A school for peace

In East Jerusalem's northern suburb of Beit Hanina stands the private Jerusalem School, which has a penchant for peace.  It has 700 students in K through 12, most of them Palestinian Muslims. (Its sister school in the southern suburb of Beit Jala has 300 students, mostly Palestinian Christians.) Surprisingly  all classes are in English, except for the Arabic and Hebrew language classes, and many of the teachers are Americans. In grades 7-12 they use only I-pads, no books.

Learning peace is an integral element of the school's purpose, according to this poster in the lobby.

Mural of peace with international tree in courtyard

Jerusalem School playground

Today Jerusalem School was holding its third annual Peace Day observance. One event was a program in the auditorium  by Peter Lawrence (of "Peter, Paul, and Mary"), who sang some protest songs and counseled the students to apply some lessons of the U.S. civil rights movement.

Peter Lawrence

As part of the Peace Day events, a dozen NGOs told their stories. I  presented EAPPI at the invitation of a student I met at the Qalandiya checkpoint.

At tables in the lobby, we helped students fill out their questionnaires asking "What do you do?" "Where do you work?" and "What do you hope to accomplish." To keep the answers simple for them to write down, I replied "monitor human rights," "East  Jerusalem and the West Bank," and "end the occupation."

Then I had the opportunity to make two 30-minute presentations, first to a 7th grade, then to a 12th grade. The students expressed great interest in EAPPI's work and asked many questions. They are indeed being prepared to work for peace.

Meeting with 12th grade students