Windows` magazine - from a tool for teachers to facilitated workshops
Windows` Arabic-Hebrew magazine was first introduced to schools in 1995. The first people to use it were Arabic and Hebrew school teachers that found its content engaging and wanted to offer their students an opportunity to see both languages next to one another. Its variety of topics —the environment, art, culture, nature— provided an opportunity for a variety of teachers to develop activities for their students using the magazine’s content. Gradually, as the magazine’s content began to reflect some of the more harsh realities in Israel and Palestine, it became more challenging for the teachers to use. Instead, we began to develop workshops for students to help them deal with this reality. Naturally, our facilitator could offer only a limited number of workshops in each school program, no more than 8-10 workshops - beginning with an introductory workshop aimed to enable the students to share their thoughts and feelings about Jewish-Arab / Palestinian-Israeli issues, slowly creating a safer space for them to speak out. An open but very much facilitated discussion in the second workshop raised many questions and a discussion about our sources of information and how objective they are. Then, the magazine was offered as a new source of information. In the third and fourth workshops, students read together and discussed various articles. Important discussion continued through the rest of the workshops. The approaches and tools used in our Youth Media Program also proved to work well in the classroom. But there was a big difference...

To change perceptions there is a need for ongoing presence in schools
While it was clear that for many students those workshops were a significant experience, in time we realized that working with one class or one age level out of the school had a limited impact. The impact on most of the participating students was gradually worn out when our facilitators, with their challenging questions and emotional support, were no longer there. The school and streets’ atmosphere and the messages the teachers deliver, knowingly or not, slowly take over. We understood that a real, sustainable change may only be possible if the whole school participates in the process. During 2007-8 we had a program with schools from both sides of the Green Line. It was a Single Identity Group program, meaning there was no direct communication or meeting between the participating schools, but the parallel programs and the use of the magazine brought “the other” into the conversation under sensitive facilitation. But soon after, following the Israeli attack on Gaza in 2008-9, we could no longer work with Palestinian schools in the West Bank. The work with Jewish and Arab schools in Israel moved under the title of “Shared Life Education.” Windows would have preferred to keep our triangle structure. We believe that changing the beliefs that Israeli Jews have of Palestinian citizens of Israel and allowing them to know more about their past and present will also help change their perspectives on Palestinians from the OPT.

Teachers are there day by day, but they are not trained to deal with sensitive issues
Already, in 2012 we began such a program, accompanying both a Jewish and an Arab school on a full year “Shared Life” program - we developed the concept with representatives from both schools - including teachers, students, and parents. We began to lead the teachers through their own process and helped teachers develop a curriculum designed to open the hearts and minds of the students towards each other. Unfortunately, for reasons that were not up to us, we had to leave the project, but the concept remained with us. Throughout the following years, next to our youth programs, we explored ideas - in schools, with teacher colleges, and as part of the activities of Windows’ public programs. But it was not easy to find schools that were ready to approach sensitive issues in the way that Windows does. For several years now, Israeli teachers who express anti-occupation ideas or question army service may face public shaming in the media or even losing their jobs. Schools often prefer bi-national encounter programs that talk about food, music, and wedding rituals rather than controversial issues. With much effort, Windows’ was able to obtain approval from the Ministry of Education for our “Shared Life Education” program. We then managed to find two pairs of schools that gave us the opportunity to launch our 2-year pilot.

Windows offers teachers the bi-naitonal process developed for our youth
Believing that our facilitators first need to go through the program they are later going to lead, we offered teachers an experience in which they can deal with their own emotions and perceptions as participants. Experiencing the process and methods of the program, enabled them to learn about and choose when and how to use the many communication strategies they experienced.  

"Along the program I could see how I changed the way I see things"
"I participated in similar programs in the past, but we never touched such heavy topics"

In the last school year before the outbreak of Covid and the closure of the schools, we worked with two pairs of schools. The first pair consisted of 28 participants from one high school in Kfar Saba and one in Tira (Arab town near Kfar Saba). The programme consisted of single identity group meetings and joint meetings, as well as a 2-day seminar in Nazareth. The second pair consisted of a school from Tel Aviv and a school from Jaffa. As mentioned before, the slow process of building trust enabled a gradual sharing of life experiences that are not often shared between our communities. The ability to identify what they really want to ask each other and then listen carefully to the answers was a new experience for many of the teachers. Information that may seem trivial to one side was surprising and eye-opening to the other side. Towards the end of the training, the teachers were divided into small mixed groups to prepare together lesson plans that reflected their new insights and perspectives. 

"I have learned so much"
"I didn't realise how much I don't know"

Now, as the schools reopen, we can plan the continuation of the pilot in the next school year, taking into consideration the need to update the program given the long amount of time that has passed since the last workshops. If only some of the enthusiasm they expressed at the end of the first year is still there, we are sure they will be happy to meet again in the second year of the pilot:
  
"We became a group that can work together with our students"
"We have so much work to do, and we need to do it together"
"I can't wait for the second part of the training next year"