“Building Bridges - e. V. “
GERMANS – ISRAELIS – PALESTINIANS – POLISH
Understanding by Meeting
A peace educational project involving Poalnd, Germany, Israel and Palestine.
Since 1999 the Building Bridges project achieve years of intensive activity. During that time delegations of students, educators and parents from Israel , the West Bank and Germany have visited one other.
In our last meeting, which took place last February in Germany , we decided to found a triangular association. Our aim is to expand our work and get the support we need to reach our targets which are as follows:
1. Regular meetings in order to learn about each other’s culture, history, religion and way of life.
2. Special attention to a democratic way of treating each other.
3. Main focus on German, Jewish and Arab history in order to learn about our tracks from history.
4. Cautious treatment of history: talking to Holocaust survivors as well as the succeeding generations should improve our understanding of history, thus supporting the development of democratic behaviour.
5. The Middle-East conflict as a topic requiring our understanding for all parties involved.
6. Training in democratic principles and non-violent solutions of conflicts as an essential part of our work.
7. Work at concrete and remaining projects.
8. Building Bridges is rooted in the direct exchange between Germans and Palestinians in 1999, therefore we strive for trilateral relations between Palestinians, Germans and Israelis but also for international partnerships.
The preparation of the delegations from each side includes a long process based on weekly meetings with the students during a period of some months, where we prepare them intensively at all levels about the meaning of being ambassadors of their country.
A year before during September, a delegation from the Hope Flowers School in Bethlehem, composed of formal teachers and graduated students, went to visit our partner school the Friedrichsgymnasium in Frankfurt-Oder (Germany). They went through a training-seminar, prepared by our German partners and directed by Mr. Peter Staffa, a formal educator in the Friedrichsgymnasium who is an expert in Middle–East politics and History studies. The training was based on methods of conflict resolution with democratic tools, which were mainly developed by the Adam Institute.
In December the last year, a delegation composed of 43 students and educators from the Vadi-Ara region and Eilat in Israel went to visit the German partners. We also practiced the same training as the Palestinian delegation did. The Israeli delegation meeting with the Germans also included an additional section of Holocaust studies, where both sides (Israeli and German) acquired a larger view and understanding about the meaning of living under the shadow of the Holocaust. The highlight of our visit was that our students finished the totem which the Palestinian students started last September.
In April , a German delegation from the Friedrichsgymnasium came to visit both the Israeli and Palestinian partners. We build a play-yard instruments that were installed in the Hope-Flower school yard . The students (both Germans and Israelis) build this playard so the children of the Hope-Flower in the West Bank have a chance to play in their school-breaks as every child deserve. This activity made our students delegates of good will of hope and cooperation.
Plans for this year project: BRIDGING GENERATIONS
This coming year we are basing our project in building bridges through generations.
Each student will invest his family history along three generations (students, parent and grandparent). This study will facilitate a mutual learning about one another culture, history and traditions. During November, a German student's delegation will visit the Holy-Land and during 2006 an Israeli-Palestinian delegation is going to visit Germany .
The main outcomes we planned for this year are:
To build a stumble stone paving in the main avenue of Frankfurt-Oder of the names of Jewish people that lived in Frankfurt-Oder and with names of Peace makers from the three side (Palestinian, Israeli and German).
A mutual performance and a boat trip in the Oder river in Germany during 2006.
Despite of the hard situation and the conflict we are living since many years , the sides involved, keep regularly contact between themselves through the educators(mostly phone and email connection). An important aim we have , is to realize a face to face meeting between the educators from the three places, so we can make our plans and new targets for the future.
About the partners
Germany:
The Friedrichsgymnasium, is a high school in Frankfurt(Oder) in the east part of Germany . This school has a philosophy of human rights and antiracism.
In the last few years they achieved an amazing step about democratic education. A group of students and teachers from the school led a big campaign in the local parliament of their city and succeeded in opening the parliament to the public once a week, so everybody has the right to question the members of the parliament and get an answer in a given time. All this process is very serious and is supervised by the media. It has been an extraordinary educative experience for me seeing students being so involved, coming to the city parliament and talking with the parliament members and their city mayor about their rights and requests to improve their life and about other local issues.
In the frame of the Building Bridges project the Friedrichsgymnasium staff have already succeeded in involving schools from Poland and West Germany .
Israel:
Schools involved in past and present in the BB project:-
Rabin high school - Eilat,
Ktzir school.
Gvanim high school.
Mevoot – Eiron high school.
The Democratic School of Hadera
The Democratic School of Zichron .
Bartha High School.
Kfar Kara high school .
Staff members:
2. Projektträger
Building Bridges e.V. – Sitz in Frankfurt(O).Peter Staffa: Project coordinator, peter.staffa@t-online.de
Tel: 033609-38663/ 01629123002
Tel: 033609-38663/ 01629123002
Dorota Rutka: Polish coordinator dorutka@wp.pl
Privatadresse: Peter Staffa Am Kiefernwald 2b 15295 Groß Lindow
Additional staff:
Hundred of students, educators and parents that were and are part of our dream.