There is no way forward without dealing with the past
While some peacebuilders believe that we should put the past behind us and see how we can plan a peaceful future, at Windows we believe that we can’t move forward without first dealing, in a constructive way, with the past. Therefore, the first issues of our Hebrew-Arabic magazine reflected the thoughts and feelings of our young journalists about the past. Stories were shared, leading to questions and research using their newly acquired journalism skills. The answers brought up even more questions. In 1998, marking 50 years of Israeli independence and the Palestinian Nakba, Windows’ magazine was one of the first publishings in Israel to print this loaded term: Nakba.
Paying attention to history has always been a big part of our work and is also an important component of our theory of change. One of the challenges of bringing Palestinians and Israelis together is that they grow up exposed to different collective narratives. The Palestinians from the OPT are openly raised on the memories of the Nakba, especially if they are descendants of refugees, with very little, if at all, information that can explain the affiliation of the Jews to the land and the historical context in which the state of Israel was established. Israeli Jews grow up learning a lot about Jewish history but the role of Palestinians in this land and their displacement following the establishment of the State are very biased and partial. The Palestinians who study in the Israeli education system are exposed, through school and society, to the Israeli common narrative that contradicts what they may have heard at home or in their communities leading them to confusion and identity crisis. It is emotionally difficult for our participants to discover that a lot of what they assumed to be true is not necessarily so. Next to the emotional support that we offer, we need to also offer trustworthy sources of information that will gradually replace the wrong information that many grew up with, allowing all participants to understand their history within a broader context.
To help our participants develop a wider perspective of the past (in order to better understand the present) we kept developing more and more tools and activities through which our participants could share what they know and continue their study of the past and present together.
To understand the actions of others you need to know what their life is like and what do they know
Besides searching for what really happened, as much as one can find out, it is very important for us to familiarize our participants with the narratives common within each society. This information helps them see what motivates the perceptions and actions of each side. Some of our youth programs were long enough to enable the participants to move forward and imagine together a mutually beneficial future, based on our shared values of democracy and equality.
Over the years, generations of Windows’ participants have collected a lot of information through their research. In earlier years, the groups concentrated more on local events. With time and questions, more and more research was done on the impact of regional events and global interests in the local situation.
What do our youth need to know in order to really understand what is happening here and now? They need to know so much, and there is no way they can do it within the limited timeframe of our programs, as long as they may be. We realized that we need to create a platform that can offer an overview of events, phenomena, and processes, a summary that is backed by carefully collected information that our participants can use. This platform must offer pictures, maps, and links to serious websites, selected films, and articles. This platform will continue to grow, responding to new questions that will continuously arise.
Raising the suppressed voices
Furthermore, it is of great importance to us not to offer opinions or analyses, but to stimulate the process of independent thinking, which we see as very helpful in the process of learning and developing fresh opinions. So, through intensive research, we will try to create a picture that presents the complexity of the story in a simple and understandable way, in order to create the beginning of clarity. Taking into consideration that most history books were written by men - reflecting the viewpoints of “those who won” - we encourage our interns working on this project to look for sources written by women and people of color. Having interns from all over the world ensures that a variety of voices are represented. While our research is progressing, we use this time to develop ideas regarding how this platform will be used as an educational tool. If all goes well, and funding is raised, within the next few months the technical development of this platform will begin.