Friendship Across Borders

There are so many ways to create the present, and the future that we desire and deserve.

One way is FAB - Friendship across borders - a group that I joined over a year ago.

We are a group of Israelis, Palestinians and Germans - adult mentors and university students - who have joined together to work for reconciliation. We believe that it is our responsibility to work together for a non-violent, peaceful, and just resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Our shared history/ies are filled with destruction, death and harm. Our shared future need not be.

We meet in East Jerusalem and in Beit Jala, at Sapir College near Sderot, in Heidelberg and Wurzburg. We speak for hours together, tour together, study together, eat together, laugh and cry together, dance together, plan together, support one another, during the hardest times of the conflict. We protest the Occupation, the settlement-land grab and violence in Silwan and Ras el Amud, the rocket attacks on Sderot and the region, and the harming of innocent people.

We do not always agree, in fact we often disagree with one another. We often get emotional, sometimes angry, sometimes wondering how the "other" cannot understand... But we talk about our lives and our understandings, we stay in constant contact, we keep the dialogue and joint work going.

We are dedicated to making our co-existence work, to fighting the oppression. Even when it's hard going. Especially when it's hard going...

Today's blog post is in honor of the opening of our group on Facebook (look for us there, join us there, spread the word)

And for those who wish to learn more about us, visit our website: http://www.friendshipacrossborders.com/