A joint summer camp for special needs Jewish and Arab children has been taking place for the last 25 years in the community of Rosh Tzurim. Although joint Arab-Jewish summer camps take place in a number of communities across Israel, what makes this project unique and inspiring is the fact that Rosh Tzurim is a religious settlement in the Etzion bloc. The camp takes place during the nine days preceding Tisha B'Av, the day on which Jews mourn the destruction of the First and Second Temples and fast. This nine-day period is traditionally devoted to repentance and acceptance. All the community’s residents — young and old alike — come together to make this summer camp a special experience for the children, most of whom have serious disabilities.

“People say that we’re an island of sanity amid the madness around us,” Uri Shechter, a resident of Rosh Tzurim and one of the camp’s organizers, told Al-Monitor. “But we do this with great love and out of the belief that peace is made between people. Leaders can talk, hate and swear. Yet we and our neighbors have had good neighborly relations for years.”

All the residents are volunteers and organize activities free of charge to the participants. This year, for instance, the children took part in a chocolate workshop, horseback riding activity, cupcake baking class and a performance by “clown doctors.” Despite the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli youth in June 2014, followed by Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip and rockets being fired into Israel, the residents of Rosh Tzurim thought it was important to organize the summer camp as usual. “Our Palestinian neighbors were very angry [at the kidnappers] at the time of the kidnapping,” Shechter said. “They don’t think that all settlers have horns or that they’re the enemy.”

The summer camp is organized by ILAN, the Israeli Foundation for Handicapped Children. Most of the children who participate have extensive special needs, and each boy or girl is assigned three adult teens from the community who escort them and assist them during the weeklong camp. This year, too, the summer camp was made possible thanks to the generosity of the residents of the settlement who again donated money to the tradition that has become their pride and joy. They feel it is important to show that coexistence between Jews and Arabs is possible, even in a settlement community.