Articles

• Update from the Pluralistic Spiritual Centre
  October 2009

  This report summarizes the activities conducted in the last 6 months at the Pluralistic Spiritual Center

• The School in 2009 - 2010
  18 September 2009, by Anwar Dawood

  The new school year opened on an optimistic note, with many new students and teachers. School principal Anwar Dawood reviews the successes of last year and the challenges ahead.

• Spotlight on teachers: Voltaire - Zoo Lab & Agriculture
  12 August 2009, by Frances Simmons

  I turn up at Voltaire’s house after work on another impossibly hot day. It takes manouevring to navigate my way over his front yard, which is in the process of anonymous works, and clamber up a stepladder to reach the front door. I knock, and a voice calls me in from the kitchen. Voltaire greets me, like he does all the volunteers who visit from time to time, with a warm welcome and sparkling eyes that betray a kindness, cracking and overwhelming a grizzly exterior to reveal someone with (...)

• The Arab – Jewish Summer Camp, 2009
  August 2009, by Frances Simmons

  This year, 140 children (half of them Jewish and half Arab) took part in the Arab - Jewish summer camp.

• Dialogue through Artistic Expression
  19 July 2009, by Diana Webster

  This summer from July 19th to August 9th four of your very own youth will be going to Boston College in Massachuetts, USA for three weeks. Artsbridge Institute, a non-profit organization founded in 2007, will host its third summer camp for about 15 Israeli and 15 Palestinian teenagers (15 to 18 year olds) to come together for the first time through facilitated dialogue sessions and collaborative art projects. This is the second time youth from the village have participated in the summer (...)

• Sixth Grade Graduation Ceremony
  5 July 2009, by Frances Simmons

  The 2008 - 2009 comes to an end and the 6th graders celebrate their graduation.

• Spotlight on teachers: Reem Nashef - Science
  10 June 2009, by Frances Simmons

  Reem has been teaching Science and Geography at WAS-NS Primary School since she and her husband, Youssef, and four children moved to the village in 2000. Reem teaches Science to grades 3 and up, sharing responsibility for Science teaching with Hadas Harel, who teaches the younger classes. She also takes part in the administration of the school, where she is in charge of Pedagogy.
  Science lessons are varied and encompass all the scientific disciplines of Biology, Chemistry and Physics. The (...)

• Facilitator Training Course (2009) Opens
  29 May 2009, by Diana Webster

  May 14-15, 2009 marked the beginning of a new School for Peace Conflict Group Facilitation Training Course, with 22 participants.

• Spotlight on Teachers: Michal Litvak-Moses - Creativity
  22 May 2009, by Frances Simmons

  Michal Litvak-Moses teaches creativity classes at the WAS-NS Primary School

• Update on the Primary School
  22 May 2009

  An update on current successes and challenges.

• Nakba Day Commemorations
  17 May 2009, by Frances Simmons

  The whole school commemorated Nakba Day on Thursday, May 14. In class, the children learned about the Palestinian refugees, and about the “Right of Return”.

• "Green Day" at the Primary School
  6 May 2009

  Parents, pupils and teachers celebrated ecological and green living yesterday evening, at the school’s "Green Day".

• The School in May 2009: The Shavuot Holiday and a field trip
  May 2009, by Frances Simmons

  Grade 3&4 visit Haifa and the North
  May 20th 2009: The third and fourth grade visited Haifa, prehistoric caves, and the village of Usfiyya.
  We trekked north, climbing to caves inhabited some 200 million years ago. After exploring the caves, the children learnt how people lived using animal skins for clothing and flint tools, in a fine example of Stone Age civilisation. The magnificent caves, hidden high, winding further and darker deep into the mountains, served as both shelter from (...)

• Jaffa Date: First and Second Grade visit to ancient port city
  26 March 2009, by Frances Simmons

  On the edge of Jaffa lies the sabil, or water fountain; where travellers could quench their thirst upon arrival into the city. They are commonplace in many towns across the whole of the Middle East. Aptly, we stopped here first; intrepid adventurers fearlessly setting foot into a new territory. In arid areas water is a valuable and life-giving commodity, and the donation of water is an important social tradition.
  Although no longer in use, it was not difficult to imagine the tranquility of (...)

• Doumia-Sakinah, The Pluralistic Spiritual Centre expands its boundaries
  23 March 2009

  The Spiritual Centre is helping to connect children and adults from all over the world, as well as from different parts of Israel/Palestine.

• In Gaza’s shadow: an interview with School for Peace Director Ahmad Hijazi, M.A.
  25 February 2009

  Last fall, you began a three-year term as Director of the School for Peace. Can you give us an update?
  At this time (just after a ceasefire with Gaza), we can’t discuss anything about our work without thinking about the Gaza offensive, and the continuing consequences on people and the prospects for peace… Once again, we have witnessed the futility of violence and its terrible human cost. And "the war" is still not over: the intolerable siege on the people of Gaza continues, and the people of (...)

• A Gathering to Mourn and to Protest
  18 January 2009

  The School for Peace helped to arrange a binational meeting to mourn and protest the loss of life during the Gaza Offensive.

• Youth Centre kids invite the adults for a discussion of the Gaza offensive
  28 December 2008

  Instead of a planned holiday celebration, the youth club called in adults to discuss the latest round of violence that exploded in the closing days of 2008.

• Massa - Massar: A Journey of Discovery 2008
  26 November 2008

  Following the success of the Massa-Massar ("Journey" in Hebrew and Arabic) program for young people launched in the summer of 2007, we ran the program for the second time in the summer of 2008.

• Love those Olives
  20 November 2008, by Deb Reich

  Children of the Wahat al-Salam - Neve Shalom Primary School participate in the olive harvest.
  The sun rose bright and cheery on the morning of this year’s "Olive Day" at the Primary School at Wahat al Salam / Neve Shalom (November 3, 2008).
  For some time beforehand, classroom discussions piqued everyone’s interest in every imaginable aspect of olives and olive oil. The olive has a special place in Arab and Palestinian culture and in Jewish Israeli culture, and the children learned all (...)