602-9; HR: 7974 27. Juli 2010

Besuch der deutsch-israelisch-palästinensischen Jugendgruppe der Talat Alaiyan-Stiftung bei Frau Frasch am 30. Juli 2010 im AA, Besucherzentrum Saal II

● I am very happy to welcome you here in the German Foreign Office in Berlin. My name is Jutta Frasch, I am Deputy Director General of the Department for Culture and Communication. With me is my colleague from the political department, Boris Ruge, Head of the division, who will explain our policy towards the Near and Middle East. ● But first I would like to congratulate the Talat-Alayian- Foundation to this 7th meeting in Berlin of young people of different religions from Germany, and the . It is this approach of bringing young people together that is so valuable. ● As you know Germany – due to its history – has a very special relationship with Israel and is at the same time engaged in the international process that should lead to a solution of the conflict in the Near East. In the meantime we support the many efforts of bringing together people from the conflict region, enhancing dialogue and reducing prejudice. ● This is part of our cultural relations and education policy which is again integral part of our overall foreign policy.

1 It serves our general foreign policy objectives such as

 promoting partnership and cooperation  securing respect for human rights,  preventing conflict and  safeguarding peace.  We do understand the term “cultural relations” in a very broad way as “culture” - in our view - does not only mean “the arts”, but also language, education, science, sport .

 The Federal Foreign Office supports the bilateral cultural relations to Israel and the Palestinian territories in many fields. A major focus in our work is directed towards the young generation both in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

1. In February 2008 the Federal Foreign Office launched the “Schools: Partners for the Future” (PASCH) initiative. The aim of PASCH is to create and strengthen a global network of some 1500 partner schools with special links to Germany. This is designed to arouse and sustain young people’s interest in and enthusiasm for modern-day Germany and the German language– especially in the priority regions of Asia, the Middle East and Central and Eastern Europe. The Federal Foreign Office is responsible for coordinating the PASCH initiative.

 In the Palestinian territories, we spent last year over 1,6 million euro for 2 German schools , the Talitha Kumi School in and the Schmidt School in East-, and

2 for 7 schools with focus on the German language ( DSD- Schulen) .  In Israel we established 2 partner schools, the Yitzhaq-Rabin- Schule in Eilat and the Wizo-Leo-Baeck-School in Haifa. You 'll find 9 Schools which offer the German language diploma all over in Israel.  Next year a new German-Hebrew school will start its activity in Jerusalem.  An interesting project is a common school book for Palestine and Israel. Since 2006 the German Georg-Eckert-Institute for international school book research is committed to the project of a peace promoting and deescalating presentation of the Middle East conflict in school books in both countries. The Foreign Office has supported this research work between 2006 and 2010 with 435.050 €.  Youth exchange plays an important role in our engagement in your region. Since 2001 an youth exchange center in Germany (Con Act) coordinates together with the Israel Youth Exchange Council the exchange between Israel and Germany.  Every year, about 20 „Johannes-Rau-scholarships“ are granted to highly qualified Israeli young people. More over, 50 scholarships for young researchers and academics are awarded.

 A wonderful institution is the Daniel-Barenboim-Foundation which supports young Palestinian and Israeli classical musicians to play together. The Foreign Office has supported this programme this year with 70.000 € .

3 2. Sport is another area of great success, especially in our cooperation with the Palestinian Territories. The Free University of Berlin and the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme cooperate to train football trainers and construct football places mostly in Gaza but also in the .

 Together with the government of Bahrain, the Foreign Office prepares this October the „ARABIA 2010 - On the Road to Germany“ ( 2011 there will be women's world football championship in Germany) a women's football cup in Manama. The Palestinian women's national team will participate too.  On top of this we are active in the area of science and universities as well as in the preservation of cultural heritage.

● In all these activities which are sponsored by the German government you will not find the Foreign Office but instead our partners like the ○ Goethe-Instutites ( in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and ); ○ and Lecturers from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in Jerusalem, Haifa and Beersheva; who act on our behalf.

 I wish you all a very interesting stay here in Berlin, many new impressions and discussions within the group and of course a lot of fun and would now like to give the floor to my collegue Boris Ruge who will give you an overview over the German position to the situation in the Middle East.

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