A cooperative Arab-Jewish children's project led to the creation of this peace sculpture, now permanently installed in the Peace Garden at Seattle Center, in the shadow of the Space Needle.  Under the direction of project founder Amineh Ayyad, Palestinian-American, and local Iraqi Artist Sabah Al-Dhaher, Arab and Jewish children came together for many weeks to create this sculpture.  The project was sponsored by The Arab Center of Washington, The Middle East Peace Camp (an Arab & Jewish children's summer camp), Kadima (a progressive Jewish community), and the Iraqi Community Center.

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The Poem

This poem below was written about the Middle East Peace Sculpture project by a volunteer poet and a friend who participated in the work sessions.  Children's Peace Day  was gifted to us on the day of the inauguration of the sculpture and was read at the dedication ceremony by Maia Brown and Mona Attallah. 

Children's Peace Day
By Christopher Bodenheimer Knaus

In a time of
             	Broken treaties, unsigned peace accords, 
             	Suicide bombing, bulldozers, flattened homes, 
             	Broken bodies, broken lives, and broken souls;
What we need
             	Is a breath of fresh air
             	A moment of reflection

A lifetime to rejoice in ourselves and each other
             	We are here and 
             	We are hope
             	We are here and
             	We are the peace our pain/dying/and suffering scream for

In a time such as this
             	We have to be mothers
             	Fathers, sisters, brothers,
           	We have to be the change
             	We seek;

In a time such as this
	We have to be a thousand children
	Sending love
	A thousand children
	With enough warmth to heal us all
	A thousand children
	Telling our leaders              No More!
	There will be no more war,
              	Not while we are here
              	trying to live;

In a time such as this
 	No one can stand alone
	Nor stand by and watch
 	Our lives drip drip dripping into the sea

We say, with our words, our fingers, our hands, our love, 
            We say	No More;

In a time such as this
 	We are here to survive.
 	We are here to live.
 	We are here to share
             		the love of our children, our children’s children
             		Our futures of hope, healing, and solidarity;

Today, we create anew
Sculpting the reality 
Of our lives
             Our fingers, hands, and hearts have traced our souls
             Representing each of you today, yesterday, tomorrow
             Our minds have wrapped around this peace
             Representing each of you today, yesterday, tomorrow

We are Arabic, Hebrew, English words, languages blending into one
Yet we are more, we are so much more
And we speak in unison
We are Japanese, Korean, Mandarin
We are Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese
We are Kurdish, Turkish, Amharic, and Farsi
We are Bengali, Urdu, Hindi.
We are the words that demand life in
A thousand languages
through a thousand children;

Join us in shouting until war is no more.
No More.
It is time to live.

We are here
A small piece of our earth
engraving hope in our hearts, our lives, and with
our hands we
create the peace
that is 
survival / life / loving.

Join us today
As we become the hope
The change
The peace
That we all need.

We have to be the change 

We seek.

I dedicate this poem to the children of the world, the memory of Rachel Corrie and Dr. Edward Said, Sabah Al-Dhaher, and Amineh Ayyad.   With love, Chris.

 

 

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Please email amineh@peacesculpture.org with questions or comments.
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Last modified: September 08, 2006