The last half of July I worked for Jerusalem PeaceBuilders as one of the lead educators for a leadership camp for Israelis and Palestinians. It's been a long time since I've been in a camp counselor type of role and I am now wondering why I didn't pursue such a career full time, as well as feeling a lot of relief that that my life is generally not that intense. I was amazed at how, in such a short amount of time, I could have such a full range of experiences!
I felt encouraged, discouraged, joyful, sad, frustrated, exhilarated, exhausted, energized...you get the picture. After studying conflict resolution for the past year from the safe distance of academia, I was thrown into the deep end of the pool. It wasn't the pool of the Palestine/Israel conflict though, it was the pool of interpersonal conflict.
The biggest challenge of the camp wasn't getting everyone to listen to each other and hear their perspective about the Israel/Palestine conflict. The biggest challenge was the same challenge that I think most people encounter on a regular basis. How should we interact with and forgive those who have offended us? The greatest offenses that I witnessed during the camp did not arise from some students being Arab and others being Jewish. They arose from the fact that we are humans who have different communication styles, immaturity, lack of awareness, and self-centered tendencies.
Creating peace is both a top-down and bottom-up process. We need good governments who are willing to risk peace, but that isn't good enough on its own. Interpersonal conflicts are some of the most harmful. We need individuals who are able to forgive, look past an offense, and adapt in order to meet others where they are. I do believe that this camp helped some take steps towards becoming just such individuals.
Something else I saw during those two weeks was the incredible way that music can bring people together! Despite the different cultures, countries, and religions at the camp, once music was playing, the divisions started to melt away!
One final picture for you today is my camp "family group". We called ourselves the "Jokers" and pulled a few pranks on the others in the camp, leaving behind notes signed -J. We are biased, but we all agreed that our family group was the best. I thoroughly enjoyed being the "mom" for these students and getting to know each of them!
