On Tuesday, March 10 2015, the first “Honoring the Righteous” event took place in WASNS. The site was fitting, as WASNS is only community of Palestinian Arabs and Jews, all Israeli citizens, who have chosen to live together in a village setting where everyone looks out for the others.
This was the first event of Wahat al-Salam ~ Neve Shalom’s museum, today the Oasis Art Gallery, which was then being established as a vehicle to present ways of life, thoughts and ideas that promote our common humanity. Some 50 people from the community, as well as specially invited guests, gathered in the museum courtyard for the program, which had a thoughtful theme “to highlight the important role of the righteous, the rescuers, during situations of humanitarian disasters, ethnic cleansing or genocide.”
On January 15, 2016, in the Wahat al-Salam – Neve Shalom (WASNS), museum, the first extended planning meeting for the Forest of the Righteous project took place. The plan was audacious: to create a unique tribute to memorialize the righteous, especially those who may not be widely recognized in other platforms. By righeous, we mean those who have acted in tragic times to save the lives of others, risking their own lives and even, in some cases, those of their loved ones
In 2017 we established the Garden of Rescuers, as we decided to call it, near the Spiritual Center, and on March 7 we marked there a first memorial event for two-present day rescuers.
The idea originated in cooperation with the Gariwo organization. The event, in which we presented awards to the rescuers, was held close to the date of the European Day of the Righteous, which was enacted by the European Parliament in 2012. In Europe, the day is intended “to commemorate those who have stood up against crimes against humanity and totalitarism with their own moral responsibility” and is celebrated every March 6.
Gariwo founder Gabriele Nissim proposed to organize a Day of the Righteous in Wahat al-Salam – Neve Shalom. The village accepted the proposal, though the planners decided to use the term “rescuers” rather than “righteous, since, says Prof. Yair Auron, who is responsible for the project, “righteous” is a term with moral, philosophical or religious significance “ whereas the act of rescuing other human beings can be determined factually and those who act to save others deserve to be honored.
Since then, we hold the WASNS Annual Rescuers Award ceremony each March in the Garden of Rescuers, and we have added new names and new organizations to the rescuers list.
