Activism
Clarification Regarding The Home's Modes of Activism and Their Purpose:
Changing The Dynamics: The following three activities are the main tactics and practices The Home employs. They are primarily intended to change the prevailing dynamics of the traditional peace process by influencing it through the direct and exclusive involvement of the people in our Land.
Local Exclusivity: The Home emphasizes the need to exclude foreign stakeholders from the process, which, despite their good will and willingness to help, interfere with the healthy engagement that should naturally develop between the local populations.
Freedom Of Speech & Freedom Of Choice: The Home operates with the understanding that as these actions take place, expand, and grow, so too will the inter-communal ties between Israelis and Palestinians between the river and the sea, along with awareness regarding critical issues related to freedom of choice and freedom of expression that are essential to the beginning of the process.
Meetings and Joint Thinking Sessions
Our meetings are exclusively open to locals, Israelis and Palestinians from all over the Land, with an emphasis on the integration of residents from the Jewish and the Palestinian communities in Judea & Samaria (the West Bank), placing these neighboring, and often hostile communities, as the main focus.
The Meetings:
It all begins with bringing together and building interpersonal trust and mutual respect between residents from neighboring, sometimes hostile, communities with different cultures at the same table and in the same room, knowing that the discourse will be often challenging and not simple. In these meetings, there is a short round of introductions and a coordination of expectations among all participants, planning future events, and an open dialogue based on radical listening on issues related to identity, history, the reality on both sides, and political alternatives to the existing status quo. The concentration of efforts focuses on residents from nearby communities on the assumption that the geographical proximity and the local interests that these residents share, will increase the chances of maintaining reoccurring follow-up meetings and strengthening the connection between themselves.
The Goal
The main purpose of these meetings is to bring people from different identities, opinions and communities together and to observe how each one fits into the big picture that makes up our overall reality in the Land. This is all towards the goal of collective decision making in a manner that expresses unity, rather than uniformity, from a place of embracing differences.
The Big Picture
Metaphorically, the result of peace is like the finished product of a large puzzle. There are many pieces in this puzzle, but none of them are the same. It is impossible to start the work of assembling the picture without assembling all the different parts of the puzzle into the place first. If you try and force the puzzle pieces where they don’t belong, you will not succeed in finishing the puzzle.
Each part is different and unique in itself.
This puzzle is the variety of beliefs, political perceptions, opinions, identities, and cultures of the people of our Land.
This is not about bringing the other side to our side, but about bringing each other to something bigger, both from “them” and from “us.
Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook (1865-1935):
“Humans are mistakenly believing that peace in our world means that everyone will share the same worldview and think the same way. True peace, on the other hand, comes precisely from the prosperity of diverse conceptions. When all the different sides of the issue are exposed and we are able to clarify the place of each one – that is the meaning of true peace.”
Freedom of Expression
Creating an open dialogue exclusively for the locals of any political persuasion, providing a platform to the opinion leaders who are usually excluded from and even rejected by traditional peace organizations; with an emphasis on promoting the freedom of expression of Judea & Samaria/West Bank Palestinians who are silenced under the dictatorial system of the Palestinian Authority.
Breaking The Echo Chambers
The Home encourages freedom of expression, civil discourse, freedom of information, and breaking out of echo Chambers, particularly to expose the various components of the “big picture” and bringing them to the same stage for joint public discussion in a series of conferences and meetings titled: On the Stage – From Echo Chambers to Open Conversation.
Ending The Silencing
As part of the struggle for freedom of expression, The Home challenges various factors that suppress freedom of expression and open discussion, enforcing a reality that prevents the formation of a framework for ideological clarification and connection between Israelis and Palestinians. For example: The Palestinian Authority, Hamas, boycott movements, and any movement or public figure that employs methods which usurp the right of the people to have freedom of expression and unfiltered public discussions about the future of our Land.
Local Influence
The Home hosts discussions that take place in public forums via conferences and social media that provide a platform for ideas and possible alternatives to the current status quo. This provides an opportunity for further clarification and the learning of differing perceptions regarding matters of history, identity, and the reality on the ground.
Local Discussion
The door of The Home is open to all opinion leaders in our Land, for a comprehensive and local discussion. In addition to the people who see eye to eye with us, we also invite those who we have disagreements with and who oppose the ideological outlines that we are promoting to these discussions. Out of respect of controversy and in order to clarify major issues, The Home is open to a discussion with any opinion leader and on any political plans, including those that do not match, and even contradict, our political vision.
The Information Revolution
The present is not a permanent state, and the reality continues to evolve before our eyes. What was true yesterday is not necessarily true today. Although the war between us has lasted for decades, the Palestinians and the Israelis belong to one Semitic family and share common roots of hundreds and thousands of years. Although the internet, institutionalized media and social media can demonize, incite and divide, they can also potentially do the positive opposite. Thanks to the information revolution of our time, the hatred, indifference, ignorance and war between us will not remain forever.
“Cleaning the Hate” is the main activity of The Home, combining meetings, promoting open conversations through freedom of expression and unifying action for a cause greater than all of us – the environment. This is all to signify the love of the homeland and the sanctity of our Land, Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Our environment cleaning operation is intended initially for locals, Israelis and Palestinians, and its purpose is to build trust, practically and psychologically, between residents from Jewish and Arab communities throughout the Land and the world through the expression of respect for man and land.
The Essence Of CTH (Cleaning The Hate)
In this activity, people from the different identities, cultures, and beliefs, clean the Land in order to build trust and unity, especially among residents of neighboring and often hostile communities at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Not out of uniformity – but out of respect of our differences.
Some clean out of love for the homeland.
Some clean out of care for nature and the environment.
Some clean out of faith in G-d, the holiness of the Land, Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.
The beliefs and approaches are different, but the action is the same. Whatever the reason may be, we are working together for a greater purpose than all of us. Our Land, whether we see it as a homeland, nature reserve, or Holy Land, is something greater than all of the different cultures, identities, and human beings who live on it – Israeli or Palestinian.
It is a right and privilege to live in our Land. Therefore, it must be treated accordingly.
The Home Test
A. Do People have the right to claim that the Land is their home as long as they desecrate its honor and treat it as a landfill or an ashtray?
B. Does a person have the right to complain about the reality as long as he has not taken responsibility in order to make the Land a cleaner and better place to live for the sake of all its inhabitants?
C. If you have chosen to oppose the cleaning of our home – then it is probably not your home.
King Solomon Trial
Book of Kings 1, Chapter 3
24. And the king said: ‘Fetch me a sword.’ And they brought a sword before the king. 25. And the king said: ‘Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.’ 26. Then spoke the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her heart yearned upon her son, and she said: ‘Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it.’ But the other said: ‘It shall be neither mine nor thine; divide it.’ 27. Then the king answered and said: ‘Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof.’
King Solomon Trial:
The woman who chose the division of the child failed in her argument for the right to motherhood.
The Home Trial:
The people who choose the division of their homeland fail in the argument about their right to the Land.
The Home Verdict:
Trash for Peace instead of Territories for Peace.
Unity Instead Of Division
The Land will not allow itself to be divided. Just as nobody will allow to divide what is most precious to them, the people of the Land who belong to it will not agree to divide their homeland. Therefore, instead of dividing our Land and territories for peace, we choose the unity of the Land and collection of trash for peace.
The Battle For Consciousness
As part of the struggle for consciousness, entities that will boycott, oppose or sabotage actions to clean up our Land, will expose themselves to be hypocritical and illegitimate, since whoever on the one hand claims rights to the Land, but on the other hand opposes the preservation of nature, environment and soil – is the same as the fake mother from the King Solomon Trial.
Preservation Of The Land
Preserving the dignity of our Land through its physical cleanliness is the basis for joint and separate actions to build trust among the residents of different communities throughout our Land, especially between the hostile communities in the heart of the Land. The activities are done together and separately, in order to express the commonalities, as well as the differences and uniqueness of each culture and community.
Shrinking The Conflict
As an organization, The Home puts itself to the test of patience and perseverance. The conflict will not come to an end overnight, but on the other hand it is also impossible to manage it forever without bearing its negative consequences. We intend to reduce and cleanse the Land of hatred between people and its pollution by taking steps to reducing the conflict and expanding ties between residents from neighboring and often hostile communities.
The garbage and cigarette butts found all over our Land are opportunities to create a process of reconnection.
Cleaning The Hate: Unity from the bottom up.