Students create Israel Palestine Peace Month
March 25, 2015
Three Roanoke students have joined faculty and staff members to create Roanoke's first Israel-Palestine Peace Month.
Mathilda Nassar '15, who is Palestinian, and Shaina Lidd '15, who is Jewish, met in a class. Through class discussion, they learned they had more in common than expected and both are especially passionate about the idea of peace between Israel and Palestine. Because Nassar and Lidd are seniors, they also enlisted freshman Leah Weinstein '18 to work with them to keep the event going after the seniors graduate.
During spring break, Nassar traveled to Palestine to conduct interviews and research as part of her senior honors project, which focuses on ongoing negotiations between Palestine and Israel. Nassar had the opportunity to interview both the first and sitting chief negotiators of Palestine, as well as the former Israeli ambassador to the United States.
Lidd and Weinstein spent six days in Israel during spring break doing in a variety of volunteer projects, such as building a playground that is safe from bombs, supporting an urban farm used primarily by Ethiopian Jewish citizens and working with a Jewish/Arab bilingual school.
The three students met for a day in Jerusalem and had a healthy dialogue about their respective trips.
Peace Month includes a concert with popular Israeli-Palestinian band Heartbeat, whose songs share the experiences of growing up amidst the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reinforces the need for peaceful social change. Peace Month 2015 continues with several events focused on the issues surrounding the conflict, the different groups involved, and the reasons behind it.
Peace Month events
March 20, 8 pm , Alumni Gym
Heartbeat concert
March 25, 7 pm , Colket Center, Wortmann Ballroom
IDF Brigadier General Shlomo Brom
April 1, 7:30 pm, Fintel Library
Americans for Peace Now
April 8, 7 pm, Colket Center, Wortmann Ballroom
Ambassador Maen Rashid Areikat, Palestinian Ambassador to the U.S.
April 16, 7:30 pm, Antrim Chapel
Dauod Nassar. Tent of Nations "We Refuse to be Enemies"
April 18, 3 pm, Back Quad
Peace Rally