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Youth Media Program Overview
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The Youth Media Program is an initiative with several interconnected and symbiotic projects, which revolve around the production and distribution of Windows Hebrew-Arabic Youth Magazine. Through the development and circulation of the magazine, Windows seeks to progressively use media to involve participants more deeply in the experience of acquaintance with the "other", and dialogue about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The magazine is produced through the work of Windows' Youth Editorial Boards. For graduates of Windows editorial boards who want to continue their involvement in Windows, Through the Lens, is a video group project which gives youth an opportunity to further build upon their experiences and skills gained working on the Editorial Boards. The third component of our Youth Media Program is Through the School Window, an in-school program that uses our magazine in conjunction with other materials to expose a broader range of youth throughout Israel and the OPT to Windows' activities. This also serves as the main avenue for magazine distribution.
All Windows activities take place with three different identity groups working together: Jewish Israelis, Palestinian citizens of Israel, and Palestinian from the OPT.
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Windows Hebrew-Arabic Youth Magazine
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The Windows magazine is written and edited by two Youth Editorial Boards, each comprised of approximately 15 participants ages 12-15 (junior high school students) who work in 3 subgroups: Palestinians from the OPT, Palestinian citizens of Israel and Israeli Jews. Throughout the two-year program on the editorial board, participants meet weekly in Single Identity Groups (SIGs). Approximately every two months (depending on closures and availability of permits for Palestinians to enter Israel), they meet in joint workshops. During the editorial board program, participants study media and journalism, and write letters between the different identity groups to exchange feelings, ideas, and questions. The issues addressed in these correspondences and in meetings inspire many of the articles that the young journalists write for the magazine. They write on a variety of topics ranging from their daily lives and general social and cultural issues to more difficult issues of identity, nationality and the conflict; issues that have taken on a much more central role in the lives of these youth since the outbreak of the second Intifada. 20,000 copies of each issue of the magazine are distributed mostly through schools and organizations, bringing the voice of the youth to growing audiences on both sides of the conflict.
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Through the Lens: Hebrew/Arabic Video Production
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After working on the print publication at younger ages, 15- to 17-year-olds have the option to continue on to engage in productive, peace-building dialogue and positive interaction through a new journalistic medium: video. In Through the Lens: Hebrew-Arabic Video Production, a developing initiative, the young journalists utilize the same basic process as the Youth Editorial Boards in the creation of news pieces, short films, and other video productions. In the video group the youth tackle issues important to them, from everyday activities and interests to the deep anger, fears, hopes, and dreams that so strongly affect their lives.
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Through the School Window: Hebrew/Arabic Magazine Distribution
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Through the School Window is an extension of the Youth Media Program and the primary means of the magazine's distribution. The program itself involves a series of six to eight 90-minute workshops with the goal of helping students deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by expressing their feelings and acknowledging “the other.” This program aims to educate towards values of Human Rights, democracy and equality, as well as promote understanding of the role of media in a democratic society, while simultaneously using journalism skills and tools to have the youth get to know each other. Windows bi-lingual magazines, and when available, video magazine, are often used as tools for discussion and a means of bringing "other" voices into the classroom.Our school programs also invite students to participate in other Windows programs such as joint art exhibitions and the print and video magazines. Ongoing presence of Windows in the schools makes dialogue with “the other” a legitimate and accepted tool for change.
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Israeli and Palestinian Art
Forms of cultural expression such as visual art are crucial tools for us, because they offer emotional and human approaches that evoke less guarded responses from the participants as well as the audience. Windows produces children's' drawing exhibitions, which bring their visions of war and peace, hopes and dreams, to audiences throughout Israeli, the Palestinian territories and around the world.
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