Palestinians and Israelis Eat, Drink, and Make Merry—Together

In mid-August over 6,000 religious and secular Jews and Muslims gathered in Latrobe, Israel, for a three-day festival of food, music, and dance. The event, now in its fifth year, with attendance continuing to grow, is an effort to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

The “On the Way to Sulha” retreat was cofounded by Israeli Gabriel Meyer and his Palestinian counterpart, Elias Jabbour, and is designed to be a living example of peaceful coexistence among the “family of Abraham.”

Forgiveness is a major theme of the gathering. Palestinians and Israelis who have lost family members to the violence between the two groups sit and listen to each other tell their stories. “We have to be honest,” a male attendee said. “I don’t want to be ‘right’ anymore.”

One young Israeli attendee, her arm around a head-scarved Muslim woman, summed it up this way, “We can’t leave peace to politicians because they’re not leading us to peace.”

Skeptics say the event is just a small naive group of people. Maybe, but then we could characterize the beginning of most successful social movements that way, couldn’t we?

“Look at France and Germany,” said a Palestinian attendee, “there was so much destruction there during the war, and now there are open borders, same passports, same money.” Anything’s possible.

To read “Peace in the Middle East, One Gathering at a Time” by Aliyana Traison in Haaretz, the Daily Israel newspaper (English edition), click here.

For a 2-minute video report by Simon McGregor-Wood of ABC, click here. (Have 30-seconds worth of patience handy—this video is preceded by a short video ad.)