NM JULY 2-8 At the bi-annual Jewish Renewal Kallah I co-taught a week long course called "Peacebuilding 101: the do's and dont's on interfaith peacebuilding". Ruth Broyde Sharone and I led this course to inaaugurate the our US based project the Rodef Shalom School for Peace. Yacoub Hussein, son of the Sufi Sheikh Abu Salih who was featured in the book 'At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden', now lives in New Mexico, came and taught about peacebuilding in Islam and the Quran and led Sufi zikr. Later Yaacub and I spoke with his father the Sheikh Abu Salih in the West Bank, who said "The angels have spoken to me: the peace is COOMMING!" US WEST COAST SPEAKING TOUR, JULY Please forward this information to any one you know in Southern and Northern California about these up coming talks: Elevating the Sparks of Peace: Stories of Hope and Reconciliation from
the Holy Land, with Eliyahu McLean Watch this video posted from the Big Hug of Jerusalem, a historic moment that took place on May 21st at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem: www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9xVloQYZXw Please join us in the Holy Land for the Sixth Annual Sulha gathering, August 14-16 at Latrun Monastery, see for info: www.sulha.com Shalom, Salaam Eliyahu McLean For more about Eliyahu, click here. -------------------------------------- Jerusalem PeacemakersHow to help and subscribeWe welcome financial donations, offers of practical support and contacts. If you wish to act now, please e-mail Pam Perry at with a few details, and we'll take it from there. For further news, please subscribe to our newsletter. Your address is safe, shared with no one else and used for nothing else. Subscribe on our site, or send a blank e-mail to:
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----------------------------------- Thanks for reading this newsletter and forwarding it to friends and interested contacts! Jerusalem PeacemakersPO Box 2427, Glastonbury BA6 8XX, England "Alone, a human being can barely survive in nature's great life drama; in organised groups people can in due time fulfil their desires. Abundance is made possible by human togetherness and cooperation." |
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