Archive for 'Screening Tour'

Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: Oklahoma Christian University

Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: Oklahoma Christian University

Posted on 15. Oct, 2010 by Tim Stoner.

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Day Nine: There is more news about the boarding of Yonatan’s boat en route to Gaza. An official is quoted as claiming that Yonatan, “has joined the ranks of Hamas.” The source also states that Reuven Moskovitz, the 82-year old Holocaust survivor on board “has probably not learned anything from the terrible past.”
Clearly, the response to that harsh accusation, I should think, is that Mr. Mokovitz apparently learned the most important lesson of all from his suffering–how to forgive. And therein lies the only hope for a lasting and a just peace in the Middle East.

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Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: Wayne State University

Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: Wayne State University

Posted on 11. Oct, 2010 by Tim Stoner.

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Day Eight: “[It is] a sight which will remain with me for the rest of my life – with the frigate in the background, two gunboats, two landing craft and four high powered ribs spread out in a semi-circle speeding towards us. . . . ” With these words we find out what has become of Yonatan Shapira (a subject of the doumentary) on the catamaran trying to bring humanitarian aid past the Gaza blockade. After boarding the Irene, “The senior officer . . . placed a Tazer gun in contact with his clothing and fired it directly into his heart. Yonatan let out a dreadful scream and the force of the Tazer caused him to lose control of his muscles.” Thus begins the second week of our nonviolence tour.

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Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: De Paul University, Chicago

Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: De Paul University, Chicago

Posted on 10. Oct, 2010 by Tim Stoner.

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Day Seven: Yesterday, Elik Elhanan, whose sister was killed by a suicide bomber, informs me that the commandment most frequently repeated in the Old Testament is to provide hospitality to the stranger. Interestingly, it is a divine command that compels Elik the atheist to resist the inhospitality exhibited by the Israelis to thousands of Palestinian “strangers.” Yet, millions of theists turn a blind eye to this injustice against those whom the biblical commands us to love. It is the atheist who is getting it right and we purported Christians who blithely keep getting it wrong. The irony is almost too heavy to bear.

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Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: Host Lynne Hybels

Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: Host Lynne Hybels

Posted on 09. Oct, 2010 by Tim Stoner.

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Day Six: Lynne Hybels, wife of Willow Creek pastor, Bill Hybels, invited us to join about 30 close friends and church leaders in her home. Looking at Sami Awad, to her right, she tells the group in her living room, “I want to introduce you to my hero.” This is real. You can feel it in her tone and see it in her eyes. After spending a week with him, I understand what she is saying. It’s not every day you hang out with a man who stands in front of tanks and bulldozers with nothing in his hands but faith, hope and love.

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Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: The National Cathedral, Washington D.C.

Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: The National Cathedral, Washington D.C.

Posted on 05. Oct, 2010 by Tim Stoner.

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Day Five: The National Cathedral is as large as it is impressive. I try to get a picture with my I-phone and I find it is impossible to get the entire building in the frame. It is the sixth biggest cathedral in the world after all. At 6:00pm Perry Auditorium, the dark, thick-beamed room fills up quickly. It becomes evident that extra seats will be required. Soon there are at least 200 and the room has reached its maximum occupancy.There is a buzzing of expectant voices. Lots of very influential Israeli/Palestinian activists. This is one of the most interested audiences to date, it is certainly the largest.

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Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: National Press Club and Georgetown U.

Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: National Press Club and Georgetown U.

Posted on 05. Oct, 2010 by Tim Stoner.

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Day Four: We have driven through the night from New York City and arrive at our hotel in Arlington, Virginia at around 3:00am. Not the most pleasant hour to arrive in a new town. The air conditioning on the bus was set on maximum overdrive and I had nothing with which to ward off the persistent gales of hyper-cooled air. Not a whole lot of rest this trip. What is worse, we have all of 3 hours before we need to rouse ourselves and put on our “game gear” to travel across town to the National Press Club in Washington, D. C. so Sami Awad can be interviewed by the Middle East Broadcasting Corp.

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Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: New York–Riverside Theater

Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: New York–Riverside Theater

Posted on 26. Sep, 2010 by Tim Stoner.

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Day Three: One thing I love about Elik is that he does not mince words. He is passionate, bold and fiery—like King David. He uses provocative language that makes you sit up, sometimes just a little uncomfortably, and then hits you with a series of rhetorical hard lefts and rights, but combines them with a disarming sense of humor. He is immensely quotable. He urges the students to join the marches opposing the occupation–there is a very pragmatic reason for this: “When whites and internationals join us, the military does not shoot live bullets.”
Yup, sign me up, the coward in me muses.

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Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: Brown University

Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: Brown University

Posted on 26. Sep, 2010 by Tim Stoner.

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Day Two: Tonight we are joined by Teny Gross, the Director of the Institute for the Study and Practice of Non Violence in Providence, Rhode Island. He is a former Israeli army sergeant. Elik Elhanan is the other new member of the panel. He is a co-founder of Combatants for Peace an organization of former Israeli and Palestinian fighters who have laid down their weapons to seek a nonviolent resolution to the crisis in their homelands. His perspecive is very personal. since he lost his 14-year-old sister to a suicide bomber while serving in the Israeli army. He illustrates the necessity for understanding and forgiveness as the foundation for peace in the Middle East.

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