The Open House in Ramle - a peace education center in Ramle, Israel
 

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Youth Delegation to Italy

Open house ramla group italy

From July 21st to August 8, 2007, a youth delegation from Open House, five Jews and five Arabs, ages 17-18, traveled to Italy at the invitation of the Municipality of Padova to interact with the Scouts of that beautiful historic town. A loyal group of Italian Friends of Open House helped to arrange the visit.

In preparation for the journey, two Open House counselors—Wael Kubtan, who is a Palestinian Israeli, and Maya Voloshin, who is Jewish—conducted sessions with the teenagers several times to develop group cohesiveness and to deepen their co-operation and listening skills. The group went together to see the show “Kalandia Checkpoint” at the Arab-Jewish Theatre in Jaffa. After the show, the actors and production team invited them for a meeting to discuss the performance.

Although most of the young people had known each other from their participation at Open House activities throughout the years, the value of focused preparation proved itself worth-while. And there was excellent planning on the Italian side, which included one week of home hospitality by the Scout families in Padova and a week’s camping in the Dolomite Mountains.

Maya Voloshin, our co-leader, felt that we have much to learn from the Scouts, “from their modesty, prayer, the way they work together and their strength as mountain climbers…”

On returning from Italy, our young people spoke of “an intense experience”, “high energy, full of meaning”, “magical”, “the trip of my life”, “so important to get out of the tensions here {Israel} and to experience another reality….”

I asked Mahar Abu-Hamad, a Muslim participant who had gone through Young Leadership Training at Open House in 2005—2006, what, she thought, was the value of trips abroad for Jewish-Palestinian relations. “The importance of such a trip is that you learn to know ‘The Other’ as an individual, to know who they are, to respect your differences, and to enjoy their individuality and humanity. Being in the mountains with the Padova Scouts was very helpful in this process. Meaningful connections developed. For example, Lior {a Jewish participant and long term volunteer at Open House}, now spends a lot of time with Yacub {Jacob, a Christian from Jaffa, at Open House since childhood} and Yacub has given Lior a lot of encouragement in his musical performance in Tel-Aviv.” Lior and Jacob confirmed the deepening of their friendship in Italy.

open house ramle

To my question, whether the different narratives of Arabs and Jews came into expression in the trip, Mahar responded, “We had an intense discussion one evening in the mountains. I shared the story of the expulsion of my grandparents, and Shai {a Jewish participant} shared how his grandparents came here and what they went through.”

“Were you competing for the sympathy of your hosts?” I asked, “It often happens when a third party is present…” I added. Mahar feels that if you enter these sensitive topics without trust, it becomes worse. “We have deepened our trust in the trip. You share your experience with people who have become your friends; you share your family’s legacy of pain, you share with each other the burdens with which you grew up, you share the joy and challenges of the trip….” And she adds, “What is hate? It is ignorance, fear ….” In conclusion, Mahar said, “Our trip to Italy empowered me personally. Being in nature brought me closer to myself, to the Divine, to the human….

After the trip, I asked Mahar, Lior and Jacob to come to Open House to meet Italian TV crew [Rai 3} for an interview. Mahar and Jacob impersonated Dalia opening the door to Bashir…

We thank our Italian friends for giving such a special opportunity to this group of young people. We thank the Scouts and their leaders; we thank the Scout families for their extraordinary hospitality. We especially thank Vittoria Nardini, who passed over on October 15th2007 in the Monastery of Bose. It was she who had originally introduced our Italian friends to Open House and continued rooting for us until the end. Molto grazie, Vittoria.
Your memory is a blessing,
Dalia