‘Oasis of Peace’ in wartime

Wahat al-Salam/Neve Shalom is a unique community located on a hilltop between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, where Jewish and Palestinian families have lived together since the late 1970s. Mike Lanchin first visited the community in the early 1980s when there was just a handful of Jews and Palestinian families living in makeshift houses poking out from the scrub land. Now, it boasts a fully bilingual-binational day school - the first of its kind – with children coming from the surrounding area, as well as a conflict resolution centre visited by Palestinians and Jews. Facilitators from the centre host inter-faith workshops outside the community. More than forty years after its establishment, Wahat al-Salam/Neve Shalom today faces some of its most testing times following the October 7 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, Over the past months, Mike has been speaking to residents, young and old, about what the future now holds for this cross-community experiment. Ramez, a 26-year-old Palestinian, tells Mike: “As bad as the situation is, we can still have a conversation about it. And this is something that is unique.” 24-year-old Adam, who’s Jewish says: “Now it's really important to keep the dialogue alive, to keep the formal meetings alive, and, you know, to have a real community, not just to live next door to each other.” Mike speaks to one of the founders of the community, Nava Sonnenschein, and to the Palestinian feminist and co-director, Samah Salaime. What hope do they see in the community for future generations?