{"id":19213,"date":"2016-05-27T00:28:20","date_gmt":"2016-05-27T07:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=19213"},"modified":"2016-05-25T17:11:19","modified_gmt":"2016-05-26T00:11:19","slug":"seek-peace-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2016\/05\/27\/seek-peace-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"Seek Peace initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve McDonald, deputy director of communications and public affairs for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. (photo from of Steve McDonald)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Every day, a handful of the approximately 500 volunteers at Road to Recovery head to one of the crossing points in Israel, pick up Palestinians who have medical permits for appointments or treatments in Israeli hospitals, and escort them there and back. Entirely volunteer-driven, this is the kind of peaceful bridge-building that rarely makes the media headlines, but that the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs is hoping to highlight through its recently relaunched program, Seek Peace and Pursue It.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis program is designed to encourage Canadian individuals and organizations who are concerned about the absence of peace in the Holy Land to rethink the issue by engaging in practical, positive initiatives that help build peace from the ground up,\u201d said Steve McDonald, deputy director of communications and public affairs for CIJA. \u201cRather than getting distracted by destructive initiatives like the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, Road to Recovery is exactly the sort of thing that will bolster Israeli initiatives to bring the two sides together and keep activists focused on positive engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea for Seek Peace was hatched by former CIJA executive Len Rudner in 2012, after the United Church of Canada declared it would boycott Israeli settlements. At that time, CIJA reached out to UCC leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe told them BDS does nothing to advance peace or improve life for average Palestinians, we don\u2019t think it fulfils your own interest in helping Palestinians,\u201d said McDonald.<\/p>\n

The efforts were in vain and the UCC continued to advocate a boycott, something McDonald says was a betrayal of average UCC members in Canada, as well as an undermining of longstanding Jewish-Christian ties in this country.<\/p>\n

One of McDonald\u2019s tasks is to develop CIJA\u2019s relationship with Christian churches and leaders in Canada, many of whom are interested in Israel and want to get engaged in peace-building activities. At the end of May, he will deliver a presentation at the Toronto School of Theology to Baptist, Anglican and Catholic representatives. His focus will be on one organization: Hand in Hand, a network of Jewish-Arab integrated bilingual schools focused on mutual recognition, inclusion and equality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s tremendous interest among some of our Christian partners for this sort of work,\u201d explained McDonald. \u201cWhen they see we\u2019re pro-Israel but not anti-Palestinian, they are somewhat surprised that the organized Jewish community is so interested in peace. We want to show them there are constructive alternatives to BDS, positive ways we can be helping build peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seek Peace is not directly about fundraising, but rather about providing a catalogue of positive initiatives. The organizations featured include Heart to Heart, where Jewish and Palestinian Israeli youth live together in a camping environment for three weeks and tackle politics, culture and identity through dialogue. There is Project Rozana, which is about delivering medical access for Palestinian-Israeli children who need pediatric intensive care, and there is Tsofen, which promotes the integration of Israel\u2019s Arab citizens into the high-tech industry. These are just a handful of the many constructive, peace-building programs that Seek Peace is trying to bring to the forefront, organizations doing impressive work that often goes unreported.<\/p>\n

Within a few years from now, McDonald said he\u2019d love to see churches and synagogues partner to host events that highlight one of these particular or similar causes.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal would be for this to be taken on at a local and national level by our Christian friends,\u201d he said, \u201cbut it\u2019s not specifically for Christians \u2013 any community can get involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Vancouver, the CIJA team already has strong interfaith relationships and is well-positioned to pitch this project to its existing contacts, he added. \u201cI think Vancouver is a place where there could be a lot of appetite for this kind of thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For more information on Seek Peace, visit cija.ca\/resource\/seek-peace-and-pursue-it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lauren Kramer<\/strong>, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve McDonald, deputy director of communications and public affairs for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. (photo from of Steve McDonald) Every day, a handful of the approximately 500 volunteers at Road to Recovery head to one of the crossing points in Israel, pick up Palestinians who have medical permits for appointments or treatments […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[458,1673,2721,1959],"class_list":["post-19213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-cija","tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict","tag-peace","tag-tikkun-olam"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}