Thursday 15th July 2010 - day 7 of youthtrip to Palestine and Israel

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.