Non-violence assembly brings Middle Easterners together

[eridani]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1109/p09s02-coop.html

This assembly - a UN-sponsored leadership conference on nonviolence - brought together Israelis, Palestinians, Iraqis, Jordanians, Egyptians, and others from the Middle East. One-third of the participants came from farther afield - from Nepal, Uganda, Cameroon, Sri Lanka, Russia, South Africa, and elsewhere - and added a valuable global and comparative perspective to the mix.

We saw very secular Israeli activists engaging passionately with socially conservative (and very articulate) veiled women from Jordan and the Palestinian territories. Pro-peace Israeli rabbis in yarmulkes worked with Muslim teachers in flowing robes. There were Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, and secular peace activists, and veterans of nonviolent struggles in South Africa, Northern Ireland, and elsewhere.