Comedy for Peace™...  >  Comedy For Peace™ - How did it originate it anyway ...

In October 2004 the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem asked if they could organize a Comedy for Peace^TM show. 60 people came, half Palestinian, half Israeli. They laughed at jokes about the serious issues they live with -- checkpoints and suicide bombers, honor killing and cavity searches, surveillance and occupation -- and they all laughed. After the show we learned it had been close to three years since the Consulate had been able to get the two sides together. They came because of comedy. Comedy made both sides see what they had in common. Comedy helped members of one tribe see things through the other tribes eyes.

In the wake of the rise of al Qaeda, the war in Iraq and the struggle between Israelis and Palestinians, the need for peace has never been greater. Yet never have the two sides been so far apart: Israelis and Palestinians, Arabs and Jews have largely become blind and deaf to each other. Each side feels they alone are the victim... They alone know the truth... Only their version of history is the correct one. Hope has been buried under hate and depression, cynicism and exhaustion. People on both sides may have yearned for hope but were too just too scared of having their hearts broken again to admit it.

And yet, there is still hope.

The status quo is changing in the Holy Land: new political leadership is bringing new hope; old problems are being looked at in new ways.  It is a time of both great possible reward and great risk.

Comedy for Peace^TM aims to support this movement towards peaceful co-existence by helping each side recognize their common humanity. It will use humor to get the antagonists to laugh at themselves, to laugh with each other and to see their struggle from their antagonists' perspective -- the first step in any conflict resolution process.

Even before the end of the Arafat era Comedy for Peace^TM was getting extraordinary support from individuals and organizations on all sides. And now its potential to play an important part at this extraordinary time has increased exponentially.

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Olive Harvest in the West Bank