The Peace Tent Project
a letter from Dorit Bat Shalom

Today the crisis in Israel and Palestine is creating a feeling of helplessness for peace-workers worldwide.  This situation has brought me to a place where I see a need to create more circles of people to raise consciousness and to raise solidarity between international peace groups.   As an artist and psychodrama therapist (living in Israel and the United States), I am writing to share about my project—a traveling “Peace Tent” in the United States.  This “Peace Tent” is developed in the spirit of “Peace Tents” in which I continue to participate in Israel.  These “Peace Tents” facilitate dialogue, healing, and help to create an environment for peace.

The “Peace Tent” Project is founded on an ancient tradition of gathering in circle to create soolcha (the Arabic word for “resolution/forgiveness”) between parties.  Today, Palestinians, Arabs and Israelis use the tradition to move beyond politics and meet in a place of listening, forgiveness and embracing each other’s pain and concern.  In our “Peace Tent” we are creating a sacred space that divides the world of right and wrong from the place of closeness and truth.  It is a space that allows us to experience mifgash (the Hebrew word for “encounter.”) 

My “Peace Tent” differs from others elsewhere in the world, in that it is designed to be an art installation that moves the viewer to a deeper consciousness of the Israeli/Palestinian experience and also a seminar environment that creates safety and familiarity for the participants.

A “Peace Tent” is now on exhibit in Colorado Springs, CO, has also been on exhibit in Fort Collins and Boulder, CO; Berkeley and Willits, CA; Taos and Albuquerque, NM; as well as many places in Israel.  This “Peace Tent” is unique in that the Tent and the art installation are designed to create a sanctuary to wake up the symbols of ancient archetypes from within participants. This is done through the use of multi-colored hangings of cloth, decorative Arabic door and wall trimmings with pillows and carpets on the floor.  It is a place for healing through arts, such as psychodrama, music, dance, and poetry readings, which use themes based on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, as part of each event.

 In the art installation, participants are led through a journey through images.  There are images from the Holocaust, Terrors of Repression that depict the history and faces out of which the present political situation in Israel was created.  There are also archetypal symbols connecting the ancient traditions of the Kabbalistic and Sufi Mystics to the wisdom of the heart, and images of the Faces of the Crowd, which depict Palestinian, Arab, Bedouin and Israeli women and children, to speak their words with their eyes, acting as witnesses and bridge-builders to all the events that take place in the “Peace Tent.”  The art installation presents the lineage of influence that works on the most deeply rooted senses in our psyches.  In the Tent, there is one entire wall devoted to images showing rage and fear, images that are invited into the “Peace Tent” to be healed.

All events in the Tent are based on experiential encounters.  The surrounding art installation inspires performances, improvisations, and monologues.  Simple events like Zikr (the Sufi Prayer of Remembrance) or Peace Dancing can take place there.  The important aspect is to recognize the connection between the visual and experiential environments that the process is directly related to the events taking place in the Middle East.

I would like to invite your participation in this “Peace Tent” Project, by becoming one of our supporters.  We need to build a network to help expand the solidarity between peace groups.  Now is the time. 

I hope you will help me fund this project, or suggest a place where we can bring our peace tent to your community.   Your invaluable assistance would enable us to carry this project forward.  To view some of the pieces of the last Exhibition, please visit my website at http://globalspiritdesigns.com/Bat-Shalom/ 

If you have questions, or would like to discuss this project further, please feel free to call me at (707) 621-1025 (in California) or 011-972-5-255-8969 (when I am in Israel). 
Thank you for your consideration. 

                                                                        Sincerely,

                                                                        Dorit Bat Shalom