The Garden of the Mothers, Daliat al-Carmel Druze Heritage Center, Al-Muhraqa Monastery, the Cave of Elijah, & the Green Prophet on the Beach
with Abed Alsalam Manasra, Siham Halabi, Druze Sheikha Umm Hassoun, & Rabbi Leora Ezrachi-Vered
February 23rd, 2020
Before the coronaviorus pandemic made our in-person gatherings impossible, Abed Manasra, Siham Halabi, and the Abrahamic Reunion gathered with over 60 Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Druze men, women & youth to open the year of interfaith peace programs in Israel.
Coming from Jerusalem, Nigun Halev, Daliat al-Carmel, the West Bank, and Jordan, the group first visited the Muhraqa, a Discalced Carmelite monastery on the holy mountaintop where Elijah the Prophet challenged the prophets of Baal. Al Muhraqa sits in the North of Israel, between Haifa and Nazareth, and just outside Daliat al-Carmel. After a long bus ride from Jerusalem, everyone got to stretch their legs, enjoy views of the Jezreel Valley, and learn about the monastery.
After the brief visit to Muhraqa, the group visited the Garden of the Mothers, an interfaith memorial for lives lost in the 2010 Mount Carmel forest fires. AR Co-Founder Siham Halabi helped create the Garden with other women from the area, and it’s since come to represent the sisterhood of Christian, Druze, Jewish, and Muslim female peacebuilding in northern Israel.
From the Garden, the group drove into Daliat Al-Carmel arriving at the Druze Cultural center, where Druze Sheikha Umm Hassoun led a discussion of coexistence issues, interfaith, and the role of the Druze community in the Holy Land. The Druze are a small minority wherever they live, and make up about 1.5% of Israeli society. In Israel, Druze primarily live in the North in the mountains east of Haifa, so meeting with the Druze community was a rare event for the many who bussed up from Jerusalem and the West Bank for the meeting.
“In this program, we had more than 30 new participants with us. Everyone who came with us really became a knight of peace and a soldier of peace – they were really able to feel that other person is not my enemy – we have so many similarities – so many same things. They believe in a different thing – that’s ok,” said Abed Alsalam Manasra, the AR’s Program Director in Israel.
“All the time during the day we’re telling them small stories and explaining to the group about how they can understand the other, from the Torah, the Quran, from the Bible, giving quotes from these places about how important is the peace – and why we were created by God in the first place.”
“Now we have 15 volunteers from these journeys – and all of them are youth!”
The journey finished with a visit to the Cave of Elijah, near Haifa, meeting with an orthodox rabbi who spoke about its religious significance and then discussion of the Green Prophet with Rabbi Leora Ezrachi-Vered, who met the group on the beach of the Mediterranean.
“During these journeys we teach people how to create a lifestyle with the powers, tools, and wisdom to deal with many situations and to convince all the people around them to be for peace,” shared Abed. “Convince the people around you to be also peacemakers, then you have power and safety and protection against the terrorism. This is how we are creating bridges and bridgebuilders and knights of peace here in the Holy Land.”
Event organized by Abed Alsalam Manasra, AR Programs Director in Israel
Text by Chris Miller, AR Executive Administrator
Contact: info@abrahamicreunion.org
