We are currently engaged in a deep listening process with our community to identify the most effective projects and resources available to respond to the ongoing war in Israel and Palestine. If you have a project you’d like to initiate, we encourage you to submit it through our project proposal form.

Additionally, if you are aware of projects that align with our mission and could benefit from our support, please reach out to us at bwb@burningman.org.

A fundamental principle that guides our work at BWB is our recognition that individuals are not defined by their governments. We are Burners Without Borders because we recognize the inherent humanity in all people, and we will not discriminate against anyone base on nationality, race, religion, ethnicity, gender, country of origin, sexual orientation or anything else. Our aim is to be pro-humanity and pro-peace.

In the interim, we invite you to engage with these thoughtful conversations featuring friends of Burners Without Borders who have dedicated themselves to bridging divides in the region. These discussions aim to provide a more nuanced understanding and contribute to our collective pursuit of peace.

Life is a Festival: Sami Awad & Sharon Avraham: A Lighthouse for the Middle East

Sami and Sharon return to the show to discuss their ambitious peace project, the Lighthouse.

The Lighthouse Project is the creation of a center that will offer and host programs that aspire to research and create a model culture of peace.

This will include things such as education, cross-cultural engagement, retreats, and peace studies; catering to the Middle East North Africa (MENA), and the world. The center will be a place where others will visit to engage in personal healing and transformation, learn new tools and methodologies, rejuvenate themselves when burned out, and simply find space and time to retreat and reconnect with their calling. It will be a place where peace organizations or individuals who align with our values will have space to use the facilities for their own programs and activities.

In addition, the Lighthouse will include an ongoing living community for passionate people to come together for the sake of creating a new model for the MENA region; challenging the status quo of the reality in the region, and creating new approaches and solutions to the pressing issues mentioned above.

Knowing that during these times such a space cannot exist in the MENA, mainly due to different identity groups not being able to live together in the region. We are seeking to create The Lighthouse in nature where we can build an eco-friendly, self-sustaining center and community… It will also be nearby (Mediterranean area) to allow activists and visitors from the region to visit and for those who live in The Lighthouse to easily return to the region to share, engage, hold training, and educate others.

Life is a Festival: The Prayers of an Israeli and a Palestinian Burner
This recent podcast episode features a compassionate conversation with Sharon Avraham (Israeli Burner and co-founder of Midburn) and Sami Awad (Palestinian Burner and activist). This conversation reminds us of the importance of bridges during difficult times. Listen here.

Openness, Dialogue and Exchange: Lessons from the Muslim-Jewish Conference
Recorded in Black Rock City 2016, Lionel Mitelpunkt discusses the lessons from the Muslim Jewish Conference, which is a dialogue and leadership organization for students and young professionals, bringing together important representatives and young leadership from Muslim and Jewish communities and beyond. Listen here. 

Culturally Attuned: Connecting Across Historic Divides
Liel Maghen shares with us about how people who live amid violent conflicts suffer trauma–and even inherit it when that conflict has extended across generations. While trauma can harden us against our perceived foes, remarkably, with time, people can use shared traumas to build connections, even with those we have seen as enemies. Listen here. 

> How to create a Project.