Friday, October 28, 2016: The EU supported Change Agents Training Course for Up and Coming Politicians that the School for Peace runs together with Inmaa met for a binational meeting in the West Bank city of Beit Jala, near Bethlehem. Workshop participants prepared for a negotiations workshop that will take place later this month in Aqaba.

The meeting opened with an explanation of the simulation process. Afterwards, Prof. Amal Jamal of the Tel Aviv University Department of Political Science gave a lecture on the contemporary reality and future scenarios of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – a strategic and qualititive analysis. The lecture awakened great interest among the participants and provoked many questions.

Three persons were chosen to lead the negotiation process: a Palestinian from Palestine, in the role of President of the Palestinian Authority, a Jewish Israeli as Israeli Prime Minister, and a Palestinian citizen of Israel as head of Arab Higher Monitoring Committee. Four subjects were chosen for negotiation: scenarios for solutions; security and borders; Jerusalem; historical justice and Natural Resources.

The Jewish group from Israel dealt extensively with the importance of hearing the female voice in the negotiations and stressed the necessity of building a new dialogue, and raising new possibilities. They thought that a different voice might lead to better results in the negotiations.