The Purpose  of   HEALING - K.I.S.S.

- as stated 12 years ago - was and is

  to help me and my potential P E E R s 

"to HEAL ourselves into WHOLEness,

and - by extension - all of CREATion!"
Intro to Healing-K.i.s.s. 2001-2013
and Overview of its main libraries

[If you look for a word on this page,
click ctrl/F and put a word in "find"]


I focus my experiencing and awareness on being
"a   pioneer of  Evolution  in  learning  to  feel":
I let my Body vibrate and my Heart 'womb'
pain, shame, fear, boredom, powerlessness,
so feelings can >heal >guide>fulfill>evolve,
and ~~~ offer ~~~"goldmines"~~~ to us all!!
"I want you to feel everything, every little thing!"

 

 

Overview of & Links to the Pages of My Community: Israel&Ismael and My Community: Peace through Desert Economy

a

 

  
MY  V IS ION
  

 

1) E-volving,  Un-folding  the  "SPS"  resources of the Desert
  S  P  A  C  E            P  U  R  I  T  Y          S  I  L  E  N  C  E         
    [as opposed to the cities' crowdedness, pollution & noise],
will be the great  CHALLENGE , which will help Jews and Arabs
to   bring   about     E Q U A L I T Y     in     S E L F - E S T E E M .

2) Since 1974, my peace-work[started in 1958] has been based on:
   Transforming a negative dependency into a positive dependency.

3) Positive dependency or" Partnership" is based on 3 conditions:
 COMMON INTEREST / MUTUAL TRUST / EQUALITY in SELF-ESTEEM.

4) After 40 years of having PRACTICALLY tested this theory ,
I know, that  EQUALITY in SELF-ESTEEM can only be realized,
if the adversaries, forced into mutual dependency by destiny,
will   engage   in   COPING   TOGETHER   with   a   CHALLENGE
which is SO BIG , that it  DWARFS  the GAP in  SELF-ESTEEM.

 

 

BIR'AM 1976
A model of how to turn a negative dependency into a Partnership

See also
Bir'am, in memoriam of Heide Fuessler
Bir'am, a letter to Menachem Begin


Maryam, alias Christa-Rachel Bat-Adam, married Rachel Rosenzweig, born Eva-Maria-Christa Guth
2002_08_07-11;last update: 2003_04_23

The Bir'am model is still very relevant for Israel and for the world.
Moreover, without the intense work of a whole year on this model,
I would not have succeeded in creating the Succah 14 years later.

As information about the historical-political background I quote from the "Gush Halav Module"
It's interesting, that almost a generation after my Bir'am model,
"peace-people" again see in Bar'am/Bir'am a symbol of potential "relations between Jewish and Arab Israelis".

"Bar'am was a prosperous Jewish community during the times of the Mishnah and the Talmud.
Its inhabitants built ... the Bar'am synagogue which has remained well-preserved over the millennia,
and was respected by the recent Arab villagers side by side with their church.
The ancient name was preserved in the Arabic name of the village - Bir'am.
The inhabitants of Bir'am were evacuated by the nascent Israel Defense Forces in 1948,
with a promise that the villagers would be allowed to return after two weeks. They are still waiting.
In the meantime, many of the refugees settled in the nearby village of Jish - Gush Halav.
The petition of the former residents of Bir'am to return to their village was approved by the Supreme Court.
However there is still a disagreement regarding the extent of the lands involved in the repatriation.
Bar'am/Bir'am is the appropriate setting for presenting a conceptual introduction to the Gush Halav module,
and to the general topic of relations between Jewish and Arab Israelis."

I also quote from what seems to be a Palestinian source,
though Israel's self-destructive policy has nothing to do with racism.
"Residents of Iqrit and Bir'am and their descendents
are part of the approximately 250,000 internally displaced Palestinians
from some 60 displaced communities inside Israel.
Although they are citizens of the state, they have been denied their right to return to their villages since 1948.
Their lands have been confiscated, declared "state lands",
and leased to Jewish-Israeli agricultural and urban settlements.

"In 1948, the Israeli army requested the residents of Iqrit and Bir'am to leave their villages
due to "security concerns" along the Lebanese border.
Residents of the villages complied with the order after receiving assurances from the military
that they were be permitted to return within 15 days.
This promise, which ran counter to Israel's general policy at the time
of creating Arab-free "security zones" along the borders of the state,
was not kept.
Some of the villagers were forced across the border into Lebanon.
Following the 1951 ruling by the Israeli High Court
that the residents of the two villages should be permitted to return,
Israel's military government in the area obtained retroactive inclusion of the villages
into the northern "security zone", issued expulsion orders,
and destroyed the villages with explosives (Iqrit, 1951) and by aerial bombardment (Bir'am, 1953). "

A very detailed article about Bir'am was published in "Jerusalem Post" in April 2002





This depicts my vision, translated into professional sketches
by Heide Kloeckner-Fuessler, whom I had asked to come from Switzerland for two weeks,
to create the blueprint of new Bir'am, together with a Jewish and an Arab architect.

Bir'am is unique among the 400 Arab villages destroyed by the Israelis after 1948:
Its ruins are still standing.
And not only the ruins of Arab Christian Bir'am and it's church,
but the best preserved synagogue dating from the 4th century
here serves as the basis for an enormous tent,
which was to attract all kinds of cultural activities as part of three economic projects,
which would enable the Bir'am people to make a living, without returning to agriculture.
For all the land suited for agriculture were distributed among 3 Jewish settlements:
Kibbutz Bar'am, Kibbutz Sasa, Moshav Dovev,
and to take the land away from them would just reverse the problem.
The principle of the Bir'am model was:
to resolve the conflict over land in a win-win solution
and to heal the emotions of fear and guilt, resentment and bitterness, between the people.

 


BIR'AM VILLAGE

"PARTNERSHIP"

A MODEL OF HOW TO SOLVE
A CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

A moment of triumph in Nazareth - June 1976:
We had an appointment with Israel. Koenig,
the Governor of the Northern Region of Israel,
[I now, 2009_07_09 "met" him, not to my delight,
in the 1994 excellent movie : "Not on any map"]
in order to deliver together
this folder with the blueprint of our Bir'am project.

To my right: Ayyub Mtanes,
the chairman of the Bir'am people,
to my left Nimr Ismir, their deputy chairman,
my main Arab partner for the years to come,
and German/Swiss architect Heide Fuessler.
On the second photo: Arab architect Eli Nahla.

Soon it became clear, that we had just been naive.

A Diary Entry, written in Succah in the Desert 1992

After many years of frustrating "peace-work" in frameworks created by others,
I launched my own practical application of my own understanding
of how to solve the Jewish-Palestinian conflict.
This was in November 1974.
Writing, meeting, teaching preceeded the choice of one problem
- the issue of "Bir'am" -
in order to create a MODEL
of how to solve the conflict of interests over land
and of how to lower psychological barriers
of fear and shame, guilt and hatred between people.

The goal, strategy and tactics, which I was putting to a test in those years,
are serving me well ever since I started to manifest the Succah Vision:

1. Be clear about your real interest.

2. Find out on whom you are dependent
in order to accomplish this interest.

3. If this person, authority or nation
has an opposing interest,
i.e. is an adversary,
you have to turn this negative dependency
into a positive one,
i.e. you have to convert adversaries into partners.
You will succeed in this, if you direct all your words, gestures, plans, reactions and actions towards creating three conditions -

COMMON INTEREST,
MUTUAL TRUST,
EQUALITY IN SELF-RESPECT.

4. The necessity of converting adversaries
into partners
will challenge you all along your way.
For even your closest co-workers or your family might
- in certain situations - act as adversaries.
You will succeed,
if you always stick to this one value,
called
SELF-DETERMINATION,
i.e.
YOU ALONE ARE THE MASTER OF YOUR LIFE.

Bir'am was a loyal Arab village near the Lebanon border
which during the 1948 war [called by Israel: "the war of Independence"]
was evacuated "temporarily".
Still, the villagers, who live up to this day in Galilee or in Lebanon
were never allowed to come back,
which bothered even many right-wing Jews.
Since 3 Jewish settlements use the agricultural land of the former villagers,
my task was to create a model of a solution,
which would satisfy the Arabs but not damage or threaten the Jews.

After I had - with many people and authorites of that region - developed the model of the new Bir'am village and economy,
firmly based on the 3 conditions of
common trust, mutual interest and equality of self-respect
between the Bir'am people and their Jewish neighbors,
- I started to work with "adversaries"
on higher levels of authorities and Government.

The meeting with the General Director of the "Israel Land Authority",
Meir Zore'a, and his Deputy, Uri Baidetz, ended with a success:
"We are not yet your friends,
but neither can we be your enemy any longer.
We'll convey to the Prime-Minister, Mrs. Golda Meir
, that the "Israel Land Authorityy" is neither in favour of
nor against the return of the Bir'am people to their village.
We have no opinion with concern to the issue."

Later Shim'on Peres, who was then the Defense-Minister,
sent his advisers with me to Bir'am.
But 2 weeks passed and the Labour-Government fell~~~
Since the right wing parties had - for 29 years -
promised the Bir'am people to return their "rights" to them
on a silver-plate,
the villagers asked me to bury my complex model of conflict-resolution,
for the "Messiah" Menachem Begin was near
and would solve the conflict over lands with a sweep of his arm~~~

After this major "failure"
it took me another 4 years of intense "Partnership Work" to understand,
that people are not able to turn adversaries into partners
as long as they do not really believe in self-determination
but continue with making themselves victims~~~

It was then - by the end of 1980 -
that I decided to retreat into my inner desert and find out,
how I could work on the root of so many maladies:
self-victimization!

But the summer-camp, planned in the ruins of Bir'am,
with the Bir'am youth
together with the youth of the three Jewish settlements on Bir'am land,
did not take place.
Yitzhak Rabin, who then was Minister of Defense, forbade the camp
and despite a query in the Parliament, did not change his decision.
I lost credit in the eyes of the Bir'am Arabs~~~,
and when the Rabin Government fell 3 months later,
they asked me to retreat and forget about our model,
for surely the right-wing party. for which they would vote,
would come as their savior, as they had always promised.

Sitting on ancient Jewish ruins - they plan the camp:
Gasan Mtanes, the representative of the Bir'am youth,
and Naftali Raz, a parachuter, scout-leader
and peace-fighter up to now,
was - on and off - my main Jewish partner in "Partnership".
[May 16, 2014: I just skipped through his "On the left side"]


The sign in stone says,
that the forest planted on Bir'am land,
is dedicated to Itzhak and Leah Rabin.
Like all photos on this page,
this one too was taken in 1976,
19 years before Rabin was murdered
during a peace-rally in 1995
for his role in the Oslo Peace Agreement. How significant, that Rabin
who had played such a sad role
in preventing my peace/partnership model from succeeding
is - by virtue of this dedication -
connected to Bir'am,
this symbol of the possibility
to solve conflicts of interests.



"Partnership"

Bir'am Project
Revised text 20/9/76
Description of the Project
as delivered - in Hebrew - by my own hands
to every single Ministry
of the Goverment of Israel
The material exhibited below
a) the sitemap in Hebrew + two from the many specific maps concerning building specifications, transportation, building stages, all detailed by Heide Fuessler and adapted to Israeli regulations by the Jewish and the Arab architect,
b) the verbal description - badly translated by a professional in 1976 -
is not meant to be applicable in this form. But it demonstrates how this "peace-work" was real WORK, real LABOR, down to the last detail of how to solve a conflict of interest over land
towards the greater goal:
creating the conditions of positive dependency/ partnership - common interest, mutual trust and equality in self-esteem
between Arabs and Jews of a specific, concrete community.

Background:

In our talks with ministers and high Goverment officials we have constantly stressed that our aim is to come to grips with one of the problems of the Israeli Arab conflict and and to solve it in such a way as not to cause a new problem. We maintain that each problem has to be solved per se, According to its special circumstances. {Up to this day the Government claims, solving the problem of Bir'am would be a precedent for many other destroyed villages} The problem of Ikrit and Bir'am is not just a legal one, but a practical one as well. The main thing is not the repairing of past wrongs, but the training of the people of Israel for living together in the future.
In the case of Ikrit and Bir'am we have, it seems to us, to strive towards 3 goals:

1) To create an atmosphere of trust between the returning villagers and their Jewish neighbours in the Kibbutzim and Moshavim of the district.

2) To lessen the conflict of interests about the lands by creating a challenge which is bigger than the hunger for land, both economicly and in status. This challenge, we hope, will compensate the returning displaced people for the loss of those of their lands which are now cultivated by the Jewish settlers.

3) To create a common interest among the settlers of the region.


Summing Up of the Proposals

The essence of the afore mentioned challenge, or the "Project", will,
in the case of Bir'am, be a Culture and Recreation Center. It will be combined of -
1) An Arab Resort Village which will serve as a core for developing Arab family tourism in Israel
.
2) A convention Center which will serve as cultural and study meeting place not only for the people of the region and the rest of Galilee but also for the whole of Israel and the world.

3) A volunteer center which will Accomodate young volunteers from abroad, who will come to work in the settlements and in landscaping projects in the region.

A center of development for Ikrit could be the establishment of a technical Training Center which will be connected with the industry in the area and supply it with well-trained manpower. This center could also supply the industrial Center of Moshav Goren, which is in need of development and better standards of trained manpower. As the problem of Ikrit is more difficult than that of Bir'am [, and as the people of Ikrit have decided to await government decision before making any move, we have decided to go on with our plans together with the people of Bir'am. The following details are therefore related to the "Project of Bir'am".


The Aims of the Proposals

In our three basic ideas - Culture & Study Convention Center, an Arab Family Resort Village and a Volunteer Center - we aim not only to solve the problem of the displaced people of Bir'am, but, at the same time, to respond to some general needs in Israel.

1. Arab family Tourism:

Arab tourists who seek recreation in the big cities are a well known sight. When a whole family, though, wants to go on vacation, they have to rely on the hospitality of relatives. We estimate that this branch of tourism has good prospects and can contribute to the solution of other problems in the county. We mean to establish a Resort Village suitable to the special needs of Arab society. The management will look after the special character of the place,
but this should not prevent Jewish guests and visitors from abroad from staying there too.

2. A Culture & Study Convention Center.

The core of this center will serve as a Community Center for the village of Bir'am, the Kibbutzim Bar'am and Sasa, Moshav Dovev, and the Arab village Gush Halav. As things tand today, there's hardly any communication even between the two Kibbutzim. All cultural activities are conducted within the Kibbutz and fail to draw outside participation. Much of the creative ability of the Kibbutz members themselves is unrealized and wasted. As for Dovev and Gush Halav there's no cultural or youth activity whatsoever. The Center, though, has further aims, it is planned so as to enable it grow and become a spiritual activity center for more and larger spheres. Its aims will be as follows:

a. To bring about an encounter between people who are ideologically, sociologically, religiously, or nationally opposed to each other.

b) To cause people to cope with personal or social problems, from a discussion about the problems of aging in modern society to the problems of the "underprivileged' or the Arab Israeli conflict. To ensure that the center would become in time self-supporting, we propose that its facilities will be made available to seminaries and conventions including refresher courses initiated by the ministries of Education and Labour, and also by private industries. We also propose to have there conventions initiated by religious establishments, national and international.

We'd like to stress the important fact that the manpower needed to run, supervise and instruct this activity, is already available among the people of Bir'am. They aim to form a professional managing team, aided by a volunteer work team consisting of Arab and Jewish experts, who will prepare the activities in any actual subject which may arise.

Volunteer Center:

Last year some 8000 young people came as volunteers from abroad. Among them some 6000 non-Jews. These volunteers came to the Kibbutzim both to work and to learn about the country and its inhabitants. Outside the Kibbutz it is next to impossible to find lodgings and work of this type. There's a paradox here. Most Kibbutzim are in a better financial situation than many other citizens in the country, and yet they are the ones who get cheap labour. The other point is, that after a while the Kibbutz members are unable to receive the young volunteers into the "bosom of the family", so to speak. This is understandable, as it is very difficult for a kibbutz member to be constantly open and ready for new encounters with so many young people year in year out. That is why one of the main goals, that of bringing people from various background together is being missed, and a lot of good will lost.

At Bir'am we propose to establish, for the first time in Israel, a special center for volunteers. During the first years they will help in the restoration of Bir'am and the building of the Convention Center. This help is not only an essential contribution to the project, but will also give the volunteers the feeling that they are fulfilling an important task. Many young people from abroad say that they would come to Israel if they knew that their work would serve both Jews and Arabs alike. Later these volunteers will work in the Moshavim and in landscaping projects in the area. In the evenings they will have lectures about the country and its inhabitants, and will participate in the cultural, sporting and recreation activities, together with the other guests of the resort Village. The main thing, though, is that the variety of the guests in the triple Center, will enable them to meet all sorts of different peole, most of whom being on holiday will be relaxed and open to new encounters.

Occupations of the People of Bir'am.

According to our research at least 150 families from among the displaced peole of Bir'am wish to resettle in the village. The Culture & Study Convention Center, will need both educated and unskilled manpower. This will be one source of income. As for further sources, we propose the following:
The people of Bir'am have recently made a statistic survey of age, education and occupations. The survey proves that in fact only 6 of the males still work in agriculture - they are herdsmen. There's some land destined for what is called "Improved Grazing" sheep keeping. These can support a number of families. (The details of all these proposals have been checked by us with the help of experts).
Others who would wish to make a living in agriculture can turn to branches which don't require much land, for example - bee-keeping - for which the woods, orchards, and winter meadows of the Galilee will supply plenty of food. Another branch could be medical and seasoning herbs, in which there are very good prospects of export.

The large number or artisans among the people of Bir'am will enable them to develop a workshop-center, which will serve the whole area. We hope that some entrepreneurs will start industries, and that they will get the necessary permission to do so, in the Industrial Center - Meron-Junction. The rest of the settlers will have to go on working outsides the village until work will be found for them within it.

Financing

At this stage there are only two remarks to be made.
The manpower required for the foundation development, the village restoration and the center, will be enlisted mainly from the people of Bir'am. Many young volunteers have promised to join them, once a decision of restoration of Bir'am has been made effective. The rest of the money required will come in part from organizations abroad, with which we are already negotiating. Another part will come out of the recompensation payments which the people of Bir'am will get from the Government. It's logical to assume that the more solvent ones among the people of Bir'am would wish to invest money in the restoration too.

 

A Note about Iqrit in 2002:
Bir'am (Maronite Christians) is always mentioned
together with Ikrit (Greek Orthodox Christians),
a former village about 20 km west of Bir'am.
For several months I had worked with the villagers
- most of them displaced in the nearby village Rama -
as well as with the representatives of the Jewish settlements on Iqrit lands
and with the Regional Council of Ma'ona.
The Jewish representatives were extremely difficult, to the extent,
that one Friday afternoon, I left a meeting crying.
I still see the then lonely road down towards the sunset above the Mediterrenean,
on my way to Nahariyah, where I had placed my children with friends for Shabbat.


Photo taken on 2002_09_23, when Efrat drove us back from the Ma'alot Sculpting Festival

Later one of the men even apologized to me:
"When you were gone, we thought, that we really had been too harsh on you."
But this didn't change their adamant opposition to my efforts to win them over.
The Iqrit people too refused to cooperate and I decided to work only with Bir'am.


The junction which leads to what is now the nature reserve Bir'am.

 

The old village which will be, according to our proposals, partly reconstructed
and part of the Culture and Recreation Center will be located in it.

1 = Synagogue / 2 = Church / 3 = a space for various purposes / 4 = Center for volunteers / 5 = Library
6 = Place for Conventions and Meetings / 7 = Museum / 8 = Clubhouse / 9 = Shops etc. / 10=Restaurants etc.,
11 = [print blurred] / 12= Guest Houses / 13 = Guest Houses for Families / 14 = Playground / 15 = ? - theatre

 

The properity, status, and satisfaction
which the people of Bir'am will derive
from the success of the developing projects in their village
will prove to them and to us
that it is possible to transform past curses into future blessings.

Who knows, perhaps the people of Bir'am will in future be the pioneers of Arab society.

The second aim, that of creating common interest, will also be attained.
The level of culture, public services and status of the whole region will be elevated.
This situation is bound to draw and generate superior manpower,
and personalities who will in their turn create spiritual influence centers,
for the benefit and development of the whole ares.

"Naftali was - on and off - my main Jewish partner in "Partnership""
May 16, 2014: I just skipped through his "On the left side"
and find this irritating info by Amos Gwirtz,
also a member of "Partnership" in the seventies.

April 2010

I finally have the emotional strength and the time to "drive backward into the future"
and re-read the 120 pages from among the 167 pages of my "Political Diary"
from November 1976 till November 1977.
It was - in Israel - the time between the government of the Labor
and the government of the Liqud, with Menachem Begin at its head.
It was - for me - the time between working alone - though with many helpers - on my Bir'am Model
(the people of Bir'am after Begin came to power:
"Rachel, let go of your model, we don't need it any longer, for Begin will give us our village on a silver-plate..."
and the move towards an organization and all the waste of time connected with keeping it up.

I don't know, where the first 47 pages have gone.
At that time I always made 7 copies of each page,
sent the original to Nimr Ismair and five more to other "partners"
and left the worst copy for myself.


It's hard to believe, that I not only did all the things,
which are listed and described in the Diary,
but that I found the time to document them in type-writing.

It is still extremely painful to read all that,
not so much because in the end all my superhuman endeavors seem to have failed,
but because of the price I paid by denying so much of my needs for freedom and joy,
and because of the price my children, especially my daughter, had to pay.
Though she said to Mona, my friend, during the months of "divorce" - Sept. 1980-April 1981,
that "I have no complaints against my mother, she was always there for us!"
she would not say that today, after she became aware of the terrible things she had denied.
The divorce, by the way, I initiated much, much too late, having believed so pathetically,
that I couldn't create the conditions for "partnership" between Arabs and Jews,
if I couldn't create the third and crucial condition between me and my husband:
"E Q U A L I T Y     I N     S E L F - R E S P E C T ".


Most of those 120 pages will now go to the garbage-bin.
I have learnt my lessons through all those endeavors and sufferings.
And I know that nothing can be done on the exterior level,
or - worse - if anything would be done - it would soon lead to a regression,
as long as all involved actors are not whole,
are not taking total responsibility for whatever happens ,
be it on the planet,
be it between Jews and Palestinians,
be it between Governments and citizens,
be it between so-called peace-workers ,
be it between the members of families,
be it between me and myself.



I'm going to spare a few pages from destruction ~~ to exemplify,
that if ever anybody has given all his heart and mind to CHANGE,
then it was that Rachel Rosenzweig, today Christa-Rachel Bat-Adam.

The first page inserted here (but I'm not continuing with commenting...)
talks about a meeting with "Gush Emunim",
then the organization with the ideology most opposed to my own.
I'm surprised to read the word "computer" at such an early time.
"Gush Emunim will have a computer for processing and categorizing data and names"....
I say, that claiming "they have money and we don't" , will not excuse us.
And I quote the title of an essay, which I once had to write at school:
"The World shall not go down the drain
because of the strength of the wicked,
but because of the weakness of the good."
(Napoleon)

During the last weeks of December 1976 till January 10, 1977,
I also was over-burdened
with finishing the edition of the German version of my book:
"All Israel are guarantors for each other".
I told everyone, that I would be "out" during these weeks,
but see, how this "out" looked like.....