PLANET OF PEACE
OR PLANET OF WAR?
The Middle East Peace Research Village
Leila Dregger interviews Benjamin von Mendelssohn, the co-ordinator of
a project that is exploring practical strategies for making peace in the
Middle East with ecological design.
T
he Peace Research Village (PRV) is based in the ecovillage,
Tamera, in Portugal. It is working towards building a peace
village in the Middle East for Israelis, Palestinians and
Internationals. The main objective of the project is to actively
research, study and create an effective and durable non violent
social model for a peaceful culture that can be replicated in other
areas of conflict the world.
The unique elements of the project are its active concentration
on humane sustainability and the placement of such an experiment
within the global context of our time. The Peace Research Village
aims to become a place of education where the elements of truth,
trust, tolerance and our very human responsibility for the care of
the world is rediscovered, and solutions found that are based on
concrete strategies. Leila Dregger interviewed one of the core
organisers of the project, Benjamin von Mendelssohn.
A small group of you at Tamera started the Israel/Palestine Peace
Village project in 2001. What was your motivation?
It was the suffering of the people in Palestine when the second
Intifada began. We wanted to find a way to help. Compassion – the
almost childlike wish to really do good when you dare to face the
suffering of the world yet again – is a strong motivation in the
whole project. Tamera is a global peace project and there are many
historical/political facts that make the Middle East a crucial place
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in relation to the question of whether we will have a planet of
peace or of war. There are therefore strategic reasons for our
strong involvement there. Although there are huge parts of the
world in which people suffer more, the Middle East has a much
stronger continuous global media attention. We often view our
political activities as the search for the right acupuncture point in
the whole of the organism Earth. The current attention as well as
the decisive cultural impulses deriving from there for over 10,000
years now, makes the Middle East such an acupuncture point.
Also I come from a German Jewish family, and as such I cannot
deny that I am keen to do this. The protection of my family during
the Third Reich was, in some ways, a miracle. The privilege of
coming from such a background and the fact that I am able to
criticize the politics of the State of Israel without immediately
being called anti-Semitic, also gives me a certain responsibility to
engage myself in this conflict for a change to the better.
The Israeli government is engaged in a psychological repro-
duction of its peoples’ past trauma of the holocaust. On the
whole and in many details, the historical parallel cannot be
denied any longer. I remember the sensational news about two
years ago when pictures were published showing Palestinian
prisoners of the Israeli Army with shaved heads and numbers
printed on their bodies. The historical and psychological chain
of violence needs to be broken.
No. 43 Permaculture Magazine 27
This year, the project’s name has changed to Peace Research
Village (PRV). How is the PRV different from the Israel/
Palestine Peace Village Project?
It isn’t really. We just became more aware of the public associations
which the name ‘Peace Village’ triggers – too much of a settlement
‘how-to-live-our-own-life-character’. The term ‘research’ widens
the context and avoids the associations of a ‘private arrangement’
with the situation. Also it implies the fact that we do not have a
solution but desperately need to research it. Peace Research needs
as much public and financial support as war research has received
for centuries to make peace a viable alternative. Also we want to
emphasize the educational aspect, comparable to a university, while
retaining the importance of a concretely lived and experienced
peace through the word ‘village’.
‘Peace Research Village’ makes it a lot clearer that it is a
pioneering project entering new realms, not promising a
comfortable life, but requiring the willingness to deeply change
oneself. A non-violent technology and ecology is very important
especially for this semi-arid region. For example, this requires
a basic change in paradigm from exploitation to co-operation.
The water irrigation methods which made Israel famous were
progressive but old fashioned in principle – conquering the
desert. At the moment the development of the Solar Power Village
by Jürgen Kleinwächter (see PM42 for details) in combination
with new social structures of Tamera is a strong
focus. Non-violence also requires more ind-
ependence from multinational corporations in
solar technology and a move towards regional
self-sufficiency because this dependency always
means profit oriented violence towards the Third
World. This can be fulfilled through the cyclical
principles of the Kleinwächter technology.
In non-violent ecology we need a deep rethink.
Most biological and even some permaculture
projects still consider certain plants and animals
as weeds or pests for example. How do we free
our self-image, in thought and action, from the
idea of ‘enemy’?
The other aspect to the PRV is its growing
co-operation with people from the Middle
East, which became concrete at the peace camp
held in Tamera in August 2004. Rabbi Ohad
Ezrahi, founder of the Hamakom Community,
in particular made the decision to dedicate
himself to the project. This is an important
element in making the project viable in the
Middle East. The peace camp was a real
turning point.

‘WE REFUSE TO BE ENEMIES’

Theatre is just one of the performing arts that has the ability to surpass
the very direct and personal nature of long running conflicts. It is a
medium that allows the audience to witness the multiple positions
evident in conflict. To allow yourself to adopt this position of witness,
to understand the position of others is ultimately to find compassion.
In 2001 the play ‘We Refuse To Be Enemies’ was written by Leila
Dregger and Sabine Lichtenfels as a response to the conflict in Israel
and Palestine. Using a didactic style of images the play illustrates the
historical, religious, political and especially the human roots of the
Middle East conflict. The ability of the play to show these images in
an impersonal and non-biased way allows the audience, on all sides,
to understand the conflict in its wholeness and complexity. In late
autumn 2002 the theatre group of the Peace School Mirja performed
the play with great success at venues in Germany and Switzerland.
In summer 2003 the Peace School were invited to accompany the
Peace Concert Tour, with Yair Dalal and Palestinian musicians, with the play. This culminated in a performance at the Institute
for Global Peace Work’s annual summer conference in Tamera, Portugal. It was here that many Israeli and Palestinian peace
workers first saw the play. They were both moved and inspired by the political sensitivity of the play. For many, the hope and
vision was that the play would be performed in Israel and Palestine. The Peace Research Village plans to tour ‘We Refuse to
be Enemies’ in Israel and Palestine in Autumn 2005.

28 Permaculture Magazine No. 43 www.permaculture.co.uk

 What were the practical methods the project used
in the camp that made it so successful?
The whole ‘Middle East group’ fully participated
in the Tamera Summer University with its wide
spectrum of lectures and inspiring information.
Peace workers from all over the world studied and
brainstormed the importance of non-violent cultural
models for a new global Peace Movement.
We discussed how these ideas and concepts
could be applied in the Middle East and what
modification they would need. We also per-
formed the theatre piece, ‘We Refuse To Be
Enemies’, which tries to show the situation in
Israel and Palestine in an objective way (see
Box). There were many thoughts arising from
this and a deep wish from the participants that
the piece be performed in Israel and Palestine.
But the most important aspect this year was our
Forum work. Forum is a method to create trans-
parency and trust in a group (Forum is described
in PM39). This is an absolute requirement for a
political group with such high aspirations as
founding a Peace Research Village in the Middle
East. You have to know and deeply trust each other.
Title page: The Peace Research Village, Tamera, Portugal.
Centre left: Benjamin von Mendelssohn.
Boxed item: Performing ‘We Refuse To Be Enemies’.
Above: A mindful listening session.
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Parallel to the Forum work we attempted to live as much
as a group as possible – to experience community living. This
allowed us to come closer to the themes that rest at the basis
for all of us as human beings. For example, how children grow
and develop, education, love, sexuality and so on. We were able
to find a level that went beyond our cultural, religious or national
identities, and begin to see each other as human beings. One
example of this was at the end of the camp when a participant,
who strongly identified himself as Palestinian, described how he
could now see so many other aspects of himself as a human being
in the world – his identity was changing from a national identity
to one of the world.
How then would you describe the community structure?
We are working on a true basic democracy with transparency,
truth and trust being the keywords. To a certain extent this means a
circular structure, but it also includes a natural hierarchy that is built
on humane and complex knowledge, not on superior power by
position. This is an interesting point in every group and so many
aspirations of free community have failed with this: when you try
to simply eradicate formal hierarchy you deny a reality which every
one nevertheless unconsciously perceives. In a community of
trust, the person who is given the most trust by most members
is at the top of the hierarchy. When people learn to be more aware
Centre top: Moses Mount.
Centre: Jahalin Bedouin camp.
Centre right: Lunch at the peace camp.
Above: The Sinai, a possible site for a future Peace Village.
No. 43 Permaculture Magazine 29
of this, the quality which moves you up in the hierarchy is the
ability to think for the highest benefit of most members. This is
the most complex and comprehensive knowledge.
I often think of the fantastic ideals in the beginning of
communism/socialism. It definitely lacked the mature people
to realize these concepts. Now we need to train ourselves to
live up to them. To make all people equal by rule is an illusion
and additionally kills the beauty of diversity in the long run.
The concept that each individual has its own unique place
and task and that the community is there to support
the individual find it is a very different one. A group
living in basic democracy demands the highest degree
of personal individuality and self-responsibility of
each member. This is a long-term goal.
Apart from touring the theatre piece in Israel/Palestine,
what are your other plans for 2005?
We need to further deepen the trust in the growing core group
for this project. We also need to lobby in higher political and
economic circles for support with this concept, especially
within the UN. We will build up the prototype of the Solar
Power Village in Tamera. People from the Middle East will
have the opportunity to learn more about sustainable ecology
and technology in Tamera. We are especially looking for a
stronger Arab involvement. At the same time we will keep our
eyes open for the right piece of land. For some years we have
been financially supporting the Jahalin Bedouins and we are
considering sending a group of eco-builders from Tamera there
to help them build the new settlement they were forced into
by the government – in more ecologically sustainable ways.
We also plan to organise a peace camp in Israel in the autumn
which would be a significant step in our co-operation with
the land and its people. This idea arose from a recent trip to
Israel and the Sinai where we further built up our co-operation
with members of Hamakom, Rabbis for Human Rights, Palestinian
members of the network and the land. There were many highlights
to the trip – one special one was the visit to Sinai which could be
the place for a future Peace Village.
Why Sinai?
At a certain point we asked ourselves why do we need to do
it in the midst of the hurricane of Israel/Palestine? The
historical Holy Land is much more. There is still lots
of space in the Sinai. And again, let’s not forget the
historical meaning of the Sinai. This is the place of
the Exodus and the reception of the 10 command-
ments. It has a strong symbolic meaning to cross the
desert now in the opposite direction and ‘turn history’.
But the location is not certain at all yet
FURTHER INFORMATION
For more information and how to support the PRV, please contact:
Kate Bunney
Tamera, Monte do Cervo, P-7630 Colos, Portugal.
Tel: +351 283 635 306
Email: klbunney.igf@tamera.org
Benjamin von Mendelssohn is the co-ordinator of the Peace Research
Village. After working in a number of political organisations he
strongly felt that, while the principles of the organisations were
good, their application within the organisation itself (i.e. truth,
transparent communication etc) was questionable. He set out
to find a way of remedying this. After co-founding the Peace
University in Berlin he began working for the Institute in 1998.
Due to his German-Jewish family background he has a strong
personal connection to Israel/Palestine.

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30 Permaculture Magazine No. 43 www.permaculture.co.uk