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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May-June 2008, page 72 Waging Peace Middle East Peace Group Meets in DC
NEARLY 50 Middle East peace leaders descended on Washington, DC March 10-13 for the fourth annual conference of the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP). The coalition of 55 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), formally incorporated in 2006, promotes people-to-people coexistence, reconciliation, and cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians, and Arabs and Jews in the Middle East. As a coalition, ALLMEP works to raise awareness and increase resources to support these critical projects. According to ALLMEP, since the organization began educating policymakers about the importance of these projects—which include ordinary citizens cooperating in education, medicine, the arts, business, sports, and other areas of life—Congress has doubled U.S. funding for reconciliation programs worldwide and established a new $9 million grant program focused just on the Arab-Israeli conflict. The nearly week-long conference involved strategy meetings and capacity-building sessions, as well as outreach events to private sector foundations in Baltimore, New York, and Washington, DC. NGO leaders held more than 40 meetings with congressional offices, the State Department, Middle East policy groups, and embassies to promote greater support for NGO projects. The highlight of the week was ALLMEP’s 2008 Peacebuilders’ reception on March 12 at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, featuring a performance by the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour before a room full of dignitaries, policymakers, and NGO leaders. The comedians were Ray Hanania, a Palestinian-American journalist and writer; Charley Warady, who grew up near Hanania in Chicago and emigrated to Israel 10 years ago; Aaron Freeman, an African-American Jewish convert from Chicago; and Yisrael Campbell, an Orthodox Jew from Jerusalem (and formerly a Roman Catholic from Philadelphia). The goal of the comedians, who have toured the U.S., Ireland, Israel, and East and West Jerusalem, performing for synagogues, Hillel student groups, faith-based festivals, college campuses, World Affairs Councils, and comedy clubs, is to use the power of laughter and humor to break through animosity and hatred. For more information visit the Web sites <www.allmep.org> and <www.ipcomedytour.com>. —Avi Meyerstein |
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