deze blog wordt niet langer geüpdate.
het programma van 3dePartij loopt wel verder, en is te volgen op Facebook
this blog is no longer being updated.
the programme of 3rdParty continues, and can be followed on Facebook
ce blog n'est plus mis à jour.
le programme de TiersParti continue par contre, et peut être suivit sur Facebook
voor meer details over de sessies van 3dePartij, ga naar onze facebook-pagina / for more details of the sessions of the representatives of the Popular Committees from the Palestinian villages of Bil'in and Al-Ma'sara in schools and community centres in Antwerp, Belgium, please go to our Facebook-pages / pour en savoir plus sur le programme de TiersParti au jour le jour, visitez nos pages sur Facebook.
3dePartij ondersteunt projecten uit de vredesbeweging in Israël en Palestina en wil een stem geven aan vredesactivisten van beide partijen die kiezen voor dialoog.
De naam 3dePartij verwijst naar de overtuiging dat wij van hieruit, als derde partij, een belangrijke rol kunnen spelen in conflicten waarbij bevolkingsgroepen – zoals in het Midden Oosten – vastzitten in een soort deadlock.
3dePartij is een privé-initiatief van 5 personen: Karin Heremans (directrice Koninklijk Atheneum Antwerpen), Mohammed Filali (hoofddocent islam Koninklijk Atheneum Antwerpen), Professor Rik Coolsaet (UGent), Simone Susskind (mensenrechten- en vredesactiviste) en Lukas Pairon (directeur muziekensemble Ictus en Music Fund).
In samenwerking met de Provincie Antwerpen, Toneelhuis, Monty en Samenlevingsopbouw Antwerpen.
Publieke ontmoetingen
Sinds het najaar van 2009, en drie jaar lang (tem 2012), nodigt 3dePartij regelmatig vertegenwoordigers van de Israëlische én Palestijnse vredesbeweging die kiezen voor dialoog uit naar Antwerpen. Zij lichten hun initiatieven en hun kijk op de zaak toe in scholen en verenigingen, en ook telkens in de zalen van Toneelhuis en Monty.
Sinds oktober 2009, nodigde 3dePartij al vijf groepen uit: Physicians for Human Rights, MachsomWatch, Combatants for Peace, Shministims en Parents Circle.
Dit komende seizoen staan er nog vier ontmoetingen op het programma.
Popular Committees for non-violent resistance
Maandag 29 november, 20u
Toneelhuis - Bourla (uitzonderlijk in de zaal, niet op zolder!)
Popular Committees for non-violent resistance is een kleine Palestijnse beweging (begonnen in de dorpjes Bil'in en Al-Ma'sara, en ondertussen al een netwerk van 16 dorpen) die er uitdrukkelijk voor kiest om via allerlei vormen van geweldloos verzet op te komen tegen de muur en de bezetting van Palestijns gebied. Ze organiseren hun acties samen met Joods-Israëlische vredesactivisten, die hiervoor de Westelijke Jordaanoever intrekken; ze zijn dus niet bang om uitgemaakt te worden voor ‘collaborateurs’.
Mahmoud Zwahre en Iyad Burnat, 2 Palestijnen, zitten het debat voor:
Mahmoud ZWAHRE: burgemeester van het dorpje Al-Ma'sara (vlakbij Bethlehem).
Iyad BURNAT: uit het dorpje Bil'in (vlakbij Ramallah).
Maandag 29 november, 20u – Toneelhuis (Bourla - zaal) - toegang gratis - in het Engels Dinsdag 30 november, 14u en 20u – CC 't Pleintje in Deurne (Sint-Rochusstraat 106, Deurne)
www.popularstruggle.org
www.toneelhuis.be
RECHTSTREEKSE WEBCAST
De ontmoeting Toneelhuis wordt ook gefilmd en live uitgezonden over het net. Kan je er niet bij zijn in de Bourla? Log dan op 29 november tegen 20u in en neem deel aan de discussie.
www.ustream.tv/user/toneelhuis
KNACK interview
De vertegenwoordigers van Popular Committees gaan ook in gesprek met het weekblad KNACK. Dit gesprek wordt gepubliceerd op 24 november 2011.
www.knack.be
De ontmoetingen in scholen
De ontmoetingen vinden plaats op 29 en 30 november in het Atheneum van Merksem en het Atheneum van Antwerpen (Rooseveldplaats).
En verder
10 januari 2010, 20u – Toneelhuis (Bourlazolder)
Rabbis for Human Rights
www.rhr.org.il
15 maart 2010, 20u30 – Monty
The Peres Center for Peace
www.peres-center.org
Live webcast of Nir Oren and Khaled Abu Awwad's presentation of Parents Circle in Antwerp!
The meeting organised this evening by 3rdParty with Parents Circle at Toneelhuis will also be filmed and broadcast live over the web.
Do you want to participate in this experiment ?
Log in around 8pm tonight (21 September) and participate in the discussion:
as an impression on his trip with 3rdParty to the Middle East, student Kevin Joos wrote this poem:
In Jesus cradle we fell But were saved by people kind And generous, with one wish in mind, Just to be treated well. A veil of love unfolded Everywhere we went Friendships were moulded That will never end We now have to take our leave And hope that all you wish You may one day receive. A bright future for your lands That you may walk, trough stone, grass and sand Palestine and Israel, hand in hand.
It is difficult to evaluate this trip in just a few words, but we will do this for sure the coming weeks, including on this blog also and especially the impressions of the 8 young girls and boys of 18 to 20 years old, who made this trip.
Our aim was to meet people in dialogue, and believing - against all odds - in reconciliation. This aim has surely been succesfully met. We have met extra-ordinary and very courageous people from Israel and from Palestine, who dare to choose for dialogue and collaboration, even if their surroundings are against it and consider it as 'collaboration' or 'normalisation'.
Our last day in what many call the 'holy land'.
This morning we started with meeting representatives of Parents Circle, a mixed group of bereaved families from Israel and Palestine, who together do impressive work giving testimony about their lost ones, demanding no revenge, but instead collaboration, reconciliation, and tollerance and coexistence as neighbours and maybe soon friends. A delegation of Parents Circle will be our first guests in Antwerp on 20 and 21st September.
At noon we went to the Yad Vashem Museum on the Shoa (Holocaust) in Jerusalem. So many horrible things to see there, but it is also a necessary part of this 3rdParty tour through the region.
In the afternoon, our friend shministim Yuval joined us and we walked for a few more hours through the old city of Jerusalem, visiting holy places (Holy Sepulture Church, Western Wall) and the Jewish, Christian and Arab quarters of the city.
Our very last meeting of this trip is with the Peres Center for Peace in Jaffa. We will hear about their projects, but will also profit from this meeting to have a first evaluation of our trip, after which we will head to the airport to take our nightflight back to Belgium.
A whole day in Jerusalem. The students are staying for two nights at young Jerusalemites' homes in the area around Yaffo Street (Jaffa Street) in West Jerusalem. We spent this day in the old city, first with a series of interviews given to the national television crew (VRT, Koppen) which has been following us for the last 4 days. Then we visited some of the holy places, such as Al-Aqsa Mosque, an Islamic holy place. The Jewish call the site the Temple Mount. Also for them this area is sacred. We also visited the Western Wall, which is lying right underneath the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
After walking around the old city a big part of the day, we were invited for a drink at the residence of the Consul-General of Belgium, Mr Geert Cockx, and Karel Van Hecke, giving us a quiet moment of evalution of our trip until then.
In the evening we were invited by the activists of Just Jerusalem to meet with Palestinians in the neighbourhood of Sheich Jarach in East Jerusalem, who are being expelled from their houses and systematically replaced by Jewish settlers, who are very agressive towards them. We ourselves unfortunately also experienced some of this, as we were shouted ugly things at by a group of orthodox Jews, while visiting the neighbourhood in the compagny of 2 ousted Palestinians, Nasser and Itamar, and of some of the activists of Just Jerusalem, such as Sharon. We have heard about these problems in East-Jerusalem, but seeing the houses and hearing the ousted Palestinians telling their private miseries, as well as the Jews wanting to help, is nothing like reading about it. Seeing it, is believing it. Fortunately, also this experience was one of dialogue. Each Friday, since last October, demonstrations are organised in this neighbourhood, in support for the Palestinians. 90% of the demonstrators are Jewish Israelis, some of whom are celebrities such as writer David Grossmann.
Today was a day with the ladies from MachsomWatch. For most of us one of the strongest parts of our trip in the region.
MachsomWatch is a group of ladies (grandmothers most of them), who have started their activities around checkpoints ('machsom' is hebrew for 'checkpoint'), but are now working also more and more on the realities of people living in and around checkpoints, the wall and all the other forms of borders created, legally and illegally, by the Israeli government and the settlers. MachsomWatch is thereby in close contact with a number of villages which it tries to help directly in solving some of the problems which are caused by the occupation and the separation wall and fences, through legal and other means.
Under the impressive guidance of Dalia Golomb (daughter of Eliyahu Golomb), we have spent the whole day travelling in a minibus in and around the area from Qalqilya up to Nablus (Hawara), seeing with our own eyes how on the ground the situation is for the Palestinians living there, how their land is cut into pieces by settlers allover and the fences and wall which is helping the settlers getting where they need to get, while Palestinians' lives become harder and harder. Dalia's presentation was so clear. It helped all of us to get a clear view of the situation on the ground, at least concerning this particular region of the Westbank.
The checkpoints are lately a bit less of a problem (a lot of them have over the last year been closed), but the settlers and the closures of land caused by the settlements, are making lives of Palestinians more and more difficult. It is clearly the aim of the settlements to try to boycott the possibility of creating a Palestinian state on a unified Westbank.
What we remember from this day, is that within all this misery, also here, some very couragious people continue - against all odds - to be in dialogue with one another (jewish Israelis with Palestinians) and try to change the situation on the ground. This is very difficult and most of the time impossible, but that makes these actions even more impressive. The support of MachsomWatch to the villagers we have met, is giving them hope for a better future in these lands, and sometimes concrete help to solve some of their problems, such as those related to the distribution of water or electricity.
