June/July 2007 Delegation
June/July 2007
Following a ten day training program in Negotiation, Mediation and Conflict Resolution and a weekend international conference in "Promoting Peace Through Dialogue," Amman, Jordan, Interfaith Peace-Builders cosponsored a short delegation to the West Bank and Israel with SEARCH for Justice and Equality in Palestine-Israel, Global Majority and the Resource Center for Nonviolence.
Delegation members (left to right): Ben Kennedy, Ossama al-Zoughbi (guide), Jaala Thibault, Jeannette Allen, Camilla Kardel, Silke Degen, Beryl Unver, Sandino Gomez, Christopher Wolfe, Johanna Silverthorne, and delegation leader Scott Kennedy of the Resource Center for Nonviolence in Santa Cruz, California.
Delegation Details
The delegation crossed the Jordan River and met with Dr. Sami Mussalam, Governor of the Jericho Region for the Palestinian Authority. Upon arrival in Jerusalem, the first stop was the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in West Jerusalem. The second full day was devoted to two half-day tours of the "separation barrier"/"apartheid wall" around Jerusalem with the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and the Palestinian Environmental NGOs "Stop the Wall" coalition.
The next three days were devoted to better understanding the impacts of the occupation in the Southern West Bank, with visits to the Aida Refugee Camp, new Al Wallajeh Village, Hebron and Bethlehem. Wi'am, the Palestinian Conflict Resolution Centre in Bethlehem, hosted the delegation in the Bethlehem region. After returning to Jerusalem, the group met with Rami Elhanan of the Israeli and Palestinian Bereaved Families for Peace as well as touring the Old City of Jerusalem and visiting West Jerusalem with Israeli friends met at the Amman Conference. Many of the delegation members are students at or recent graduates of the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California.
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