A Series Of Conferences On
The 3rd Side
Supporting Palestinian-Israeli Peace-building Partnerships
A Nonpartisan, Multi-Event Series Raising Public Awareness and Support For Grassroots Palestinian-Israeli Peace-Building Partnerships
Participation is free ~ Registration is Required
~ Current Event In This Series ~
1-Day Virtual Conference
April 13, 2024
* Conference is a 1-day Virtual Event conducted on Zoom
Practical hope at the grassroots for reaching across the divide to achieve nonviolence, healing, justice, reconciliation, and peace.
An event focused on raising public awareness and support for the large number of Israeli-Palestinian grassroots peace-building partnerships working together on the ground in the conflict region.
The Purpose is to:
- Gather partnership representatives, key stakeholders, and interested members of the public together to highlight these efforts as existing and viable alternatives to hostility and violence.
- Increase understanding of and sensitivity to the unique challenges these NGOs encounter with their work, as well as opportunities for accomplishing positive change.
- Promote generating support as soon as possible for the continued and expanded work of this grassroots peace movement.
Program:
Saturday, April 13 – 10:00 am to 3:00 pm EST:
Program Schedule (see bios below):
10:00 – 10:10: Introduction to purpose & event structure, Steve Olweean
10:10 – 10:20: Brief video
10:20 – 10:50: Women of The Sun, Marwa Hammad
10:50 – 11:05: Questions and Answers
11:05 – 11:35: Wahat AlSalam/Neve Shalom (WASNS), Nava Sonnenberg
11:35 – 11:50: Questions and Answers
11:50 – 12:20: International Encounter Association (IEA), Teague Heelan
12:20 – 12:35: Questions and Answers
12:40 – 1:10: [ Lunch Break ]
1:10 – 1:40: Roots, Hanan Schlesinger and Noor Awad
1:40 – 1:55: Questions and Answers
1:55 – 2:25: OneVoice, Ezzeldeen Marsi
2:25 – 2:40: Questions and Answers
2:40 – 2:55: Final processing and Q & A
2:55 – 3:00: Next Steps, Steve Olweean
Bios on NGOs and Presenting Representatives:
1) Women Of The Sun
Women Of The Sun is an independent Palestinian women’s Association, established in July 2021 in Bethlehem and includes all sects and segments inside and outside Palestinian society – women, youth, and children – from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Palestinian Diaspora. It is a grassroots Palestinian movement striving to improve and empower women’s lives in the West Bank and Gaza. They seek to create a solid, long-term women’s movement to spread cultural and national awareness and the importance of community peace. Palestinian women make up more than half of Palestinian society, yet make up less than 12.5 of leadership positions in Palestine. “We have the ability to exist despite the difficulties, pain, and obstacles to lay a new path filled by life, we are the women who stand in the face of the wall of obstacles and difficulties that we as Palestinian women face for a better future.”
Women of the Sun partners with Women Wage Peace, an Israeli NGO established in 2014, on a shared mission to breathe new life into the dormant peace process. The partnership between the two organizations is the result of earlier iterations of women-led peace activism throughout the conflict. On October 5th, 2023 1,500 women from both organizations marched in Jerusalem and at the Dead Sea to demand the end of a continual cycle of violence and death. The partner organizations announced the establishment of a joint force to voice their concern for the fate of their children as well as the need for reconciliation and a non-violent resolution to the conflict. Since October 7th members from both organizations have lost their lives, yet they have steadfastly recommitted to their mutual path for peace and reconciliation and redoubled their efforts.
In December 20, 2023 the two organizations were jointly nominated for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, and they are included in Time Magazine’s 2024 Women of the Year.
Marwa Hammad, Program Director at Women of The Sun.
is a passionate advocate for women’s empowerment and social justice. With extensive experience in community development, she is dedicated to promoting gender equality and amplifying the voices of marginalized women.
She has a BA in business administration and marketing from Bethlehem University and was previously employed by Alrowwad Cultural Center and by UNRWA. Marwa specializes in marketing, as well as writing and evaluating grants and loan applications.
She is a strong believer in women and peace and is convinced that women do groundbreaking work for justice, peace, and security. Yet, they continue to be sidelined in formal peace processes. As conflict continues to affect every region of Palestine, urgent action is needed to ensure that women are part of peacebuilding, and their contributions are visible and valued
She works actively with Women Wage Peace to train women to run in local elections, and plans to restart her group’s trauma healing program after the war. Before Oct. 7, she held Zoom workshops with women from the West Bank and Gaza. The war interrupted those conversations, but not the organization’s dedication to building peace.
Web: https://womensun.org/
Email: p.womenofsun@gmail.com
info@womensun.org
Donations: https://womensun.org/donate
2) Wahat AlSalam/Neve Shalom (WASNS)
Neve Shalom – Wahat al-Salam is the only community in Israel where Jews and Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel live together purposefully, in equality and peace. For visitors and program participants, it provides a venue where both peoples feel at home and draw encouragement from the community’s model of partnership and equality. The bilingual, multicultural Primary School, School for Peace, Pluralistic Spiritual Center and Oasis Art Gallery serve the village and beyond, annually reaching thousands of Jewish and Palestinian youth and adults.
The Primary School
The Primary School’s mission is to serve as a resource and incubator of educational innovation. Founded in 1983, it is the first bilingual multicultural Jewish-Arab K-6 school in the region. Providing all academics bilingually to more than 300 children in both Hebrew and Arabic while engaging the narratives of current issues and individual/national identities, the school draws 90% of its equal numbers of Israeli Palestinian and Jewish students from 12+ communities surrounding the village.
Well-utilized school resources include an Arabic/Hebrew/English Language Laboratory, greenhouse and garden, instrumental (for all) music program, cross-border Honey Bee pollination path program and, most recently, HOTAM-their newly completed bilingual, multicultural curriculum incorporating nearly 40 years of research and results. The Primary School has served as inspiration, model and resource for Israel’s newer bilingual schools.
The School for Peace
Established in 1979, it was the first educational institution in Israel promoting broad scale change towards peace and more humane, egalitarian and just relations between Palestinians and Jews. The School has developed change agent programs with Jewish and Israeli-Arab professional groups (lawyers, physicians, mental health professionals, journalists, architects, urban planners, environmentalists, young politicians and educators) and runs special programs for women, university students and youth, which create a genuine egalitarian dialogue between the two people. Through workshops, training programs and special projects, using Jewish and Arab facilitators, the School develops participants’ awareness of the conflict and their role in it, enabling them to take responsibility to bring about positive change in society and in the relations between Jews and Palestinians.
In recent years, programs supported by the United States Agency for International Development have focused on creating a cadre of leaders in civil society and developing negotiation frameworks for future peace agreements. The School for Peace remains one of the few peace organizations in Israel running joint programs with Palestinian partner organizations. Since 1979, more than 75,000 Jews and Palestinians have taken part in workshops and courses conducted by the School for Peace, and it has trained over 1,000 facilitators. Many have become leaders in organizations that focus on Jewish-Arab issues, on peace and human rights, and social change in Israel and Palestine.
Nava Sonnenberg, Program Director
is founder of the School for Peace (SFP) at Wahat al Salam/Neve Shalom, an intentional community jointly established by Jewish and Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel. She is currently the SFP’s Program director. She has trained hundreds of Palestinian and Jewish facilitators to facilitate groups in conflict in Israel, Palestine and in other areas of conflict in the world. She has taught the subject at the Tel Aviv University in the last 23 years. In the last 8 years she has developed the Change Agents courses for Israeli & Palestinian professionals. She got her MA in Family, Marriage and Child Counseling from San Francisco State University and her PhD from Hebrew University in 2006. The dissertation was published in the book called “Dialogue Challenging Identity: Jews constructing their identity through encounter with Palestinians” ( Pardes Publisher). She received the “Women of Courage certificate” from the Department of State US, for leadership courage and tireless work in advocating for social change and coexistence in 2010, and the Paul Harris Fellow- Rotary International (1984) in appreciation of tangible & significant assistance given for the furtherance of better understanding & friendly relations among peoples of the world. She is a mother of 3 and a political activist.
The American Friends of Neve Shalom/Wahat-al-Salam
229 N. Central Ave., Suite #401, Glendale, CA 91203-3541
Web: https://www.oasisofpeace.org/
Email: afnswas@oasisofpeace.org
Phone: 818.662.8883
Donations: https://www.oasisofpeace.org/donate
3) Interfaith Encounter Association (IEA)
IEA was founded in 2001 during the period of The Second Intifada. It works to facilitate sincere and scalable coexistence in the binational Holy Land, achieved through joint community building on the grassroots level using apolitical, interactive interfaith dialogue as its vehicle.
IEA’s main effort is forming and maintaining ongoing groups of interfaith encounter across the Holy Land and beyond. Each group offers an opportunity to meet the ‘other’ and build lasting inter-communal relations of friendship coupled with respect for the unique identity of each. In this way, each group is a seed of the desired relations between the various communities. It’s vision includes hundreds of groups, of wide variety of kinds, so that every person will have a group close to home and to heart.
Since its formation, the IEA has held more than 5,000 programs, with over 20,000 estimated participants. Having founded 126 community-groups of interfaith encounters throughout the binational region. Including 39 groups that bring together, on a regular basis, Israelis and West Bank Palestinians.
Teague Heelan
Teague is an Irish-Anglo Catholic living in Jerusalem for over a decade and has begun working to assist the IEA development in the past year. Teague’s professional background is in the finance sector with a passion for all things anthropological.
Web: https://interfaith-encounter.org/en/
Email: office@interfaith-encounter.org
Donations: https://interfaith-encounter.org/en/donate/
4) Roots
The story of Roots begins in 2014 at a meeting between students of Rabbi Menachem Froman, of blessed memory, and members of the politically-prominent Abu Awwad family. This grew into a series of encounters between Palestinians and Israelis: meetings between families, a women’s group, workshops, and a joint response to violence. Sensing the transformative power of this work, they committed to a long-term project and called it Roots.
It is a unique network of local Palestinians and Israelis who have come to see each other as the partners we both need to make changes to end our conflict. Based on a mutual recognition of each People’s connection to the Land, they are developing understanding and solidarity despite ideological differences. Roots is a place where local peoples can take responsibility. it’s work is aimed at challenging the assumptions communities hold about each other, building trust and creating a new discourse around the conflict in the respective societies. This is a grassroots and local model for making change – from the bottom up.
Despite living so close to each other, Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank exist in almost complete separation, and both sides have little knowledge of each other’s lives or humanity. Stereotypes are generally reinforced by exposure to only the aggression of the other; whether through media or personal experience of violence and trauma.
Through it’s projects and workshops, Roots creates trust and partnership – the societal foundations upon which future political agreements can be built.
Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger is an Orthodox rabbi and teacher who was profoundly transformed by his encounters with Palestinians beginning in 2013. In 2005 he came to Dallas, Texas to serve as the head of the Community Kollel, became involved in interfaith work with Christians and Muslims, and founded Faiths in Conversation, a framework for Jewish – Christian – Muslim theological dialogue. The mind-expanding experience of these trialogues inspired him to attempt to meet Muslims and Christians back in the Holy Land. Although always drawn to pluralism and deeply empathic for the other, and sporadically involved in the religious peace movement over the past 4 decades, Rav Hanan never met a Palestinian as an equal until he returned from Dallas to Israel in 2013. The meetings that began then – largely inspired by his interfaith experience in Dallas – have become far more meaningful than he could ever have imagined. In early 2014, Ali Abu Awwad and an Israeli partner Shaul Judelman, together with Rav Hanan and other Israelis and Palestinians, founded Roots/Judur/Shorashim. Rav Hanan currently serves as its Director of International Relations. He also is the founder of the American Friends of Roots, a multi-faith organization dedicated to supporting the work of Roots. He is a member of the Rabbinical Council of America and the International Rabbinic Fellowship, as well as Beit Hillel, an Israeli rabbinical association. He is a Rabbis Without Borders fellow, and was honored in 2013 and 2014 as the Memnosyne Institute Interfaith Scholar. He and his Israeli–born wife Ayala reside in Alon Shvut, Israel, and have four grown children and eleven grandchildren.
Noor A’wad Noor’s family moved from Amman, Jordan to Beit Sahour following the signing of the Oslo Accords. There, he began thinking about his identity as a Palestinian refugee. While studying to become a tour guide, Noor travelled to Israel and for the first time saw Israelis beyond the frame of “occupying soldiers.” In 2012, Noor was licensed by the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism. After meeting Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger and Ali Abu Awwad in 2016, Noor joined Roots, where he currently organizes joint Palestinian-Israeli activities and speaks to visiting groups about his personal experiences living through the conflict as a Palestinian who has seen much tragedy, and in such conditions is motivated to work toward a political solution. Noor resides in Bethlehem today, where he guides English-speakers on geopolitical tours of the region.
Web: https://www.friendsofroots.net/
Email: office@friendsofroots.net
Donations: https://www.friendsofroots.net/donate
5) OneVoice
The mission of OneVoice is to empower grassroots activists and moderate leaders – Israelis, Palestinians, and their global allies – to build a future where everyone can live with mutual respect, security, and justice. It provides financial support as well as deep strategic counsel to local partners in Israel and Palestine.
It’s vision is to move a critical mass of Israelis and Palestinians to reject the status quo and drive towards a resolution to the conflict that unlocks the full potential of both peoples – in this generation.
OneVoice describes itself as hopeful of a future where positive change can be achieved through shared commitment and effort, unrelenting in it’s commitment to achieving a better future, respectful in fostering trust and mutual respect integral to pursuing it’s mission, forward looking to a pathway through grassroots leadership to foster positive change, purposeful in inspiring hope and the need for action through it’s efforts and giving a voice to the moderate majority who support conflict transformation, and curious in striving to be an entrepreneurial, adaptive, learning organization that can preempt and neutralize disruptive forces.
Ezzeldeen Marsi
is Chief Field Officer of OneVoice. He was born in Gaza City in 1971. He completed his Bachelor’s in Political Science and Criminology in the spring of 1997 from Northeastern Illinois University. He then worked for Chicago’s Board of Education as an Arabic/English bilingual teacher. In the fall of 2000, he completed his Master’s in International Relations, with specialization in conflict resolution. That year, he moved back to Palestine, and accepted a job with the American International School in Gaza, as a social studies teacher and head of the upper school. In November 2006, he opened OneVoice Palestine-Gaza office and was appointed as the Executive Director. After the end of the first Gaza War, he moved to Ramallah City and accepted the job of Director of Development in OneVoice Palestine. In the summer of 2011, he moved back to the Gaza Strip and was appointed as Director of OneVoice-Gaza. He returned to the United States in 2015, and is currently the US Outreach Director. Ezz is based in Chicago with his wife and four children.
Phone: +1 708-506-5602
Web: https://www.onevoicemovement.org/
Email: ezz@onevoicemovement.org
Donations: https://www.onevoicemovement.org/donate
( Additional events in this series are planned in the coming months )
~ Previous Event (Ended) ~
Virtual Webinar
Saturday, March 9th, 2024
3-hour event, Noon to 3:00 PM EST
Presentations by 4 Palestinian-Israeli partnerships reaching across the divide:
- Parents Circle – Families Forum: Palestinian and Israeli Bereaved Families for Peace
- Women of the Sun
- Interfaith Encounter Association
- Tomorrow’s Women
( This event has Ended )
Link to video of this webinar is available at:
https://mediaspace.msu.edu/media/The+3rd+Side/1_2wpb1cco
Details on each presentation:
> The Parents Circle – Families Forum
is a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization made up of more than 700 bereaved families. Their common bond is that they have lost a close family member to the conflict. But instead of choosing revenge, they have chosen a path of reconciliation. Join bereaved Israeli mother, Robi, and bereaved Palestinian brother, Mohamed, as they share their stories of loss and their unique choice of reconciliation.
Robi Damelin, spokesperson and director of International Relations for the Parents Circle – Families Forum joined the organization after her son was killed by a Palestinian Sniper. All her work on the ground both in Palestine and Israel and internationally is geared towards non-violence and reconciliation as a means to end the occupation. Robi was named as a 2015 Woman of Impact by Women in the World. She regularly contributes to media outlets in Israel and abroad. Robi was invited to brief the Security Council at the United Nations in May, 2022.
Mohamed Abu Jafar lives in Jenin, in the Occupied West Bank, Palestine. He has been a member of the Parents Circle since 2016. On October 24, 2002, when Mohamed was 14, his 16-year old brother was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers, who then opened fire around the body, injuring 10 others and preventing others from aiding Mohamed’s brother. This tragedy led Mohamed to study nursing. Today he works as a Quality Manager at the Palestinian Ministry of Health. He has taken part in the Parents Circle’s Young Ambassadors for Peace Program, and as a facilitator and manager for the organization’s Youth Summer Camp.
Web: https://parentscirclefriends.org/inviteus/
Donations: https://parentscirclefriends.org/donate/
Email: info@parentscirclefriends.org
> Women Of The Sun
is an independent Palestinian women’s Association, established in July 2021. Women of the Sun partners with Women Wage Peace, an Israeli NGO established in 2014, on a shared mission. Palestinian women make up more than half of Palestinian society, yet make up less than 12.5 of leadership positions in Palestine. “We have the ability to exist despite the difficulties, pain, and obstacles to lay a new path filled by life, we are the women who stand in the face of the wall of obstacles and difficulties that we as Palestinian women face for a better future.” On October 5th, 2023 1,500 women from both organizations marched in Jerusalem and at the Dead Sea to demand the end of a continual cycle of violence and death. Since October 7th members from both organizations have lost their lives, yet they have steadfastly recommitted to their mutual path for peace and reconciliation.
In December, 2023 the two organizations were jointly nominated for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, and they are included in Time Magazine’s 2024 Women of the Year.
Marwa Hammad, Program Director at Women of The Sun.
is a passionate advocate for women’s empowerment and social justice. With extensive experience in community development, she is dedicated to promoting gender equality and amplifying the voices of marginalized women.
Web: https://womensun.org/
Donations: https://womensun.org/donate
Email: p.womenofsun@gmail.com
info@womensun.org
> Interfaith Encounter Association (IEA)
was founded in 2001 during the period of The Second Intifada. It works to facilitate sincere and scalable coexistence in the binational Holy Land. Achieved through joint community building on the grassroots level. Using apolitical, interactive interfaith dialogue as its vehicle. Since its formation, the IEA has held more than 5,000 programs, with over 20,000 estimated participants. Having founded 126 community-groups of interfaith encounters throughout the binational region. Including 39 groups that bring together, on a regular basis, Israelis and West Bank Palestinians.
Teague Heelan
Teague is an Irish-Anglo Catholic living in Jerusalem for over a decade and has begun working to assist the IEA development in the past year. Teague’s professional background is in the finance sector with a passion for all things anthropological
Web: https://interfaith-encounter.org/en/
Donations: https://interfaith-encounter.org/en/donate/
Email: office@interfaith-encounter.org
> Tomorrow’s Women
was co-founded in 2003 by humanitarian Rachel Kaufman, artist/filmmaker Debra Sugerman, and peace activist/writer Anael Harpaz. These women believed that the decades of violence and conflict between Palestinians and Israelis would never end if left to politicians and governments, and felt that empowered young women had the greatest chance of creating peace in their countries.
Ameera Said, Co-Director, Israel-Palestine:
Ameera was born in Jenin, Palestine during the first Intifada and grew up in the shadow of the second Intifada. Having never known peace, she joined Tomorrow’s Women in 2005 and as a Senior Young Leader, was able to share her pain and life story while learning about neighbors she had never met. She continued to practice her communication and listening skills through alumnae workshops and became a facilitator-in-training in 2018. She is also a certified Compassionate Listening Facilitator. She is inspired to work for peace, freedom, and human rights, all of which she believes cannot be achieved with violence or hate. “As women, we can make the change. I will continue this work until peace is realized or until the day that I die.” Ameera is the mother of three children and is committed to raising them to accept and respect others no matter their religion or culture.
Email: ameera@tomorrowswomen.org
Noa Ma’ayan, Co-Director, Israel-Palestine:
Noa holds a bachelor’s degree in organizational sociology. For 10 years she has worked in the nonprofit sector, particularly with Jewish and Arab women, to promote societal change. She specializes in leading groups dealing with conflict, using personal narrative to find common ground. She is a project manager, training developer, and certified facilitator of listening councils. An Israeli Jew who lives in the western Galilee, she is the mother of four, a photographer and painter.
Email: noa@tomorrowswomen.org
Web: https://tomorrowswomen.org/
Donations: https://connect.clickandpledge.com/w/Form/eec1b004-60d4-4979-8b9d-1a4abf77cebf