A joint summer camp for special needs Jewish and Arab children has been taking place for the last 25 years in the community of Rosh Tzurim. Although joint Arab-Jewish summer camps take place in a number of communities across Israel, what makes this project unique and inspiring is the fact that Rosh Tzurim is a religious settlement in the Etzion bloc. The camp takes place during the nine days preceding Tisha B'Av, the day on which Jews mourn the destruction of the First and Second Temples and fast. This nine-day period is traditionally devoted to repentance and acceptance. All the community’s residents — young and old alike — come together to make this summer camp a special experience for the children, most of whom have serious disabilities.
“People say that we’re an island of sanity amid the madness around us,” Uri Shechter, a resident of Rosh Tzurim and one of the camp’s organizers, told Al-Monitor. “But we do this with great love and out of the belief that peace is made between people. Leaders can talk, hate and swear. Yet we and our neighbors have had good neighborly relations for years.”
