We keep the candle lit
Dear friends,
The recent events made us all sad, angry, scared and concerned. We can either lose hope and that's not an option or we can believe more in the importance of our work. This year we mark 30 years of working together. When we began rolling the idea of bi-lingual magazine in 1990 we were considered Naive, then we witnessed our societies move from the euphoria of the early 90s, through the mutual disappointment of the following decade to the despair that many feel today. Once again, most people look at us as Naïve, if not as traitors. But Windows is not alone, while the impact of the network of organizations in which Palestinians and Israelis meet, learn, and take action did not yet bring the future we dream of, we are making a difference in the lives of people and communities on both sides, and we maintain a base of committed people that through knowing and trusting each other, are able to make small changes. We will not give up on making this place better. Would you!?
Stick with us, support us making the small changes bigger.
Windows’ team
We share with you here what we have done in the last three years and what we plan to do in the next two or three years.....
R. is one of the many whose participation in Windows’ Youth Media Program made a difference in her life. She chose to continue as a facilitator, aiming to offer the transformational experience that she had to more girls in her rural community in the West Bank. Following the program that took place in 2018-19, in the coming summer we plan to bring these girls back together as part of our Evaluation program (see below). You can read more about the challenges they face. Read more
Theatre can move people in an emotional way to rethink their own feelings and perceptions. Thus, in 2018-19, graduates of the Youth Media and Action Program, aged around 19-21, met again for a year of workshops and seminars. They were able to again discuss the past and present of our region, this time as young adults. Drama tools enabled them to reach deeper emotions and levels of deeper trust. They chose the “Theater of the Oppressed'' as a way to share their stories with excited audiences both in the West Bank and Tel Aviv-Yaffa. In the past weeks we were proud to see many of them, Palestinian citizens of Israel and Israeli Jews in various protests and events calling to end the expulsions, devastation, and killing. Read more
The Federation Meurthe-Et-Moselle, a region in north of France, invited Windows' delegation of 10 participants, aged 18+ to spend 2-weeks with a group of French youth from various backgrounds to teach them about Palestine/Israel, learn about the EU, and explore together Europe's role in creating and maintaining conflicts in the Middle East. With new knowledge and perspectives, they developed and held activities in a local school workshop (picture above), sharing values and ideas. In April, 2019 the French group visited Palestine/Israel to continue their exploration and study of both sides. Read more
Teachers are not free of ignorance, prejudices, and emotions, and the teachers’ colleges do not prepare them to deal with controversial issues. Thus, in the school year of 2019-20, we launched a 2-year pilot of our new Teacher Training. In the first year, this training leads teachers from Jewish and Arab schools in Israel through both personal and group processes of dealing with the issues of “Shared Life.” In the second year, it trains teachers to develop encounter programs for their students so that children from different schools can learn from and interact with one another. Due to Covid-19, the second year of this program has been postponed. Windows hopes to continue the program by the coming school year. Read more
La Comune Di-Bagnaia is a small Eco-village near Siena, Italy. (picture on the left)
Since 2004 its members have hosted several groups of Windows - youth 2-weeks seminar, facilitators training, board training and more. In 2019 They invited representatives of Windows to the yearly conference of the European network of Eco-villages. The workshop that shared some of Windows’ methods and tools enriched participants from social change organizations from all over the world.
The two organizations from Lyon, France, MAN and Raja-Tikva, cooperated in 2017 to support the development of our Teacher Training. (picture on the right) Later on they invited Windows team members to meet students and educators in Lyon’ area, speak to public interested in our region, and discuss ideas for further cooperation. This spring MAN invited us to share our experience in a conference titled: “Education for Peace - for an Inclusive International Solidarity”.
As part of our goal to share our knowledge and experience, we began to rewrite our methods and theories of change in a more academic way. Thanks to new funding, we are able to hold a proper evaluation of the past 30 years of our work, to be followed by an update of our theories and methods. It will include reaching out to past team members and participants with questionnaires and interviews, focus groups and reunions. In workshops and seminars we will analyze our ever-changing reality, so at the end of this year, we will be able to update our work plans and programs and offer more effective activities. Next year, we will train a new team using our new insights and resume our youth media program in the fall of 2022. The recent events showed us once again how important our work is, how valuable is our experience and how urgent it is to share it with other practitioners. Read more
We are very proud of the many methods and tools we have developed over the years while looking for a way to answer the needs of our participants. One of the biggest challenges we have always had to deal with is the gap of knowledge between the participants and the high level of ignorance and misperceptions among them. “Google it” is not an adequate answer, as there is a lot of problematic information on the net. Thus, we are working to develop our own online platform that will offer valid information, insights from suppressed voices, and an overview of the historical and present events that can put our local story in both a global and regional context. Read more
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Looking back on our 30 years of work, we can see the turning points. One of them was the establishing of Windows for Peace UK in 2004, a registered trust that since then raised more than half a million GBP to support our programs in Palestine / Israel. What started as a routine visit to the West Bank with international guests, that time Ken and Yvonne Singer from Manchester, developed to an invitation for two representatives from Windows to a speaking tour in the UK.
The impact of sharing our experience in London, Manchester and other places led to the establishment of the charity. As Windows for Peace UK is about to close towards the end of this year, Ken talked with us about the successes and the challenges the charity faced along the years. We send from here our everlasting love and gratitude to our UK friends. Read more
Since the beginning of our work, Windows has enjoyed the support of interns and volunteers, locals and from all over the world, usually between 6-12 international interns are part of the Windows team at any given time. For some of them the internship is part of their University studies, for others an opportunity to enrich their knowledge and gain experience.
We also host participants of programs that bring young Jews to Israel - but we offer them new perspectives that often change their lives. With their diverse social and educational background, interns add a broad perspective to the Windows projects from fundraising and PR to evaluation and history research (see THE WALL). Since March 2020 interns work remotely as meetings take place via zoom and work is done on google drive.
