Documentary: The Road to Sulha

A fundraiser for the documentary by independent filmmaker Laura J. Beatty. The film is about grassroots peace and reconciliation efforts between Israelis and Palestinians at the annual gathering of Tariq Al-Sulha (The Sulha Way), a 3-day event held in northern Israel in August 2004. A fine cut of the film will screen at the event. Suggested minimum donation: $20 (Refreshments will be provided.) *** Synopsis: Gabriel and Eliyahu are on a road that has no map. Where the political dialogue has failed to bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict these two Israelis, members of a tribe of visionaries from both sides of the border, dare to succeed. Inspired by sulha, the traditional Middle Eastern process of reconciliation, they hope to begin to heal the wounds of the past fifty years and, in so doing, spark a revolutionary movement for peace. Rana, Khaled and Said are all Palestinians from the West Bank. The only Jews in their world are soldiers. Gabriel and Eliyahu hope to change that. Along with 250 other Palestinians, as well as Jews and Arabs from all over Israel, they have been invited to The Sulha Way, a 3-day peace gathering in northern Israel. For the Palestinians, it is a chance to finally meet a Jew outside of their normal confrontational encounters, on relatively equal footing. But that isn't the only opportunity presented. Though it is only for three days, it is a chance to taste freedom for the first time in years - to actually leave the West Bank. For the peace activists, the journey begins and ends with Abraham, biblical father to both the Jewish and Muslim peoples. With their faith riding on the transformative power of personal connection, they seek an apolitical and spiritually based solution to the conflict. In order to facilitate the dialogue, they have invited peacemakers from around the globe, leaders who have recently emerged from their own ethnic conflicts, among them a Tibetan monk, a Zulu priest and an Irish Catholic peace activist. As quixotic an approach as it may be, the strength of their convictions is as fierce as the hatred they seek to neutralize. The Road to Sulha tells the story of their encounter as Israelis and Palestinians meet with their inherited enemies and in the process, are forced to confront their own relationships to the conflict. Punctuated by the moving stories of Rami and Ali, two survivors of the violence that has wreaked havoc on thousands of families from both sides this is the story of one small group's efforts at peace in one of the world's most enduring and bloody conflicts.