Youth Program in Jericho: The Youth of a Nation are the Trustees of Prosperity

Wednesday, 26 September 2018
Written by Mohamad Jamous, Palestinian Director

Our meeting today was one of the most beautiful meetings in the West Bank because of the very important presence of the youth groups that came from many different cities in the West Bank.

At 3:00 pm, I arrived at the Sultana Hall and Restaurant, which is located in the most beautiful and oldest area in Jericho, and is adjacent to the old banana plantations and the Mount of Temptation of Jesus. I began arranging the meeting hall with the restaurant staff, and after few minutes the Programs Director in the Holy Land, Abed Manasra, arrived with his family and with his grandfather Sheikh Abdul Salam al-Manasra. We started to suspend the banners of the Abrahamic Reunion,  to arrange the tables and platform, and arrange the other hall where the youth meeting would be held.

At 4:00 pm, the participants from all over the West Bank began arriving. They came from many cities, such as Nablus, Jenin, Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Jericho, and Abed and I welcomed them all.

Among the guests who came to the meeting were:

• • Ehab Tal and Yakob al-Kahen from the Samaritan community in Nablus
  • Jeries Awwad, the patron of the Latin Church in Bethlehem
  • Makram Rubel, Director of the Christian denomination Association (Love Does Not Fall) in Egypt
  • Ziad Sabatin, Director of Youth Groups for Peace in Bethlehem
  • Sheikh Abdul Salam al-Manasra, the Sheikh of the Qadiri order in the Holy Land

 

At 5:00 pm, Abed and I took about twenty minutes to welcome the participants and guests again, and to introduce the Abrahamic Reunion, the goals of the association, and our activities in the West Bank, Israel, and the world. We also spoke about the importance of the role of youth in these meetings in the present and future.

After that, we took a half-hour break to share a meal, which consisted of a buffet of rice, fish, chicken, and many other types of food and salads, and soft drinks and water.

After the meal, we returned to continue our meeting. We invited Yakob al-Kahen from the Samaritan community to speak. He defined the Samaritan community to the participants and said that the origin of the community dates back to the Tribes of the children of Israel, and they take Nablus city as their home. The members of the community direct their prayers towards Mount Gerizim and he said that their ten commandments are different from the commandments of the Jews.

Al-Kahen said that they were descendants of the ancient Israelites, the inhabitants of the kingdom of the north, with Samaria as its capital. He also said that the origin of their religious tradition is from Joshua and their holy book, Zou Canaan, and that all their holidays are religious, not national.

After Al-Kahen finished his speech, the participants applauded him warmly and asked him to visit, and he in turn said to them, “You are welcome at any time!”

After that, we invited Jeries Awwad, the patron of the Latin Church in Bethlehem, and he began to talk about the love and brotherhood among all the religions in the Holy Land. He said that Bethlehem is a symbol of brotherhood and love between Muslims and Christians and he praised the Abrahamic Reunion for its activities and religious meetings that bring together people of the different religions in the Holy Land. He promised to participate with us in the upcoming meetings, and he compared the number of Christian and Islamic similarities in Bethlehem. Awwad finished his speech by saying there is no difference between Muslim, Christian, and Jew. We all worship one God.

After Awad ended his speech, I invited Makram Rubel to give a speech.

Rubel is an Egyptian man who has recently come to Palestine. I met him through Facebook after he saw my peace statuses. Rubel was the director of the “Love Does Not Fail” organization in Egypt, which encourages dialogue among religions and believes in the importance of co-existence among all religions in the world. He said, “I am very happy to be here with you today, and I am happy with your activities that will make the community more positive about the subject of religions! And I thank Mohamad for his invitation after he explained the Abrahamic Reunion and your meeting to me.” He continued, “I would like to participate and to be part of all your activities wherever they are because you make the community more than beautiful!”

When Rubel ended his speech, everyone applauded him warmly!

After that, we invited Ziyad Sabatin, the director of the youth groups for peace from Bethlehem to speak. It was his first time participating in an Abrahamic Reunion meeting. He said, “I am really in shock from this huge and great meeting!” He praised our work as program managers in the Holy Land, and said that we are living in a country of peace and in the land of peace and our creation is for peace.

Sabatin said, “We all are sons of existence, descendants of one Father and one Mother, and we all worship one Creator, the Creator of the universe. Together, we agree on peace, love, and sincerity… Do not say “this is a Jew” and “this is a Muslim” and “this is a Christian!” But say, “My brother!”

When Sabatin finished his influential speech, we invited Sheikh Abdul Salam al-Manasra, the Sheikh of the Qadiri Order in the Holy Land, to speak. He started by saying, “I did not create the human and I do not care what he does– if he did something good he will encounter good things, and if he did bad he will encounter bad things, and the most important thing is to do good with every person and then we will meet the good with God!”

Al-Manasra continued, “The goal of creating peoples and tribes is for us to get to know each other and not to be hostile and hateful! …There are many ways to reach God, and one of these ways is to learn from each other. Evil existed before the Bible and the Quran, and the teachings of religion recommend turning to God.” He finished by saying, “Today we are together as one body and we will remain united!”

And here, at 7:00 pm, after all our speakers finished their beautiful and influential speeches, we gathered the young Christians and Muslims and began our youth meeting in a separate room.

This youth meeting lasted about forty minutes. Abed and I welcomed them again, and then we talked about the importance of the role of youth in general and in the Abrahamic Reunion specifically. We also told them that we will begin to focus on the category and role of youth from different religions across society, because we have said, and always say, that youth are the future. When youth from different faiths are united, it will create a very positive influence in the rest of society.

We also told them that the next year will be full of large and important activities for young people, which will raise the awareness of youth towards a society full of freedom and peace among all religions.

Before we ended our youth meeting, we wrote down the numbers and addresses of the youth participants to keep in touch with everyone!

Now the hour was late in the evening. We drank Arabic coffee as we drank in the smiles on the faces of all the guests and participants from this beautiful meeting!  We bade farewell to them all and ended this wonderful meeting with plans to meet together again in the next month.