Minutes for Meeting 13th October 2010

Tonight we are missing D. She went to China with Shahabuddin, and has been sick since getting back. I miss her presence very much.

J tells us news of Iptisam and her husband. He is doing better. Recently he tried a PAP machine, which helps you to breathe at night, and he slept soundly, so they are raising money to buy one. Iptisam is doing her BA and is getting great marks. Because of her work with women's empowerment, the mayor of her town wants to make her Head of Women's Affairs, but she must be a graduate for this position.

J went to see a play called "There is a Field", and was riveted by the performance. It is about a Seeds of Peace worker, a young man who was killed by the Israeli police. It suddenly became clear to J, that the Palestinians who live in Israel suffer much racism. There was an after-play speaker who reinforced this idea, and she saw how the Government uses pacifying policies, giving the people just enough to stop them from causing trouble. J wondered if she should be a political worker, not a peace worker.

So we talked about how fighting can be seen as resistance or terrorism, depending on which side you are looking from. H talks about the intersection of peace and politics. J tells us how hard it can be to be a peace worker - how workers in Israel are attacked by the radicals with bombs and their lives and families are threatened.

We move sideways. How can we know what it is that God wants us to do - what must we give up?
T tells us about how young Israeli soldiers have been boasting on Facebook about how mean they can be to Palestinians. H points out how wide open the Internet is, and how it has changed our perceptions and ability to interact with each other. How thoughtless youth cam be.

H has an idea for holding a meeting on a weekend day, where different teachers would present different practices, and we could learn something about our 3 religions We cover some arrangements for Shahabuddin coming in November and set a date for December when we can meet again and have a party to celebrate this festive time of year.