Oasis of Peace

My dear Friends

Neve Shalom/Wahaat al Salaam is a community of Israelis and Palestinians living together. They live in the Ayalon valley, famous in the Bible for the sun and moon standing still when Joshua was fighting a battle. It was also the site of a fierce battle in the 1948 War of Independence. The story of its origins is quite intriguing.

There was a priest called Fr Bruno Hussar, French of Egyptian Jewish parents, who had a message from God to build a community of peace between Jews and Arabs. A tall order, thought Fr Bruno, but being obedient to his divine Master he felt he must go ahead with it. So he bought the land on the Ayalon Valley for a token shekel from the monastery of Latrun nearby. The only poeple to come and help him were a group of hippies. So Bruno said to God: 'If you don't send a family of Jews and a family of Palestinians in the next week, I'm quitting! And so within the next week God sent the families Bruno had asked for.

When I went in 1989 there were 75 families and a School for Peace. That was built by someone else, a Jewish businessman who eventually came to live in Neve Shalom with his wife. In the school the children learn Hebrew and Arabic together. There are also workshops for Jewish and Arab teenagers who come to the community and confront the 'other' whom they have never previously met.

More next time
Shabbat Shalom
Sister Gila