Video Overview | Beyond These Narrow Borders | Children of Abraham
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Children of Abraham (running time 34 mins)
A 34-minute broadcast-quality documentary, which chronicles the journey of twenty-two Jewish Americans traveling to Israel and the Palestinian territories as part of the Compassionate Listening Project in January of 1998. They visit with and listen to Israelis and Palestinians - from leaders to refugees, settlers to HAMAS, and seek to understand the complexities of the religious, political, and human rights issues facing the region. This stunning documentary introduces the Compassionate Listening reconciliation model, and humanizes each Israeli and Palestinian portrayed. "Children of Abraham" delivers a compelling message that conflict can be transformed through the act of deep listening. Through recognizing the suffering of ones enemy, we can find our common humanity, fundamental for healing the wounds that support unresolved conflict and war.

The following Israelis and Palestinians are featured:

• Fatima al-Assad
  Palestinian refugee and High School Teacher, Kalandia Camp;
• Dr. Haidar Abdul Shafi
  Founding member, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Director, Palestinian Red Crescent Society (the Palestinian Red Cross);
• Maen Ereikat
  Palestinian Government Representative, Orient House, East Jerusalem;
• Rabbi Menachem Froman
  Founder, Israeli Settlers' Movement and Religious Advisor to the Israeli Knesset;
• Amos Gvirtz
  Israeli Peace Activist, Kibbutz Shefayim;
• Eve Harrow
  Israeli Resident and Town Council Representative, Efrat, West Bank;
• Yossi Klein HaLevi
  Journalist, The Jerusalem Report;
• Yehezkel Landau
  Co-director, Open House Peace Center, Ramle, Israel;
• Dr. Iyad Sarraj
  Director, Gaza Community Mental Health Programme and Director, Palestinian Independent Commission on Human Rights;
• Sheikh Ahmad Yassein
  Spiritual Leader of HAMAS - the Islamic Resistance Movement.

Testimonials
"Children of Abraham compellingly documents the profound possibilities within a society in which friends and enemies alike attune themselves to the voice of the other. It should serve as an urgent reminder of how badly we transgress and how much we forfeit when we dismiss the power of listening as too simple. This is not a promotion of a naive quick fix, but rather a call to the wrenching but essential heroism that Jewish tradition says inheres in making one's enemy into one's friend."

"The politicians and the generals must ultimately resolve the issue, but only when the people on opposite sides speak their feelings, hear the other and so be heard - will the healing begin. Only through compassionate listening is there any hope for the intergenerational hatred to begin to abate. In this moving film, we understand how restraint and humility are required of the compassionate listener, though not an abandonment of his or her strongly felt emotions."