Friendship Across Borders – FAB

helps to train young Jewish Israelis, Palestinians and Germans to become “Peace-Carriers”. The aim is to come to understand “the other”, to see the conflict through the eyes of the “enemy” and thus to find mutual empathy and respect. This can be painful and challenging and needs to be carefully supported. If successful, it opens opportunities for personal growth and friendships across borders, which has happened many times since FAB was founded. In this way FAB tries to promote peace through mutual understanding and personal transformation.

In October 2003, a young female Palestinian attorney carried out a suicide attack at a restaurant in Haifa that was run jointly by Jewish and Arabic Israelis. She intended to revenge the death of her brother who had been killed in front of her eyes by Israeli soldiers. Many people were killed and injured. The day after this attack, Israeli soldiers destroyed the house of the Palestinian woman´s family, and the entire area of the West bank was sealed off.

This incident led to the foundation of “Friendship Across Borders” by Brigitta M.M. Mahr in 2003 – a sign of hope for mutual understanding and reconciliation against the vicious cycle of violence and revenge. Since then, through many different meetings and seminars, FAB grew into a network of people active for peace from the Near East and Europe.