The Billboard from Bethlehem
On Memorial Day Week End of 2007, I Wage Peace founder and Connecticut native Bruce Barrett, with artist Russell Rainbolt, and Documentary film maker Tom Jackson, joined 100 Israeli and Palestinian children and former Israeli soldiers and former Palestinian armed resisters to hand painted a giant 48-foot long Peace mural in the West Bank of occupied Palestine. The sign was received at religious services in the West Bank and Israel, then shipped to the United States to a Connecticut mosque, a synagogue, and a church, and finally posted on Connecticut Interstate I-95 and RT 84. [Not Sure you want to show the film link]
"Through this billboard we wish to send a message of hope to the Americans and at the same time invite them to be more active in our struggle for peace." says Avner Wishnitzer, an Israeli member of the Peace group Combatants for Peace.
The Israeli Children painting the signs were members of youth peace organizations. "We have invited our children to paint with the Palestinian Children to show them how we in Combatants for Peace bridge controversies and act together towards our common goal", says Avner. The Palestinian children are "the sons of the Palestinian martyrs, orphans, children of very poor families...who used to see the Israelis as soldiers and occupiers. We will bring them to let the Israeli children meet them and to feel their suffering, also to give them the chance to know that there are Israeli children who are willing to live in peace with them," explains Palestinian member of Combatants for Peace, Sulaiman Al Hamri.
The Billboard, measuring 14 feet high and 48 feet long, was painted on Saturday May 26th by the Combatants for Peace together with Palestinian and Israeli Children, at the Everest Hotel, in Beit Jala, outside Bethlehem.
Shown here iside Congregation Mishken Israel, in Hamden CT, the sign depicts an Israeli and a Palestinian throwing down their guns and reaching out to shake hands while their approving children watch every move they make. The caption reads “Make Peace: end the occupation”, with the Web Site of "Combatants for Peace . Org".
The signs are sponsored by "IWagePeace.Org" and "Combatants For Peace.Org." In the U.S., the signs were received at services at the Berlin Mosque, in Berlin CT at 1:00 P.M. on Friday June 8th 2007, at Congregation Mishken Israel (shown above) in Hamden CT on Friday June 8th at 8:00 P.M. and on Sunday, June 10th, 10:30 A.M. at Woodmont United Church of Christ, in Milford CT.
