Yogabeats™ has had a wonderful year in Israel. These are some of the reflections of that ground breaking day on October 18th, 2006 when Palestinian women came to join their Israeli counterparts at the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem. The day was arranged by Adva Rada and Rowan Groof with the help of the Peres Peace Foundation. These are some of the pictures taken on that day - and also David's report.

 

Israel October 2006
 

Yoga Beats Conflict

Report by David Sye

On the 18th October 2006, tensions on the Israeli/Palestinian Borders were at an all time high, (the day before a Palestinian had been shot dead by the Israeli army), but on this day eighteen Palestinians were granted permission to cross the border and meet their counterpart Israeli group. What was extraordinary was that the Israeli army had granted passage to the Palestinians for the sole purpose of practicing…….. Yoga!

What then ensued at the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem went largely unnoticed by the rest of world. In contrast to the extreme tensions within both Palestine and Israel, following the bombing of Lebanon, we watched these two groups hugging and laughing, crying and gossiping together like ordinary women do all over the world and then in a deep silence that embraced us all we meditated together; and an oasis of peace spontaneously dawned within a Jerusalem hotel. All around us the political gymnastics to end the conflict keep meeting with failure…….. but peace had already begun, very quietly, very naturally, without conditions, without Political structures, without bloodshed, without guarantees – simply through a humanity inspired by an ancient philosophy which translates from the Sanskrit Yuj which literally means union or to unite, to bring together. This is simply known today as Yoga.

Some of the images of the day