NEVE SHALOM / WAHAT AL-SALAM - a community of peace working for Arab-Jewish coexistence & cooperation struggles to assure its future

Over thousands of years the land of the Middle East has been divided, promised, purchased, bartered, sold, stolen, mined, drained, grazed, burned, flooded, irrigated, coveted, leased, liberated, declared holy, crusaded for, bombed, mandated, occupied, annexed, reclaimed and re-divided. Yet, old and tired as it may be, land remains at the center of the Middle-East conflict. It is probably in this historical perspective that we should look at the challenges facing Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam today as we struggle to grow and to defend the integrity of our small community against the efforts of outside developers.

The story began in 1970, when Father Bruno Hussar arranged with the Trappist Monastery of Latrun a 49 year lease (with an additional 49 year option) for 41.19 hectares of the Monastery’s land. Fr. Bruno’s intention was to start a cooperative community that would bring together people of the monotheistic religions of Israel.

The new village of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam succeeded in having a master plan approved by the authorities, which included residential areas, green areas, zoning for schools, and all of the functions of a community. The first major threat came when we learned that an association of families of police anti-terror unit veterans were hoping to take advantage of our new municipal status to attach to us a new neighbourhood of 350 houses on land adjoining the village. The plan enjoyed the backing of the Israel Lands Authority. the neighbourhood would be called ’Neve Shalom’. The danger of this was immediately clear to us: we would be dwarfed and dominated by a large community of solely Jewish residents who, with no interest in anything we had tried to create, would infringe upon the identity and possibly the institutions of the village. For example, the residents would become members of the general assembly of the village, could control the budget, and take over our representation in the regional council. During a protracted legal and procedural battle that went as far as the High Court Justice, we managed to postpone this threat. Only temporarily, since the association is again applying to the authorities to continue with the plan.

Moreover, the Neve Shalom B scheme was quickly joined by a new plan to establish a housing development on our northern flank. The plan is similar in that again there is the attempt to exploit our existing municipal status to establish a ’new neighbourhood’ of the village against our will. This new development, called ’Naot Latrun’ also poses a real threat to the character of our community.

Up to the time of writing, we have solicited vocal support from influential people, placed a petition in the newspapers, and asked persons in countries overseas to express their concern to Israeli diplomatic missions. But we fear we shall have to take recourse to expensive legal action, the success of which is far from secure.

It should be mentioned in the context of the above development plans that NS/WAS has no objection to the existence of the two communities themselves, however, we ask that if they are to be established it should be as separate villages with their own municipal status, rather than being linked to ours.

Besides opposing the expansion of NS/WAS by outside parties, we have been working hard on expanding the community according to our own principles. We have received an increasing number of inquiries by Jews and Arabs who would like to live in the NS/WAS we hoe for, a place of equality, mutual understanding and educational work for peace. Since the residential plots included in the existing master plan have almost all been assigned for building, we urgently need space for new families.

By growing into a larger community, NS/WAS will be able to raise the quality of life in the village, become more self-sufficient, and expand our educational work.Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam is about to purchase the land that is leased to it from the Monastery of Latrun. Land for residential purposed will be paid for by the families who live or plan to live there. However, we still need to find money to pay for the public lands to be used for educational purposes. The amount of land that we will need to buy for educational institutions (the Primary School, the Pre-school, the School for Peace, the Doumia, and the future Peace Campus) will be approximately 4.5 hectares (11 acres).

If everyone helps with this, the task will not be impossible. The cost of a one square meter tract of land will be US$25. Each donor will receive an attractive certificate of our gratitude.

If you would like to support the purchase of land for NS/WAS’s educational institutions, please send a cheque (preferably in American dollars) to:

NEVE SHALOM / WAHAT AL-SALAM, Doar Na Shimshon 99761, ISRAEL