Pace e Bene

LR Berger, Pace e Bene New England Associate, will be facilitating a nonviolence workshop and conversation featuring the documentary showing of “Billboard from Bethelehem” about the Israeli-Palestinian nonviolence movement, Combatants for Peace. 

 

Read about Volunteers for Peace, Combatants for Peace, and

the film, “Billboard from Bethelehem” below.

 

About Volunteers for Peace (www.vfp.org)

Founded in 1982, VFP is a non-profit membership organization. Their goal is to work toward a more peaceful world through the promotion of International Voluntary Service (IVS) projects, historically known as International Workcamps, and the exchange of volunteers. Through their international alliances, they work together to help communities meet local needs and some of the goals of the   United Nation’s Millennium Declaration.

 

Their projects provide intercultural education through community service. They offer placement in over 3000 IVS projects in more than 100 countries each year, including over 40 in the USA. At each project, volunteers from diverse backgrounds, typically from four or more countries, work and live together like a family. The sharing of everyday life, both with the local community and among the international volunteers, is an integral part of the learning and serving experience.

 

Combatants for Peace (www.combatantsforpeace.com) is an organization whose mission is to use exclusively nonviolent means to end all forms of violence, end Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, and establish a Palestinian state alongside the state of Israel. They seek to provide a productive alternative for young people, in place of militarism and violent strife, and work for reconciliation between the two peoples. CFP grew out of the Israeli Refusnik Movement. Dozens of former Israeli soldiers, pilots, and reserves associated with the Israeli Defense Force, as well as Palestinians who had fought for organizations such as the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, founded the new group.

 

Billboard From Bethlehem (www.iwagepeace.com)

“The Billboard From Bethlehem!” is an award winning one hour documentary by billboard developer turned peace maker, writer, director Bruce A. Barrett.

The film tells the story of an American Billboard Company owner, (Barrett) who is moved by meeting Israeli and Palestinian fighters (The Combatants for Peace) to join Israeli and Palestinian children to paint a giant peace mural billboard inside the West Bank of Palestine. The completed sign, then, travels to a mosque, a synagogue, and a church before being posted on a busy American highway. The film offers insight into the history of the conflict, the dynamics of the fighting, and a vision for a just and lasting peace.