Abir's Garden Project: More than a Playground
 Abir Aramin, ten years old "Revenge would have been the easy choice when I lost my heart, my child," said Bassam Aramin, father of Abir and co-founder of Combatants for Peace. "Instead we are here to tell our story, open a path to peace and reconciliation, and find the help we need so that Combatants for Peace can build the next Abir's Garden Project, this time for children at the Si’ir Girls School." |
Update: Combatants for Peace, Bassam Aramin and Yaniv Reshef, are on the Courage of Conscience speaking tour to present a tangible, nonviolent way to end the brutality in Israel and Palestine. They ask your help to build the next Abir’s Garden playground to be built at the Si’ir School for Girls, in the Palestinian village of Si’ir near Hebron. This playground will cost about $19,000 to build, including minivan transit to bring the Combatants for Peace to this site for construction and to attend the opening ceremony. Please Donate Now.
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What Happened to Abir?
Abir Aramin was walking home from school with her sister and two friends in the West Bank town of Anata on January 16th 2007 but never made it back to her family. On this day the Israeli Border Police jeep, patrolling outside the gates of the Anata girls' school opened fire, shooting from the back of the jeep. Abir was hit by a rubber coated steel bullet and critically wounded. Abir Aramin was taken off life support after 3 days of struggling for her life. She was only 10 years old.
14 eye-witnesses and an independent autopsy report submitted by the renowned Israeli pathologist, Dr. Chen Kugel, demonstrate clearly that Abir was shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet in the back of the head while running away. However, the Israeli State Attorney's office closed the case supposedly for lack of evidence. Appeal to reopen the case was denied; the State Attorney claimed she was hit by stones thrown at the time the jeep was leaving the village. That time, as noted in the soldier’s own reports, was more than 2 hours after Abir was already in the hospital. According to the Israeli Human Rights group B'Tselem, over a thousand Palestinian children have been killed since 2000 and not one case has been brought to justice. For more about the investigation and the appeal filed by Yesh Din
"The Abir's Garden Project is more
than a playground. It is about justice prevailing over revenge, genuine
partners for peace, and a precedent-setting case to make soldiers stop
shooting at children," said Zohar Shapira, project coordinator for
Abir's Garden and co-founder of C4P who formerly served for more than
15 years in the elite unit of "Sayert Matkal," as a combatant and as a
commander. "At its heart, these Combatants for Peace are working together
to build a beautiful place where children can be children, where they
can go to be safe, to step out of the Occupation into a world of play
and creativity, and begin to heal.".
News of Abir's death created a wellspring
of emotion worldwide, in part because Abir's father, Bassam Aramin, is
a peace and justice activist and founding member of Combatants for Peace.
Responses to a condolence
letter online written by Women of a Certain Age came from 58 countries
and was addressed to her family.. The Rebuilding Alliance contacted Mr.
Aramin, who asked that efforts to organize on behalf of Abir be directed
to the children of Anata, in the hope that the world would help Combatants
for Peace provide them with a safe place to play.
Abir's friends are traumatized, as are the children of
Anata who live under occupation and witness
brutality daily. They have no safe place to play and grow.
Activities:
Si'ir Girls School has been selected for the next construction project and the principal of the school has confirmed her intention to participate. The Regional Minister of Education has also confirmed his support for the project. The Combatants for Peace project team visited the school and the site survey will soon be underway. A meeting with the parents' club is expected when our speaking tour is completed, so that the parents can describe the design they have in mind and select the playground equipment.
Project
Message:
I'm not going to lose
my common sense, my direction, only because I've lost my heart, my child.
I will do all I can to protect her friends, both Palestinian and Israeli.
They are all our children.
-- Bassam Aramin, Abir's father and co-founder of Combatants for Peace
Project Review and Approval:
The following three people sign-off on each stage of the project, with on site approval by the landscape architects who provided specifications for the project and review by the Rebuilding Alliance Board of Directors
Zohar Shapira, among the founding members of Combatants for Peace, is project manager for the Abir's Garden project. Zohar, now a teacher in a Waldorf school in Israel, served for 15 years in the elite unit "Sayert Matkal", as a combatant and commander. After the bloody spring of 2002, when hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians were killed in mutual violence he refused to serve in the occupied territories. Zohar is married with two children.
