peacecamptexts

peacecamps are
- 10-days’ multicultural encounters of youth from four different nations
- educational-therapeutic workshops aiming at a better understanding of one’s own and others’ culture, religion, history, political reality

peacecamp-participants are
- Jewish and Palestinian youth from Israel
- Youth from two European countries , so far Slovenia, Hungary, Austria

peacecamps encourage to experiment with, and explore
- non-violent modes of coping with conflict
- modes of problem solving based on cooperation and creativity
- ways and obstacles of conjoint action


Seven peacecamp were realised since 2004, six in Austria and one in Israel.
In planning stage:
- peacecamp2010: why not peace? in Reibers/Waldviertel and in Vienna
- peacecamp2011 in Israel

http://peacecamp2010.blogger.de
http://peacecamptexts.blogger.de

Concept and realization:
Mag. Evelyn Böhmer-Laufer

peacecamps sind
- 10-tägige interkulturelle Begegnungen von Jugendlichen aus vier Nationen
- pädagogisch-therapeutische Workshops zum besseren Verstehen der eigenen und der "fremden" Kultur, Religion, Geschichte, politischen Realität

An peacecamps nehmen teil
- jüdische und palästinensische Jugendliche aus Israel
- Jugendliche aus jeweils zwei europäischen Ländern – bislang Österreich, Slowenien, Ungarn

peacecamps ermöglichen ein Erproben und Erforschen
- gewaltfreier Formen der Konfliktbewältigung
- der Möglichkeiten und Grenzen gemeinsamen Problemlösens
- kreativer und kooperativer Lösungsansätze


Sieben peacecamps fanden bislang statt – sechs in Österreich und eines in Israel.
In Planung:
- peacecamp2010: why not peace? in Reibers/Waldviertel und in Wien
- peacecamp2011 in Israel

http://peacecamp2010.blogger.de
http://peacecamptexts.blogger.de

Konzept und Realisierung:
Mag. Evelyn Böhmer-Laufer

For 10 days, the small village Reibers will be space and setting for an evolving new reality. 10 Arab-Israeli, Jewish-Israeli, Hungarian and Austrian teenagers will give expression to their cultural, religious, national and personal diversity.

As “Ambassadors of peace” they will establish a dialogue with the inhabitants of Reibers and the townsfolk in Vienna and will bring home a pack of new experience, to share with their friends and family. A multicultural group of artists will help them develop an interactive show in which their biographies and the history of their respective religions and nations will find expression. They will develop communication tools to bridge over language barriers and to communicate the essence of their respective cultures to each other and to the local community.

A walking trip to the former Iron Curtain at the nearby Czech border will the frame for a dialogue with the villagers they will encounter. A “Hyde Park Corner” somewhere in the village, exercises with the Microphone, experimenting with the border between ourselves and the world around us, a dialogue between “me and you”, “me and nature”, “me and the world around”, will offer opportunities for self-experience and for an ongoing dialogue between the teenagers and the local community.

A psychoanalytic group will allow to look underneath and inside ourselves, to understand more about our feelings, attitudes and conflicts and to find non-violent ways to talk about, and cope with, conflict.

Four culture evenings and an evolving street-show will be part of the program.

Show4peace in Reibers (July 12th) and in Vienna, Dschungel/MuseumsQuartier (July 13th) with Awards Ceremony (EU-Youthpass; certificates “Ambassador of peace”) in front of a large audience.

Zehn Tage lang wird Reibers im Waldviertel Raum und Kulisse für das Entstehen einer neuen Realität.

Je 10 arabisch-israelische, jüdisch-israelische, ungarische und österreichische Jugendliche werden hier zusammenkommen und ihrer kulturellen, religiösen, nationalen, politischen und persönlichen Vielfalt Ausdruck geben. Als „Botschafter des Friedens“ werden sie mit Bewohnern des Ortes Reibers und mit einem Publikum in Wien in einen multimedialen Dialog treten und ihre hier gewonnenen Erfahrungen in ihre Heimatländer mitbringen. Eine multikulturelle Künstlergruppe wird mit ihnen eine Show entwickeln, die ihre Lebens- und Kulturgeschichten veranschaulicht. Sie werden Ausdrucksmittel entwickeln, um Sprachbarrieren zu überwinden und ihre kulturellen und nationalen Besonderheiten zu kommunizieren.

Bei einem Fußmarsch zum ehemaligen Eisernen Vorhang an der Grenze zu Tschechien werden die Jugendlichen mit den Menschen, denen sie begegnen, in einen Dialog treten. Ein „Hyde Park Corner“ irgendwo im Ort, Übungen mit dem Mikrophon, Übungen mit den Grenzen des Körpers und der Begegnung des Einzelnen mit Umwelt und äußerem Raum werden nicht nur der Selbsterfahrung dienen, sondern einen Dialog mit „mir und den Anderen“ begünstigen, in den auch die vor Ort anwesenden anderen Menschen eingebunden werden sollen.

Eine psychoanalytische Selbsterfahrungsgruppe soll das Erlebte einer Aufarbeitung zugänglich machen.

Vier Kulturabende, szenische, musikalische Darstellungen der eigenen Lebens- und Kulturgeschichte werden Teil des Programms sein.

Abschlussshow und Urkundenverleihung (EU-Youthpass und das Zertifikat „Ambassador of Peace“) in Reibers (12. Juli), große show4peace im Dschungel/MuseumsQuartier Wien (13. Juli).

The seventh peacecamp was like the previous ones - absolutely unique.

34 teenagers had come together in the small Austrian village of Reibers to talk about peace and about what’s in the way to peace. On two Saturdays, at 12 o’clock, the sound of a test alarm - the fire fighters’ siren, a weekly trivial event hardly noticed by people all over Austria. In spite of having been told that this practice alarm will be heard and that it will announce absolutely no danger, it strongly affected, almost paralyzed, some of the Israeli. It too much reminded of alarms heard in Israel – fire alarms announcing the felling of missiles, ambulances rushing to rescue victims of a terror attack, bombs coming down on your own or your family’s neighbourhood, alarms that belong to war and terror.










Let’s learn history


The focus of this year’s peacecamp was history, with a session on each single day. One by one, the four groups presented their view and narrative of that part of contemporary history that links them with or separates them from their neighbouring group, but also to all the other national groups present at the peacecamp. First, the Austrian presentation: “What do we have to do with Israel-Palestine?” with a courageous and revealing account of the beginning of Austro-fascism, the role of Austria in National Socialism and in the Shoah and the beginnings of Zionism. The presentation of the Palestinian narrative of the Arab-Israeli conflict was followed by the Jewish-Israeli presentation, both including an account of the beginnings of the state, the wars, peace-talks and -treaties, Israeli and Arab politics, Jewish occupation of and withdrawal from territories, and the history of Gaza. The Hungarian delegation gave an account of the great changes which took place in Europe, of the process of reunion of the previously divided Eastern and Western parts of the continent, of the fall of the Iron Curtain and the consolidation of the European Union. Their presentation included an account of a new right-wing, xenophobic and anti-Semitic party in today’s Hungary and about Hungary’s – and their own – attitude to what they consider strangers in their own country. It was quite impressive to see how much work and thoughts these young people had put in preparing this before they met in Austria and with how much respect, interest and authenticity they participated in each other’s presentations and in the discussions that followed.

Psychoanalytic discussions in small and large groups allowed to dig into, and work through, the attitudes and emotions brought about by these accounts. The room was often packed with strong feelings, sometimes tears, following the awareness that what we consider “strange” is often part of us, but that it might seem easier and thus tempting to despise and even persecute disagreeable attitudes and behaviours in people other than ourselves. Here again the young people impressed with their frankness and with their readiness to confront not only their country’s, but their own attitude to very difficult issues and topics – the attitude to strangers and to those who are “different” within a society, the place of the individual in a group, thoughts about the necessary acceptance of, or disobedience to, the values and rules within our society.

Peace – mission impossible?



“We were born into a conflict, which is not ours, but our parents’ and grandparents’“ was a conclusion that the teenagers arrived to at different points of this peacecamp, “but we are a new generation and must find ways out of this conflict.” History shows how difficult this can be and how long it can take countries and nations to find forms of coexistence and of cooperation after periods of war, hostility and tension.

“You want us to fight” said a young participant to the group leader, “but we really got to like one another and do not want to fight.” People of the young generation may see it as an act of solidarity with parents and grandparents to continue their fight, to take revenge or to restore damage done to the past generations. Feelings of resentment, solidarity with the parents, retaliation and the perception of the “other one” with the all distortions due to prejudice and projections of one’s own negative, unloved attitudes and behaviours are great obstacles of the present which prevent changes for the better in the future.

The participants of peacecamp 2009 told each other their stories; they heard history as experienced and perceived by representatives of their own and other groups; they opened their ears and hearts to all the different ways to tell a story and could become aware of the fact that there isn’t one way to write history nor one truth nor one victim. “We are both victims of things that have happened, and none of us has done any wrong.”

“We will remain in touch, we established a real bond. I can’t even think that we are enemies.”

Evelyn Böhmer-Laufer
Reibers, July 13, 2009
http://peacecamp2009.blogger.de

We owe our thanks to the Karl Kahane Foundation, the Zukunftsfonds of the Republic of Austria, Mrs. Martina Maschke and the Ministry of Education, Art and Culture.

This project was sponsored with the support of the European Commission.