Space to Breathe 2017

“I came on this trip, because I didn’t understand what was happening in this beautiful land. I still don’t understand it. But it’s good to meet people trying to change what's happening here, and it's good to know I can be part of that in the future”
(Space to Breathe participant Sep 2018)


Space to Breathe brings people together.


Two months ago over 20 people from the island of Ireland – Christian (Protestant and Catholic), British and Irish, traveled to Palestine and Israel on the Space to Breathe project. While in that incredible region, we met a wide range of voices that provided an honest insight into the facts on the ground.

We met with Israeli peace activists, with West Bank settlers, with people living under military occupation, with non-violent activists creating sustainable ways to farm a living under oppression, with Jewish religious leaders crying out for peace & justice, with young men and women struggling to live life in this beautiful land, and with ordinary Israelis and Palestinians who just want the violence on all sides to end.

Our lives are not the same because of those experiences. It truly is one of the most contested spaces on the face of the earth.


But that is not the end.


In ONE MONTH … (time is short) … the Israeli and Palestinian young people are coming to Ireland, for stage 2 of the program.

British, Irish, Palestinian and Israeli Christian, Muslims, Jews and agnostics will gather together in Dublin, and will spend a week,

conversing with each other,

sharing life’s bitter and painful experiences with each other,

seeking questions and actions for a better future with each other,

seeking to discover ways to practice Peace with each other.


In a world where many people shun such connections and opportunities, scoffing that Palestinians and Israelis should not be in the same room (inadvertently legitimizing the sectarian and segregationist policies of national governments and bad leadership) …

in a world where ‘the other’ of whatever faith, colour, race or nation, is increasingly stigmatized …

in a world where military might sends the signal that the winner is always the one with the biggest gun …

and in a world where the threat of devastating violence is increasing exponentially day by day …


Please help us to make the small, but vital, difference that getting humans together makes.


We are in the final funding stretch to make November happen for all participants, and we need close to €10k.

Please check out the video made by several of this years participants so you can hear their own heart for the project.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. We cannnot express enough our debt to you for your care and your help. We are choosing to believe the world can be different, thank you for helping us make it so.

Space to Breathe 2017