Anthony Steen MP (right)  chatting with Givat Haviva's executive director Haggai Halevi in the Yad Yaari exhibition hall of the HaShomer HaTzair Movement and Kibbutz Artzi Federation

 

Anthony Steen, Conservative member of the British Parliament for Totnes, South Devon, spent a few hours at Givat Haviva during a recent private visit to Israel.

Mr. Steen was accompanied by his wife Carolyn, a psychologist and former district councilor for South Hams.  The couple were joined by daughter Xanthe - a photographer and journalist presently based in Jerusalem  who spent last summer volunteering her time and talents to Givat Haviva, during which time she penned articles, filmed interviews with Arab and Jewish women participating in Noa/Nuha Center for Women and Gender Studies projects and wrote material for the Noa/Nuha webpage.

The Steen's first visited the Givat Haviva Art Center and Peace Gallery where after a discussion with Art Center director Etti Amram, Noa/Nuha director Myriam Degan and Givat Haviva spokesperson Dudu Amitai, viewed the present exhibition in the Peace Gallery – powerful images of Jerusalem, the work of Palestinian photojournalist and Yediot Aharonot staffer Ata Awisat from Jabal Al Mukabir.

After hearing about the various projects bringing together Jewish and Arab youth and women directed by Etti and Myriam in their respective departments, Mr. and Mrs. Steen expressed their admiration for what they described as the important and imperative work undertaken by Givat Haviva.

 

   

Left: Anthony Steen MP and Art Center Director, Etti Amram and right: viewing the Ata Awisat photographic exhibition in the Peace Gallery

 

Sitting in the small art library cum office of Etti Amram in the Arts Center, the Steen's fielded many pertinent questions with regard the projects and offered suggestions on how to approach the task of reaching out to people and organizations in Britain for constructive support of the current and planned future activities of Givat Haviva both on campus and at the northern branch of the organization based in Sakhnin in the Lower Galilee.

Dudu Amitai pointed out to the visitors that they should feel more than at home in the Arts Center being as the main building was constructed by the British Mandatory Forces in Palestine at a time when the site was a British army base.  Apart from the past history of the site, the torrential rain that greeted the British visitors that day - although welcomed by the Israelis - prevented a planned tour of the Wadi Ara region.

 

Anthony Steen, his wife Carolyn and doughter Xanthe with Miryam Dagan-Brener the director of Women Studies Center (2nd from right)

 

Over lunch Mr. Steen met with 18 year-old Guy Amir from Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek who is presently learning Arabic at the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace in Givat Haviva together with 30 or so other young Israelis who have finished high-school and undertaking the full academic year course of Arabic language and Middle East studies prior to their conscription to the IDF.

Guy explained the ins and outs of the course, about his fellow students, why he personally felt an affinity for the Arabic language, his growing up in the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement and the education he had received in his veteran kibbutz - one of the stalwarts of the movement.

A visit to the Hashomer Hatzair museum in Yad Yaari accompanied by Haggai Halevi and Dudu Amitai enabled the visitors to absorb more background information with regard the movement, founding of the 86 kibbutzim of the Kibbutz Artzi Federation of Kibbutzim as well as the continuation of the youth movement activities in Israel and abroad in present times.

 

Haggai Halevi presnt Carolyn Steen (left) with the Givat Haviva publication CHILDREN WRITE FOR PEACE

 

As the visit drew to a close Haggai Halevi presented Carolyn Steen, a child psychologist, with a copy of the Givat Haviva publication CHILDREN WRITE FOR PEACE – somewhat poignant at a time when children in Sderot and other southern Israeli communities were living in fear of rocket attacks from Gaza, and Gaza children living in fear of attack from Israel.

 

Photos & text: Lydia Aisenberg