Workshops in Beir Jalla, Israel/Palestine. Using puppets to encourage dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian youth. By Erica For the passionate puppeteer that I am, the idea/dream of using puppets to create, encourage dialogue and cohesion in a group of Palestinians and Israeli youth is a very good idea, which also resonate with peace organizations and donors alike. As dreams go, when they actually become true, it seems a miracle. The organization which helped us to put the dream into practice is the “Forum for bereaved families’ ( a Palestinian/Israeli group of very active people who lost members to their respective families to war), and the donors, the Crucible Foundation from the UK. A few months were needed to organize the when, where, and who, and it was Guy Elchanan, from the Forum, who took upon himself to organize all the details for the first pilot project with a group of young Israelis and Palestinians who were part of a program which had taken place during 2025/26,. This was their last meeting. With me living in France, a lot had to be done by zoom; and with the volatile situation in Israel, we needed a leap of faith to trust in the possibility of having the event in person. All this said, I admit that I had to deal with a certain disappointment that the workshop could be only one day, and only a few hours… One must realize that the political situation is such that it is rather difficult to get Palestinians and Israelis together even logistically, and we had to do the best with the chance given to us, hoping that if the pilot would be successful, there would be other opportunities. The date chosen was the 5th of June, The place: Beit Jalla, a village close to Beit Lechem, in the occupied territories, and where the Forum and one other organization, Combatant for Peace, have their offices and space. Guy and I created a team where we included; Noa (Guy’s wife, a biblio-therapist with a past experience in puppetry), Ora, a veteran and experienced puppeteer, Jusef, a Palestinian artist/mime from east Jerusalem. At the last minutes we were joined by Naomi, a renown puppeteer, actress, teacher, creator. With the exception of Guy, for us it was to go in incognito land. The team arrived in Beit Jalla well in advance, but the group was late due to a delay on the road. There were 8 Palestininas boys and girls from the territories, and 4 Israeli youngsters . First there was a time of warm up exercises led by Noa and Yusuf. This was followed by an introduction by Guy in Hebrew and Arabic about the program and the specific language of puppetry. For this we had prepared four types of puppets, which we demonstrated as we felt we needed to overcome the skepticism normal for all adolescents about puppets, often perceived only as a childish entertainment. So there was first a demonstration by Ora, with a couple of more traditional Punch and Judy-like characters. Noa came on scene with a very delicate small puppet, whose movements and sensitivity kept the breathing in the room suspended. Many of the kids wanted to try it… Then there was a puppet previously made by Erica, with plain and rough carton -box material, and which in the hands of Naomi became a real and powerful character. The fourth type was the kraft paper folded puppet, which is manipulated Bunraku style and a short improvisation was made showing the story telling potential using very simple movements but at the same time requiring attention and sensitivity between the manipulators. After a short pause we divided into two groups, in two separate rooms: one group would make the Kraft paper folded puppet, and the other group would create the carton box puppet. Language: the language spoken were Arabic and Hebrew, and there were two professional translators who would translate simultaneously. After about 45 minutes it was time to stop for lunch, but there had been laughter, improvised sketches with the puppets in the making, and some stories were being created. With the Kraft paper puppets, we had given a title for the stories: “A meaningful moment in my life”. After lunch and a short pause, it was “show time”. It was clear to me that the carton-box type of puppets although quick enough, would have required more time to complete, and more time to create a personal relationship…. The Kraft paper puppets were more efficient from that aspect, and two stories were enacted which were extremely touching and interesting. Both stories were by the Palestinian boys, and both stories touched the subject of seeing the sea for the first (and only?) time. Same technique, same subject, and yet the two stories touched two completely different aspect of the “meaningful moment”: one dealt with the emotions, the other dealt more with the political aspect of being denied the right of reaching the sea shore….I felt that those two stories were the highlight of the workshop…the sea representing the unreachable normality of life, freedom…. All through the performances Ora provided a very pertinent and sensitive musical accompaniment, with flute, and ocarina. It was time to close this extraordinary event, where we had a chance of peeking into the world of teenagers who had been conditioned by exteriors violent forces on top of their own normal interior battles inherent in their process of growing up into adulthood. For the team it was a highly appreciated experience, which we all felt as positive, and opening the way to more events of the same kind, hopefully with more time, and more in-dept possibilities. Erica Zoltan Sapir For Puppeteers Without Borders 15th June 2026