Israel-Palestine and the Near East: What do Friends think?
A seminar on Saturday 19th May 2012
at
Churchtown Meeting House,
82 Lower Churchtown Road, Dublin 14
Originated by Yearly Meeting Peace Committee
with the assistance of
Dublin Monthly Meeting Peace Committee
11.00am-3.30pm
Contact: Seán McCrum smccrum.1949@gmail.com 087-947 4459 01 / 00-353-1/ 679 3279
Yearly Meeting Peace Committee discovered that they do not know what Friends’ views on this matter are. Discussing a matter related to Israel-Palestine, we rapidly discovered that we had no idea of Friends’ views.
This is a matter of pressing moral, ethical, political and potentially destructive concern.
It is matter which affects not just this region, but the world at many levels.
We know what a small number of individual Friends think, because of their actions, but we do not know the views of the majority of Friends . Do they have a single viewpoint, or many or different perceptions? Is this a matter of concern or not to them?
Every Yearly Meeting Committee needs to be aware of Friends’ views. We as such a Committee, need to be aware of Friends’ views.
We decided to hold a seminar on this concern. We are aware of the contentious nature of this matter.
We consider that using the model of a business meeting would be appropriate.
We hope that this seminar will offer Friends a safe forum to express their concerns and perceptions on this matter, opening up a route to further discourse.
There will be two sessions, morning and afternoon.
In the morning, Ian Woods will act as Convenor.
It is important that we speak from knowledge.
11.00-12.00 – Dr. Vincent Durac, a UCD-based specialist in near-Eastern politics, will speak on the background to the present situation.
12.00 -12.40 – Richard Kimble, Janet Gooberman and Noel Sinnamon will speak as Friends who have particular views on this concern.
12.40-1.15 – questions and general discussion.
1.15-2.00 – lunch – please bring your own. There is nowhere around Churchtown to buy food.
2.00-3.00 – workshops, based on concerns expressed by Friends during the morning
3.00-3.30 – workshops report to general meeting and concluding discussion.