Civil society expands programs to restore and strengthen Jewish-Arab relations

Multi-Cultural College Campus

Israel’s campuses are a key platform for shared dialogue and society. With an existing project running at three campuses, and multiple requests from University Presidents to help create a more interactive and positive environment atmosphere on campus, this is an important focus of work in these times.
Action: 1) Public events for Arab & Jewish Students on the topic of Arab-Jewish relations at this time: We will run 4-6 events at various College and University campuses, each attended by 100-150 students. The events will include panels of key well-known thinkers, Arab-Jewish cultural performances and invitations to continue conversations in facilitated groups after.
2) Arab-Jewish Student Dialogue Groups: We will recruit students for a weekly series of facilitated dialogue meetings on the topic of shared Arab-Jewish society; culminating in a cultural event that the group plans for the student body.

ShabbaTarbut Action:

ShabbaTarbut are well-known public events in large Jewish cities. Many hundreds can attend, and top level public speakers share their insight into the topics of the day. We wish to cosponsor in several locations and bring the topic of Arab-Jewish relations at this time to a large and sophisticated audience. We wish to run 3-4 ShabbaTarbut events; 200-500 participants at each.

These difficult times add an unprecedented dimension into our Arab Jewish programming, such as our Arab Jewish Community Volunteer Year and Shared Society in the Negev including the youth volunteers, staff, high school students and pedagogical personnel (Shared Society in the Negev).

We propose the development and implementation of a series of specially tailored workshops facilitated by experienced staff to maintain and strengthen all stakeholders’ commitment to the project and enable them to further project goals of shared society building in times of crisis and uncertainty. We intend to develop and implement 10 workshops.

Media Campaign for Shared Society

Today, young people receive and transmit information primarily through diverse social media outlets. While the open communication that social media offers has many benefits, it has unfortunately played a large role in biased and self-reinforcing narratives on both sides. We propose constructing an ongoing media campaign focused on the relationships between the Jewish and Bedouin communities in the Negev, addressing various shared society issues and events. Now more than ever, it is vital to strengthen and maintain open and honest dialogue the two communities at all levels. The campaign will be orchestrated by AJEEC-NISPED but will involve the collaboration of civil society organizations and community leaders throughout the region. The project will include the following components: mapping of the flow of information, mapping civil society organizations (for collaborative purposes), formation of a steering committee, recruitment/hiring of social media/digital realm experts, design and implementation of a long-term campaign.

In response to the current violence throughout the country, which has led to a deterioration in relations between Jews and Arabs, NIF has assigned an emergency budget for projects working towards shared society in Israel. NIF invites organizations, NGOs and individuals to submit proposals whose goal is to calm the situation and to promote dialogue and peace between Jews and Arabs.

Applications can be submitted for projects which meet one of the following criteria:

• Joint Jewish-Arab activities whose goal is to calm the situation and to promote shared society.
• Activities whose goal is to protect freedom of expression and the right of all Israeli citizens to protest (as long as the protests are peaceful).
• Activities in East Jerusalem whose goal is to protect the rights of Palestinian residents and to promote dialogue between Jewish and Palestinian residents of Jerusalem.

Learn more here.