ICAHD has a long history as an advocate for Palestinian rights and for a just peace between Israel and Palestine, as well as significant success in forging a close working relationship with Palestinian organizations and communities. ICAHD activists resist the Occupation “on the ground” by physically blocking bulldozers sent to demolish homes and, raising funds abroad, by bringing Israelis, Palestinians and internationals together to rebuild homes that have been demolished – more than 160 homes rebuilt, more than 160 acts of non-violent defiance to the Occupation.

ICAHD attempts to reach the wider Israeli society with its message of a just peace. It also views itself as a political actor capable of influencing governments’ policies towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Believing that the Israel-Palestine conflict should concern people everywhere, ICAHD members, mainly of them young Israeli activists, work to mobilize human rights and political organizations, trade unions, churches, university groups and others in a joint struggle to bring an end to this interminable, globally destabilizing conflict.

About Beit Arabiya Project:

Beit Arabiya (“Arabiya’s House”) is an ICAHD project carried out in the West Bank village of Anata, northeast of Jerusalem. As its name suggests, Beit Arabiya is a home belonging to Arabiya Shawamreh, her husband Salim and their seven children, a Palestinian family whose home has been demolished four times by the Israeli authorities and rebuilt each time by Palestinian, Israeli and international peace activists – but who continue to live in fear of yet another demolition. Since the family cannot live in their home because Israel would revoke their Jerusalem residency if they moved in, thus preventing Salim from working, they have dedicated it as a center for civil society strategizing over effective ways to end the conflict.

Based upon the model of the Scandinavian folk school movement (Folkhogskola), Beit Arabiya offers courses for activists, venues for meetings and opportunities for strategizing and for developing campaigns. It is a place where internationals can interact with local activists, thus facilitating effective global cooperation among peoples. Beit Arabiya also serves as the venue for ICAHD’s annual summer rebuilding camps, where Israeli, Palestinians and international volunteers come together to rebuild Palestinian homes.

For more information, please visit ICAHD website: www.icahd.org/eng

Focusing on tools that create wide-reaching change, the IWN takes a pro-active role in advocating women's rights in the Knesset and providing pro-bono legal aid on precedent-setting cases.

IWN also functions on a grassroots level in activities ranging from a “Hotline” that provides legal assistant to women who have suffered discrimination in the workplace to leadership and educational programs. One such program is Eshet Chayil, a multi-stage program geared toward assisting long-term unemployed women to gradually integrate into the workforce, currently operating in 21 Israeli towns out of which 4 in Arab villages.

This year saw the launch of the Jumpstart program, a unique program that empowers young women (18-25) from disadvantaged backgrounds through personal mentoring to enter the workforce. IWN’s Teenagers Leading Change program takes place in Arab and Jewish high schools all over Israel focusing on changing the gender positions and attitudes among teenagers.

About Coexistence & Women Empowerment Projects:

The Towards Coexistence Courses are particularly innovative. They have the merit of dealing at the same time with the issue of coexistence and the issue of empowerment and leadership for women, whose gender attach an additional dimension to the problems related to coexistence.

Gender stereotypes are ingrained in the Israeli society. Women have to work harder and invest more time and resources in order to be equal to men who are on the same social level.

The coexistence courses emphasize empowerment by means of a “meeting among identities” for Jewish and Arab women living alongside each other; the courses are facilitated jointly by Jewish and Arab counselors and are bi-lingual. Ten Arab and ten Jewish women participate in each group. The courses consist of 12 weekly sessions, 4 hours each. At the end of the course the group initiates a social project which is lead with the professional guidance of IWN.

The Courses focus on supporting women in creating networks among them. It is necessary to promote an “active” coexistence by encouraging a real dialogue and networking among women from Arab and Jewish communities.

IWN strongly believes that a process that allows personal growth and familiarity on the basis of gender is a base for deeper trust and understanding that creates real coexistence, inclusion and acceptance.

For more information, please visit IWN website: www.iwn.org.il/indexEn.asp

PCFF is a community of Israelis and Palestinians who have lost close family members during the conflict. Together they promote a long-term reconciliation process through dialogue and mutual understanding. Since its inception in 1995, they have embarked on a joint reconciliation mission in the midst of the on-going violence, transforming their extraordinary loss and pain of bereavement into a catalyst for reconciliation. The work of the organization, which consists of dialogue, media programming, workshops, and youth outreach, is focusing on education and influencing the public and policymakers. As bereavement is highly respected in both Israeli and Palestinian communities, the PCFF consciously relays on the narrative of bereavement as a leadership tool in reconciliation. The cross-community nature of the organization is highly effective and unique given their ability to transcend their own suffering to work for peace.

To date, the organization has conducted various activities, allowing its work to extend into classrooms, art galleries, television studios and the larger community. Its work is rooted in the personal stories of its members and the need to build understanding across the conflict divide. The organization has received important international acclaim and grown in size and capacity. Yet, there is a need to further develop its capacity, skills and outreach and help the organization expand the reach of their programs.

About The Dialogue Encounters Project:

The unique abilities of the organization lie in the stories of its members. These stories open up emotional channels within many Israelis and Palestinians alike. The PCFF’s members provide hope that pain and anger can be transformed into empathy, not revenge and further bloodshed. The PCFF educational activities have given a voice to the personal stories of its members, which hold special significance for almost all Israelis and Palestinians. The fact that an Israeli and a Palestinian present together their tragic stories and jointly express their willingness to end de conflict and open a way to reconciliation has a magic effect; it generates what we call an "emotional breakthrough". Our experience suggests that youth and adults draw hope and strength from these stories.

The PCFF dialog encounters contribute to a much-needed change in the perceptions of both sides to the conflict. The length of these encounters is of 90 minutes, without a break. Most of the encounters are organized in colleges and secondary schools (16-17 years old students). The structure of these meetings is the following: in the first stage (about 40-45 minutes) the two lecturers-facilitators (all of them members of the PCFF), tell their stories and describe the strategies of the organization. The second stage is devoted to an open discussion and the free flow of Q&A. The last 5-10 minutes are generally devoted to a sum-up and filling feed-back forms by the students. The dialog encounters project has been ongoing for the last ten years, and steadily increasing the number of encounters. Last year we reached the number of 1,200, namely close to 40,000 people were exposed to the message of the PCFF. The only constraint to enlarge this number is the financial one. This project has been mostly funded by European governmental sources.

For more information, please visit PCFF website: www.theparentscircle.com