Dear Friends,

The Corona virus has taught us that the world is small and fragile and we must work together to make it a better place. We must maintain our solidarity with those around the world and share with them resources to address the threat of the virus.

On February 19th, in the first days of the virus, we held a conference with human rights organizations in the Fred Segal Peace Library. Human rights lawyers work tirelessly to defend people who have been effected by the occupation. Their legal petitions are often rejected however they continue to work hard protecting the rights of the neediest.

The central speaker at the conference was Babloo Loitongbam, human rights lawyer from Manipur India. He has been fighting to protect human rights in the northeast of India for more than 20 years focusing on the Special Powers Act giving the Army powers that are almost impossible to control, including the right to “shoot to kill”. With his organization, Babloo Loitongbam has documented thousands of cases in which innocent people were killed and has advanced litigation against the perpetrators.

Joining Mr. Loitongbam was Gavriela “Gaby” Schutz Lasky an Israeli attorney, feminist human rights activist, and political and social activist. She was a member of the Tel Aviv City Council and the secretary general of the Israeli peace organization Peace Now. As a human rights attorney, Lasky documents and responds to cases of torture, false imprisonment, and police brutality within Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank.

The conference and discussion provided inspiration and support for those working in human rights law in Israel and the West Bank.

The change agents program for environmentalists (to promote environmental justice, based at the School for Peace in Neve Shalom – Wahat al-Salam)

Summary of a dialogue session during the Coronavirus era: Coordinators/facilitators: Noa Barkai-Reid and Mazen Zoabi

On Friday, March 27, 2020, participants in the SFP Environmental Justice
Change Agents Program conducted an exciting and different kind of meeting.

According to the original schedule, the group was to tour southern Israel in order to get acquainted with the region and the dilemmas of the Arab-Jewish conflict in that region. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the tour was canceled presenting the challenge of putting together a different type of meeting. Since everyone is currently isolated and confined to their homes, we decided to take the opportunity to meet in virtual space.

The meeting began with an engaging lecture by Prof. Danny Rabinowitz on “A Century of Energy: the Generation of Electricity between Two National Movements”, and continued with a discussion of how these issues are relevant to the current crisis.

A dozen participants took part in the virtual meeting. It was exciting and heartening to meet, hear and experience a little of our complex contemporary realities from different perspectives: age, nationality, gender, social status and more. The impression emerged that the Corona virus crisis is slightly blurring the conflicts and forcing people to cope with existential survival without distinctions of identity or nationality. It is also permitting connections and solidarity from a more neutral place, without power struggles and politics.

Participants discussed new opportunities and potential initiatives in the current reality and the dilemmas that will follow the crisis. We considered how we would like to see and shape the day that follows. Some of the participants shared the initiatives they are promoting in their circles.

In summary, it was important and very encouraging to meeting. Even in a seemingly distant and alienating way, precisely in the days of isolation and disconnection, the images on the screen of the Zoom website enabled a sense of closeness, longing and curiosity to hear and be heard.
We hope that by our next meeting in April, reality will gradually be returning to normal and sanity. If not, we will continue to find solutions suitable to the situation.

Article and summary:
Noa Barkai-Reid

Change Agent’s Program for Lawyers

This program for lawyers, with a focus on human rights law consisted of the second group of the program which started last year. On February 28, 2020 the group met for its third meeting. Amir Fakhoury and Tal Kolkola who are running the program decided not to suspend it because of the virus, but to find a different way to meet, choosing Zoom. This meeting hosted the political journalist and commentator Meron Rapoport. He spoke of the developing political cooperation between Jewish and Arab national politics and the strengthening of Jewish supremacy. With this he presented what he sees as the real struggle that exists today; the fading Israeli identity, of those citizens who have a right to a state and those who take part in the government, impacting on identity; and the role of society and government. This stimulated a lively dialogue between Jewish and Arab members of the group. A Jewish participant thanked the School for Peace for continuing these meetings even during these difficult times. He said it gave him strength to continue in his work. A number of participants shared on the group’s WhatsApp group that they were interested in having weekly meetings until we are able to return to the regular schedule of the program. The staff decided to continue on a biweekly basis using Zoom. The next meeting will be with the head of the Joint Political Party, Ayman Odeh, and focus on a proposal to establish and new Jewish-Arab political party.

In-Service Mentor Training at the School for Peace

On March 26, the SFP held a preliminary meeting for an online course to train a special group of graduates to mentor new graduates on projects that advance equality and peace. The School for Peace will put together ‘action groups’ of graduates. Each group will have a leader and 5 – 10 participants who will meet to plan and implement projects. Each group will have a mentor from the SFP who will support and steward the group and its leader. We held the preliminary meeting to clarify the role of the School for Peace during this difficult period. A number of important points were brought up by the participants:

– The Corona virus doesn’t have to stop us. We need to hear the rational voices and take advantage of the fact that people are at home and have time.
– It is a good time to investigate different areas in greater depth.
– We should not curtail our activity and should map out the needs, for example the increase in domestic violence.
– It is important to define the ‘language’ of Jewish-Arab partnership. The message of solidarity between Jews and Arabs must not disappear.
– We should develop a way “to meet, without meeting”. It is important to emphasize joint efforts that have taken place. In past crises like war we have been separated whereas this crisis brings us together.
– It is very important to plan for the period following the crisis. We have learned that there is no plan for medical emergencies.
– We could produce a short video that shows how we, as Jews and Arabs, are together and will continue together following the crisis.

There was a general consensus was that it is important to continue to meet. We decided to have two 90 minute in-service training meetings focusing on how we can work and mentor graduates in implementing projects.

We also took advantage of this period to develop a new English brochure for the School for Peace and to publish our 2019 annual activity report.

At the time of writing (April 2020) we are busy with plans for seminars and conferences in the wake of the Coronavirus and further online meetings of the graduates of the mental health professionals and the planners change agents courses are scheduled to take place.

During this period our graduates are active: Shaqued Morag, executive Director of Peace Now and graduate of our first program for Up-and-Coming Politicians, through her organization organized a demonstration outside the home of Member of Knesset Benny Gantz, the candidate for ‘rotating’ prime minister, demanding that he keep his promise and prevent the annexation of Palestinian Territories.

Stay Healthy,
Nava Sonnenschein

SFP’s director
April, 2020