Everyone loves singing. Everyone also wishes that we could solve the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. Good news is that singing is here to help save the day. Music’s pedigree of helping to solve major crises through musicals — see civil rights and Mormonism — is unmatched, so it may have the strongest résumé of any negotiator currently at the table. Tonight, Brown RISD Hillel Hillel is doing its best to help belt out the first note of a renewed peaceful dialogue by hosting the Heartbeat @ Brown-RISD concert. The event is also sponsored by Common Ground, the Middle East Studies Department, and the Program in Judaic Studies.

According to the event’s Facebook page, the group was founded in 2007 is a “an international non-profit organization uniting musicians, educators, and students to build mutual understanding and transform conflict through the power of music.” Transforming conflict takes time, so it’s a good thing that both Hillel and Heartbeat are patient, as the event has been in the works for two years now. The event, which organizers stress is non-political, will feature songs that blend “traditional and modern Eastern and Western music.” That description seems to run the gamut on global music, which is a good thing: unlike the peace process, the concert should have something that appeals to everyone.

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A  screening of “Little Town of Bethlehem,” a documentary about peace activists in Israel and Palestine, and panel discussion with the filmmaker and one of the featured activists took place in the Salomon Center last night though the Watson Institute for International Studies and the University of Rhode Island.

“Little Town of Bethlehem” sounds like the name of a Christmas special to Western ears, but in reality the town is the hub of Palestinian culture, conflict and, even more so now, reconciliation.

The American imagination also would pit Palestinian Christian Sami Awad, Palestinian Muslim Ahmad Al’Azzeh and Israeli Jew Yonatan Shapira against one another. They are members of famously warring communities. Yet they star in this documentary as peace activists. What drew them all to the film is that they believe in the lessons we all learned in preschool and later discounted as idealistic. They care about the wellbeing, security and sanity of people — all types of people. And they recognize that more violence is not the answer to violence, though they have seen it treated as such.  [Read more →]