Palestinians/Arabs | The Jerusalem Intercultural Center

Speaking Arts 2009

In the last two days, December 9 and 10, we held the 6th Speaking Art Conference in Jerusalem. The conference is organized annually by the Jerusalem Foundation and the Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center (read here about last year’s conference) and was conducted this year once again at the Jerusalem International Y.M.C.A.

The Jerusalem Foudnation wrote a comprehensive report of the conference and you can get to it here. We at the JICC were very happy to hear the wholehearted feedback from the 65 Jewish and Palestinian participants. The conference participants worked in three groups: music, theatre, and for the first time this year, a movement group that was a great new addition to the other two. The project managers were Hanan Ohana and Ezadeen Alsaad from the JICC.

The conference concluded with an exhilarating concert by David D’aor and Lubna Salame, who performed together in front of an enthusiastic audience of 400 people in the Y.M.C.A concert hall. This was a unique show, as it was the first time that the two of them gave a full concert in a joint bi-national bi-lingual arrangement. During a rehearsal that took place several days before the event we recorded two of the songs for the innovative concert. The first is D’aor’s song, “Take Care of the World, Child” that was translated to Arabic by Salame a few years ago. Here is the song – performed by both:

The second song is D’aor’s most recent piece that was just put out to the media – “The World I Draw”. Lubna Salame translated it especially for the Speaking Art concert, and they sing it here together:

(You can also see it at Ynet article here)

Needless to say, we are very pleased to be the ones who brought them to work together. And it might as well be only the beginning of them working and performing jointly in the future.

jicc2017-03-25T06:45:57+00:00December 11th, 2009|Arts, Blog, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Palestinians/Arabs, Speaking Arts Conference|

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.

###

* 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 Call for Cultural Competency in Jerusalem’s Medical Services – an Article

We just published an article at the Jerusalem Post and Search for Common Ground (SFCG) News service on our cultural competency program in Jerusalem. Here are the links and the text:

SFCG: English, Arabic, Hebrew.

The Jerusalem Post (English).

PDF (English).

Text:

A call for cultural competency in Jerusalem’s medical services

May. 20, 2009
HAGAI AGMON-SNIR , THE JERUSALEM POST

A few years ago, my mother underwent hip replacement surgery. Before she was discharged, the surgeon gave her quite a few instructions for the period following surgery. There were some necessary accessories and equipment: a wheelchair, special pillows and devices to help lift objects. These were available for almost nothing from Yad Sarah, an organization founded by haredim that lends medical equipment to those who need it.

“If you don’t follow the directions I gave you and you don’t use the equipment,” said the surgeon, “your leg won’t function the way it’s supposed to and the effects of the excellent and expensive surgery will be wasted.” Today my mother traverses the country with her new hip and any memory of the fracture has been erased.

Lying next to my Jewish mother in the hospital were Palestinian mothers from east Jerusalem who had also fractured their hips and received hip replacement surgeries. Most of them, like my mother, were covered by national health insurance, which made them luckier than their sisters from the West Bank and Gaza who are not entitled to these benefits. The women from east Jerusalem were given the same instructions my mother received and were also sent to Yad Sarah, which has branches serving east Jerusalem for the Palestinian population.

Yet there is good reason to suspect that, unlike my mother, many of them are limping today. Research carried out in hospitals in Jerusalem shows that about half of the Arabic-speaking patients do not understand the instructions they are given for post-treatment care because they are given in Hebrew.

One third of Jerusalem’s residents are Arabic-speaking Palestinians, both Muslim and Christian. In times of need, these residents will almost always choose to go to hospitals in west Jerusalem. At some of these medical institutions, more than half of the patients are Palestinian, yet none of them are provided translation services into Arabic or any other language. Occasionally, medical staff improvise and ask an Arab hospital worker or a visitor who speaks both Hebrew and Arabic to translate, making them privy to the patient’s personal medical details. It’s not unheard of for the patient’s child to act as a translator, telling his or her mother that the doctor recommends an abortion or that a suspicious lump was found in her breast.

In addition to the lack of language services, none of these establishments provide religious services to Muslims or Christians. Nurses complain about Muslim men washing their feet in sinks designated for hand washing. The simple solution – low sinks for feet-washing before prayers – cannot be found at any of these places. On the other hand, Jews may receive visits from a rabbi, have meals provided by various religious organizations according to their specific kashrut needs, or pray in an in-hospital synagogue.

RECENTLY, THE Jerusalem Intercultural Center hosted senior directors from the Coney Island Hospital in New York City, introduced to us through our collaborative work with Rabbi Bob Kaplan of CAUSE-NY, an organization committed to the availability of health services in New York. In compliance with the law, signs at the hospital appear in five languages, and anyone entering the hospital is entitled to receive hospital services in his or her own language. Sometimes a translator is present in the room and other times (with more obscure languages) translation is provided through a phone service, called tele-interpretation.

The hospital has a synagogue, a Christian church, a mosque and a Hindu temple – in accordance with the needs of the communities that it serves. Kosher food is provided for Jews and halal food for Muslims. In the case of Indians and Pakistanis, the food is prepared and spiced in a way that is suitable for their palate.

Is this hospital anomalous? Not at all. In the past 15 years the “cultural competency” approach has become widely practiced in health systems in North America, Australia and Europe. It has simply skipped over Israel, despite much evidence showing that medical services adjusted to culture, religion and language improve the quality of care and the outcome of treatment. And, of course, such an approach is far more just and ethical.

Shocked by this state of affairs, the Jerusalem Intercultural Center and the Jerusalem Foundation have launched an initiative to encourage cultural competency. The need, by the way, exists not only for the Palestinian population in the city, but also for the Yiddish-speaking haredi community (which comprises about one quarter of the city’s residents), as well as people from a variety of other backgrounds who speak languages like Amharic, Russian, French and Spanish. We are only at the beginning of the road, but already there are medical institutions, such as Alyn hospital (for pediatric rehabilitation) and Clalit Health Services, that are now building up cultural competency in their facilities.

We hope that by introducing cultural competency into the medical services in Jerusalem we will help reduce the current inequality that exists in this field. Moreover, we believe that this is a way to teach the people of this city the value of accepting the other, being considerate of those who are different from us and to encourage people to think in terms of human rights even in a city as fraught with tensions as Jerusalem.

The writer is the director of the Jerusalem Intercultural Center and can be reached at hagai@jicc.org.il. The project Cultural Competency in Jerusalem is sponsored by the Jerusalem Foundation. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service in collaboration with The Jerusalem Post.

jicc2014-04-19T05:53:02+00:00May 28th, 2009|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Palestinians/Arabs|

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|

Meeting of the Jerusalem Employment Coalition

For background on the Jerusalem Employment Coalition see our previous post.

Today we held a meeting at the East Jerusalem Family Center of the Municipality Welfare Department. Twenty five coalition members listened to officials of the municipality East Jerusalem Welfare Department who described the dire situation in East Jerusalem in terms of employment.

The obstacles for employment in East Jerusalem include a wide range of issues – from language and cultural barriers, to political obstacles and more – leaving little hope for fast improvement. There are only two municipality employees assigned to handle this situation, which affects the lives of 250,000 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem. Leaders from East Jerusalem, as well as NGO representatives, all agreed that momentous action is needed in order to mend the situation. Another meeting will be held to achieve practical outcomes.

While this is a positive step, it is important to note that without a significant shift in the general attitude towards East Jerusalem it will be very difficult to tackle these problems effectively.

jicc2014-04-05T17:37:38+00:00January 27th, 2009|Blog, Employment, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Palestinians/Arabs, The Jerusalem Employment Coalition|

Clalit HMO, East Jerusalem – adapting clinics to Arabic speaking patients – January 5, 2009

In a previous blog we reported on the meeting of the Clalit steering committee on cultural competence in serving Arabic-speaking patients. Today we held a larger meeting where we discussed the mapping that the JICC performed at the Sheikh Jerakh clinic, as well as the draft work plan for the future.

At the end of the meeting subgroups were formed for implementing the various parts of the plan, including translation services, setting issues (e.g., Arabic signage and responding to relevant cultural needs at the clinics), staff trainings etc.

jicc2014-04-05T17:29:02+00:00January 5th, 2009|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Palestinians/Arabs|

Speaking Arts 2008

The Speaking Art Conference, organized for the fifth time by the Jerusalem Foundation and the Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center, took place on December 17th-18th, 2008 at the Jerusalem International Y.M.C.A, with 63 Jewish and Palestinian artist participants.

The conference, which was lead by first-class Israeli facilitators, created a professional platform for musicians, actors and group facilitators, who work in the field of Jewish-Arab dialogue, to receive new skills for working and creating together .

Munir Bakri, a director and actor, opened the conference with a unique workshop. Bakri wanted to discuss the role of the artist in society as a whole, using as case study the cancellation of the Akko Festival for Alternative Theatre in October 2008, following the unrest that erupted in Akko during and after Yom Kippur. After the workshop the participants began working in three Jewish-Arab groups (music, theatre and group-facilitation) for 6 intense workshops. The overall theme for the conference this year was “home and its meaning for the artist working in the Jewish-Arab context”.

The theatre group worked under Salwa Nakkara’s sharp and rigorous facilitation. Salwa, an acclaimed and experienced Palestinian actress, chose to work with object-theatre and allowed the actors, which arrived from all over the country, to present the search for a home through objects they brought with them. The combination of the actors’ search scenes produced a show made up of intertwined theatre pieces. The show received enthusiastic reviews from the audience who saw it at the end of the conference. Salwa also showed a piece from her play “Cappuccino in Ramallah”, which is currently on stage in many places in Israel and the Arab World.

Wisam Goubran, a conductor with a rich repertoire in Israel and abroad, led the music group in a rare nonverbal two-day dialogue. Through the dialogue, the musicians created a joint music piece, which they then presented at the end of the conference. Dr. Goubran, who facilitated the music workshop for the second time, provided many participants with the possibility of examining their own cultural identity through the musical process.

Khalil Sbeit, who worked with the group facilitators, combined tools from theatre taken from his experience working with “Children for Peace”, with discussions of the challenges facilitators face in groups.

The guest workshop for the whole group of participants was presented by Smadar Imor who swept everyone into a unique experience of movement and voice. Smadar is the instigator and director of the Synapsa School for Human Development and Creative Healing through Movement and Voice. Her workshop integrated refreshing elements that allowed each participant to express her/his inner and outer voice.

As expected the conference provided a platform for cooperation between participants who wish to create inter-cultural musical or theatrical projects in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center will accompany these projects throughout 2009.

The conference concluded with the Jerusalem Foundation awarding the 2009 Martha Prize to the Bereaved Families Circle, a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization. Shortly after the ceremony Ehud Banai, George Simaan and Salem Darwish performed together in front of an enthusiastic audience of 600 people in the Y.M.C.A concert hall. The three gave a border-crossing bilingual concert to a loving audience. Bringing old and new songs, accompanied with oud, guitar and percussion, Ehud, George and Salem expressed a joint wish for a shared life of respect and compassion.

jicc2017-03-25T06:45:42+00:00December 18th, 2008|Arts, Blog, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Palestinians/Arabs, Speaking Arts Conference|

Tsur Baher – educational issues – December 1, 2008

To continue the community process around education in Tsur Baher, we held today another meeting at the office of the head of the municipality Education Department.

Yet this was a different meeting, where the Tsur Baher school principals were invited to present their schools, including facts and issues that can affect decision-making in the future. This was the first time that a group of municiapl officials and community residents sat together to listen to such comprehensive presentations.

The meeting lasted two hours. At its conclusion it was decided that the next meeting in January will be held in Tsur Baher and will focus on responses to the main issues raised in the presentations.

After a year-long process it seems at this point that some trust and common understanding is shared by the stakeholders of this process.

jicc2014-04-05T17:08:41+00:00December 1st, 2008|Blog, Education, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Palestinians/Arabs, Tsur Baher Community Dialogue|

Municipal Elections in Jerusalem!!!

Yesterday, Jerusalem’s secular mayoral candidate, Mr. Nir Barkat, won the municipal election with 52% of the vote. His ultra-orthodox opponent, Rabbi Meir Porush, was close behind with 43%. The Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center cannot, of course, support any of the candidates, as one of our most important functions is the enabling of fair dialogue and negotiations between the many identities in the city. The members of the JICC board, representing different groups in the city – Palestinians and Jews, ultra-orthodox and members of other religious denominations – supported various candidates.

Nevertheless, most of the 31 members of the newly elected City Council are new to their role, and they too represent many different identity groups and attitudes. It is our role to help them create effective and profound dialogue amongst themselves, as well as between them and the Jerusalem residents.

The JICC aspires to promote Jerusalem as a Culturally Competent City – and we hope to convince the new Council to adopt this approach. We will try to enhance the impact of the Jerusalem Employment Coalition on the decisionmaking process in the municipality. The municipality is a member of the coalition, which was founded and is facilitated by the JICC. In addition, the JICC has already started a dialogue process between main ultra-orthodox and non-ultra orthodox groups touching upon the issue of living together in Jerusalem. We would like the municipality to be a partner to the thinking process and to the implementation of the outcomes.

In recent years, we attempted to improve the dialogue between the municipality and the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, most of whom feel alienated from the municipality and therefore ban the elections. We hope that this dialogue will now intensify and result in better infrastructure and services in East Jerusalem.

To conclude, we see the elections’ results as an opportunity for positive change in the city, hopefully through the cooperation of the many rival groups at the City Council. To respond to these new challenges and opportunities the JICC will shortly initiate meetings with City Council members.

jicc2014-04-04T12:54:41+00:00November 12th, 2008|Blog, Citywide Religious Denominations Dialogue, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Cultural Competence in the Workplace, Employment, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Jewish Religious Denominations, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, On Jerusalem, Palestinians/Arabs, The Jerusalem Employment Coalition, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

The Folklore Tale as a Facilitation Tool – Opening of a Training

The second cycle of “The Folklore Tale as a Facilitation Tool, for Awareness, Empowerment and Dialogue” has started today in the JICC. Shay Schwartz, the course facilitator, is an experienced group facilitator and storyteller and in the past an actor, director and script writer. In recent years Schwartz mainly focuses on developing models for using stories in different contexts, in particular in dialogue, therapy, personal and cultural identity search, and cultural empowerment. The twenty-sessions-long course will train group facilitators to utilize stories as a facilitation tool, especially in conflictual settings.

First meeting of the course

This is the second time for the course to be offered to relevant Palestinian and Jewish professionals in Jerusalem. Feedback from the first cycle was excellent and we hope that this year’s course would also enable participants to utilize this unique methodology in their work.

jicc2014-04-05T05:14:29+00:00November 9th, 2008|Blog, Courses, Facilitators Trainings, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Palestinians/Arabs|

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