01/03/2020 We have posted our response to the plan Trump program here ‼ Subscribe Past Issues Translate View this email in your browser From our Executive Director: 27/02/2020 Dear Friends and Partners, The most recent significant event was the announcement of the Trump program. A one-sided “peace plan” at the expense of the Palestinian people and with great injury to Palestinian citizens of Israel. I chose to attend the mass demonstration organized by the Arab Society Monitoring Committee in neighboring Baqa al-Gharbia. I went to express my partnership and solidarity with the Palestinian people that the Trump-Bibi scheme harms severely, and with the Palestinian citizens of Israel, who are at the simultaneously part of the Palestinian people as well as citizens with equal collective and individual rights in our shared state, Israel. Some of my fellow Jews chose to leave because of the Palestinian flags at the demonstration. I stayed. Palestinian flags do not bother me: This is their national flag and it does not mean that they want to live in Palestine. The flag proclaims they are part of a nation that also deserves the right to self- determination and a national home that is not under occupation. The protesters who came to Baqa came to protest the humiliating affront to their people, of which the proposal of transfer is just one component. I came to show them that they were not alone. That there are Jews who share their fight. This is called solidarity and it is our duty. I came and stayed because this program also hurts me as a Jew and as a Zionist. It contradicts Jewish morality and it portends the destruction of Zionism. It is true that I did not feel comfortable with every speech that was heard, but – and this distinction is critical – this was a Palestinian demonstration and not a demonstration of Jewish-Arab partnership. I wish there were many more who felt comfortable in Palestinian demonstrations with Palestinian flags and Palestinian slogans, because these are our partners in our common homeland here in Israel. For us in Givat Haviva there is no alternative to a shared and equal society in Israel. We view partnership among different people on an equal basis as an exciting future. The State of Israel should not look for ways to transfer Arab citizens of Israel; it should celebrate the cultural https://mailchi.mp/givathaviva/newsghnov2019-2123105?e=ca5f289acb 1/11 01/03/2020 We have posted our response to the plan Trump program here ‼ richness and economic and social contribution of multiculturalism in the shared society of Jews Subscribe Past Issues Translate and Arabs in Israel. We have posted our response to the plan here, but more importantly, our response is in the work we do every day, in all of the activity that you will read about in this newsletter. Yaniv Sagee GIVAT HAVIVA IN THE MEDIA Weeping in coal - the feminist art of Hannan Abu-Hussein Dough is white, coal is black. In the 2001- 2008 Video Ajeeneh (Dough) Hannan Abu- Hussein kneads and covers herself in dough as if ready to go to sleep in its soft and warm embrace. In a video placed next to Ajeeneh titled Mashara (Blacker) from 2017, she is seen breaking large blocks of coal into smaller fragments and smears her face with the soot. Both works take place in a space that evokes a home, or maybe a kitchen, where fuel is burned and bread is baked. read whole article... Israel’s Palestinian minority has good reason to fear Trump’s plan The Trump administration’s decision to green-light Israel’s annexation of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank grabbed headlines last week. But US support for a related proposal – one equally cherished by Israel’s extreme right – was far less noticed. read whole article... Secret Israeli Document Reveals Plan to Keep Arabs Off Their Lands A document unsealed after 60 years reveals the Israeli government’s secret intentions behind the imposition of a military government on the country’s Arab citizens in 1948: not to enhance security but to ensure Jewish control of the land. read whole article... SHARED COMMUNITIES Partnership between Arab and Jewish Communities to Build a Shared Society: the Givat Haviva Model Led by academic advisor Dr. Ran Kuttner, https://mailchi.mp/givathaviva/newsghnov2019-2123105?e=ca5f289acb 2/11 01/03/2020 We have posted our response to the plan Trump program here ‼ Givat Haviva has just published a new book Subscribe Past Issues Translate in Hebrew and Arabic that presents an in- depth exploration of the Shared Communities program. For the past decade Shared Communities has been Givat Haviva’s flagship program, developed and implemented to promote partnership and equality at a time of dissatisfaction with the idea of “coexistence”, and a growing preference for tackling the challenges of building and sustaining a shared society in Israel. The book presents a theoretical and practical model in the form of a multilayered program that facilitates sustainable partnerships between pairs of neighboring Jewish and Arab communities, headed by local authorities, as a basis to developing a concept of shared region. The book will be presented at a conference at the University of Haifa on April 22, with senior academics from Israel and abroad. An English translation of the book is on the way. In the meantime, the Hebrew version here includes a two-page executive summary in English on pages 12-13. https://mailchi.mp/givathaviva/newsghnov2019-2123105?e=ca5f289acb 3/11 01/03/2020 We have posted our response to the plan Trump program here ‼ Subscribe Past Issues Translate ENVIRONMENT 2020 began with two events of major importance regarding the environment in the Wadi Ara region. A public meeting presenting the Forest Connection Plan for Wadi Ara communities took place in Maale Iron on Jan 29, attended by representatives of the Arab and Jewish municipalities in the region, in which Jewish National Fund (JNF) officials presented their master plan for the Wadi Ara region to senior officials in the area. Two environmental projects led by Givat Haviva were held up as inspirational models for working in collaboration with environmentalists in the region. The following day, a tour of Nahal Barkan promoted an environmental project initiated by members of the regional association in the area between Kafr Qara and Mu'awiya. Participants included representatives of the Carmel and JNF drainage authorities Kafr Qara, Basma, Arara-Ara, the association, and Givat Haviva, who made important decisions for the project’s implementation. BUSINESS A meeting of the Regional Business Forum’s Executive Committee was held with the participation of Riyadh, Yaniv and Samar to plan the Forum's official launch in a conference to be held at the end of March 2020. About a hundred and fifty Arab and Jewish business owners from the region will be invited to the conference. The conference will present the Forum’s vision of integrating the private sector in Givat Haviva’s framework for building shared society in the region. EDUCATION https://mailchi.mp/givathaviva/newsghnov2019-2123105?e=ca5f289acb 4/11 01/03/2020 We have posted our response to the plan Trump program here ‼ Subscribe Past Issues Translate CHILDREN TEACHING CHILDREN Uni-national meetings and a number of bi-national meetings were held in schools in each of the nine pairs of the program. Year after year the schools express great satisfaction with this program and there is a desire to open a new pair of schools next year. Most of the collaborative sessions dealt with the cultural and identity components of the groups. The facilitators and participants reported on significant sessions which created personal and group connections HEART TO HEART The annual follow-up project of the 2019 Canada delegation took place on November 12, as part of Givat Haviva's annual conference activities, led by program coordinator Samira Assi. Graduates of the 2019 delegation planned and led three dynamic workshops for ninth graders from neighboring Pardes Hanna and Kafr Qara, sharing how the experience influenced their own sense of identity, creating a space for the students to ask potentially uncomfortable questions, and allowing for deep and intimate dialogue in small groups and pairs, to reduce negative stereotypes and prejudices towards different groups of youth and provide a personal example of shared life and shared responsibility. On January 9-10, 60 alumni representing all 9 past Heart to Heart delegations gathered for the annual conference for a very full to days of workshops, networking, capacity building, and fun for these motivated leaders of shared society. LEV Givat Haviva’s joint learning program, Learning Together, or LEV, continues its activities this year, https://mailchi.mp/givathaviva/newsghnov2019-2123105?e=ca5f289acb 5/11 01/03/2020 We have posted our response to the plan Trump program here ‼ pairing Jewish and Arab classes from nearby schools for shared learning projects. Three pairs of Subscribe Past Issues Translate classes met at Givat Haviva during the past month for facilitated encounters to get to know each other so they can begin their projects and feel comfortable visiting each other in their schools. The visits have begun, giving the students the opportunity to see each other’s environments firsthand and learn about their, and our, shared region. ENCOUNTERS The Youth Encounters programs continues this year, as many groups of Jewish and Arab youth from all over the country have come to Givat Haviva to take part in one and two-day Shared Space seminars, which raise awareness of issues of shared public space and its importance in building a shared society.