Peace Lines NGO
Peace Lines is a humanitarian n.g.o., which was created in 1993, during the war in Bosnia. Its aim is to "convey all messages and texts for peace between people, cities, and nations" (2nd Article, Statutes).
Beyond Bosnia, Peace Lines has offered its support in Algeria, Kosovo, and Senegal; since 2000, it has been focused on peace initiatives between Israel and Palestine.
Peace Lines offers :
- humanitarian aid
- mediation
- propagation of the non-violent approach in war zones
- international campaigns, with Nobel laureates, Members of the European Parliament, and personalities with outstanding voices
- editing and publishing of bilingual books for the non-violent approach to conflict resolution in Israel and Palestine
Action in Israel & Palestine (2000-2009)
Peace Lines has been ACTIVE in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict using two methods which were developed during involvement in Bosnia and Algeria :
1) publishing and disseminating books which teach principles of a non-violent approach to conflict resolution, and 2) campaigning with Nobel Laureates and European Parlamentarians for a final cease-fire. As of end-February 2009, the ongoing cease-fire campaign has gathered the support of 41 Nobel Laureates (among them 8 Peace Laureates : Bishop Belo, Shirin Ebadi, John Hume, Mairead Maguire, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Archbishop Tutu, Betty Williams and Jody Williams & 2 Literature Laureates : Elfriede Jelinek and Wole Soyinka), as well as 123 Members of the European Parliament (representing eleven nations).
Its 2005-2007 Campaign Against Terror, for Common Sense had gathered the support of 69 Nobel Laureates and 97 Members of the European Parliament. Peace Lines also campaigned for the liberation of then Palestinian Minister of Education Nasser Shaer, who was arrested in May 2007 and released after a few weeks of campaigning. In the name of the Palestinian National Authority, he had pledged himself to support the spreading of bilingual (English-Arabic) books titled The Spirit of Luther King in Palestinian high schools.
Since 2008, Peace Lines has been campaigning for the liberation of Corporal Shalit and significant numbers of Palestinian prisoners, out of ten thousand detained, on humanitarian grounds.
History
- Bosnia (1993-1996 & until today)
Peace Lines was born in the summer of 1993, on the Diamond Road to Sarajevo, which had been besieged for sixteen months then. It conveyed twenty tons of medicine and food in Middle Bosnia, through the front-lines. But beyond these emergency operations, the main aim was to make contributions toward stopping the war machine, to stop the killings.
The tools were booklets (Martin Luther King, Thoreau, Giono, Saint-Exupéry...) translated into Serbo-Croat, and widely distributed, along with anti-war audio-cassettes, at every check-point, on every front-line, among Croats, Bosnians, Serbs alike. From side to side, and with the help of the U.N. Forces on the ground, the Peace Lines teams met with a number of war leaders and participated in negotiations to bring peace back between Croats and Muslim Bosnians, notably in Vitez in early 1994.
The next goal was to spread its first international campaign for a final cease-fire through the Bosnian media (radio & TV), in Sarajevo, Kiseljak, Zenica, Mostar, and Pale, from Easter until the fall of 1995, when the war stopped. This campaign was supported by 33 Nobel Laureates (among them Presidents de Klerk and Gorbachev, Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin, the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa...).
Peace Lines still has a programme of peace education going in Bosnia, which entails delivery of books to high schools and institutions in need of them.
- Algeria (1997-1998)
In 1998, [...] in Algeria was at its climax. The GIA mostly (Armed Islamic Groups) murdered journalists systematically, slaughtered civilians en masse, and had decreed a fatwa to kill all foreigners on their land. A Call of Solidarity was conceived in Algiers, and supported by 68 Nobel Laureates. It was very widely broadcast in the Algerian media (radio and press) in the spring of 1998.
- Kosovo (1999-2001)
In Kosovo, the situation quickly became unbearable for its Serbian minority, and very little could be done then, as the "international community" somehow forsook this minority, and Kosovo became independent in 2008.
- Senegal (1998-2000)
In four missions, a "Field of Friendship and Brotherhood" was created in this Sahel country. A limited intervention, reaching its aim of digging wells, and enabling the people to start growing vegetables, fruit-trees, for self-support.
- Israel-Palestine (2000 till today)
Permanently involved in its educational programme, the only priority is to restore the conditions of possibility of such a programme, starting with a final end to any slaughter and the conclusion of this unending "dialogue of rockets and missiles". The claim of Peace Lines is to get the authorities on both sides to proceed with the peace education programme, as the main lasting priority for the years to come.
Links
Gaza, Mediterranea, July 13, 2008
Give Anapolis une chance, November 2007
Free the Palestinian members of legislature, July 19, 2007 Libération daily, France
Mobilization for Dr Al Shaer, July 5, 2007 Le Figaro daily, France
Campaign for Justice and Peace, March 2001 Le Monde daily, France
The Ramallah, Nazareth, Jerusalem Call, December 2000 Le Monde Diplomatique