encounter point

"If you lost your loved ones to violence, if you spent ten years in prison, if conflict drove you from your home... Would you seek revenge? Or struggle for peace?"

it seems like every day i hear news, read papers and blogs about the hatred, violence, suffering and death happening in israel and palestinian territories...and other tortured places on the planet...and sometimes i feel like i close my heart to their suffering because it seems like it is relentless and i dont have enough compassion to give....likewise i have felt myself recently becoming detached from the myriad of social issues and problems that surround us and somehow all of a sudden feel overwhelming and unsolvable....so i have focused my energy on trying to deal with my own (relatively insignificant) problems...

but recently by accident, i saw a movie called "encounter point" - a documentary about israeli and palestinian peace builders...a true story about the everyday people who have lost children, siblings, years in prison...who refuse to sit back as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict escalates...people who risk their lives and public standing to promote a nonviolent end to the conflict...

For 16 months, Just Vision followed the stories of ordinary people who feel driven to work for an end to bloodshed and occupation in favor of peace. They travelled from Tel Monde to Tulkarem, from Hebron to Haifa documenting the courageous, painful and moving stories of regular people who refuse to sit back as the conflict escalates. These civic leaders navigate suicide bombings and checkpoints to confront militancy on both sides, the wounded and apathetic masses...they meet about the issues that politicians use to justify the killing...

i was really struck during this film by the emotional and psychological impact of the physical barriers that increasingly separate palestinians and israelis...the checkpoints and walls, designed to stop violence are actually stopping peace...because they are also stopping the people from knowing and understanding each other and finding their common connections - desire to end the violence and suffering...to paraphrase one of the amazing people featured in the documentary, "this separation keeps the cycle of violence going, because the palestinians who want a nonviolent end to the conflict don't know that there are israelis who also want the same, and vice versa"...

And why is it, with the world’s cameras focused on this conflict, we have never heard about them? maybe we can help to break down the physical and emotional walls by sharing their stories with people on all "sides" of the conflict...

if you want to be inspired by the simple, yet sometimes most difficult of actions - loving thy neighbour/choosing not to hate them - then check out the website www.justvision.org and try to see "encounter point" (www.encounterpoint.com) if you can...for me it has relit a candle in the darkness and made me think about how i might try to use the power of love and forgiveness more in my own life....should be easy right? since it is not filled with suicide bombers, snipers and cycles of violence that have lasted for generations...