“To build peace on desktops”… Is the motto of the Mar Elias High School in Ibillin, a small Arab Village in the Galilee, where Christians and Muslims have lived together peacefully for hundreds of years. Founded by Father Abuna Elias Chacour more than 30 years ago, the school hosts Arab students, mainly Druze, Muslims and Christians, from various backgrounds from towns and villages around Ibillin. After the second intifada Jewish students no longer attended the schools, although there are some Jewish teachers. .The cluster of schools now serves more than 3000 students from pre-school to High School. Three years ago the school introduced a forgiveness curriculum with the 9thgraders (15 years old) based on Dr. Robert Enright’s forgiveness curriculum.[1]
Through its international Forgiveness programme, Feminenza has experienced in the past ten years the impact and remedy of Forgiveness in women and men of all ages and walks of life.In reaching out to others in the world who are implementing forgiveness into their communities and / or schools we came across a special initiative at the Mar Elias School.
In September 2018 Feminenza met with Emil Haloun (English teacher and coordinator for the volunteer programme) at the school, together with two of the three English teachers of the faculty, Veronica and Isar, who teach the forgivene