Contact
Hod Ben Zvi, Chair5 Mevo Haasara St.
Apt 16
Jerusalem
Israel
9787608
972-50-955-7087
israel@upf.org
Reconciliation is a subject we can talk easily about, but is very difficult to carry out. It demands deep personal work to be able to bring about reconciliation through words or through deeds. Total honesty and integrity is vital. No matter how beautiful the words we say or how great the deed, if it does not come from a place of integrity and honesty it is not better than no action.
“Football has an incredible power, which can be used to make this world a better place in which everyone can live," according to FIFA (the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, the worldwide governing body football/soccer). its Fair Play Code includes the advice: "Use this powerful platform to promote peace, equality, health and education for everyone. Make the game better, take it to the world, and you will be fostering a better world.”
The Middle East Peace Initiative program in Sept. 2004 offered participants opportunities to visit neighborhoods in Jerusalem and surrounding villages to get a sense of the people, their challenges of daily life, and their hopes and dreams of peace.
The Armon Hanatsiv Promenade overlooking the hills and valleys of Jerusalem offered a spectacular setting for the Bridge of Peace ceremony that paired people of different religions, races, and cultures in a commitment of mutual understanding and ongoing relationship on September 12. The Bridge of Peace ceremony, developed by the Women's Federation for World Peace, can be a powerful vehicle for reconciliation.
The focus of the ongoing pilgrimages has been the coming together of the three Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as the basis for building peace. I reflected on what it took, or might take, for these three brothers of faith to unite.
I am an Israeli woman who has lived here all my life. I am a wife, a mother and a grandmother. I am also an Ambassador for Peace, which means I am dedicated to bringing peace wherever I go. It also means that even though I am terribly nervous, I found the strength to stand here on the stage to share my heart with you.
I would like to extend our warm greetings to all of you, women, men and families, who arrived here from all over the world and from Israel; from various religions and different nationalities. I would like to thank Dr. and Mrs. Moon for their endless work for peace and for giving us the inspiration for our peace work in the Middle East.
In light of repeated terrorist attacks in Israel and Palestine, well-intentioned relatives, friends, and State Department had cautioned interfaith peace activists against undertaking a peace mission to Israel, let alone entering Gaza. But where are peacebuilders, both men and women, needed if not in the vortex of conflict?
In Bethlehem, a father had been without work for the last five years, and unable to fully support the family's needs because of the political and social circumstances in the region. Previously, he was working in Israel with a construction company, but with the closing of the border between the two areas, it became more and more difficult to find employment.
An account of the Middle East Peace Initiative programs in Jerusalem and surrounding areas in Sept. and Oct. 2003.
In a spirit of understanding, harmony and reconciliation, believers from both families of Judaism and Christianity wish to repent for the dark parts of our past, and seek a bright future together, caring for the plight of all who suffer and long for a better world, participants in the Middle East Peace initiative signed a joint declaration on May 18, 2003.