Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue | The Jerusalem Intercultural Center

Open Space Event in Gilo – November 16, 2009

Exactly one year ago, the Community Center director of the Gilo neighborhood, Yaffa Shitrit, and the neighborhood’s community organizer, Naama, visited us at the JICC and asked for our help in creating a community dialogue process in Gilo. In the year that followed, we helped them to begin with in forming an active steering committee that would lead the process and define the need and approach for a community dialogue process in the neighborhood.

The process was based on several years of groundwork for empowering local activists. While participating in a Community Dialogue course at the JICC in 2004, Yaffa presented a unique and novel course-design that would bring professional staff and community leaders together in teams. Since then she has been developing and implementing these courses in Gilo, and their graduates now became the solid base for the current large-scale community dialogue process in the neighborhood.

From month to month, under the impressive leadership of the Community Center’s staff, both the group of activists and the agenda for the process took form. During this process the activists formulated the agenda and title for the first community gathering: “How are WE going to Transform Gilo to Our Dream Neighborhood – Attractive, Fun and with Excellent Quality of Life”.

The Invitation and Title of the Open Space Event

On November 16, the process was put to the test. An Open Space Technology event was conducted, based on the impressive marketing abilities of the steering committee. When we first talked about this event we assumed it might attract 150 participants. Well, 360 actually came !!!

The Open Space Assembly

After the introductions to the evening, working groups were formed, according to participants’ passion and leadership. The groups first discussed their topics and then focused on initiatives that they now took the responsibility to promote. Some of the groups were big – around 60 participants; others were small – 20, 5 or even 2 participants. But in an Open Space event – the size does not matter. The discussion summaries from all the groups were gathered toward a booklet of insights and initiatives that will be produced and distributed in the neighborhood. The air was full of energy.

One of the Open Space Groups

The Community Center took upon itself the responsibility to help the residents and activists in promoting their initiatives. This will be the next phase of this community dialogue process.

jicc2014-04-07T20:13:29+00:00November 16th, 2009|Blog, Gilo Community Dialogue, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue|

A New Model for Resident Participation in East Jerusalem – an Article

We just published an article, together with the Alquds Dialogue Center, at Search for Common Ground (SFCG) Newservice, on our model for resident participation in East Jerusalem. Here are the links and the text:

SFCG: English, Arabic, Hebrew.

PDF (English).

Text:

A new model for resident participation in East Jerusalem

by Fuad Abu Hamed & Hagai Agmon-Snir

03 September 2009

JERUSALEM – All over the western world, community empowerment programmes encourage resident participation by involving community leaders and organisers in decisions about the city in which they live. What could be better than the authorities and residents coming together to take joint responsibility for municipal challenges? It seems that in East Jerusalem, all this is not so straightforward.

For those who aren’t familiar with East Jerusalem, the Palestinian residents living in this part of the city constitute a third of its population. Their neighbourhoods and villages have been neglected for years by the Israeli establishment. In fact, significant discrepancies between East and West Jerusalem exist in every area of life.

In theory, the Palestinians could take action and change their situation. Most of them hold permanent residency rights and are eligible to vote in municipal elections and run for municipal office. They can also join a variety of frameworks that would allow them to influence municipal institutions such as parent committees, activist groups working to improve infrastructure together with municipal officials, committees within community administrations which encourage resident involvement and more.

Yet their level of involvement is very minimal. Instead, frustration and despair, and, to a large extent, passivity and acceptance of the situation have taken over. However, if we speak to residents across the city, we will discover that they are very aware of their rights and obligations. In order not to lose their residency rights, they pay municipal taxes consistently (if they don’t pay this tax, they could lose proof of residency within the city boundaries) and are very keen to realise their rights to healthcare, education, housing etc.

There are many reasons for their lack of involvement. First, any cooperation on the part of the residents with the Israeli authorities may be construed as a stamp of approval for the continuing occupation. Secondly, the various arms of the Israeli establishment discourage leadership in Jerusalem which “could get out of hand”. And third, regional and local chaos generates a sense that circumstances are determined by events that are beyond their control. As a result, the dominant approach is to refrain from involvement, while waiting for an outside source to come and save them.

So when seeds of a new approach emerge it is important to take note. For example, in the neighbourhood of Tsur Baher, which is a village in the southeast of Jerusalem, a group of residents came together a few years ago and set up a “committee supporting education”. The committee works to improve the educational systems in the village which are operated by various elements – the Jerusalem municipality, the Islamic Waqf, UNRWA etc.

Instead of waiting for change, the group held a week of educational activities in the village, the pinnacle of which was a day of discussions in the form of “an open space meeting”, which was moderated by the Jerusalem Intercultural Center. The event was widely attended by local residents, principals, teachers, students and key figures in the area of education in the village and beyond, including senior education officials from the municipality.

In other cities this would not constitute anything new but in Jerusalem an initiative led by residents of the eastern neighbourhoods is rare and many people within the establishment were surprised by its success.

What was novel about the event was the statement that informed the whole event: “We are partners to the change that has to happen in the village”. Instead of just accusing the authorities and demanding that they take action and allocate resources, there was a request to look for joint solutions – to be shared by both the authorities and the residents.

In a city like Jerusalem, this kind of development tends to give rise to a great deal of suspicion. The education administration within the municipality which is responsible for East Jerusalem panicked because collaboration with residents is no small nuisance for a dysfunctional system. In the village itself there were voices calling to boycott any dialogue with the municipality which is part of the apparatus that serves the occupation. There were quite a few figures from both the village and the municipality who did not attend events organised by the residents – the necessary conceptual shift that they would have needed to make was too far-reaching, at least for now.

To overcome these suspicions, the activists turned to two organisations to mediate between them and the establishment: the “Al Quds Dialogue Center”, which is a Palestinian Jerusalem-based organisation, and the “Jerusalem Intercultural Center”, a pan-cultural Jerusalem-based organisation. On the one hand these organisations work to persuade the establishment that collaborative efforts with the residents will assist in the provision of services. On the other hand, for the residents, they help clarify the distinction between collaborative efforts on the one hand, and accepting the occupation and cooperating with its messages, on the other.

The process makes for a very delicate balancing act in an extremely sensitive political climate. The tense atmosphere gives rise to mutual suspicions. Are the groups of activists what Israel calls “a hostile terror-supporting organisation” or are they “collaborators, agents of the Israeli occupation”? These suspicions have concrete implications. Any mistake could put the activists in harms way. Therefore, mediating organisations are extremely important in making a collaborative effort possible.

Education in Tsur Baher is just one example. Similar initiatives are beginning to emerge in other neighbourhoods and areas of life such as rubbish disposal, a mother and baby centre in the village of Silwan, Arabic translations of municipal forms, pedestrian crossings and road safety programmes for school children.

We hope we are witnessing the development of a new model for the advancement of the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, a mechanism that can improve their quality of life until a permanent and just solution is found for the city and the region as a whole. Perhaps also this type of model could be implemented in other places in the world which share a reality similar to that which exists in Jerusalem.

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* Fuad Abu-Hamed, a resident of Tsur Baher, is the chairperson of the Alquds Dialogue Center (http://alquds-dc.org), a businessman and a social activist. He can be reached at bsafafa@zahav.net.il . Dr. Hagai Agmon-Snir is the director of the Jerusalem Intercultural Center ( JICC, http://JICC.org.il) and can be reached at hagai@jicc.org.il. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

jicc2014-04-07T20:06:09+00:00September 10th, 2009|Blog, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Palestinians/Arabs, Tsur Baher Community Dialogue|

A Strategic Group on Ultra-Orthodox – Non-Ultra-Orthodox Relations in Jerusalem – August 31, 2009

Since the last post on this forum we convened twice more and concluded our in-depth discussion on housing issues in Jerusalem in the context of Haredi – non-Haredi relations in the city. This was not an easy task since while we were discussing long-term strategy the city experienced tensions between Haredi and non-Haredi populations, which resulted in riots in the streets. Such tensions could be easily reflected in our work. Yet, all participants in the forum made every effort to maintain our focus on the long-term issues. At the same time, many of the participants helped the JICC in the parallel behind-the-scenes process of responding to the riots and tensions.

During today’s meeting the detailed housing plan of the city was presented by the municipality, specifically highlighting potential housing solutions for Haredi and non-Haredi populations. It became obvious that while prospective areas for non-Haredi neighborhoods do exist, there aren’t enough options for Haredi neighborhoods. Obviously, this was bad news for the high-level Haredi participants. However, it was well understood that this may reflect negatively on all the others too, since in practicality it means that young Haredi couples will be forced to look for residential solutions in a number of other neighborhoods and tensions between the populations will continue. Yet, the mutual understanding of the problem created the motivation to demand of the municipality professional planners to increase their efforts to find better solutions. Hence, the process of solving the housing issues will be continued on the municipality level, with us at the background. We will communicate our conclusions to the decision makers, many of which are active members of the forum, and continue to our next topic of discussion – the tensions in Jerusalem. Stay tuned to read about our October meeting.

jicc2014-04-07T20:04:46+00:00August 31st, 2009|Blog, Citywide Religious Denominations Dialogue, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Jewish Religious Denominations, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

A strategic group on Ultra-Orthodox – non-Ultra-Orthodox relations in Jerusalem – May 24, 2009

Today we convened once again for the meeting of Jewish Jerusalemite leaders that discuss and negotiate a strategic approach to relations between Ultra-Orthodox and non-Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem. The meeting took place at the office of the Municipality Engineer, with 15 participants – municipality council members, high-level Rabbis, and non-Ultra-Orthodox leaders and professionals.

The meeting focused mainly on housing issues in Jerusalem, and the feeling was that the group had an important breakthrough. In previous meetings we understood that demographic changes in different neighborhoods create most of the tensions. The main way out is to find proper solutions for expansion for both Ultra-Orthodox and non-Ultra-Orthodox populations, while minimizing co-living in the same neighborhoods. The religious autonomy required in Ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, and the extremely different perspectives that the two groups hold on the character of the public sphere, require separation between the communities as much as possible. The main solution for the short term is the creation of 15,000 new apartments for each of the two populations, in different parts of the city. Obstacles for moving forward with this solution exist and important questions and issues were raised.

Yet, additional housing is only part of the solution. While the Ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods are very appealing to the Ultra-Orthodox Jews, many non-Ultra-Orthodox residents do not find their neighborhoods attractive, leading them to decide to leave the city. Frequently they sell their apartments to Ultra-Orthodox Jews and then again mixed neighborhoods – with their many tensions – are created. An integral part of the solution must be the effort to make these neighborhoods more attractive in terms of culture, improved services etc. The Ultra-Orthodox members of the group said, to the surprise of some other members, that they are willing to support such processes, in order to keep the non-Ultra-Orthodox residents in the city.

At the conclusion of the meeting the participants felt that we made an important step forward and they are now looking forward to our next steps.

jicc2014-04-07T19:51:44+00:00May 24th, 2009|Blog, Citywide Religious Denominations Dialogue, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Jewish Religious Denominations, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Diversity SWAT Team Webinar 1 – London!

Our new series of webinars is dedicated to what we call “Diversity SWAT Teams”. We brought together Rabbi Bob Kaplan from the JCRC-NY, Alex Goldberg from the London Jewish Forum and Hagai Agmon-Snir from the Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center, to detail the ways by which they effectively manage cross-cultural community conflicts in their respective locations. These three organizations perceive such interventions to be part of their role.

Alex Goldberg at the Diversity SWAT Team Webinar

Today we had the first webinar in the series. Alex Goldberg presented the approach the London Jewish Forum is implementing in London and other British cities. Mainly he focused on how they engage the government, police, businesses, civil society and NGOs in their processes. Following the presentation, the two other panelists, Rabbi Bob Kaplan and Dr. Hagai Agmon-Snir, added their perspectives on the issues and raised questions that may help in this inter-city learning.

For us at the JICC, this series is very important. Increasingly we find ourselves involved in creating and training Diversity SWAT Teams in mixed cities in Israel, together with local municipal agencies.

You can find the presentation and additional information (also about the next webinars in this series) online at the NYJEE site.

jicc2016-11-18T15:29:08+00:00May 13th, 2009|Blog, Diversity Swat Team Webinars, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, New-York Jerusalem Experts Exchange - NYJEE, Outside Jerusalem|

Ethiopian Community, Talpiot, March 12, 2009

We continue with our efforts, together with Mosaica, to create better dialogue between the Ethiopian community in Talpiyot and the many agencies that serve them. Although some achievements were made (reported in previous posts), the main difficulty of lack of trust and understanding still persists.

Today we (Mosaica and the JICC) had a meeting with most of the establishment agencies, community council, welfare department, absorption authority etc., were we presented our analysis of the situation, including three major challenges. According to our analysis the main problem is the proliferation of agencies that work with the residents concurrently and with no coordination between them. This can be harmful in any place, but it is worse when serving the Ethiopian community, which finds it hard to navigate the Israeli system. The second challenge is the cross-cultural communication, which is not working well due to the different value systems of the cultures involved. The last pressing issue is the tendency of the Ethiopian community to attribute the behavior of the agencies to racism. The fact that almost all professional staff members are not Ethiopian, and that they have never learnt how to work with the Ethiopian community, does not make the situation easier.

Our suggestion was to provide cultural competence trainings to the agencies that work with the Ethiopian community, as well as train the community leaders to deal with the agencies who serve them. We are pleased to report that the agencies accepted our proposal and a few dates were secured for trainings. In parallel, we will meet with the leaders of the Ethiopian community to talk with them about this new proposal.

jicc2014-04-07T19:14:12+00:00March 12th, 2009|Blog, Courses, Cross-Cultural Communication Trainings, Cultural Competence, Ethiopian Community - Talpiot Community Dialogue, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts, New Immigrants|

Tsur Baher – educational issues – February 24, 2009

To continue the community process around education in Tsur Baher, we had today a special meeting in the village. All relevant stakeholders were present – school principals, Ministry of Education inspectors and Municipality officials including the head of the Municipality Education Department and Pepe Alalo, Jerusalem Mayor Deputy who is responsible for Education in east Jerusalem. Mr. Alalo, who was elected in November, came to learn about the process and its potential outcomes. Also in attendance were formal representatives of Tsur baher village, and representatives of the JICC and the Jerusalem Foundation.

To be honest, we were disappointed with the meeting. We felt that even though many promises were made by the municipality last December, not much has been done since then. The excuses of some of the municipality and government officials made the impression that the commitment to make a sincere change in Tzur Baher is lacking. We all understood that the head of the municipality education department must make a considerable effort in order to recruit his staff into the process. Otherwise, our more than a year old pilot project will lead us nowhere.

It is our role at the JICC to facilitate such community dialogue processes. Regression is to be expected at some points during such initiatives. It is our duty to help the sides see when is the process at risk, and we did just that at the meeting, ensuring that meetings will be conducted in the coming days to find out how can we put this important process back to track.

jicc2014-04-05T18:02:30+00:00February 24th, 2009|Blog, Education, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Palestinians/Arabs, Tsur Baher Community Dialogue|

A strategic group on Ultra-Orthodox – non-Ultra-Orthodox relations in Jerusalem – February 18, 2009

We reported in an earlier post that the JICC invited a group of Jewish leaders to begin a high-level process of discussions and negotiations on the future of Jerusalem. Since then the municipal elections took place, following which a group was quietly formed to look for agreed-upon strategies for Ultra-Orthodox and non-Ultra-Orthodox Jews to live together in the city.

It is interesting to note that at present the non-Ultra-Orthodox Jews who live in Jerusalem can only be defined by “what they are not”. In the past, the alternative to Ultra-Orthodox was “secular”, reflecting affiliations in the city. The “national-religious” and other traditional Jews were defined as “in-between”. Nowadays, the demographics of the non-Ultra-Orthodox group show that it can no longer be called “secular”. Yet, this group is perceived by many residents as hegemonic in Jerusalem. Also, in many ways, the anxiety of “Haredization” of the city is common to most of the non-Ultra-Orthodox residents – be them secular or religious.

On January 19, 2009, the group of high-level Jewish leaders met for the first time to begin the tough and hard dialogue on the future of the city, looking for shared strategies. the issue of affordable housing for all groups was raised as central. For the non-Ultra-Orthodox, the issue of culture was also prominent. It was claimed that for many Jerusalemites, the city is not attractive enough. The group agreed that Jerusalem needs to preserve its “conservative” character, while at the same time creating a vibrant cultural atmosphere.

Today, on February 18, the group met again to continue the learning process. Messages were deepened and it was agreed that towards the next meeting a document should be drafted for discussion. Stay tuned for further reports as this important process unfolds.

jicc2014-04-05T18:00:09+00:00February 18th, 2009|Blog, Citywide Religious Denominations Dialogue, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Jewish Religious Denominations, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Ramot Open Space Initiative – follow up meeting

Tal Kligman and Hagai Agmon-Snir from the JICC met Ami Segev, the Ramot Community Council Director, and Oren Bolondi, the Ramot Community Organizer, the people who approached the JICC several months ago for help in creating a community dialogue process in Ramot through Open Space.

The Ramot professionals updated on the progress of the 10 initiatives that stemmed from the two Open Space events. It seems that almost all of the initiatives enjoy a lot of positive energy of volunteers and professionals that wish to act together and bring about change in the neighborhood. There are groups dedicated to transportation, neighborhood clean-up, relations between different religious denominations, playgrounds, education etc.

Our main tip to Segev and Bolondi was to promote transparency. It was wonderful to see that so much came out of the Open Space and that there is a good follow up process. But the Ramot residents themselves must be the ones to realize that. Hence, the updates will be reported monthly in the Ramot newspaper and people will be encouraged to join the process. And of course, according to the original approach of the conveners, we might see periodical Open Space meetings in the neighborhood. This is all about deliberative democracy – decision making in Ramot can be based on deliberation and contribution by all stakeholders.

jicc2014-04-04T12:55:30+00:00January 27th, 2009|Blog, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Jewish Religious Denominations, Ramot Community Dialogue, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Lod – Pipe bomb incident in Lod claimed to be terror-related

One of the headlines today, probably connected to the sad events in Gaza and South Israel, reads: Investigation of pipe bombs thrown at building inhabited by religious-nationalist Jews in central city of Lod leads police to believe attack was nationalistically motivated; search for suspects among Arab sector continues.

This morning we received a call from the Community Worker of Lod, Orit Ulizary, who is also the initiator and coordinator of the city multicultural forum, for which the JICC consults regularly. Orit gave an update about the pipe bombs that were thrown near the houses of national-religious members of the multicultural forum. It seems that their community experiences at the moment extreme tensions, including calls for “a proper response”. Based on the situation, meetings of Orit and ourselves with main leaders of the national-religious community, as well as with leaders of the Arab population in Lod, all members of the forum, will probably be held on Saturday evening (Motzaei Shabbat). No doubt that the situation is very sensitive at the moment, and we can only hope that the Lod Multicultural Forum will be able to be of help.

jicc2014-04-05T17:34:41+00:00January 9th, 2009|Blog, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Outside Jerusalem|