Peace Camp opens opportunity for Jewish, Arab students to learn culture of peace

HAIFA: HWPL (Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light), an international peace NGO, held the 3rd Israel Peace Camp titled ‘HWPL’s Peace School Beyond Borders: United in Peace’ on May 17 at the Leovac Center in Haifa, Israel, with the support of Mar Elias School.

About 70 Jewish and Arab students attended the camp, where they learned the importance of the culture of peace to resolve disputes and discovered the value of peace communication through HWPL peace education. The main goal of this camp was to make students be citizens making a commitment to practice peace.

HWPL has been promoting peace education as one of its core initiatives and Mar Elias School has continued its cooperation with HWPL ever since it was appointed as the first HWPL peace school.

HWPL peace education prioritises students-led education to pass on internalised peace as a legacy to future generations. It has proven its power though 546 MoUs with schools and educational institutes from 67 countries.

The camp started with a welcoming performance of students. At the class, methods for resolving disputes were shared and the importance of communication was discussed in a way that students could lead the conversation given minimum direction of lecturers. Afterwards, the Peace Drum Concert awaited students. Performers of the concert said they tried to embed the topics of discussions to the songs and performances.

“When I saw the students having fun, I couldn’t tell there was a war in the area,” said Michael Chacour, executive director of Mar Elias Educational Institute. “It was great that this event helped build a bridge between the two peoples (Jewish and Arab) in Israel. We sincerely thank HWPL for their efforts and hope to continue to work together to bring peace between Israel and Palestine.”

The event was planned by HWPL Peace Education Department providing Mar Elias a guidance to peace education training for teachers alongside. The two organisations plan to explore wider training lessons for both teachers and students as they reassured their alliance through the camp. Especially, the chair of Mar Elias, H.E. Elias Charcour, has been vocal on regional conflicts hindering young students accept their backgrounds in its original forms due to biased views handed down by the senior generation. As HWPL peace education values align with the chair’s, it announced that the collaboration will be planned to do justice in applying the reality of the conflict so as to let students embrace their identities properly and show how the Arab and Jewish coexist peacefully.