Below is pasted text of an abridged report I wrote about the Constellation
workshop titled Israel and Palestine: The Search for Peace at the
Asheville Conference.
You can access a more detailed web-friendly version on my website at
www.HiddenSolution.com/peace5.htm.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened ~T.S. Eliot.
Elias Jabbour and I presented a workshop titled, "Israel and Palestine: The
Search for Peace" at the U.S. Conference on Systemic Constellations on
October 4, 2007 in Asheville, NC. Elias is founder and Director of the House
of Hope International Peace Center in Shefar 'Am, Israel.
Personal Histories
In our introductions, we spoke about our fathers. Elias' Israeli Palestinian
Christian Arab family traces its heritage in the Galilee to Biblical times.
His father was Mayor of Shefar 'Am. When Jewish soldiers took control of the
town in 1948, none of its citizens becames refugees thanks to his father's
ability as a peacemaker.
My father was an infantry soldier in the U.S. Army, who became the Director
of the UN's Föhrenwald Displaced Persons Camp for Jewish Holocaust survivors
in Germany. He was instrumental in the underground transport of survivors to
Palestine.
A Political Constellation
We set up a political Constellation for the ongoing Jewish-Palestinian
conflict. Initially, the representatives felt disconnected and
over-burdened. Elias' representative was alert and eager to reach out, but
found no receptivity in any direction. His Jewish-Israeli peer was nearly
dead on her feet, absorbed in her own pain, with no capacity to receive
Elias' hand.
The healing movement began after the representative for Elias' father
reported he sensed stone at his back and felt a powerful yearning for a
missing person in front of him. He asked Elias, "Did your father have a
close Jewish friend whom he lost?"
Elias replied that his father lost many close Jewish friends in his youth.
There is a centuries-old synagogue in Shefar 'Am. The building was abandoned
in the 1920s, but the villagers have maintained it in the spirit of loving
friendship for 80 years. This synagogue is painted, candles are refreshed,
the floors swept, and prayer books maintained, so that visiting Jews can
enter at any time to hold a minion service. In fact, one woman, whose
grandfather was a member of the Congregation, comes regularly to pray and
support the House of Hope.
When I placed a representative for this woman/synagogue in the space the
healing movement began. I said to Elias, "The synagogue building and the
descendants of the Jews of Shefar 'Am hold the memory of mutual respect and
peaceful coexistence."
The traumatic conflicts of the past century continue to fuel fear and
violence. Those of us who are dedicated to promoting peace and
reconciliation find ourselves pushing our hands against the tide. In one
sense, our efforts are empty gestures, for the ocean is so vast and powerful
and our hands so small and insignificant. In another sense, all human
creation is the product of such small gestures. When a hand pushes the ocean
the entire ocean moves.
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