These days I often think back to the village of Wahat al-Salam-Neve Shalom in Israel, where I was in 2001. While covering the beginning of the second intifada, I co-founded this village, where many Jews and Palestinians live peacefully together, invited me to see for myself what one would think impossible: an oasis of peace in the middle of a desert of war.
Published at 3:16 am. Updated at 5:00 am.
This peaceful village, located halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, was first conceived by Bruno Hussar, a Dominican monk born in Egypt to a Jewish family, after the Six-Day War in 1967. Why not create a village where Jews, Muslims and Christians could live in harmony in Israel? Why not…
With his friend Anne Le Meignen, a French Jew whom I had the pleasure of meeting, Brother Hussar founded Wahat al-Salam-Neve Shalom in the 1970s, a cooperative village with a bilingual name, Arabic and Hebrew, meaning “oasis of peace” .
More than 50 years later, the village’s founders have died, but their dream remains alive. There are now seventy families living in the village who are determined to stop the sowers of hate. In the midst of a deadly escalation in the region, not only do the residents of the village, all citizens of Israel who have chosen to participate in this project, stand firm, but they also offer us a handbook for peace in a time when we need it it the most.
I spoke about this this week with Isabela Dos Santos, a political scientist at the University of Toronto who had the brilliant idea of dedicating her doctoral thesis to the lessons of peace that this village offers us.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY ISABELA DOS SANTOS
Political scientist Isabela Dos Santos, in Wahat al-Salam–Neve Shalom, Israel
“I really believe that this village makes a huge contribution to a possible solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the doctoral student told me, returning from a six-month stay in the community of Wahat al-Salam-Neve Shalom. .
The last two weeks, marked by the Hamas massacres and the humanitarian crisis and murderous reprisals in Gaza, have obviously been stressful for all residents of the village. “The people in the village have lost friends, relatives and work colleagues. Some work in humanitarian aid either in Israel or the Gaza Strip. Everyone in the village was affected on one side or the other,” emphasizes Isabela Dos Santos, who in recent days has been worried about the members of the community that she considers a second family.
Despite a deadly spiral that fears the worst for the region, the village has no intention of giving up its peace goals, quite the opposite. “ [Nous] “Let us reaffirm our belief that only true peace, equality and fundamental human rights for all can guarantee the sustainability of our existence in this region,” the village reminded in its weekly newsletter.
Working for peace in Wahat al-Salam-Neve Shalom is more than just wishful thinking. It is daily work that has led to inspiring results for over 50 years.
“When Jews and Arabs come together, work together, live together, they create their own miracle: Neve Shalom is such a miracle – it deserves our warmest support because it justifies our greatest hopes,” Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize winner, once said.
How is it that we have so many theories to explain the war over the village of Wahat al-Salam-Neve Shalom, but no theory to explain the peace in this same village? asks Isabela Dos Santos, who wants to fill this gap with her research project.
Part of the answer may lie in the fact that the peace process is something invisible and intangible, she points out. “It is easier to explain the destruction of something than the reconstruction.” »
If we tend to avoid the art of peace, perhaps it is also because we have an idealized and sanitized vision of it, which leads us to believe that peace belongs to the clouds and can only come on a very distant horizon.
But what the village teaches us is that peace is not an inaccessible star, but a process that inevitably goes through what the researcher calls “seasons of imperfection,” like the one we are experiencing now. But that doesn’t mean it’s an unattainable goal.
Peace is a complex thing. And in this complexity we manage to truly live together.
Isabela Dos Santos, political scientist and doctoral student
Many studies have focused on the conditions necessary to create peace. In particular, it notes the importance of having local leadership and intimate knowledge of the culture and history of the region in the search for peace, rather than imposing a solution from outside. But what interests Isabela Dos Santos is the next step: How do you move from successful conditions to peace?
Even if we meet the necessary requirements, it does not mean that we will be successful. “If I can draw an analogy, even if we have all the ingredients to bake a cake, that doesn’t mean we will succeed in making that cake. Added to this is the overall cooking know-how that needs to be taken into account. »
What does Wahat al-Salam-Neve Shalom’s expertise really contribute to peace? Preliminary response from the PhD student who has not yet completed her research and is still analyzing her data: the importance given to dialogue.
“The hardest thing you can do in wartime is sit together. But that’s exactly what we have to do. It is the act of sitting with others, day after day, that allows us to create connections that can help us and give us the strength to build what we cannot see. »