April 25 – May 2, 1999
New construction
Construction began on the new building for the public relations office. Currently the office is housed in a decaying wooden house that was one of the first buildings to be erected in NSWAS. The new building, at the village entrance will provide ample office space for the staff, as well as a respectable place to receive small groups of visitors.
Work continues, meanwhile, on the site of the Eisenberg Auditorium, with infrastructure being laid at this time.
Visitors
On April 26-27 we were honored to receive Stanley and Joan Golder of the USA. The Golders are benefactors of the Primary School Language Center. They visited all of the institutions of the village and were hosted by various members informally.
Outing for parents and children
On Saturday May 1, parents and children enjoyed an outing organized by the parents’ committee. The day included a walk from NSWAS to Latrun, a picnic, and a tour of the Trappist Monastery, conducted by the abbot himself. Fr. Paul spoke to the parents and children in Hebrew and Arabic, and explained the daily regimen of the monks, the 900-year-old history of the Order and the story of the Monastery itself.
Book bazaar
On Thursday, April 29 the parents organized a Hebrew – Arabic book bazaar, for which all the proceeds went to school activities.
Meeting with authorities on new school building
On April 26, representatives of the School conferred with the Education Committee of our Matteh Yehuda Regional Council to discuss the site planned for the new school building. We are hoping that the Committee will be able to secure State financial support for the new building, though this is still far from certain.
Visits
On Wednesday, April 28 we were paid a visit by Elizabeth Kawakji, the Paris-based international director of UNESCO’s Associated Schools Project (ASP) (to which our school belongs), together with a representative from Israel’s UNESCO activities. They were given a complete tour of the school and were duly impressed.
The same day there was a separate visit by the educational director of Israel’s Education Ministry Department for Arab schools Mr. Ali Asadi, together with assistant director Mr. Itzhak Cohen. They came to learn about the school in the hope of finding avenues for cooperation.
Field trips
Also on Wednesday, the fifth and sixth grades went on a field trip to the Hebrew Language Academy in Jerusalem. One of the topics they learned about was the method employed by Eliezer Ben Yehuda in his revival of the Hebrew language. It turns out that whenever he found himself at a loss for an appropriate word in Hebrew texts, he would check the equivalent in Arabic. The children themselves experimented with finding appropriate Hebrew words for modern inventions, such as the fax machine. On the same trip, the children visited Jerusalem’s well-known Islamic Arts Museum.
On Tuesday, April 27 the first grade had a field trip to a Moshav of one of the students to learn about domestic and farm animals. The children tried their hand at milking cows, experimented with making cheese, petted rabbits and generally made friends with various animals.
Other events
Also on Tuesday, the steering committee of the school met to discuss matters pertaining to the school’s experimental status. Such meetings, on curriculum and instruction, are a requirement of experimental schools. Tuesday’s meeting was attended by our Ministry-appointed counselor (and NSWAS member) Igal Schwartz as well as Gila Sasson from the Ministry. The subject was the commemoration of Memorial Day in a binational school: Is it possible to have a common commemoration of all victims of all wars in Israel (Jewish and Arab)?
During the same week, two teachers visited the Jerusalem suburb of Mevasseret Zion, for a meeting with the parents of children who are potentially interested to attend the school next year.
A study day
On April 29 the whole staff of the School for Peace took part in a study day. On the agenda was a presentation by Prof. Oren Yiftachel (ncrd@river.bgu.ac.il), from the Department of Geography and Environmental Development of the Ben Gurion University. His subject was the government’s policy on land allocation. The staff members were surprised to learn that some 97% of the lands in Israel are in Jewish hands – a situation ensured by the division of responsibility between various authorities (the Jewish Agency, Jewish National Fund, etc.). During the simulation game in which participants in the youth encounters take part, the facilitators often find themselves consulted on matters such as this – therefore the relevance of this presentation.
A youth encounter
On April 25-27 a youth encounter workshop took place between students of the Taibeh and Misgav high schools.
Recent visits and conferences
A conference entitled “Body, Soul and Role” was hosted by the Hotel. This was “an international pilot conference on health and vitality in organizations.” It was organized by the IFSI organization in France and the Tmurot Organization in Israel. Participants from around the world and from Israel attended.
Members of the “Compassionate Listening Project” organized by Middle East Citizen Diplomacy visited the guesthouse for two nights. “God gave us two ears and one mouth, that we should listen twice as much as we speak” is their watchword, and they were indeed patient to learn about the village and its activities.
“Osim Shalom” an organization of social workers for peace held an encounter workshop for Jewish – Arab students from Haifa and Jerusalem. The organization often uses NSWAS as an appropriate base for such activities.
A growing number of teachers’ organizations in Israel are sending teachers on organized visits to NSWAS in order to learn about the village and its educational work. Recently, teachers have visited from the Teffen School in the Galilee and from the city of Eilat.
Visit by Globalearn team
Globalearn is an educational Internet site, which features educational expeditions around the world. The team of Globalearn stayed at our Guesthouse for three days. They chose Ranin Boulos and Naomi Mark as “hosts” for an investigative report on NSWAS. The idea was to gather information about NS/WAS and place it in their web site. The Globalearn Web Site is visited by thousands of people, in more than 40 countries and 50 US States.
A Danish documentary film
A Danish group of six social science students from the University of Roskilde came to NS/WAS for three days to make a documentary film about the village and its various activities; with special focus on the work of the SFP. Their work was intensive, professional and their method of investigation was resourceful. NS/WAS will benefit by receiving a copy of the finished product, along with all of the raw material they taped in the village (approximately 21 videotapes) which we can edit into a variety of short-subject films about NS/WAS.
The Danish Friends are particularly interested in the work of these students for their PR campaign in Denmark. The film will be aired on TV as well as shown in different forums.
A research project
Another group of students from the same Danish university spent 4 days in NSWAS interviewing, documenting, and researching our activities. The purpose of their work is to submit a research paper to the university and possibly publish it. Members of the entire community and its departments, especially the SFP, helped them in their research project.
Commemoration of Memorial Day, Independence Day, Al-Nakba
On April 16, the teachers made joint preparations for Memorial Day, Independence Day and Al-Nakba, days that are of special importance each year to our binational school. Memorial Day came on Tuesday. The day began with joint activities, after which the Arab and Jewish children engaged in separate activities. At the time of the siren, the older Jewish children visited the gravesite of Tom Kita’in. The Arab students spoke in the classroom of their feelings on this day and saw a film about three brothers – refugees of a destroyed village -who today live their separate lives in Jordan, Germany and Nazareth. At the end of the school day, the children again took part in joint activities, where they shared with each other the projects upon which they had worked separately during the day.
Joint workshop for university course participants
On April 23 – 24, there was a workshop for the participants in all four SFP university courses. The workshop is an integral part of the yearly academic program. Since work with the universities is gradually expanding, this year brought 60 participants (and eight faculty members), the largest number ever, to the encounter. The students found it refreshing and stimulating to meet students from the other universities participating in the program. Both Arab and Jewish students find the encounter an empowering experience.
Moral Rearmament
On Monday, April 19 an important delegation visited from the global non-governmental organization Moral Rearmament (MRA). The delegation came as part of the organization’s “Initiative for Reconciliation, Trust-building and Transparency” to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The delegation included distinguished personages from South Africa, Somalia, India, France and Cyprus. The visitors proved to be attentive listeners, and expressed much interest in the plans for the Peace Campus. The School for Peace is actively engaged in a search for suitable partner academic institution abroad for its development of a College.
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Diplomats’ day
On Saturday April 17, members of the diplomatic community in Israel were invited – as every year – for a picnic in NSWAS. The day had ideal spring weather. The guests were received first of all for light refreshments on the lawn. From there they proceeded to an area where exhibitions had been laid out on each of the departments of the village. A representative was on hand to explain the exhibits. Before lunchtime, Rayek Rizek spoke some introductory words, and this was followed by general tour. Afterwards, our visitors returned to the lawn where they and members of the village opened their picnic baskets and shared their goodies, exchanging conversation and information about the village and the home countries of our guests.
This year, participants came from the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Cameroon, China, Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Great Britain, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Rwanda, Slovakia, South Africa, Sweden, Uzbekistan, Yugoslavia, and the Vatican.
Israeli and Palestinian university students
On April 15, the SFP facilitated a workshop for Jewish and Palestinian (PA) university students who had participated together in a six-week international program in Oslo. The students had wished for a follow-up program. As it happened, many of the students reported that they learned more about each other during the encounter than during the entire program in Oslo.(See the Complete Summary of the Workshop). The program in Oslo has been taking place on a yearly basis, but recently the Norwegian Government stopped its financial support. Rotary clubs of Israel and Norway took up the challenge to replace this funding in order to allow the project to continue. Rotary is highly interested that the program will include also an annual workshop conducted by the SFP. On Saturday, May 1, a meeting between Rotary and the SFP took place to discuss the continuation of the program.