Dear Friends and Colleagues in Support of Coexistence in the Middle East,

I am pleased to provide you and your organization a very special advance invitation to join as a partner in a bold event slated for this November with the goal of showing the world another reality in the Middle East beyond the one on the news, one where people are working together, building person-to-person working relationships to build a better region for all who live there.

On Sunday, November 7, Friends of the Arava Institute will be presenting “With Earth and Each Other: A Virtual Rally for a Better Middle East.”

Friends of the Arava Institute (FAI) (www.friendsofarava. org ) is the U.S.-based 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to raising support and visibility for the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (AIES) (www.arava.org ). AIES is a university-level academic program located in the south of Israel which seeks to address regional environmental challenges by bringing together Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian, and other future leaders to study the environment while building positive cooperative relationships that lead to trans-boundary cooperation.

FAI is planning a bold event for Sunday, November 7, 2010, at 1 pm eastern, in order to raise visibility, not only for AIES, but for the reality of trans-boundary cooperation in many areas and sectors in the Middle East. The primary goal will be to change the perception that the only reality in the Middle East is one of conflict. With Earth and Each Other: A Virtual Rally for a Better Middle East will be an approximately hour-long broadcast to be presented in partnership with beNOW.tv on the livestream internet platform (with an additional hour-long pre-show). The program will feature segments with celebrities and musicians, along with vignettes showing cross-border cooperation efforts and stories and will conclude with a live segment, with a diverse group of students at the Arava Institute leading the singing of “Salaam (Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu),” a popular song in Israeli and Arabic visioning peace.

We are excited to announce that the outstanding and diverse list of artists already committed to participate in With Earth and Each Other includes Emmy and Tony Award Winner Mandy Patinkin, the legendary Pete Seeger, renowned Israeli songwriter Mosh Ben-Ari, and world-recognized Muslim hip-hop group Native Deen.

The broadcast is primarily intended as a group experience with local rally-viewing events to be staged from the US West Coast to the Middle East. Provisions will be made for household viewing for smaller gatherings or individual viewing.

With Earth and Each Other will demonstrate that there is more to the Middle East than conflict. The event will cast a broad umbrella to encompass the wide variety of cross-border/ cross cultural efforts that exist throughout the Middle East and the organizations throughout the world that help to support those efforts. With Earth and Each Other will not be an infomercial or telethon for the Arava Institute or any other organization.

The other thing that With Earth and Each Other will not be a political rally. The purpose is not to take a side, to criticize one government or another, or to suggest what the peace process or the solution should look like. Instead, the purpose is to raise the voices of those on all sides, and throughout the world, to show that there is another side of the conflict in which people are striving to work together across borders for the betterment of all.

Within weeks, we will be making a formal launch of With Earth and Each Other and its website (which will be www.withearthandeac hother.org ). Once the website is launched, it will, among other things, be used to highlight the work of partner organizations doing work in the area of coexistence and dialogue. By virtue of this email, we would like to offer you a special advance opportunity to join as a Partnering Organization for With Earth and Each Other.

What we ask of Partnering Organizations is simple – to promote participation in With Earth and Each Other to your constituents. In exchange, we’ll provide recognition of your organization’s work, with a list of your name, website, and a description of your work on the event’s website. Additionally, all Partnering Organizations will be eligible to participate in our special video contest by submitting a five-minute video highlighting your organization’s work. Winning videos will be shown as part of the With Earth and Each Other broadcast on November 7. Detailed information on the video contest will be available in the coming weeks.

By clicking here, you will find a very simple agreement for Partnering Organizations. We’d love to have you on board, as we believe that together we can raise tremendous visibility for the vital mission that we share. Please review the agreement, and, should your organization be interested in participating, complete and return by email to jessica@friendsofar ava.org or fax to (717) 233-8133. A quick response will ensure that your organization is already listed on the website by the time of our mid-July launch.

Separately, we will also be reaching out to organizations that might be interested in hosting local events for participants to watch the rally. Should you be interested in hosting such an event, please feel free to let us know.

Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions by emailing me at david@friendsofarav a.org. We look forward to an amazing day together (virtually, of course) on November 7.

Thank you.

Best Always,

David Weisberg, Executive Director
Friends of the Arava Institute
david@friendsofarav a.org