March, 2016 | The Jerusalem Intercultural Center

Katamonim Tolerance Team – A Neighborhood Meets Itself

The burned bridge between the word ‘Salaam’ and the word ‘Shalom’

Between the word ‘Kalib’ and the word ‘Lev’ (heart)

Between the word ‘Hoob’ and the word ‘Ahava’ (love)

Between the word ‘Urshalem’ and ‘Yerushalayim’

Between the word ‘Mai’ and the word ‘Mayim’ (water)

Between the word ‘Ivri’ (Hebrew) and the word ‘Aravi’ (Arabic)

Between the word ‘Wachad’ and the word ‘Echad’ (one)

Between the word ‘Allah’ and the word ‘Elohim’

This is part of a poem by Yosef Ozer, which was composed by the Ecout ensemble, which played at the first meeting of the Katamonim-Rasco Tolerance Team – A Neighborhood Meets Itself which took place on March 10. The Katamonim-Rasco team joins a growing network of Neighborhood Tolerance Teams, part of an overall effort to promote tolerance in Jerusalem, that we’ve been leading since the summer of 2014, thanks to the support of the UJA-Federation of New York and the Jerusalem Foundation.

Katamonim-Rasco meets itself

This first meeting was entitled “Katamonim Songs, ” and featured the poet Almog Behar and the Ecout ensemble. The ensemble performed songs from its “Katamonim Songs” E.P. that tells the history, the experience and the life stories in the Katamonim neighborhood in Jerusalem. Later on they spoke with Almog Behar and Inbal Jumpshid on the album’s songs and the neighborhood, identity and political connections.

Listening to Ecout

Michal Shilor, our JICC coordinator, summed up the meeting:

We listened, we experienced, we laughed and were excited by the close-knit music, song and discussion with neighborhood residents on accepting the ‘other’ in the neighborhood, on nostalgia, on recognizing the humanity of people regardless of their association with a particular group. Step by step, we’re making cracks in the walls and bringing the hearts of Jerusalemites together.

Here’s the link to a video taken at the meeting:

Naomi Roff2016-07-22T11:54:39+00:00March 14th, 2016|Blog, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, New Immigrants, Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem|

New Rights Booklet for Arab residents of East Jerusalem from Atta’a

‘Awareness is the first step toward change,’ is the adage that guides Atta’a, the Center for Rights Realization for Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem. Atta’a was founded in 2005, and recently came under our aegis.

And now they’ve published a booklet on the rights of East Jerusalem Palestinians at the Ministry of Interior. It goes over the different types of forms that exist, the different legal definitions of residency (most of the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem are permanent residents and not Israeli citizens!), navigating the Israeli complex bureaucracy when it gets to specific statuses, the rights of the couple and the kids after marriage of a permanent resident to a Palestinian from the West Bank, etc.

Cover of rights booklet

The publishing of this booklet was cross-posted on the English 0202-A View from East Jerusalem Facebook page.

A second booklet is in the works – about physical accessibility. It will cover what a person’s rights are, how to access them, which forms are necessary, which offices are responsible, and more. Stay tuned!

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for their continued support of this program.

Naomi Roff2016-03-19T12:27:53+00:00March 12th, 2016|Attaa, Blog, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Palestinians/Arabs|

Happy First Birthday 0202 – A View from East Jerusalem!

“I can’t believe it’s been a year. One year ago this week, after hard work on a ‘pilot’ 0202 Facebook page, Eran and I pressed ‘publish.’ Almost simultaneously, we began to receive ‘likes.’ We quickly passed the 100, 200, even 500 marks, until we crossed the 1,000 “like” in 24 hours! And then 0202 became an astronomical wind storm.”

Thus describes Michal Shilor, founder and volunteer director of “0202 – A View from East Jerusalem.” She goes on to describe how the page came about:

It all started in November 2014 when I found myself asking on Facebook if there’s a place that can give me a real peek into East Jerusalem – without Jewish left or right-wing commentary, without the filter of someone who is not a local resident. What does the East Jerusalemite see when she wakes up in the morning? What really happens at the checkpoints, in education, during arrests, at cultural centers? What do East Jerusalemites talk about in general, the regular people – not only political activists and not those who are better known than others? At the time I could only get the answers from Facebook pages in Arabic, or Jewish pages that either a) only gave part of the story, according to a certain political agenda, or b) always, always, always presented their understanding of the situation (also according to their political agenda). I then began a journey of meeting everyone who deals with East Jerusalem, I ran from meeting to meeting, from page to page. I very quickly found very good people to be on our advisory committee, and found a small staff from East and West Jerusalem who’d volunteer to take part of this journey. Throughout the year I’ve been amazed at the willingness, the professionalism, the patience and the dedication of each and every one. Today we are 22 Israelis and Palestinians, and I appreciate and thank each and every one.

Here’s her original post in Hebrew

The post was a promo for the first birthday party event that was held on Wednesday, March 9, at the Tmol Shilshom cafe in Jerusalem.

A full house at Tmol Shilshom

The room was filled to capacity – some stood outside, others were turned away. What a wonderful way to spend a birthday.

Michal and the 0202 page

The evening included guided readings of different posts that have appeared on the 0202 page – not just what the words mean, but also explanations behind them and related stories. Some of the 20 Israeli and Palestinian translators and editors, as well as those on 0202’s advisory board, led the audience through the posts.

Lior explaining a post

We also had experts in the field, such as Ami Metav, was was responsible for the Temple Mount and the Old City for the Israel Ministry of Defense, and is today a project manager and coordinator in East Jerusalem for the Municipality.

Ami Metav

We also welcomed Hatem Khweiss, Chief Editor of the Palestinian news web site HON.

Hatem Khweis

The evening was recorded by the Microphones for Peace Internet radio show, as well as on video.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, this is how the page looks in Hebrew. Today it has more than 15,000 likes, including senior municipal officials, journalists from major news outles and researchers, and is constantly growing.

0202 Hebrew

A few months ago, thanks to a grant from the Leichtag Foundation, we were also able to open an English site.

0202 – A View from East Jerusalem

We, Michal and the rest of the 0202 team wish to express our deep gratitude to everyone who came. As we wrote in our Facebook post:

Thanks to everyone came to speak and to listen, to congratulate and to celebrate with us 0202’s first birthday! We were especially excited about the open, innovative, and sensitive discussion that took place throughout the evening between East and West Jerusalem, between eastern and western Jerusalemites, between the men and women who came to hear, to listen and to expand horizons. We had no idea we could create such a face-to-face discussion at this time, and we’d thought we’d be able to do so on the Internet. We’re astounded that this type of discussion could happen now, face-to-face, only one year after launch. Thank you.
We were happy and amazed by the amount of people who came, and by the number of people who were forced to wait outside or to leave because the event was full. We promise to have a similar event soon.

And here’s the post to the event album:

And a video of the entire event (in Hebrew):

Naomi Roff2017-05-02T07:44:42+00:00March 11th, 2016|Blog, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Palestinians/Arabs, Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem|

Walla! – MiniActive Achievement in the News

We reported here about MiniActive’s success in obtaining an additional 3 million NIS per year to the city’s sanitation budget, which was achieved through the hard work of not only MiniActive, but also the team from 0202-A View from East Jerusalem, municipal officials, city council members, and more.

Now, this achievement is getting public attention in the country’s major news outlets. Read the Hebrew article that was published on Tuesday on the Walla! web site, one of Israel’s major news sources. Click on the picture for a PDF file of the Hebrew article:

Headline: “‘Living in a Garbage Dump’: East Jerusalem Residents Tired of Garbage in Streets

We hope that this coverage will add to other opportunities to make the city aware of this troubling situation in East Jerusalem and to the Miniactive activist women campaign to improve their daily life.

Naomi Roff2016-04-01T15:24:47+00:00March 10th, 2016|Blog, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, MiniActive, Palestinians/Arabs|

Window to Mt. Zion – Keeping the Mountain Clean of Hateful Language

It all began with this Facebook post:

Post about stickers on a tourist sign

A January 7 Facebook post about a number of stickers that covered Arabic writing on a Mt. Zion vista.

Later in January, hateful graffiti was sprayed on the Dormition Abbey, the Armenian Cemetery and the Greek Seminary. The Municipality cleaned up that graffiti immediately, but left other racist graffiti and stickers that had been placed there at different periods. Some of them even covered up signs to important Christian or Muslim tourist sites or routes.

Vandalized sign

Windows to Mt. Zion volunteers (this is our project, together with Search for Common Ground and support from USIP – read more about it here) rose to the task, and since then has been reporting these nuisances to the Municipality. Thanks to these reports and the dedicated work of our regional supervisor, the stickers and graffiti were cleaned up.

Clean signs

Mt. Zion is now sticker-free! But our volunteers are still around, in case more hateful stickers are being seen on this lovely and sensitive site!

Naomi Roff2016-12-21T13:11:51+00:00March 9th, 2016|Blog, Christians, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish Religious Denominations, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Mount Zion, New Immigrants, Palestinians/Arabs, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Painting Zion Square the Colors of Tolerance – Permanently

Zion Square as a Tolerance Square in Jerusalem? A few years ago this might have seemed like a ridiculous notion to many, since this square has its history of violence, hatred and racism. Today, thanks to the Speaking in the Square initiative, other groups and supportive municipal officials, it is becoming a reality.

In mid-February the Municipality announced an architectural competition to redesign and re-brand Zion Square as a Square for Tolerance and Dialogue. The new design must include elements that advance tolerance and mutual respect. At the request of the competition organizers, Speaking in the Square, the Yerushalmim Movement, and other Zion Square activists met on Sunday, March 6 to brainstorm design ideas for the new Zion Square.

Recognize Zion Square?

This was a very important meeting, attended by some 30 activists from a range of initiatives. Deputy Mayor Tamir Nir, as well as city council member Aaron Leibowitz also took an active part in the meeting.

Discussion including Deputy Mayor Tamir Nir

The ideas suggested ran the gamut – from ensuring comfortable seating and lighting to make it comfortable and welcoming at night, as well as shaded areas to make it comfortable during the day. It should be handicapped accessible. It should be open to allow large numbers of people to congregate – for performances, shows, exhibits and more – but also enabling more intimate gatherings to emphasize its pluralist nature. It should be dynamic, and enable different stories and narratives to be told, both at different times and simultaneously. It should welcome everyone and push away no one.

Building Tolerance Square together

The meeting including brainstorming visual concepts to match the design theories – the most colorful part of the evening.

Giving design concepts a structure

We’ll keep you posted as the design process moves forward.

Hard at work

Leading up to the brainstorming meeting, Ossnat Sharon, among the leaders of Speaking in the Square, was interviewed on the Hebrew blog site Ashpaton:

“I’ve been going to demonstrations since I was about 12 years old,” tells Ossnat Sharon, But being in Zion Square, participating in dialogue “was a moment of revelation for me. Something happened there that I’d never seen happen. I mean, I saw something happening in the public space that was effective. In [regular] demonstrations, on both the right and the left, people are shouting at each other, each in his own camp. In the end the police go in some direction, and that gives everyone an excuse to go home, since you can’t stand and shout all night…On that night [the first night I participated in Speaking in the Square] we did something that changed the atmosphere in the Square. We began talking.”

Many thanks to the UJA-Federation of New York and the Jerusalem Foundation for their support of our efforts to promote tolerance in the public sphere in Jerusalem.

Naomi Roff2017-03-21T10:56:17+00:00March 8th, 2016|Blog, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish Religious Denominations, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Palestinians/Arabs, Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Sweet Tea with Mint – Cultural Event for Students of Arabic

“The first time I was introduced to the children’s stories in Sweet Tea with Mint and Other Stories, I was enchanted.” This is how Dr. Marcelo Menachem Weksler, Director of the Department of Primary Education at Kibbutzim College, opened his article on the book, Sweet Tea with Mint and Other Stories on the Okets blog site. (Click here for the entire article.)

Book cover

Last week, on February 29, the JICC was filled to the gills as students in our levels 3, 4 and 5 of Arabic for Communication courses listened to Afnan Abu Taha and Bilal Arshid, speaking in Arabic, describe the book and its authors. They are members of the Hagar Association, which operates a binational, bilingual elementary school in Beer Sheva. Members of the Association, and which also published the book.

Listening to Jewish and Arab authors

The book features six stories, three written originally in Hebrew by Ronit Chacham and three originally written in Arabic by Hadeel Nashef, Al-Tayeb Ghanayem, and Sheikha Hussain Haliwa. These stories were then translated into Arabic and Hebrew, respectively. Stories in the book focus on Jewish, Muslim and Christian holidays. Happy reading!

Filled to the gills

Stay tuned for more of the Arabic classes’ cultural events.

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for their continuing support of this program.

Naomi Roff2016-03-11T19:30:15+00:00March 7th, 2016|Blog, Courses, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Language Center|

MiniActive Campaign ‘We Won’t Live in Filth’ Sees Results

Yet again, the MiniActive women in East Jerusalem have proven how effective their activism can be. After more than four months of their public campaign, “We won’t live in filth!” they’ve succeeded in obtaining an additional 3 million shekels toward sanitation in East Jerusalem to the Municipality’s budget! These funds will be added in 2016, and continue annually.

“We Don’t Want to Live in Filth!” Campaign

We’ve written about the campaign that MiniActive has been heading since the fall of 2015 here and here. In addition, the “0202” Facebook pages have translated these posts into both the veteran Hebrew page as well as the new English page:

These popular pages (over 15,000 likes in Hebrew over the past year, over 1,200 likes in English over the past two months) are followed closely by both municipality officials as well as journalists, and everyone who is anybody who cares about what happens in Jerusalem. In addition, we started tagging City Council members in the 0202 posts as well. “Hitorerut” party Council Members were those who made the efforts to impact 2016 budget in this regard.

The result – an additional 3 million shekels was allocated in the 2016 for sanitation in East Jerusalem, as well as 16 million shekels for purchases of equipment and vehicles that can be used in East Jerusalem! Both the Director General of the Municipality and the Director Operations Dept. supported this measure.

Garbage garbage, every day

Our work hasn’t ended with the approval of the additional budget – we will be there to ensure that the equipment that is purchased will meet the needs of East Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents. For example – the garbage trucks that are purchased will be able to navigate East Jerusalem’s narrow streets and alleyways.

An equally important takeaway from this process – municipal officials are now talking about garbage in East Jerusalem as a central problem that can’t be swept away using an old decrepit street-sweeping machine.

We’re very excited about this news, but it’s not our success – it’s that of the MiniActive network, and that of the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem. Kol Hakavod! Kul ElIhtiram (كل الاحترام)! May we soon see the difference in the streets and garbage cans.

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for their continuing support of this program.

Naomi Roff2016-03-11T19:25:28+00:00March 6th, 2016|Blog, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, MiniActive, Palestinians/Arabs|

Baka’a Open Space Town Meeting

We’re back in Baka’a! We worked intensively with the Baka’a Community Council a few years ago, and more recently have focused on specific nearby projects and areas such as the Railway Park, Talpiot, Abu Tor. But we’ve come back home, helping the community council to hold a community town meeting using Open Space Technology to re-jump community initiatives.

Introduction to Open Space Technology

There were about 30 residents – young and old, immigrants from the US and France, religious and secular, as well as a group of youth in wheelchairs from the “Step Forward” organization.

Working in small groups

This meeting on March 2, 2016, brought up 12 different initiatives: a group to accompany children walking to school; developing edible forests; activities for immigrant youth from France; mutual assistance in the neighborhood; wall gardening; development of groups to advance tolerance in the neighborhood, and more.

Capacity building is one of the most important aspects of our Deliberative Democracy work in Baka’a – both with the residents and with the professional staff as well. Our job is that of mentor, helping the staff help the residents help themselves. Stay tuned for more developments!

Naomi Roff2018-09-01T07:32:48+00:00March 5th, 2016|Blog, Deliberative Democracy, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish Religious Denominations, Larger Baka Community Council, New Immigrants|

Lechayim! From the Future Site of Barrakevet Cooperative Community Cafe

Let’s raise a virtual lechayim, to the future permanent location of Barrakevet, a volunteer-led Cooperative Community Café, that will be located along the Railway Park.

Raising a virtual lechayim

Barrakevet is one of the initiatives that we’ve been mentoring as part of our Deliberative Democracy work with activists from the Katamon-Baka’a – Katamonim area along the Jerusalem Railway Park (See here and here for more), thanks to support from the UJA-Federation of New York. Thus far, they’ve set up shop out in the open, sometimes next to the bus-stop-cum-library called the Reading Station, sometimes other places, but always requiring good weather to operate.

Their ultimate goal is to obtain an old train car as a permanent home. One of the first steps in this process is finding a suitable location for this car, which was the goal of initiators’ recent tour together with municipal officials along the Park. Final locations are still being discussed, but it’s important that the dialogue continues. They’re also discussing different models and partnerships for operation. Next step will be to get that car…