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The Jewish-Arab Center for Peace at Givat Haviva is one of the largest and veteran (established in1963) educational centers in Israel. It conducts an extensive range of educational activity in the fields of education for democracy, human values, peace and equality. Most of our experience and expertise is in joint Jewish-Arab educational and community activity in Israel. We recognize that the escalation and tension between the two societies threatens the cohesion, strength and values of Israeli society. The Jewish-Arab Center for Peace also offers Arabic and Middle Eastern studies programs for numerous organizations (Ministry of Education, Private Sector, etc.). The Center has a far-reaching and important tradition of education and has gained public awareness in Israel and the world. It was awarded the 2001 UNESCO Prize for Peace Education. We are currently focusing on the following activities: Face to Face – An educational program that facilitates encounters between high school students (11-12 grades) in a two-day seminar at Givat Haviva. The joint groups are led by a Jewish and Arab facilitator, and are designed to foster familiarity, break stereotypes and promote dialogue. In addition to the intensive seminar, in-depth activity is also conducted among the teaching staff at the schools, as is follow-up activity for students. In 2006-2007, approximately 4,000 students will participate in the Face-to-Face program. Expansion is a function of financing. Northern Branch – The Jewish-Arab Center for Peace has a well-established northern branch, located in Sakhnin in the Galilee. The Northern Branch holds in-service training for teachers on democracy, equality, pluralism and active citizenship. All of the in-service training programs are recognized for salary increments by the Ministry of Education. Children Teaching Children (CTC) – A unique educational program, offering in-depth two-year activity in grades 8 and 9, in both Jewish and Arab schools. The program focuses on accepting the other, equality, acquaintance and friendship. Over the past 20 years, about 30,000 students and teachers in Israel have participated in Children Teaching Children. Israeli Arab Empowerment – We conduct a wide variety of activities designed to empower the Arab population in Israel. Our focus is on fostering young leadership. This past year we organized the Student Councils program – which included leadership groups at 16 different schools. We also offered about 10 different courses for teachers, employees of local authorities and more. Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies – The Jewish-Arab Center for Peace is one of the leading schools in Israel for study of Arabic and Arab culture. As part of this activity, year-long spoken/literary Arabic courses are offered, primarily to teachers. In addition, enrichment and study days are offered at schools, in which over 10,000 students participate each year. The Institute for Peace Research – promotes research activity and publications. Over the past decade dozens of books and research papers have been written on Jewish-Arab relations, society, culture, government, constitution and economics. The Peace Library – The Peace Library is the largest reference library between Haifa and Tel Aviv. The library houses close to 70,000 titles, hundreds of journals and unique and rare collections. The Solly Marcus collection includes the largest offering in Israel on Israeli Arabs, the Jewish-Arab conflict, the Palestinians, Arabic literature and language, teaching of Arabic and the Middle East in general. The collection includes a central archive of Palestinian press in pre-State Israel and in Israel from 1920 to the present. |
