On June 24th, 2020, twenty-one Palestinian youth and Israeli youth came together across the border by gathering on Zoom, to be with Sheikh Ghassan Manasra, the Abrahamic Reunion’s International Director. This was the first Cross-Border Holy Land Youth event organized by Abed Manasra and Mohamad Jamous, the Program Directors in Israel and Palestine for the AR.
Sheikh Ghassan welcomed everyone and confirmed the importance of having young people work together for peace, and told them about the work of the Abrahamic Reunion. He also spoke about the importance of asking ourselves “Why are we here?”, saying this question opens many doors to think more deeply why we participate in each meeting and activity.
Mohamad and Abed then passed the mic around and asked everyone to introduce themselves and share why they came. Some said, “We are here for our faith,” and others, “to participate in multi-religious dialogues.” Some youth came because, they said, “we are seizing the opportunity to participate in these meetings to enhance the role of Palestinian youth in the peace-making process,” and others added that “it is a valuable opportunity to exchange positive thoughts and beliefs while building bridges for peace, and we didn’t have such an opportunity before in Palestine.”
After just a short hour, the first Cross-border youth program finished and everyone said good-bye.
The Palestinian youth who Mohamad spoke to afterwards said they took great pleasure in the meeting and hope to participate further; that they especially liked how the program was teaching them basic rules and ideas for peacebuilding because there are not any organizations holding multi-faith meetings in Palestine or teaching these skills. Some of the youth mentioned the importance of the Abrahamic Reunion in helping to build a strong base of peacemakers to achieve Palestinian-Israeli Peace – and were hopeful for the next meetings to come.
We look forward to future cross-border youth programs in the coming months.
Program organized by Abed Manasra (Israeli Programs Director for the Abrahamic Reunion) and Mohamad Jamous (Palestinian Programs Director for the Abrahamic Reunion). Written by Chris Miller with material from Mohamad and Abed.
