The Nonviolence Department in Holy Land Trust had three meetingson 12/13 and 12/14 with schools in Bethlehem who had attended the PeaceBuilding© workshops in 2009. The visits included the Dar al Kalimeh, Sira, and the De La Salle schools.

We proposed an expansion of the workshops by providing lessons on the Five Principles of peace building but extending these principles to the larger community of Bethlehem and the Middle East. We explained our goal was to target the same circles of beneficiaries: the students, the teachers, and the parents. We suggested that a major theme for our trainings would be conflict resolution, nonviolence, civil disobedience and peace building but under the tactic of “boycotting Israeli products”. Our plan derived from several brain storming sessions that were held in the nonviolence department.

The goal : To counter  the tendency in Palestinian culture for children  to internalize subtle messaging about their haplessness they have learned since they were children and alter it with empowering messages. Participating in a boycott of Israeli products sends a small message  “ No “ back to the larger system of domination and makes a child feel like he or she can act.

Both DAR al Kalimeh and Dalasalle agreed to include our workshops in the next semester beginning 2012 for all category age groups selected from the school administration. They will send us their program later and dates when they want to begin. The Sira School asked for more specifics on learning objectives and methods for each lesson. We provided this information on 12/14.  

Please note:  that this program we will not affect or disturb the school daily teaching schedule, but will be part of it.  Lessons will be integrated into the normal subjects including civil education, national education, business and economics, environment and health awareness sessions.