Windows for Peace (UK) & Windows - Channels for Communication
Proposed Young Journalists' Summer School - Edinburgh, July 2008
RATIONALE
It is no simple task for Israeli and Palestinian youth to overcome the vast amount of misinformation and stereotypes they are taught about one another. The limited availability for interaction, exacerbated by the ongoing violent political conflict, perpetuates the historical fears, prejudice, and hatred that divide the two peoples. To achieve a just and lasting peace, it is essential to rise above the physical and psychological barriers that separate the peoples in order to enable the new generation to grow up with opportunities to meet each other and cope together with the complexity of their past, present and future. Windows serves to disrupt the vicious cycle of negative feelings and provides an opportunity for youth to participate in an open exchange of information, feelings, thoughts, and ideas, first in their interpersonal interactions - through the dialogue process - and then in the articles they prepare for the magazine that they create.
The Role of the Magazine
The magazine is a key tool in facilitating communication. It is published in Arabic and Hebrew with occasional English and Italian translations. The magazine is written and edited by young Palestinians from the Occupied Territories (OPT), Palestinian Citizens of Israel and Israeli Jews.
This forum for self-expression helps the young ‘journalists’ to better understand the sources of their feelings and the impact they have on their own and others’ perceptions of and opinions about life in Israel and the OPT.
The magazine develops from correspondence between the young people, which enables them to search their feelings, think and learn more about the various issues before answering each other. They can share negative feelings, such as anger, fear, hatred, shame, guilt, and so on, in safety, aware that objections can arise from parts of each society for participation in ‘meetings with the enemy’.
As the trust between the participants grows, they are able to write about and discuss more personal issues. The topics range from the everyday - sports, music, art, the environment, computers - to more difficult issues of identity, nationhood, and the conflict. At times, the discussions take on more serious tones, touching on the participants’ frustrations, fears, dreams and hopes for the future.
During the course of this programme, participants get to know each other as individuals rather than merely as “Palestinians” or “Jews,” forging relationships that offer insights otherwise inaccessible to them. The content of the magazine reflects the process that the young journalists go through while working together, from suspicion and alienation to understanding and even friendship. For most of the magazine’s readers, it is the only means of communication with youth, or anyone, from the other nation.
The Summer School
In spite of all the efforts described above to bring together youth from both sides of the conflict and enable them to go through a meaningful process, there is a limit to what can be achieved over weekend meetings. By the time the Palestinians cross the checkpoints to reach Tel Aviv, the hours of waiting and the humiliation of the situation make it hard for them to put aside the personal experience and try to see other points of view of the conflicts.
An opportunity to spend two weeks away from the tensions of the region, gives the young participants sufficient time to relax and build trust and confidence between themselves. They will look at the Middle East conflict from a different perspective, affected by the distance and the quality time together as well as by meeting with local young people who offer their own points of view and challenging questions.
The desired outcomes are:
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