Hello everyone,

My name is Naomi and I want to tell you a bit about the journey that we went through as a group that came to bridge the gaps of difference and of divided opinions. It is not every day that we meet with Arabs and Jews who meet and fly across the ocean together for a common cause.

Our journey began here in Givat Haviva as a group of kids trying to get to know each other without prejudice. The beginning was beset by difficulties, arguments, disagreements, and language barriers, but the beauty of our group was the attempt to understand and internalize the other side and the opposite opinion.

In the middle of the process, we came to a decision on the subject we would focus on – “Getting Out of the Bubble.” Slowly, over time, we discovered the exit from the bubble, through interpersonal and intercultural acquaintance. Visits to each other’s homes contributed to our understanding. The more we photographed and exposed ourselves to each other’s realities, the more we emerged from the tiny bubbles each of us inhabits, and burst them.

So the exhibition is ready, the passports are in our hands, we have the visa – let’s go to Camp Shomriya.

At camp, we are completely cut off from the world outside, and we participate in facilitated activities with content that give us the tools for a more meaningful understanding of our roles, the different narratives of each nation, to arrive at our own personal opinions, not those of family, friends, or social networks, but according to the existing information, the facts that are in our face, the painful truth. In the camp we rediscovered our own deep and sincere thoughts.

I learned a lot at camp, I learned a lot about the Arab and Jewish narratives, I learned things about myself that I don’t think I would have without disconnecting from my daily reality, I learned about the person I want to become, about the people around me, about the way to talk and argue, and how to put the ego aside and really be there without judgment. I learned how to be honest with society and myself.

At the end of the project, the end of the third part of the activity and learning, I’m here, and maybe somewhere inside myself I feel that I did my part in Israel or in the world and don’t need to do anything more, but – no. It does not end here, because it has just started.

Naomi

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A letter from Naomi