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The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,    but because of the people who don't do anything about it

Occupation magazine - Activism Home page  back Print  Send To friend Beit Jalla, October 22-23: Yes We Can! Yes We Can! Creating Community � Realizing Peace: Creating a Community of Peace Builders Friday-Saturday, October 22-23, 2010 Talitha Kumi, located above the town of Beit Jala, adjacent to Bethlehem, 12 kilometers south of Jerusalem (REGISTRATION INFORMATION BELOW) The upcoming Peace Builders Community Conference �Yes We Can! Creating Community � Realizing Peace: Creating a Community of Peace Builders� will be held on Friday-Saturday, October 22-23, 2010 in the large, wooded campus of the Evangelical Lutheran School of Talitha Kumi, located above the town of Beit Jala, adjacent to Bethlehem, 12 kilometers south of Jerusalem. Access to the school is open and safe for Israelis and Palestinians from the West Bank can enter without needing a permit from the Israeli authorities. Conference Theme Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek but a means by which we arrive at that goal. Martin Luther King, Jr. �Yes We Can! Creating Community � Realizing Peace: Creating a Community of Peace Builders�, will focus on facilitating a community of Peace Builders who will inspire concrete direct actions among human beings that will promote the spirit of understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence. We will stimulate cooperation among peoples and help lessen the obstacles and threats to peace and human security for all. Join the community of Peace Builders who are working together for true sustainable peace! Our Community of Peace Builders will integrate all of our intents, beliefs, resources, preferences, needs, hopes, and fears towards developing peace. We will inspire cohesiveness and a �sense of community� by developing membership, influence, integration, fulfillment of needs, and shared connections. Our Community of Peace Builders will not be a �Pseudo-community� where participants are �nice with each other�, playing-safe and presenting what they feel is the most favorable sides of their personalities. We will move beyond the non-authenticity of pseudo-community and feel safe enough to present our �real� selves. We will move beyond our previous attempts to fix, heal and convert one another. We will not limit ourselves to acknowledging our own woundedness and brokenness, common to us all as human beings and residents of an area that is stained by perpetual conflict and violence. Our Community of Peace Builders will be a �True community�. We will engage in the process of deep respect and true listening for the needs of each and every person in our community. We will all cultivate our deep yearning for compassionate understanding of and from our fellow human beings. Our Community of Peace Builders that will be developed in �Yes We Can! Creating Community � Realizing Peace: Creating a Community of Peace Builders� is very timely! Hatred, incitement, and delegitimization breds violence that jeopardizes our very existence. Peace should no longer be viewed only as seemingly never ending high profile peace talks and photo ops or political accords that do not take into account the assurance of the human rights and human security of individuals. Peace can be achieved and ensured through the most valuable and most effective resource that the conference provides: Building a Community of Peace Builders that will �be the peace you want to see� facilitating peace by peaceful means in everything we do. Recognizing that sustainable peace is the primary and irrevocable obligation and right of each and every individual on the planet we all share, the conference will seek to break the vicious circle of struggling for peace through non-peaceful means. We have no time for apathy, no patience for complainers, and zero tolerance for violence-mongers. Now is the time to make a difference! Now is the time to join in and to work for peace! Political leaders often do not listen to the voices of the people working for a sustainable peace because our voices are too few and too quiet. Now is the time for all those who share the sense of urgency, for all of the responsible people who know that we must now take responsibility to stand up and to be counted. Be a part of our community of peace builders. Participate in the weekend workshop �Yes We Can! Creating Community � Realizing Peace: Creating a Community of Peace Builders�. Registration Click here to register for the conference Workshops It isn�t enough to talk about peace, one must believe it. And it isn�t enough to to believe in it, one must work for it. Eleanor Roosevelt We seek original papers, presentations and workshop ideas that demonstrate how new concepts, paradigms, technologies and applications are expanding and redefining the role of community, transforming it from theoretical concepts into concrete direct action. All participants are strongly encouraged to conduct/facilitate a workshop. The program of the conference is built and based on the workshops that are delivered by the participants. The program for the weekend is delivered by the members of the community, and we encourage all of you take participate. Not everyone has to run a workshop, lead a discussion, give a lecture, and convene an activity�. But everyone can! As a part of the community, you have talents, experiences, and ideas to share. All activities can be in English, Arabic or Hebrew. Volunteers are needed who would be willing to serve as translators over the weekend as well. If you can help translate and are willing to volunteer during parts of the weekend, please let us know. Workshops can be lectures, discussions, films, drama, experiential, meditation, yoga and reiki, etc. Everyone can present and everyone can be a workshop facilitator. After submitting your Registration kindly click here to submit your abstract to facilitate a workshop The program for the weekend is delivered by the members of the community, and we encourage all of you take participate. Not everyone has to run a workshop, lead a discussion, give a lecture, and convene an activity�. But everyone can! As a part of the community, you have talents, experiences, and ideas to share. All activities can be in English, Arabic or Hebrew. Volunteers are needed who would be willing to serve as translators over the weekend as well. If you can help translate and are willing to volunteer during parts of the weekend, please let us know. Gershon Baskin, Ph.D. Co-CEO, IPCRI Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information P.O. Box 9321, Jerusalem 91092 Tel: +972-2-676-9460 Fax: +972-2-676-8011 Cellphone: +972-(0)52-238-1715 gershon@ipcri.org http://www.ipcri.org id Links to the latest articles in this section Refusing the war! Demonstration today, Thur. Apris 24, at 7.30 pm, Habima Square, Tel Aviv Refusing the war! Demonstration today, Thur. Apris 24, at 7.30 pm, Habima Square, Tel Aviv Saturday night protests: No to Netanyahu`s war!