YouTube films for World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel

From the convenor for the World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel, to be held from 29 May to 4 June 2011:

A number of partners around the world have been working together to create new resources for our common use during World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel, to be held from 29 May to 4 June 2011.  These new resources reflect this year's shared focus on the city of Jerusalem.

As a contribution to these resources, we invite partners and individuals or groups around the world to send brief YouTube films (1-2 minutes) to our partners in Jerusalem/Bethlehem in which a message of solidarity, prayer or concern is expressed on the theme of Jerusalem and the need for a just peace for this city and its people.

The film can offer for instance an image of a person speaking, but could also involve other scenes such as that of an event in your community.  The films will contribute to an occasion on 4 June in Bethlehem when in the evening an ecumenical service for a just peace in Jerusalem will be followed by a candle procession along the Jerusalem-Bethlehem checkpoint and a meeting near the Wall.  At this meeting the denial of access to Jerusalem will be the main speakers’ topic.  The YouTube films will be shown on a white space painted on the Wall in front of a local Palestinian and international community attending this event.  In order to be available for use at this event, we invite you to place the film on You Tube not later than 3 June, 16:00 Jerusalem time.

There is not necessarily a need to make artistic productions (though these are welcome as well); the simple human message is most important.  The preferred language is English.  Please inform Toine van Teeffelen/AEI in Bethlehem and John Calhoun, the Week’s convenor, with a cc to the Arab Educational Institute, about any film that is placed on YouTube, including the URL.

The links to the films may also be made available on the website of the WCC so that they can also be used for other occasions in the context of the Week.  However, for that latter purpose they need to be made available preferably before the beginning of the Week, on 29 May.

Our contact group in Jerusalem-Bethlehem will themselves contribute a 4 minute YouTube film especially made for World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel, in which the denial of access to Jerusalem will be discussed, including brief interviews with youths walking along the Wall, a mock “gate” painted on the Wall, a Palestinian women’s choir, and scenes from the situation around Rachel’s Tomb.  This film will be ready before the beginning of the Week.

Many thanks for your consideration, and we look forward to hearing from you.