peacecamp 2011

Peace starts with listening
peacecamp 2011: July 4th – 14th in Reibers and Vienna/Austria

What made the success of this year's peacecamp, the ninth of its kind, were the extensive preparations made by all participants, the pictures and posters they brought with them about their own personal family history, and about chapters of contemporary history that made the connection between all four groups participating in the peacecamp – Palestinian, Israeli, Austrian and Hungarian.

Two big blocks history4peace dealt with analyzing both narratives of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on one hand, and Europe’s involvement in, and possible contribution to this conflict on the other. A third history4peace session held at the nearby former border between Austria and today’s Czech Republic offered opportunity to look at the issue of borders and frontiers between people and nations and at the tremendous changes which led to the fall of the Iron Curtain and to the reunification of a divided Europe into a growing shared project, the European Union.

Documentation of personal family histories allowed to make a link between history and personal experience and to develop some understanding for the complexity of political issues and individual, personal agendas.

Daily analytical large-group sessions offered an opportunity to explore and to share deeper emotions, feelings and unconscious attitudes and to develop some understanding and empathy for the pain and suffering in each one of us and in others.

In both – history-4peace as well as large-group workshops led by Silvio Gutkowski – attention was turned to developing the capacity to listen, as opposed to the desire to be heard. Former Israeli Ambassador Ilan Baruch led challenging political debates between representatives of the Israeli and the Palestinian groups, while the Austrian historian Markus Priller chaired discussions triggered by the pupils' presentations of selected historical as well as contemporary issues of Austrian and Hungarian society.

These workshops, attended by adults as well as adolescents of all groups gave peacecamp 2011 a new dimension of wholeheartedness and sobriety. All were impressed with the dedication and motivation with which the young participants engaged in the process, with their willingness and aptitude to analyze and to share, with the possibility to confront, but to also cooperate with and befriend one another.

Four artists/art therapists helped processing these issues in creative and pleasurable modes, which led to two remarkable performances at the end of the encounter – the street festival show4peace/Reibers and show4peace/Vienna in the prestigious theatre Dschungel/MuseumsQuartier in Vienna.

All participants parted with tears in their eyes, convinced that they had hard-earned the document “Ambassador of Peace” they carried with them on their way home.
“I came never as close to a Jewish person”, said one of the Palestinian participants at the airport; another participant wrote: “I wish for each and every one to be able to experience this beautiful, sometimes painful, always wonderful event that changed my way of thinking for ever”.

You will find an extensive documentation of peacecamp 2011 in YouTube:
peacecamp Reibers 2011 Teaser
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaymgNOqRfY

peacecamp Reibers 2011 Part1/2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up4tXgInLtc

peacecamp Reibers 2011 Part2/2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIzFY-n61Nk

show4peace 1 Reibers 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_kdFgkqVjM

show4peace 2 Reibers 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5Jy1NavJG8

show4peace 3 Reibers 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg3YwJlfFqI

Evelyn Böhmer-Laufer
Initiator and director of the peacecamp project

Peacecamp – a retrospect

One day, our french teacher came into the classroom and started talking about a project called peacecamp, and I was instantly fascinated. I really liked the idea behind it, and I thought it great that somebody was willing to organise something so interesting and important, on the hope that things will change through it. So I applied to be a participant, and looking back, it was one of the best things I ever did.
On the airport, everybody was shy at first; I myself felt quite overwhelmed with all the new people, and the names! I either couldn’t understand or remember them, which was horrible for me. But soon we just started talking, about random things, and started laughing, and during the bus ride, the Jewish-Israeli delegation and the Palestinian-Israeli delegation started teaching us songs in Hebrew and Arabic, and that was it: peacecamp had started.
Over the next few days, we got to know each other better, and I personally began to love every single person there. I have never met such amazing people before, each one special and unique, each one with so much to tell and so much to give. Just thinking about the fun we had makes me smile again, and I miss them more than I would have ever been able to imagine.
Apart from the fun we had, the friends we made, the things we experienced and will keep in our heart for ever, there were serious things to do. Each large group was an explosion of feelings, of stories, of experiences told, and I learned so much. Hearing about the inside of this pointless and brutal conflict, I couldn’t comprehend why something like this is even able to continue, let alone start. Opinions clashed, and there were always at least two sides to the story. Each side, the Palestinian- and the Jewish-Israeli, struggled to tell what they saw as reality, and it took a long time for everyone to be able to listen and try to see the other side, too. I, as an outsider, was overwhelmed and didn’t know what to believe, and for me, it took some time to understand that truth has more than one face, and just because one thing is true the other one doesn’t have to be a lie.
Outside of large group, I talked a lot with the others, what they thought a solution might be and what they were scared of, about the reasons why there might not be any progress towards peace. I was amazed by these young people, how they thought of things, of their hopes and dreams. I heard some wonderful ideas, ranging from a one-state-solution to a two-state-solution to a two-state-solution as a beginning for a one-state-solution. Personally, my favourite was the idea of a Palestine with equal rights for everyone and no oppressing of the (then probably) Jewish minority and Jerusalem as an international city for all three monotheistic religions, following the idea of the Vatican, thus making sure that Judaism will not get lost for later generations, which was, as I understood, the main reason for many Jewish-Israelis to not just create an independent, secular state to represent all living in the country. Most important, large group and the history workshops created platforms where we could show the others our view of everything, the Austrian and Hungarian delegations mostly acting as the impartial, objective outsiders, asking questions that sometimes took a lot of thinking about to answer, sometimes bringing those questioned to rethink their opinions, to consider other sides of the problem, to see things they couldn’t see before or to think in a completely different way.
I myself don’t really feel capable of putting what peacecamp gave me into words; I can just encourage every single person to participate, because I wish for each and every one to be able to experience this beautiful, sometimes painful, always wonderful event that changed my way of thinking for ever. I guess anybody who wasn’t there will not be able to comprehend what happened to us, how we changed and still stayed the same, but I fervently hope that there won’t be the need for more peacecamps and that even so, everybody has the opportunity to get to know the feeling all of us began to develop in Reibers and still carry in our souls.

Xenia Donschachner

Andrea's peacecake

Challot on Jewish Culture evening

Wiener Walzer

Hungarian specialities

Arab specialities

shirts4peace with peacecamp-logo

show4peace

This was Peacecamp 2011

Since I took part in peacecamp quite spontaneously, I wasn’t sure what was going to await me.
The original reason to participate in peacecamp was to write a paper about it for school.
Though the bottom line is that this time- for me unfortunatley only the last four days because I couldn’t make it earlier- was pretty much more than just work for school.
The prevailing atmosphere is hard to discribe. But from the very first moment I could feel that there existed a strong unity between all the participants, no matter which age or nationality. Still I really felt accepted and comfortable as “the newcomer”.
However it’s not “just” about making friends and having lots of fun together but also getting to know other cultures and opinions, learning how to discuss and listen to each other in a group, finding together solutions to promote peace.
In the end it was hard to everybody to part with each other because everybody got so close.
To me it was a great experience and I am really thankful that I had the change to participate in peacecamp. I would love to do it again! Also I want to thank all those people who enable this project, they are doing a really great job!

Saskia

I’m Firas Habib. For me peace camp was a unique experience that I never went through anything alike it . I met people that I would never even think of meeting before. From places far away from home =) .I learnt a lot about other cultures and languages. I listened the other side of the conflict (the Jewish-Israeli) opinions. I had the opportunity to share my opinion with other people and to listen to other’s opinion . I hope the peace camp program continues so other people can also experience this amazingly fun camp .
Firas Habib,
The Palestinian delegation
PeaceCamp 2011.