10000 Kites, the most ambitious art-for-peace event to take
place in the Middle East, was conceived in July 2004,
when two artists, one Israeli and one Palestinian, heard
about a Palestinian child flying a kite amidst the rubble
of his war-torn neighborhood in Qalqilya. Support for
the plan, to fly 10000 kites on either side of the separation
wall, was enlisted from many American communities. The
Drachen Foundation made a financial contribution to the
project and created lessons for teachers. It also developed
a kite, based on a design by Robert Trepanier and dubbed
the "Peace Kite," in honor of the event.
On May 19 and 20, 2005, according to event organizers, "more
than 30,000 kites painted with messages of peace were flown
from Metula to Ayalot, Anata in the West Bank, and in Rahma,
Jordan. 10,000 Arab citizens of Israel participated in the
project, including 4,000 from Taibe and Baka el Garbiya who
flew kites by the barrier. 3,000 Palestinians participated
in kite making workshops, and in the first week of June hundreds
of Palestinians flew kites in Nablus, Jenin, Tul Karem, and
East Jerusalem. More than 30 kite flying events took place
in America, Canada, and England from April to June 2005 in
solidarity with Israelis and Palestinians."
In the words of Executive Director Yael Samuel, "The
idea was to get as many people as possible to fly kites along
the barrier, but the focus was on process and not product.
The process was one of bringing organizers to communities
in hundreds of locations to conduct workshops to teach children
and adults how to use art as a vehicle to express their hopes,
dreams, and fears, and to communicate those feelings to others
on the other side of the barrier...These kite making workshops
brought people together from all fabric of society: rich
and poor, Arab and Jew, Christian, Moslem, and Druze; the
handicapped; cancer patients; recovering substance abusers
in drug rehabilitation centers; children with learning disabilities;
at risk youth; the elderly; recent Ethiopian immigrants;
holocaust survivors; prisoners; Jewish and Arab children
below the poverty line; Bedouin children who live in difficult
conditions and have to travel a great distance to get to
school; parents whose children were killed in suicide bombings
and by violence on both sides...At each workshop participants
worked on an individual kite and in groups of 8 on a larger
kite. Three giant kites, 21 feet by 42 feet, patchworks of
400 kites, traveled from workshop to workshop. At the conclusion
of the workshops, the participants raised the giant kites
in a group lift off, in essence making this a continual kite
flying event, and not just one culminating in a single day."
The hope that the project could also proceed officially
on the West Bank went unfulfilled. Palestinian community
leaders decided that their participation would be seen as
collaborating with their occupier. Despite this disappointment,
organizers consider the visionary project a success. Co-chair
Suzanne Marks said, "We all came away with more awareness
of the other, and consequently more understanding. A road
to peace."
To learn more about this ongoing project, check the organization's
website, www.10000kites.org.
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Peace Kites by students
at The Northwest School, Seattle
Cathy Palmer
Palestinian and Israeli
children make first kites
10000kites.org
Palestinian and Israeli children
10000kites.org
10000 Kites poster at SICF
10000kites.org |
