The Jewish-Arab Centre for Peace at Givat Haviva had a busy winter with almost 1000 high-school students participating in their Face-to-Face seminars, bringing together students from Arab and Jewish communities across the country. This successful program is funded in part by the Stella & Charles Guttman Foundation and the Sam Spiegel Foundation.
The 21 schools that visited the campus in the past 3 months came both from the surrounding area, and from places further afield, from Ashqelon to the north. The students varied from some that had previously encountered members of the other side to others who had never seen someone from outside their own community.
The students came for 2 day seminars for an opportunity to come into contact with people they would not normally have the chance to meet. Prior to the encounter, Givat Haviva’s facilitators prepared the groups separately in their schools. At the campus, they engaged in workshops to get to know each other better and openly discussed issues important to them and their communities.
Farhat Agbaria, Director of Face-to-Face Encounters, says “We have had many challenges this year. There were a lot of lessons learned, both on organizational aspects of dealing with large groups and on educational aspects that reflect the complexity of this issue in Israel today.”
The encounters did not always run smoothly, there were arguments and issues left unresolved. One student said, “at first I was angry at some of their opinions and I didn’t want to express my own opinions. Later I realized that it didn’t matter; we have to talk about what we feel. After that I felt very comfortable.” At the end of the 2 days the students went home with increased knowledge of the complexities of the issues involved and knowing that it is possible to sit in a room together and listen to each other. At the end of the seminar, some felt that the experience would change their perspective on life when they returned home. As one participant expressed, ”now I can speak with people and tell them different opinions. Something inside me changed. I think I can get to other people that they are not as bad as we thought they were.”
Following the encounter some schools have been inspired to continue with themes raised. This March a Jewish school in Petah Tikva held a panel of students sharing their experiences with their schoolmates, followed by a screening of Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler's film "We, Too, Have No Other Land" and a discussion about the Arab minority in Israel.
The students felt strongly that these seminars were an important experience for them that should be extended to more teenagers in Israel, saying “It isn’t right to hide and ignore the other side. We must meet and maybe someday we will come and sit together and agree on a solution. This didn’t happen but maybe if we continue doing this we will reach this level.” Givat Haviva is already planning for next year’s program. The organization is hoping to double the number of participants, so that over 4000 students from over 60 schools can participate. Shachar Yanai, Director of Education, says “We would like to double the number of schools that participate in the program next year and to put more resources into perfecting the content of the seminar and the professional level of the facilitators.”
