Knesset’s Subcommittee for Foreign Policy and Public Diplomacy and Committee for Constitution, Law and Justice hosts ALLMEP Members

ALLMEP members the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation and Hand in Hand attended discussions hosted by the Knesset’s Subcommittee for Foreign Policy and Public Diplomacy and Committee for Constitution, Law and Justice.

Both meetings focused on civilian peacebuilding between Israelis and Palestinians through education.

Aligning with the missions of both organizations, their attendance gave way to meaningful conversation on the initiatives they are taking to create a collaborative process of cooperation through education. Each had the opportunity to bring organizational representatives and speak on how to build civilian-to-civilian peace through education.

Hand in Hand sent a small delegation of staff and program participants to the Committee for Constitution, Law, and Justice public hearing on proposing a new policy to the Knesset, which would spread integrated bilingual education to all mixed cities and regions in Israel. Their attendance to the hearing was a pivotal step in making integrated education more widely-accepted in Israel’s education system.

Dani Elezar, Hand in Hand CEO, said, “We must ensure that in every mixed city and mixed region there will be at least one shared communal education campus, which will be a beacon and a model for shared life in Israel.”

Quds Ayub, a student at a Hand in Hand High school, told the Committee, “We are like brothers, many brothers, but in the end, it is impossible for one of us to get along without the other. We were destined for existence, for coexistence, which we can only achieve together.”

At the end of the hearing, the Committee announced it will propose a law in the Knesset that will require the local authorities to work to establish at least one bilingual center of education if both Jews and Arabs live in a local authority.

A little over a week later, the Peres Center for Innovation and Peace spoke on their programs which aim to pave the way for shared-living between all of Israel’s citizens and create lasting peace with its neighbors. The discussion held by the Subcommittee for Foreign Policy and Public Diplomacy allowed them to showcase their initiatives in regards to education. 

Sivan Zelovitch Keren, Head of Education Partnerships and European Representative for the Peres Center, spoke on both the Twinned Peace Sports Schools project and the YaLa Young Leaders project. Started 20 years ago, the Twinned Peace Sports Schools project creates a space for Jewish and Arab as well as Israeli and Palestinian youth to play on mixed sports teams together with coaches who are trained by the Peres Center. 

The YaLa Young Leaders project defies geographical boundaries by providing an online platform for men and women across the Middle East and North Africa region to take classes together and develop into leaders of positive change.

Keren added that the goal of the project was to “connect them to the Israeli ecosystem, and get us off of our ‘island’.”

Watch more on the hearing from the Committee for Constitution, Law and Justice: https://youtu.be/l8otpOB7ZFw

Learn more about Hand in Hand: https://www.handinhandk12.org/

Read more on the Subcommittee for Foreign Policy and Public Diplomacy: https://main.knesset.gov.il/News/PressReleases/Pages/press14062022VV.aspx

Learn more on the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation: https://www.peres-center.org/en/the-organization/about-us/