Rayek Rizek, modelling peaceful coexistence in Israel-Palestine The Compassionate Leadership Interview
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Rayek Rizek is Author of the book The Anteater and the Jaguar, former mayor of Neve Shalom/Wahat Assalam, and owner of Café Ahlan in that community. Born in 1955 in Nazareth to a Palestinian Christian family, he has been living in the Jewish-Palestinian village of Wahat Assalam (Arabic)/Neve Shalom (Hebrew)/ Oasis of Peace (English) since 1984.
The community is unique because it is the only community in Israel where Palestinians and Jews chose to live together consciously. The founder Father Bruno Hussar (1911-1996), a Nobel Prize nominee, believed that Jews, Christians and Muslims could share the country in peaceful coexistence. He did not have a predetermined formula for how that might be achieved, but he founded the community to explore how it might happen.
Father Bruno’s original request to establish a community, in 1976, was not approved by the state, but by 1984 when Rayek and his wife Dyana came to the site, there were five couples and ten single people living there (It was eventually recognised by the state in 1988). Bruno encouraged people not to worry how the community was to be managed and how their children should be educated. He believed answers to those questions would arise in time, and so it has proved.
There are mixed neighbourhoods in other Israeli towns, but in Neve Shalom/Wahat Assalam, members of the community chose to live together. And they choose to talk with one another in order to understand their differences and needs. That is not to say that agreement has been reached on every issue, and the regular influx of new arrivals means that the debate will always be ongoing.
After finishing High School, Rayek went to the USA in 1975. He returned to Nazareth in 1981 and a year later met his wife Dyana. It was she who introduced him to Wahat Assalam/Neve Shalom. They joined the community in 1984 and have been there ever since.
Rayek studied for a Masters Degree in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution at Bradford University 2000-2001 and subsequently made a start on a PhD at Coventry – he didn’t complete it because of a shortage of funds. At Coventry, Professor Andrew Rigby (@CTPSR_Coventry) encouraged him to read about other intentional/alternative communities. It helped him put his own community in context.
Rayek came to appreciate Father Bruno more during his studies. Bruno never took the role of guru, even though he was much older than the other community members, but chose instead to learn alongside them about living in peace. This meant that the community was self-sustaining when Bruno passed away in 1996 - many such communities fail after the death of the founder, when there are arguments about the intention of the founder. (At the time of Bruno’s passing, the community had 32 families – half Jewish, half Palestinian, all Israeli citizens – a regional bilingual school, a School of Peace, a Spiritual Centre, and a guest house of 40 rooms.)
In 2017 Rayek completed a book ‘The Anteater and the Jaguar’ that tells the story of the Oasis of Peace and what he has learnt there that might contribute to the resolution of the conflict in the Holy Land. The title was inspired by a story that featured in an episode of the David Attenborough series ‘Life on Earth.’ The story is told by a tribe in the Amazon and relates how a Jaguar and Anteater were found locked in a deadly embrace, with the jaguar’s jaw around the anteater’s neck and the anteater’s claws embedded in the big cat’s flanks. For Rayek it articulates the complexity of the situation in Israel/Palestine. Rayek is trilingual, so can follow the evening news on Hebrew, Arabic and English speaking television. He finds it depressing but revealing how alleged ‘experts’ from both sides are stuck with their own positions. In the book he presents possibilities for Jews and Palestinians to liberate themselves from “the deadly hug of the two animals.”
He wanted the book to be positive and...
Rayek Rizek is Author of the book The Anteater and the Jaguar, former mayor of Neve Shalom/Wahat Assalam, and owner of Café Ahlan in that community. Born in 1955 in Nazareth to a Palestinian Christian family, he has been living in the Jewish-Palestinian village of Wahat Assalam (Arabic)/Neve Shalom (Hebrew)/ Oasis of Peace (English) since 1984.
The community is unique because it is the only community in Israel where Palestinians and Jews chose to live together consciously. The founder Father Bruno Hussar (1911-1996), a Nobel Prize nominee, believed that Jews, Christians and Muslims could share the country in peaceful coexistence. He did not have a predetermined formula for how that might be achieved, but he founded the community to explore how it might happen.
Father Bruno’s original request to establish a community, in 1976, was not approved by the state, but by 1984 when Rayek and his wife Dyana came to the site, there were five couples and ten single people living there (It was eventually recognised by the state in 1988). Bruno encouraged people not to worry how the community was to be managed and how their children should be educated. He believed answers to those questions would arise in time, and so it has proved.
There are mixed neighbourhoods in other Israeli towns, but in Neve Shalom/Wahat Assalam, members of the community chose to live together. And they choose to talk with one another in order to understand their differences and needs. That is not to say that agreement has been reached on every issue, and the regular influx of new arrivals means that the debate will always be ongoing.
After finishing High School, Rayek went to the USA in 1975. He returned to Nazareth in 1981 and a year later met his wife Dyana. It was she who introduced him to Wahat Assalam/Neve Shalom. They joined the community in 1984 and have been there ever since.
Rayek studied for a Masters Degree in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution at Bradford University 2000-2001 and subsequently made a start on a PhD at Coventry – he didn’t complete it because of a shortage of funds. At Coventry, Professor Andrew Rigby (@CTPSR_Coventry) encouraged him to read about other intentional/alternative communities. It helped him put his own community in context.
Rayek came to appreciate Father Bruno more during his studies. Bruno never took the role of guru, even though he was much older than the other community members, but chose instead to learn alongside them about living in peace. This meant that the community was self-sustaining when Bruno passed away in 1996 - many such communities fail after the death of the founder, when there are arguments about the intention of the founder. (At the time of Bruno’s passing, the community had 32 families – half Jewish, half Palestinian, all Israeli citizens – a regional bilingual school, a School of Peace, a Spiritual Centre, and a guest house of 40 rooms.)
In 2017 Rayek completed a book ‘The Anteater and the Jaguar’ that tells the story of the Oasis of Peace and what he has learnt there that might contribute to the resolution of the conflict in the Holy Land. The title was inspired by a story that featured in an episode of the David Attenborough series ‘Life on Earth.’ The story is told by a tribe in the Amazon and relates how a Jaguar and Anteater were found locked in a deadly embrace, with the jaguar’s jaw around the anteater’s neck and the anteater’s claws embedded in the big cat’s flanks. For Rayek it articulates the complexity of the situation in Israel/Palestine. Rayek is trilingual, so can follow the evening news on Hebrew, Arabic and English speaking television. He finds it depressing but revealing how alleged ‘experts’ from both sides are stuck with their own positions. In the book he presents possibilities for Jews and Palestinians to liberate themselves from “the deadly hug of the two animals.”
He wanted the book to be positive and...
46 min