MidEast Citizen Diplomacy

Videos
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"What an exceptionally honest search for truly diverse narratives of Palestinian and Israeli women and men in distress! Thank you for this up-to-date cross-section of the varied perceptions, deep feelings, and equal humanity of two fine peoples. This is it, for those who are looking for one film to better understand different sides of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.."

Libby and Len Traubman
Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue Group

Our new video, Crossing the Lines, will bring you to a deeper, more compassionate level of understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The interviews with 15 Israelis and Palestinians were selected from many hours of footage from recent Compassionate Listening delegations. This video will expose you to a wide range of people and viewpoints and bring you into the hearts and minds of Israelis and Palestinians beyond the news media.

Crossing the Lines is perfect for the classroom, religious congregations, and peace and dialogue groups. It is a great, up-to-date companion to Children of Abraham. The video includes interviews with these Israelis and Palestinians during filmed Compassionate Listening delegations in 2001 and 2000:

Father Elias Chacour, Author, and Director, Mar Elias School
Judy Balint, Israeli Author
Zoughbi al-Zoughbi, Director, Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center
Sara Kaminker, former Jerusalem City Planner
Rabbi Arik Ascherman, Director, Rabbis for Human Rights
Daniel Seaman, Director, Israeli Government Press Office
Salah Taamari, Palestinian Legislative Council
Rabbi David Zeller, Director, YAKAR; resident, Efrat
Dr. Sari Nusseibeh, P.L.O. Representative, Jerusalem
Rabbi Seth Mandell, Father of Kobi Mandell, Takoa
Hassan & Nardin Asleh, Family of Asel Asleh - Seeds of Peace activist
Captain Peter Lerner, Israel Defense Forces, West Bank
Devorah Brous, Israeli Peace Activist
Hisham Sharabati, Palestinian Journalist and human rights worker

To order your copy of 'Crossing the Lines,' please use the order form.

"Children of Abraham compellingly documents the profound possibilities within a society in which friends and enemies alike attune themselves to the voice of the other. It should serve as an urgent reminder of how badly we transgress and how much we forfeit when we dismiss the power of listening as too simple. This is not a promotion of a naive quick fix, but rather a call to the wrenching but essential heroism that Jewish tradition says inheres in making one's enemy into one's friend."
Rabbi Gordon Tucker

In January of 1998, twenty-two Jewish Americans traveled to Israel and the Palestinian territories as part of the Compassionate Listening Project. Children of Abraham is a 34-minute broadcast-quality documentary which chronicles this journey.

The film follows the Jewish participants as they visit with and listen to Israelis and Palestinians - from leaders to refugees, and seek to understand the complexities of religious, political and human rights issues. Participants include Jewish leaders and professionals ranging from secular to observant.

This stunning documentary introduces the Compassionate Listening reconciliation model, and humanizes each Israeli and Palestinian portrayed. The film delivers a compelling message that conflict can be transformed through the simple act of listening.

To order your copy of 'Children of Abraham,' please use the order form.

The following Israelis and Palestinians are featured:

Fatima al-Assad, Palestinian refugee and High School Teacher, Kalandia Camp;
Dr. Haidar Abdul Shafi, Founding member, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Director, Palestinian Red Crescent Society (the Palestinian Red Cross);
Maen Ereikat, Palestinian Government Representative, Orient House, East Jerusalem;
Rabbi Menachem Froman, Founder, Israeli Settlers' Movement and Religious Advisor to the Israeli Knesset;
Amos Gvirtz, Israeli Peace Activist, Kibbutz Shefayim;
Eve Harrow, Israeli Resident and Town Council Representative, Efrat, West Bank;
Yossi Klein HaLevi, Journalist, The Jerusalem Report;
Yehezkel Landau, Co-director, Open House Peace Center, Ramle, Israel;
Dr. Iyad Sarraj, Director, Gaza Community Mental Health Programme and Director, Palestinian Independent Commission on Human Rights;
Sheikh Ahmad Yassein, Spiritual Leader of HAMAS - the Islamic Resistance Momement.

"The politicians and the generals must ultimately resolve the issue, but only when the people on opposite sides speak their feelings, hear the other and so be heard - will the healing begin. Only through compassionate listening is there any hope for the intergenerational hatred to begin to abate. In this moving film, we understand how restraint and humility are required of the compassionate listener, though not an abandonment of his or her strongly felt emotions."
Blu Greenberg

Host a Screening!

Children of Abraham is being screened in large and small venues across North America. Starting in the year 2000, you'll also find it in Jewish Film Festivals.

You can host a screening of Children of Abraham in your community (synagoge, mosque, church, university, etc.).

Below is a list of past participants in the Compassionate Listening Project who are available to screen Children of Abraham and discuss their experience with the project. (Asterisks designate staff or members of our Advisory Board.) When you find someone in your region, click on the person's name and send them an email inquiry! You'll note that many people are willing to travel outside their home region in exchange for expenses.

Deborah Blank
Geographic availability: San Francisco Bay Area
Professor: Interfaith Minister and teacher of metaphysics
comments: also available in Paris and Jerusalem for part of each year

Helen Bruner*
Geographic availability: Northern CA.
Identity: Jewish, secular

Andrea Cohen
Geographic availability: Seattle area
Identity: Jewish

Andrea Cohen-Kiener*
Geographic availability: Hartford, CT region
Identity: Jewish

Dorothy Field
Geographic availablity: Vancouver, British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest
Identity: Jewish, unaffiliated

Juliet Funt
Geographic availability: Los Angeles Area
Identity: Jewish

Shimon and Nechama Gottschalk*
Geographic availability: North and Central Florida, South Georgia, South Alabama
Religious identity: Jewish
Comments: Will travel anywhere, if expenses are paid.

Allen, Carolyn and Natanya Green
Geographic availability: anywhere within 250-300 miles of Sacramento, CA. (most of Central and Northern Californai and the Reno, NV area.
Religious identity: Jewish, affiliated with Mosaic Law Congregation, Conservative.
Comments: Can make it a family affair with our teen-age daughter Natanya, who participated in the trip with us. We can probably make other locations with support for overnight accommodations.

Leah Green*
Geographic availability: Seattle area
Identity: Jewish

Susan Heckler
Geographic availability: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut
Identity: Jewish
Comments: Willing to go further afield upon request.

Judith Rosenthal
Geographic availability: Northwest and central United States for expenses.
Identity: Jewish, Secular

Hazzan Robert Scherr*
Geographic availability: Northeast United States
Identity: Jewish

Judith Sherman Asher
Geographic availability: Chicago, Nevada, New Mexico
Identity: Jewish (active in Reform movement)

Bill Thomson
Geographic availability: Midwest (Michigan)
Profession: Clinical psychologist, university professor
Comments: will travel if expenses are paid.

Marcia Willsie*
Geographic availability: Seattle area
Identity: Quaker

Yehudah Alan Winter
Geographic availability: Portland; Pacific Northwest
Identity: Jewish, Renewal
Comments: will travel if expenses are paid

Rabbi David Zaslow*
Geographic availability: Based in Ashland, Oregon but willing to travel.
Religious identity: Jewish
Comments: I'd be available if the invitation were connected to leading services for a congregation, being part of an interfaith panel, or some sort of teaching.

Jamie Zimron*
Geographic availability: San Diego/Southern California, San Francisco Bay Area.
Identity: Jewish, secular
Comments: Willing to travel anywhere if expenses are paid. I travel frequently and am happy to combine a CL presentation in the city or area that I am visiting.