The Process of Peace Renovation
By Lydia Aisenberg
December 1, 2009
Jewish and Arab youth coming together to create an outdoor symbol of peace is one thing, but keeping it in good shape when having to face wet and windy winters and fiercely hot summers, is quite another.
Over a period of a few weeks in July and August, 2004, twenty-four young Jewish, Muslim and Christian teenage Israelis took upon themselves to turn a massive tree trunk into what they called a Peace Tree. The enormous trunk was that of a 100 hundred year old eucalyptus tree uprooted in a vicious storm in a nearby kibbutz, Ein Shemer.
Etti Amram, director of the Givat Haviva Art Center and Peace Gallery, requested that the felled tree be brought to Givat Haviva where it was sculpted into what has in latter years become a symbol of the campus, towering above the main lawn.
The Peace Tree project began with a long weekend. The 24 youths and the three artists who worked with them, Amir Baumfeld and Shlomo Harel - both of whom Jewish - and Harubi Fadul, a Druze from the Western Galilean village of Peki'in - got to know each other and began working on a rough sketch of how they wanted to fashion their joint Peace Tree.
Daily standing ankle deep in curly wood shavings, patiently tapping away at the trunk with hammer and chisel, the hardworking tree team crafted doves, outstretched hands, dolphin and other symbols of peace. Finally the Peace Tree emerged, eventually triumphantly hauled to its feet by a large crane and set in a bed of concrete.
In recent times – as with the peace process in general – large cracks began to appear in the Peace Tree. The protective coats of varnish peeled away in the intense summer heat, morning dew and rain, rotting the very symbol made from the heart by Jews, Arabs, Christians and a Druze - together.
With the 60th anniversary celebrations of Givat Haviva on the horizon, the rather forlorn looking Peace Tree was brought back to its former glory by Givat Haviva Art Center staff members. Over a period of four days, the Peace Tree underwent a total make-over involving stripping it down to its bare necessities, the filling in of the deep cracks and the application of a few layers of varnish to keep out the destructive elements for some years to come.
Using a hydraulic platform, the industrious restorers covered every inch of the birds, their friends and outstretched hands of peace of the Peace Tree. The symbol of peace successfully acquired a new shiny coat of brown color. It now stands proudly for all to see, photograph and be photographed alongside.
What a shame the much needed renewal of the peace process itself cannot be fashioned in the same way!