Call for participants for the Causeway Project

antrim | anti-war / imperialism | event notice Thursday August 07, 2008 17:24 by Grace Walsh - Voluntary Service International grace at vsi dot ie 30 Mountjoy Square +353-1-8551011

Exploring the Israel / Palestine conflict in the NI context

The Causeway project will bring together 4 groups of young people from the ROI, NI and Israel. The latter group are representative of both the Israeli Jewish community and the Palestinian community in Israel. All the young people involved are working, volunteering or active in peace building organisations connected to the conflict in Israel and the Occupied Territories. The participants have considerable experience in the various strands of this peace building work – peace organisations, NGOs, cross-community work, youth work, human advocacy work, dialogue work, etc… Those participants from the ROI and Northern Ireland, have a good working knowledge of the conflict in Israel / Palestine as well as practical experience in these various fields.

The origin of the project lies in the ever-increasing need for those in the peace-building sector in Israel to evaluate their practices, learn from the practical examples of Northern Ireland, and to connect with others working in the same field. There is a feeling among those working for peace in Israel, that motivation, vision and clarity of purpose are lacking as the obstacles and political direction in Israel become increasingly difficult to tackle, and the activist / peace building communities lack focus, energy and support. The project hopes to address the need within this community of peace builders for learning, sharing of ideas and practices, reflection on past experiences and a need for long-term planning. Prior to this, many actions of the peace builders in Israel have been carried out on a reactionary basis in response to Israeli government actions, or specific events. There is a need for long-term strategic planning if a peaceful reconciliation and management of the conflict is to come about.

Project Aims and Objectives:

The project has three key objectives;

• To give the participants the opportunity to learn and reproduce the practical methodologies and models that are in use by practitioners of peace building in post-conflict Northern Ireland.

• To give participants the opportunity to reflect and evaluate their own experiences of peace building and to share these experiences with their counterparts from Israel, NI and the ROI.

• To build the basis of a community / network of peace builders who will gather, learn and evaluate together on a yearly basis and through this project outline clear and practical actions which can be taken.
The general aims of the project are;

• To share learning and practical examples about the Northern Irish peace process.
• To bring together experienced practitioners in peace building from Israel, NI and the ROI.
• To organise follow-up activities after the project.
• To create a space for dialogue, evaluation and reflection on the issue of peace in Israel / Palestine.
• To connect organisations / individuals / networks of people who are working towards cultivating peace in Israel / Palestine.
• To create a space for creativity and new ideas in this field.

Programme Outline:

The programme has very clear learning outcomes and objectives which will be facilitated by a number of professional a reputable facilitators working in the field of peace building in NI.

The programme will include three stages;

Learning and growing: The group will spend some time exploring their expectations of the project; facilitators will bring the group through group building exercises, while also exploring the challenges that face the group; The group will participate in workshops run by professional practitioners working in the field of peace building and learn about the methodologies and practices used by these people; The group will learn about the Northern Irish conflict through multimedia testimonies and workshops, as well as a walking tour of Derry.

Reflecting and evaluating: The group will move to the second venue, Corrymeela, for some reflective time, facilitated by Colin Craig of Tides Meditation Training. With Colin they will have a chance to process the content of what they have learned in the first stage of the project.

Creating and building: Following the time given for reflection and digestion of the learning elements, the group will begin to harvest ideas for their future work. This part of the programme will be facilitated using either a combination of Art of Hosting methodologies, or Dialogue for Peaceful Change, or both.