Facilitated by Samer Atamneh, Director, Education Department.
This workshop presented the model called Mantiqatna-HaEzor Shelanu (“Our Region” in Arabic and Hebrew), which creates Jewish-Arab partnerships based on geographic proximity that bridge gaps between tension-ridden communities, while creating an alternative characterized by equality and solidarity. The workshop explored ways to create change and build partnerships between Arabs and Jews, and surveyed the available and effective tools for creating change in a heterogeneous region. The model’s main tenets include:
- Addressing regional topics as a basis for learning and dialogue, to foster joint regional living.
- Building stable working relationships between schools, which rely on regional infrastructure supported by the heads of regional councils and directors of education departments.
- Joint learning of the standard curricula, including geography, civics, history, literature, and more.
- Multi-age learning and with large numbers of students.
- Working with educators to create and adapt work models for each school.
