It seems that only a very brave Israeli Jew would call a Palestinian Muslim "friend" and vice versa. Yet midway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem lies a village built by a small band of Jews and Muslims who do live as friends.
The people of Neve Shalom/Wahat Al-Salam ("oasis of peace" in Hebrew and Arabic) have stuck their necks way out to offer an alternative to the years of conflict in the region. Tearing themselves from their own cultures in a land where cultural integrity is everything, they've been denounced by friends and family members as traitors.
Neve Shalom/Wahat Al-Salam (NS/WAS) is the brainchild of Father Bruno Hasar, who dreamed of a democratic community where Muslims, Jews and Christians could live and work cooperatively, without one group dominating the others.
The first settlers moved onto 120 acres of barren ground in 1978. Now there are over 60 people in residence, speaking both Hebrew and Arabic; their children attending Israel’s only bilingual school. Though the settlers tend hives, sheep and olive trees, the main export of NS/WAS is peace.
In 1980 the people of NS/WAS opened the Arab-Jewish School for Peach. Here high school students meet for three day encounter workshops. Because the Jewish and Muslim students of Israel attend separate schools, children of the two cultures don't mix. Prejudices and misconceptions abound. At the workshops the students find their common interests and recognize each other as individuals. Faced with the reality of the cultural gulf between them, they start to build bridges. At the close of one session an Arab boy said, "I didn't feel as if he's an Arab or he's a Jew; I felt just as if he were any friend of mine."
The goal of the School for Peace is to provide a meeting ground. The school trainers offer no political solutions. They hope instead that their work will lead to good neighborly relations among the peoples of Israel, with all maintaining their ethnic and cultural identities.
Thousands of students have attended these encounter sessions. Some return for further leadership training. The settlers' landmark work is bringing international attention to this beacon of light in a region of so much darkness.