A_Desert_RSPship-RAFT

1997_11_25

Doveret-Shalom be-Yam ha-Adom

A Peace Raft in the Red Sea

I just heard on television [June 2003], that the license will be taken away from these fish enterprises,
because they pollute the water of the Gulf of Eilat/Aqaba.

The raft was to serve as a place for learning
about how to create the conditions of partnership between Eilat and Aqaba.

Later it should have replaced the idea of a SHIP in the "RedSeaPartnerSHIP-Game"

1997_12_14
The RED-SEA-PARTNER-"S H I P "
The concept was mainly written by David Troim, translated by me

NGO "shutafut" / "Mushaarakah" / "Partnership"
Union for Creating the conditions of Partnership between Arabs and Jews
Christa-Rachel Bat-Adam, PH.D., Fawaaz Fahmawi, Ariye Boni - Eilat,
David Troim, PH.D., Eilat Trom, Yaacob Hayat, Orit Hayat - Tel-Aviv,
[phones.... Israel]

The RED-SEA-PARTNER-"S H I P "

Though we have in mind a stationary barge or raft, which will move only
once the borders between the four ReadSea nations will be truly open,
we use the word "SHIP" because of the play of words with "Partnership".

1. General Information

a. "Partnership" presently musters its force and resources
to strengthen and ground peace between Israel and her neighbours,
according to "Partnership's" principles.

b. "Think globally, act locally!"
" Partnership" decided to focus on the region which seems to be predestined
to become a bridgehead for peace between Israel and Jordan:
the Red Sea, between Aqaba and Eilat.

c. "Partnership" chose the project of a "RED SEA PARTNER- S H I P "
as the best way to actualize and demonstrate its principles.

d. "Partnership" is in search for Jordanian partners,
so that we can join forces in realizing and operating the "RED SEA PARTNER- S H I P "

2. The Project

a/ The SHIP (a barge of the size of about 17 m x 17m)
will anchor about 1200 m from the shore
exacty on the border-line between Israel and Jordan,
so that the imaginary border will pass through the center of the SHIP.
Half of the SHIP will be in the water of Israel and the other half in the water of Jordan.

b. On the SHIP simple dwellings will be installed,
tents and "succahs" (huts or cabins) that were developed by us
based on vast experience in "green" desert hosting,
in a composition and quality adapted to the conditions of the Red Sea,
even its frightening Southern winds:
four double pyramidal tents in the center of the SHIP for sleeping (7-8 guests),
the intimate space between them for meeting (up to 30 visitors),
and the four succahs around them for living (us, the hosts),
and also for cooking, storing, toilets etc.
Electricity will be provided by the sun and water (desalinated) by the sea.

c. The fact that the SHIP will be on the border
will create a primary and unique situation
in which a border does not any longer signify "separation"
(like the border area on the shore
which is fortified by ever so many electronic and barbed wire fences
and infested with mines against people),
but "connection",
the connection between two peoples, two cities,
- a place which is Israel and Jordan at once.

d. The fact that the SHIP will be exactly on the border
will also realize the necessary conditon for the first function of the Partner-SHIP:
equal conditions for hosting Israelis and Jordanians
who are interested in studying together
how to create the conditions of partnership between Eilat and Aqaba
and perhaps later - between Israel and Jordan.

Each partnership is based on three conditions:
Common interest, Mutual Trust and Equality of Self-Respect.
If - between peoples or people who are dependent on each other - these conditions do not exist,
these conditions must become the targets, aims, goals of thinking, talking and acting.

e. In the beginning the SHIP will serve as a situation for meeting;
each new day- invited people who can think and act,
foremost from Israel and Jordan,
will study the conditions of true partnership between the parties.
The study-meetings will be facilitated by us, the hosts,
who have skills and experience in hosting,
communicating
and creating the conditions of partnership in every situation
and on all levels of interactions.
We yearn for skillful Jordanian hosts to join us!

f. The SHIP will also serve as an experimental model for the free passage of citizens,
a pilot project which implies no risk what-so-ever:
Citizens from Israel and Jordan will be permitted to enter the SHIP, and the SHIP only,
and be guests on her without passport control,
on the Israeli side as well as on the Jordanian side.
When this experiment will be crowned by success,
it will serve as a lever for continuing the yearned-for process:
free passage of citizens between Aqaba and Eilat.

3. STEPS THAT HAVE BEEN TAKEN:

a/ The pyramidal tents for the SHIP were built and erected at the beginning of this month
as "the FOUR NATIONS TENT"
on the beach of the "Sun-Gulf", East of the new lagoon in Eilat.

b. The FOUR NATIONS TENT serves as a "performance" of part of the project,
i.e. as a place of hosting people from Eilat and Aqaba,
with the aim of raising consciousness
and encouraging involvment of citizens and authorities in the project.
There is, indeed, great enthusiasm and support for the project on the part of the visitors in the TENT.

c. We achieved the beginning cooperation of the municiplity of Eilat,
which gave permission for installing the FOUR NATIONS TENT.
The Mayor of the town has expressed his readiness to visit the TENT.

d. We also got the consent, in principle,
from the Israeli chief military land and sea commanders in this area,
for placing the SHIP on the border,
and the consent of the chief captain of the harbour of EILat
to coordinate the anchoring of the SHIP with his colleague, the chief captain of the harbour of Aqaba.

e. There is a precedent for a free exit from Israel:
Israeli boats travel from Eilat to the Coral Island in Egypt without passport control on the Israeli side.
The precedent will help getting a similar permission to enter the SHIP - from the Israeli authorities.

4. STEPS THAT HAVE TO BE TAKEN:

a. The SHIP:
1. "Partnership" is interested in operating the SHIP as soon as possible.
For this reason and with the aim of minimizing costs,
we need to pursue and purchase a second-hand suitable barge
at one of the shores of the Red Sea, hopefully in Aqaba.

2. The SHIP (barge) will be adapted to the project
and will respond to all requirements of safety etc.
for becoming licensed by both, Israel and Jordan.

3. The SHIP will be towed and anchored at the intended site in coordination with the relevant authorities.

b. Licenses;
"Partnership" continues to pursue the formal permission on the Israeli side;
1. From the Minister of Security - for anchoring the SHIP on the border.
2) From the Minister of the Interior - for free passage to the SHIP, without passports.

April 1998
Doveret-Shalom be-Yam ha-Adom

A Peace Raft in the Red Sea
After the registration of the "RedSeaPartnerSHIP" as "Amutah" [NGO] ,
a modified concept was written out, mainly by David Troim,
who discerns between 3 different dependencies,
which have to be transformed into partnerships:
between Wo/Man and Nature
between Wo/Man and Wo/Man
between Nation and Nation.
How to do this, would have been the goal of the learning and training on the raft.

As to the physical aspect of the raft,
Aviv Yaqir, a short-time partner,
suggested to construct the raft of 4 gigantic metal pipes.
Negotiations with the municipality and other authorities,
about the license,
to build this raft at the site of my bus, the David-Succah,
failed in the end.

1998_04_01 , Why did I choose the Puzzle of
"The RED-SEA-PARTNER-"S H I P "

This was the official plan for building the Raft [Aviv Yaqir's idea]
in the area of the David Succah, i.e. between the parked bus and the peer,
prepared by Vera Koakh-Klein

When we didn't get the licence there,
we tried to win over the Dolphin Reef.
Could we be a part of their "Research ",
with our raft attached to its Center?
I see us there - me, Tamir, Albert, Mali
- in this case even with Ya'acov -
talking to the founder and owner, who said:

"Stop chasing around for the form!
Demonstrate the content!
Show, what you would actually do on such a "Peace Raft".
Let people see your "Learning Situation"!"

It was then, that we started to search for a little Katamaran, to turn it into a model of how the raft would function.

September 18, 2009 - on the Eve of Rosh Hashanah

Following my visit of my granddaughter Elah (22) in Eilat on Sept. 14-15
and the intense memories which swimming in and coasting along the Red Sea brought up,
I re-read all the RedSeaPartnerSHIP pages.
They are a puzzle and cannot be put in linear order.
It seems, that I didn't report anywhere what happened after all the numerous "failures".
For the time being I want to mention only Tamir's sentence, which brought about the change:
our move from the RED Sea to the DEAD Sea:
"Rachel, we with our Four Nations Tent are not at the right place.
For Israel's problem is not with Egypt, Jordan or Saudi-Arabia,
it is with the Palestinians, and there are no Palestinians around here."

After an intense journey of the two of us towards and around the Dead Sea
I was ready to follow his thinking:
We dismantled everything in Eilat
and moved north.
My bus was caught by the police,
and this was the end of its mobility.
But this was the least of the problems,
which we turned into challenges....