32 Pierre Koenig
Jerusalem
Israel
- Democracy and community development
- Gender
- Media
The vision of the Citizens’ Accord Forum between Jews and Arabs in Israel is a democratic and pluralistic society in Israel where all social groups, regardless of their ethnic, linguistic, religious, gender and political affiliations receive equal treatment by the authorities and receive a proportional share of the State’s resources. The mission of the Citizens’ Accord Forum between Jews and Arabs in Israel is to develop and introduce concrete models of social change in various fields (media, economy, education, government, etc.) through a transformative process based on a dialogue of shared concrete interests rather than on one group imposing its metaphysical beliefs on the other. This process is expected to rid the Israeli public domain of discriminatory practices and to contribute to a more equitable distribution of the State's resources which would be based on the differing needs of each group. The goals of the Citizens’ Accord Forum between Jews and Arabs in Israel are: (1) To develop and implement models of conflict transformation for both policy makers and for grassroots activists; (2) To develop and implement models of empowerment and community development designed to optimize the take-up of rights.
The Youth Parliaments of Israel’s Jewish-Arab Mixed Cities - A joint platform of dialogue and change for the Jewish and Arab youth of the mixed cities of Israel. This program was launched in partnership with USAID and currently operates in Jaffa, Akko, Lod and Haifa, with plans to expand to additional locations. In each city, 30 young Jews and Arabs participate in a two-year program, consisting of constructive dialogue between the groups in the first year and capacity-building training and community-based initiatives in the second year. A National Youth Parliament is also being formed, which will consist of delegates from local parliaments. The young people study problems affecting the lives of Jews and Arabs in their local communities, and seek to build a mechanism of dialogue and conflict transformation to deal with those problems in a non-violent way. Dialogue programs – CAF launched in 2013 a major dialogue program in partnership with the European Union, based on the Applied Deliberative Dialogue method developed in conjunction with the Kettering Foundation in the United States. This program brings together citizens from diverse groups (Jews and Arabs, men and women, decision makers, students, secular and ultra-Orthodox) to deliberate jointly over issues at the heart of Jewish-Arab relations in Israel. The project works on three levels: Dialogue groups with members of the general public; advocacy work with decision makers and legislators; and training and development of professional skills for facilitators. The participants will acquire the ability to hold an informed discussion on contentious issues, and will make progress towards formulating policy recommendations