No excuse

The peace tree with wishes and symbols was made by primary school kids

Today was the beautiful end of the peace project 'No excuse' during the peace week in Antwerp. The goal was to make people think and feel about a difficult conflict zone and work together. 3X3 artists were invited to create two works of art together: one painting and a sculpting in Carrara marble. Peace Center Antwerp, The city of Antwerp and the Unesco Center Flanders invited 3 Israelis, 3 Palestinians and 3 Germans. Countless people helped, schools were involved and brought their own creative contribution to the initiative. Was it easy? No, working together as artists is hard: they have their own mind, came from different backgrounds and religions but they worked through the problems and learned to respect each other. One could tell they were proud of the result and proud to have been part of the butterfly flapping its wings to create a storm of peace. The speeches were warm, moving and witty. The unveiling by the alderman brought new beauty and harmony to light and afterwards people talked and hugged and shared.
Conclusion: there is no excuse not to work for peace, no excuse not to try and understand where the other is coming from.