Principle 1: Reviving the Spirit of the Olympic Truce

Quote:

To celebrate the Olympic Games is to appeal to History...to ask the people of the world to love another is merely a form of childishness. To ask them to respect one another is not in the least utopian, but in order to respect one another it is first necessary to know one another.
             Pierre De Coubertin quotes - Founder of Modern Olympic games

Quote of participant:

“Living in a tent in very hot weather for 9 days, having no privacy, eating unfamiliar food, spending many hours a day with new children and adults from different countries, speaking and listening to foreign languages. As it turned out, all of these strange conditions created the most fertile ground I could have imagined for connecting with others, helping others, doing sports, artistic and musical work together and all of these in an enthusiastic, lively and happy way.”
             Elia Reznik, teacher, Jerusalem

Examples:

Musical example: “Children are musical. We say that the child is music. But children can act violently, too. We engage them in musical activity and the aggression dissipates. Thus the pedagogy here is that we sing the instructions and gesture them: “Please form a circle” “Please form in two groups” The effect is enormous. They listen differently—.not only to the words---but to the place in my heart. These sung instructions are made to the ear and not to the head. They are non-verbal. When one sings, one opens the heart”
             Tami, Music teacher

“We meet the children where they are. When we first work at a school we work with just that community group, not all the groups together. We teach them about the Sacred Truce in their own language. The hardest part is breaking the ice. We lay a foundation that later is built upon when they come together with children from the other communities”
             Amin, Sports trainer

“It was hard to overcome the misperception and the lack of communication that existed between the children. It was their lack of knowledge of the other that stood in the way. I found that by putting the children in my city-state together when they had spare time, pairing a Palestinian with an Israeli, they began to communicate with each other during informal times such as when they were riding on the bus”
             Musa, Youth leader from Bethlehem

Explanations level 1:

The ancient Olympic Truce created a complete environment and atmosphere that influenced society and transformed warriors into role models of the integrated, ennobled human capacity for harmony. AllInPeace seeks to recreate this environment and renew this process.

Explanation level 2: The ancient roots of the Olympic Truce

In Ancient Greece, in the era after Homer wrote epics about the heroes of the Trojan War, extensive areas of Greece were beset with conflict. In response to the situation King Ifitos of Elis, at the western edge of the Peloponnesian Peninsula, sent a messenger to the Oracle of Delphi to ask for advice. The wise Pythia replied that warriors should put their skill and effort into a noble set of games as athletes and that a sacred truce, or "Ekeheiria," should be put into practice whereby all participants and spectators at these games would be granted safe passage and protected from any wars and conflicts during these contests. Thus King Ifitos joined with both King Lycurgus of Sparta and King Cleosthenes of Pisa to initiate the first Olympic Games in 776 BC in Olympia.

It was hoped that the absence of war and conflict, begun by invoking the Sacred Truce, would continue after the games and that these contests would transform warriors into athletes whose skills, formerly associated with militarism, would evolve into demonstrations of beauty, strength, and dynamic movement. For the next thousand years weapons and arms were put away and instead discuses and javelins were thrown beautifully, gracefully, and powerfully. Artistic offerings such as ode writing and music making were made a part of these events. The Sacred Truce instilled peace during the games and often extended beyond the time of these events. Today the AllinPeace Project is creating a movement that seeks to apply this same ancient principle of "Ekeheiria" (Sacred Truce) to create teamwork, cooperation, and international understanding to many youths that have lived much of their lives in communities ravaged by conflict and adversity.

Explanation level 2: AllinPeace Approach

The AllinPeace festival embraced the ancient values of the Olympic Games and used such values when bringing together youth from conflict regions of the world. Upon arriving to Delphi, the participants simulated the ancient games, splitting into twenty groups of ten. Each group consisted of two participants from each country, which modeled the ancient Greek "city states." The diversity of each group provided an opportunity for cross-cultural exchange and inter-cultural communication. AllinPeace builds on the philosophy that peace is possible when values such as harmony, security, justice, understanding, tolerance, empathy, cooperation and respect are displayed and practiced by both parties. In championing this notion, the AllinPeace provides opportunities for youth to build relationships and find commonalities that break down stereotypes and builds self-confidence and esteem for one's self and others. The AllinPeace strongly believes that through grassroots measures peace can be achieved within civil society and among nation-states. The main categories in which the events took place were under the banner of Peace Education, Sports, Music, and Art.

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Olympics/truce.html