Mittwoch, 12. August 2009
peacecamp 2009: „Let’s talk peace in Reibers“34 Jewish-Israeli, Arab-Israeli, Hungarian and Austrian teenagers teach each other history
peacecamp, 16:44h
The seventh peacecamp was like the previous ones - absolutely unique.
34 teenagers had come together in the small Austrian village of Reibers to talk about peace and about what’s in the way to peace. On two Saturdays, at 12 o’clock, the sound of a test alarm - the fire fighters’ siren, a weekly trivial event hardly noticed by people all over Austria. In spite of having been told that this practice alarm will be heard and that it will announce absolutely no danger, it strongly affected, almost paralyzed, some of the Israeli. It too much reminded of alarms heard in Israel – fire alarms announcing the felling of missiles, ambulances rushing to rescue victims of a terror attack, bombs coming down on your own or your family’s neighbourhood, alarms that belong to war and terror.
Let’s learn history
The focus of this year’s peacecamp was history, with a session on each single day. One by one, the four groups presented their view and narrative of that part of contemporary history that links them with or separates them from their neighbouring group, but also to all the other national groups present at the peacecamp. First, the Austrian presentation: “What do we have to do with Israel-Palestine?” with a courageous and revealing account of the beginning of Austro-fascism, the role of Austria in National Socialism and in the Shoah and the beginnings of Zionism. The presentation of the Palestinian narrative of the Arab-Israeli conflict was followed by the Jewish-Israeli presentation, both including an account of the beginnings of the state, the wars, peace-talks and -treaties, Israeli and Arab politics, Jewish occupation of and withdrawal from territories, and the history of Gaza. The Hungarian delegation gave an account of the great changes which took place in Europe, of the process of reunion of the previously divided Eastern and Western parts of the continent, of the fall of the Iron Curtain and the consolidation of the European Union. Their presentation included an account of a new right-wing, xenophobic and anti-Semitic party in today’s Hungary and about Hungary’s – and their own – attitude to what they consider strangers in their own country. It was quite impressive to see how much work and thoughts these young people had put in preparing this before they met in Austria and with how much respect, interest and authenticity they participated in each other’s presentations and in the discussions that followed.
Psychoanalytic discussions in small and large groups allowed to dig into, and work through, the attitudes and emotions brought about by these accounts. The room was often packed with strong feelings, sometimes tears, following the awareness that what we consider “strange” is often part of us, but that it might seem easier and thus tempting to despise and even persecute disagreeable attitudes and behaviours in people other than ourselves. Here again the young people impressed with their frankness and with their readiness to confront not only their country’s, but their own attitude to very difficult issues and topics – the attitude to strangers and to those who are “different” within a society, the place of the individual in a group, thoughts about the necessary acceptance of, or disobedience to, the values and rules within our society.
Peace – mission impossible?
“We were born into a conflict, which is not ours, but our parents’ and grandparents’“ was a conclusion that the teenagers arrived to at different points of this peacecamp, “but we are a new generation and must find ways out of this conflict.” History shows how difficult this can be and how long it can take countries and nations to find forms of coexistence and of cooperation after periods of war, hostility and tension.
“You want us to fight” said a young participant to the group leader, “but we really got to like one another and do not want to fight.” People of the young generation may see it as an act of solidarity with parents and grandparents to continue their fight, to take revenge or to restore damage done to the past generations. Feelings of resentment, solidarity with the parents, retaliation and the perception of the “other one” with the all distortions due to prejudice and projections of one’s own negative, unloved attitudes and behaviours are great obstacles of the present which prevent changes for the better in the future.
The participants of peacecamp 2009 told each other their stories; they heard history as experienced and perceived by representatives of their own and other groups; they opened their ears and hearts to all the different ways to tell a story and could become aware of the fact that there isn’t one way to write history nor one truth nor one victim. “We are both victims of things that have happened, and none of us has done any wrong.”
“We will remain in touch, we established a real bond. I can’t even think that we are enemies.”
Evelyn Böhmer-Laufer
Reibers, July 13, 2009
http://peacecamp2009.blogger.de
We owe our thanks to the Karl Kahane Foundation, the Zukunftsfonds of the Republic of Austria, Mrs. Martina Maschke and the Ministry of Education, Art and Culture.
This project was sponsored with the support of the European Commission.
34 teenagers had come together in the small Austrian village of Reibers to talk about peace and about what’s in the way to peace. On two Saturdays, at 12 o’clock, the sound of a test alarm - the fire fighters’ siren, a weekly trivial event hardly noticed by people all over Austria. In spite of having been told that this practice alarm will be heard and that it will announce absolutely no danger, it strongly affected, almost paralyzed, some of the Israeli. It too much reminded of alarms heard in Israel – fire alarms announcing the felling of missiles, ambulances rushing to rescue victims of a terror attack, bombs coming down on your own or your family’s neighbourhood, alarms that belong to war and terror.
Let’s learn history
The focus of this year’s peacecamp was history, with a session on each single day. One by one, the four groups presented their view and narrative of that part of contemporary history that links them with or separates them from their neighbouring group, but also to all the other national groups present at the peacecamp. First, the Austrian presentation: “What do we have to do with Israel-Palestine?” with a courageous and revealing account of the beginning of Austro-fascism, the role of Austria in National Socialism and in the Shoah and the beginnings of Zionism. The presentation of the Palestinian narrative of the Arab-Israeli conflict was followed by the Jewish-Israeli presentation, both including an account of the beginnings of the state, the wars, peace-talks and -treaties, Israeli and Arab politics, Jewish occupation of and withdrawal from territories, and the history of Gaza. The Hungarian delegation gave an account of the great changes which took place in Europe, of the process of reunion of the previously divided Eastern and Western parts of the continent, of the fall of the Iron Curtain and the consolidation of the European Union. Their presentation included an account of a new right-wing, xenophobic and anti-Semitic party in today’s Hungary and about Hungary’s – and their own – attitude to what they consider strangers in their own country. It was quite impressive to see how much work and thoughts these young people had put in preparing this before they met in Austria and with how much respect, interest and authenticity they participated in each other’s presentations and in the discussions that followed.
Psychoanalytic discussions in small and large groups allowed to dig into, and work through, the attitudes and emotions brought about by these accounts. The room was often packed with strong feelings, sometimes tears, following the awareness that what we consider “strange” is often part of us, but that it might seem easier and thus tempting to despise and even persecute disagreeable attitudes and behaviours in people other than ourselves. Here again the young people impressed with their frankness and with their readiness to confront not only their country’s, but their own attitude to very difficult issues and topics – the attitude to strangers and to those who are “different” within a society, the place of the individual in a group, thoughts about the necessary acceptance of, or disobedience to, the values and rules within our society.
Peace – mission impossible?
“We were born into a conflict, which is not ours, but our parents’ and grandparents’“ was a conclusion that the teenagers arrived to at different points of this peacecamp, “but we are a new generation and must find ways out of this conflict.” History shows how difficult this can be and how long it can take countries and nations to find forms of coexistence and of cooperation after periods of war, hostility and tension.
“You want us to fight” said a young participant to the group leader, “but we really got to like one another and do not want to fight.” People of the young generation may see it as an act of solidarity with parents and grandparents to continue their fight, to take revenge or to restore damage done to the past generations. Feelings of resentment, solidarity with the parents, retaliation and the perception of the “other one” with the all distortions due to prejudice and projections of one’s own negative, unloved attitudes and behaviours are great obstacles of the present which prevent changes for the better in the future.
The participants of peacecamp 2009 told each other their stories; they heard history as experienced and perceived by representatives of their own and other groups; they opened their ears and hearts to all the different ways to tell a story and could become aware of the fact that there isn’t one way to write history nor one truth nor one victim. “We are both victims of things that have happened, and none of us has done any wrong.”
“We will remain in touch, we established a real bond. I can’t even think that we are enemies.”
Evelyn Böhmer-Laufer
Reibers, July 13, 2009
http://peacecamp2009.blogger.de
We owe our thanks to the Karl Kahane Foundation, the Zukunftsfonds of the Republic of Austria, Mrs. Martina Maschke and the Ministry of Education, Art and Culture.
This project was sponsored with the support of the European Commission.
... comment
Dieses Projekt wurde mit Unterstützung der Europäischen Kommission finanziert. Die Verantwortung für den Inhalt dieser Veröffentlichung trägt allein der Verfasser; die Kommission haftet nicht für die weitere Verwendung der darin enthaltenen Angaben.