image by Ana_Cotta

11 Questions is an ongoing feature where you, the reader, tell us all about a project you are working on to create a more functional, just, and beautiful future. Then we share your project on The Sunny Way. To tell us about your project, either fill out the survey, or copy the questions below and email your answers to us. We look forward to featuring your good work soon!

Your location
Tel Aviv, Israel

Your project’s name
Israeli & Palestenian women gathering beyond cultural divides

What are you creating with this project? What are your goals?
The main goal is to break the barriers between us, particularly now as the willingness for sane co-existence seems to be evaporating with the continuing rise of extremism, militancy and despair on both sides—Israeli and Palestinian. Currently, we’ve only met in seperate groups once, and next week we’ll meet for the first time all together. We will then explore what shared project we’d like to embark on together, besides the very imporatant and essential issue of building some trust and getting to simply know each other.

How did you get started?
An organization called Windows for Peace is creating the conditions for women from Israel, the West Bank and Israeli Arab area, to spend a day or a whole weekend once a month for the following year, and freely decide what project would be dear to our hearts to do together. So far there have only been meetings in the various 3 places to get to introduce ourselves and what are our specific motivation, hopes and possible apprehensions from embarking on this adventure together.

What’s your next milestone? How are you getting there?
Next Friday we are meeting with the Palestenian women first time, in Tel Aviv—we hope to more clearly formulate what we’d like to achieve together.

Is this an individual or a team project? How did you assemble your team? How do you work together? Do you work with other organizations?
This is a team project. People just heard that Windows for Peace is organzing such a womens’ group—and the news spread from word to mouth, quite naturally.

We’re moved that in spite of the recent horrid, failing war on Gaza, there are still some Palestinian women willing to meet with Israeli women, though it’s really getting harder to find such interest at the moment.

Why are you doing this? Why is this project important to you? How does it fit into the big picture?
Particularly now, the only way to find new solutions to the augmenting hopeless situation in our part of the world, building human bridges and unify instead of drift apart in hate and seperation is the most inspiring thing to do, the most sane and worthwhile too.

Describe how readers can contribute to or participate in your project
I think once we have a clearer sense of defining our project, if it’s successful, I could envision it extending further to other locations in the Middle East, even virtually as needed, so getting that off the ground might be something readers could support in various ways.

Altogether, if what we do inspires others to reach across barriers wherever they are or also maybe help with finding those interested in such a project would be quite a valuable think in the larger picture.

How can The Sunny Way support your activities?
Remains to be seen by the nature of our project, but I don’t excluse the possibility of having a larger participatory forum or blog where people can share their experiences of breaking our walls, and develop new venue for higher consciousness together. Sky’s the limit!