Everest Peace Project
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
The Everest Peace Project is an organization based in the United States that promotes peace, teamwork and cultural understanding by climbing some of the highest peaks in the world by a team of individuals from various faiths and cultures.[1][2]
Contents
Climbs
- In 2004 the Everest Peace Project climbed Mount Shasta to celebrate the United Nations International Day of Peace.[3]
- In 2005 the Everest Peace Project climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.
- In 2006 the Everest Peace Project climbed Mount Everest on May 18; Dudu Yifrah unfolded a sewn together Israeli–Palestinian flag on the summit of Everest.[4][5]
2006 climb
In 2006, there was an ascent of Mount Everest by Ali Bushnaq, Dudu Yifrah and Micha Yaniv, members of the Everest Peace Project. The climb is the main focus of the documentary film Everest: A Climb for Peace.
Ali Bushnaq
Ali Bushnaq is a Palestinian (Bosniak from Palestina). He was born in Nablus, but later he and his family moved to Jordan. He went to college in the United States. At the time of the expedition, he, his wife, and three children lived in Abu Dhabi.[6] Ali is an athlete who has played rugby, and run marathons. His climbing experience includes climbing Mount Shasta in California and several climbing expeditions in the Alps and Himalayas. In 2005 he summited Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa.
In 2006 Ali reached the elevation of 7000 meters (23,000 feet) in his bid to summit Mount Everest. Although Ali, who is not a professional climber, was not able to reach the top of Everest at 8,848 meters (29,029 feet) , he became the first Palestinian ever to reach 7000 meters elevation.[6] Ali believed that some of his Arab friends would no longer talk to him because of his decision to climb Everest with Israelis.[7]
Dudu Yifrah
Dudu Yifrah is an Israeli who was born in Northern Israel. At the time of the expedition he was 32 years old. A member of the Israeli Alpine Club, his climbing experience includes summiting Mount Blanc, the Matterhorn, Kamet and others. He is also a great rock climber, who has climbed almost every rock climbing site in his native Middle East region. In 2006 Dudu summited Mount Everest. He became the second Israeli to successfully climb Everest, reaching the top on May 18, 2006 at 6:51am .[6][8] Dudu served in the Israeli Defense Forces in an elite commando unit. At one point his unit was stationed in Gaza. Six weeks after he came home after successful ascending Everest, Dudu was called to fight in the Israel-Hezbollah War.[6]
The expedition leader for the project, Lance Trumbull, recalls talking to Dudu just before he was called for active duty, when Hezbollah was firing rockets to Northern Israel:[9]
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />
I was speaking with him on the phone from the United States. As I was talking to him he was saying, "can you hear that – the missiles are landing near my home" – I told him to get in the bomb shelter. But he just said "I was a soldier, and this is Israel, I am used to this".[10]
Dudu works in his family business, still serves in the military, and continues climbing in his free time.[6]
Micha Yaniv
Micha Yaniv is an Israeli who was born in Tel-Aviv and who at the time of the expedition was 40 years old. Micha, his wife and three children live in Jerusalem. He studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he received a bachelor's degree in math and physics.[6]
Micha became interested in climbing in 1988, and is a climbing instructor for the Israeli Defense Forces. He is also an active member of the community, and a volunteer teacher for needy kids.[6]
Micha climbs all surfaces, including rock and ice. He has climbed mountains around the world in Switzerland, Italy, France, Peru, Nepal, Tibet, India, and is only one of a handful of Everest summiteers who has also climbed El Capitan in Yosemite.[6] On May 18, 2006 at 9:35 a.m., he became the third Israeli who successfully climbed Everest.[8]
When he is neither climbing nor volunteering, Micha is working on a Ph.D. in Geophysics.[6]
At the mountain
At the interim camp, Ali shared a tent with Micha and Dudu. He was the last one to arrive at the camp, and he was exhausted. His Israeli friends helped Ali prepare his meal, and let him sleep in the middle between them. As soon as Ali felt better, he helped Micha and Dudu, whenever possible. Lance Trumbull was surprised that Ali, who was not a professional climber, was able to climb to the North Col in the same amount of time as Micha and Dudu did.[11]
Yet even at 5,180 meters (17,000 feet) elevation, sitting in a base camp, the men often engaged in arguing about Middle East politics. Lance Trumbull recalls one such exchange: <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />
"If I was Israel," says Ali at one point, "I would give an example [of peace]." "Okay, you are not Israel, you are Palestine. Why don't you give an example?" Micha shoots back.[12]
Trumbull understood how uneasy it was for the three men on different sides of the brutal war to overcome their differences, and to work together as a climbing team. On Everest, the ability to work as a team is often a matter of life and death.[12][not in citation given]
Dudu and Micha reached the "top of the world", as Everest is called. Ali had turned back near the North Col. He was suffering from pneumonia, and felt dizzy and weak. Micha cried when he learned that Ali would not share the summit with them. Although Ali could not make it to the top, the Palestinian flag was carried to the top of the highest mountain in the world by Ali's Israeli teammates. The culmination of the entire climb came when Dudu Yifrah's "raised the sewn together Israeli-Palestinian flags on the summit of Everest and dedicated his climb to his new-found brother and climbing partner Ali Bushnaq". When Ali learned about this by radio contact with Dudu and Micha, he was deeply moved.[7][12]
Documentary
| Everest: A Climb for Peace | |
|---|---|
| File:Everest - A Climb for Peace.jpg | |
| Directed by | Lance Trumbull |
| Produced by | Billy Marchese, Lance Trumbull, David M. Call, Lisa Tauscher, Laticia Headings |
| Written by | Jill Sharer |
| Narrated by | Orlando Bloom |
| Music by | Erik Mongrain, James T. Sale |
| Cinematography | Brad Clement |
| Edited by | Billy Marchese |
|
Running time
|
63 min |
| Language | English |
Everest: A Climb for Peace is a documentary about the 2006 climb, and is narrated by Orlando Bloom. The documentary has been hailed as a "tremendous achievement" by the Dalai Lama and has received his endorsement.[13]
Synopsis
The climb for peace expedition and the documentary which took five years to plan, execute and put together [14] is about 9 climbers as they climb the north side of Mount Everest.[15] The climbers, of different nationalities and faiths, work together despite their cultural differences to climb the mountain for peace.[16] Although there were 9 peace climbers on the expedition, the film focuses on Palestinian Ali Bushnaq and Israelis Dudu Yifrah and Micha Yaniv.[17]
References
- ↑ Peace Climbers
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Seeking world peace and understanding on Mt. Everest
- ↑ Review of Everest: A Climb for Peace
- ↑ Israeli plants Palestinian flag on Mt. Everest
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ New York Times via the International Herald Tribune (July 12, 2006). "Clashes spread to Lebanon as Hezbollah raids Israel". Retrieved August 16, 2007.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Haaretz "Two Israelis and a Palestinian – conquering Everest together". Retrieved June 16, 2010.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.. |
