Today I will talk about conflict prevention programs in Israel, namely, Debate for Peace. For a couple weeks now, I have been interning for Debate for Peace, doing research for their conference in Kosovo and creating a promo video. Today I got the privilege of seeing the hard work of the staff and student participants come to fruition. Debate for Peace organizes Model UN conferences for ages 13-18. Each conference has about 200-400 students. Many are from high school MUN programs, but others come many kilometers on their own just to participate (one in particular, Leah, just graduated from high school and drove 2 and a half hours to participate). According to one of the MUN chairs I spoke to who is a veteran MUNer, MUN is a hugely popular activity for teenagers in Israel, but there are very few opportunities for many students to participate in conferences, which bring students from all over the country together. This is due to limited building space, which is an obstacle to having conferences of more than 400 students. Debate for Peace is unique in that it is free to participate in and strives to bring a diverse group together. Today’s conference was held in a Muslim town called Tamra at Eshkol Pais, an accelerated school that brings the most academically gifted students from the eight neighboring cities into one rigorous education center. It’s over 115 km north of Tel Aviv (side note: I drove there-my first time driving in Israel and, although Israelis have a reputation for being bad drivers, it was comparable to driving in LA. Needless to say, I felt at home on the road). The participating students were from wealthy, poor, orthodox, secular, Jewish, and Muslim backgrounds. Particularly exciting was that this was the first conference with students from Nablus in the West Bank! When they left, everyone exclaimed, “Please come back next time!” I also learned about many subcultures in Israel, including the native English speaking community of Modi’in, the African Jewish population, the few Asian people (specifically Chinese and Phillipino) and there was even one Bedouin representative. During the conference, each participant is a delegate of a country dealing with a particular political concern. The topics today were Kosovo, Catalonia, Kurdish, micronations, historical, and...everyone’s favorite...Palestine. I felt compelled to hear their solutions to the local conflict. As you can see, all three delegates chose a two state solution along with common themes of establishing Palestinian economy and infrastructure, management of terrorism, fair treatment of refugees in the area, and less Israeli and more Palestinian Authority security enforcement in the West Bank. Germany’s equitable proposal passed in this round (however, it is worth noting that the video displays the second round of voting for clauses. In the first round, none of the clauses received enough votes to pass). No matter what the results were, it is valuable for these kids to learn and represent different points of views for international conflicts. In addition - and probably the most important aspect of Debate for Peace - it allows the next generation of leaders to get to know people from different backgrounds, given how segregated most of Israel is. It is for this reason that I would deem Debate for Peace a "conflict prevention" effort. According to Michael Lund, a prominent figure in peacebuilding, conflict prevention is “actions to avoid eruption of social and political disputes into substantial violence, keeping the emphasis squarely on stages before, rather than during violent conflicts” (Lund, 2009). Furthermore, it often seems as though not enough conflict prevention procedures are taking place because these measures are rarely labeled as "conflict prevention." Conflict prevention can include teaching a common language, showcasing artists from local adversarial groups in the same art show, and sponsoring local peacebuilding efforts. All of the actions I mentioned above are being done by the US Embassy in Israel. To be honest, I came to Israel feeling fed up with the US government. However, I am pleased that my tax dollars are funding mostly non-invasive peace efforts aimed to mitigate long term conflict in the Israel/Palestine region. *On the other hand, it begs the question, why is the Israeli government not sponsoring such projects? Why is the US Embassy the sole funder of Debate for Peace, providing the buses that drove students from non-central locations, such as Nablus? On the ride home, I sat next to a teacher of one of the MUN groups. She teaches classes in the diplomacy track at a high school in Modi'in and facilitates the MUN club, all of which are in English. She is the most inspiring teacher I have ever met, one who clearly loves to teach. She is also from the town I went to high school in and made aliyah in order to raise her children in Israel. This teacher told me about another US-sponsored conflict prevention program that she is participating in. Through an NGO called Pathways, educators throughout Israel are taking a two-day negotiations and conflict resolution training course, so that they can better teach these skills to their students. The US Embassy is paying for the training and accommodations for the teachers. During the long bus ride, the two of us pondered why the US government would see the importance in sponsoring these types of programs. The US government is listening to the research, which shows that the peace process does not end when a treaty is signed or a ceasefire is made. The peace process is a process and one that we often do not see the results from until a couple generations down the line. However, it is also important to note that the US has a tendency to spread western values, such as education to all and English, where it is not wanted. So I had to stop and ask myself, is this what Palestinians and Israelis want? Is the American ideal something that the future leaders of this region want to uphold? From what I've seen, the answer is surprisingly "yes." This week alone, I have been asked by three teachers in Arab/Muslim schools to come and teach English to their classes. Last week, I went to a Bedouin village called Rahat, spoke with members of a local non-profit called A New Dawn for the Negev, and they too expressed interest in having English-speaking classes. That this is happening despite Trump's announcement regarding the state of Jerusalem shocks me. I expected much more backlash and outward hatred of Americans. This picture is much different than the Western-hating Muslims that I often hear about on the news. I believe the reasoning is simple. Though there are many extreme Islamist groups that disagree, the Palestinians that I have met realize the importance of getting their voices heard. Without a common language, it is hard to do this. The strength of Palestine relies on quality education of its future leaders, perhaps striving for English-language diplomacy programs similar to Modi'in in the Arab schools. Furthermore, better-educated Palestinians will offer more jobs to Palestinian youths who might otherwise be encouraged to join terrorist organizations, as well as strengthen Palestine's economy. Once Palestine has a better economy, they will have much more political power to achieve independence. Though I would love to do more research on this, it seems that Israel is not funding such educational programs for Palestinians (that's the US's job), but also not standing in Palestine's way of getting external aid. Though I often feel disheartened by the state of the world today, programs, such as Debate for Peace, and the US State Department's financial and institutional support make me feel proud to be an American, happy to be living in Israel, and generally hopeful on the outlook of the world. *UPDATE 20/12/17 - I spoke with the organizer of the Pathways conflict resolution training workshop for teachers in Israel and it is sponsored by the Israeli Ministry of Education, NOT the US Embassy. Very cool that the Israeli government views this type of education as important. (Recipients of an Interfaith Encounters Scholarship for a conflict prevention program in the US)
References: Lund, M. S. (2009). Conflict Prevention: Theory in Pursuit of Policy and Practice. The SAGE Handbook of Conflict Resolution, 287-321. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9780857024701.n16 |
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