The Federation for World
Peace has invited young Palestinians aged 14 to 18 from East-Jerusalem for a
summer recreation camp with members of the Austrian youth group HARP during the
second week of July 2006. They came from the Burj Al Luq Lug Social Centre in
the old city of Jerusalem
which is run by Dyala Husseini. The connection to this centre was made by a
member of the Arabic chamber of commerce in Vienna.
"My
goal was that these young people get to know each other and that
they can spend one week in a nice and peaceful environment. We want to show to
our guests from Palestine
that there is an alternative to war and terror", said Erni Loos, who was
coordinating the summer camp in an interview with APA, the Austrian Press
agency. "The Austrians should be able to experience that there are
peaceful people in the Middle East, not just
terrorists. Such a camp is organized for the first time this summer. For me it
is a totally new experience, I started small and want to expand this
project", explained Mrs. Loos about her future plans. Next time – this was
a suggestion of the Austrian participants - young Israelis should be invited
too.
Amineh
Palecek, an Ambassador for Peace from the Palestinian community in Vienna supported the
project a well as Andreas Bauer, the leader of the youth group HARP. After two
day of sightseeing in Vienna the workshop centre „Haus Regenbogen“ in
Seebenstein, Lower Austria became the place of many interesting talks and the
starting place of leisure and sports activities like a mountain walk to the
“Scheeberg” and a snowball fight in summer. During the closing cultural evening
the Palestinian ambassador in Austria,
Dr. Zuheir Elwazer expressed his gratitude to the organizers and said that it
is the wish of the Palestinians to live in a free Palestine in peace with all the people of the
region.
