peacecamp 2011

This was the Peace Camp 2011

I applied for the Peace Camp to make new friends, get to know their lives, learn English and have fun. I think it was great! We did it because everyone made friends with everyone, and the only common language was English, and we were always doing something funny! When we went to have breakfast and we all told one another what we dreamt last night, when we had a relaxation session, did the mandala, when we created the Peace Camp logo, made masks, when we attended in the talent show and watched it. It was very funny when we danced and tried to steal the steps from each other. It was heartbreaking when some of us played a nice musical piece.
We introduced our country, our culture and learned about another country and another culture. I learned a lot about the Arab-Jewish conflict in the history presentations. I loved it when we sang the Peace Camp songs.
The show at the Museum was very emotional because we sang, danced, cried together - it was touching. So I will never forget the Peace Camp and I hope we will meet again.
In fact, one month after the camp, the Austrian group came to visit us in Budapest. It is a thread that we want to keep in our hands and never let it go.

Anna Sára Kadelka
Hungarian Delegation

This peace camp was an unforgettable experience of a lifetime. It was for me more than just fun. I'm so glad I had the chance to take part of it, going through all the experiences and knowing such amazing people. Work with the artists was enjoyable and fun. Discussions, dealing with the conflict were difficult, but the atmosphere was open, and everyone could feel good to express his opinion.
I did not believe that in so short time you can know people so well, in depth, to create strong relationships and feel that openness with them.

I thank all who took part in this amazing peace camp!

Yael Lavi

This was Peacecamp 2011

This is the fourth time for me in a peacecamp and I have to say, even though all four times the experience was different, I've always enjoyed being part of it.
Every year, peacecamp is a bit different, some activities change, some of the adult staff members change, but the core is still to try and talk about issues concerning our life and future.
I think it is a very difficult task to express our feelings to others, but in the camp I always feel like I'm with good friends who allow and encourage me to do so.
This year the brilliant history sessions of Markus Priller and Ilan Baruch not only helped the participants to talk about their country's current situation freely, but gave lots of knowledge to the others and the possibility to discuss what could be done in the Middle-East.
Regular teenagers had such amazing ideas and concepts about building a better Israel that I was just listening to them and thinking they will sure do great things in the future.
The most important thing is that I know how the large groups and the history sessions made the children think about their own ideas, prejudices or simply "the other side".
In my view this peacecamp was more serious than the previous ones, with very mature participants, sharing pain and happiness with each other not only for ten days in Austria, but presumably for the rest of their lives.
I hope and know the Israelis and the Palestinians will carry on trying to establish peace in Israel and the Austrians and the Hungarians will also do everything they possibly can to promote peace wherever they may go.

This Was Peacecamp 2011
BY :Dareen Sader


Peacecamp for me was an amazing experience … I'll never forget all the good time I had and all the friends I've met from different countries and I have never thought that I'll miss everyone so much .
The most important thing for me was that peacecamp gave me the chance to say what I have to say and to discus our conflict calmly …
I am so thankful that I got the opportunity to take part in this wonderful camp


And I just wanted to thank everyone for those amazing ten days
Keep up the good work and hopefully PEACE WILL COME UPON US : )
Hope to see you all soon …
Dareen Sader
the Palestinian delegation

This was peacecamp 2011
Sometimes things happen. A lot of things happen every day. There are good ones and bad ones and it makes me feel sad, desperate and helpless to know that I don’t have the power to change all the terrible and for a sane mind incredible events of the world. It hurts me personally. This is why I don’t want to watch any more, I feel the need to do something. In my opinion the peacecamp project is the perfect opportunity for people like me and all the previous peacecamps prove, that there are a lot of them out there.
It is obvious that finding solutions needs talking, it needs every single participant to contribute something to the process of a peacecamp. The peacecamp taught me that listening is one very special and important way of contributing something to a group of people. When people started to listen to each other, our conversations started to take different turns all of a sudden. We were thinking and talking about ideas of happiness about ways of making our voices heard, our ideas possible.
Of course all that work would not have been possible without all the professionals supporting us. First of all there are Evelyn and Ronny, who put so much energy and care into this project. The artists of the Academy of the Impossible, who showed us a way of feeling good together and who gave us the strength to go through a lot of discussions in the large group with Silvio. The organisation and exact timetables made the impossible possible. We managed to feel close to each other and we felt safe when suggesting new thoughts in front of nearly sixty people. This collective feeling of acceptance and security enabled us to have historical presentations and discussions. Former diplomat Ilan and historian Markus made sure, that the European groups were also integrated into the dialogue of the Jewish and Palestinian delegates. They achieved a constant high quality of our debates. All the four groups had teachers with them, who took care of us warmly and were never too tired to answer our questions or to help us.
The younger participants, including the filming team was always in for the fun parts. It was never boring when every group showed us a lot about the place they came from and great humour when laughing about their own traditions or habits. In the end of this peacecamp I find myself surrounded by an overwhelming number of new wonderful friends and I am happy that things happen. I am happy that I am part of this camp that is one of the good things happening.
Bath-Sahaw Baranow