In cooperation with its partners, the Palestinian House for Professional Solutions (HPS), the Shaar Hanegev High-School and the Amman Center for Peace and Development (ACPD), the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung implements the EU co-funded project "Utilizing Middle Eastern Civic Education as Leverage for Peace", of which this workshop was part.

The project functions as a bottom-up program which focuses on the introduction of democratic values in 15 schools in Israel, the Palestinian Autonomous Territories and Jordan through an especially developed school program on civic education. Through this program and several encounters between teachers and students of the respective schools, the project also aims at leading the local populations to more peaceful relations and better understanding.

During the "Training of Trainers" Seminar in Antalya, 44 teachers from 13 different schools in Israel, the Palestinian Autonomous Territories and Jordan received a joint training on a specific program on civic education. The seminar succeeded to produce curricula ready to be used for teaching in the schools.

Following the workshop, the program, which consists of 20 units dealing with the subjects of "Equality", "Tolerance", "Justice and the Rule of Law" and "Active Citizenship", will be taught during the coming school year to students in grades 9 to11.

Throughout the complete seminar, the teachers were accompanied by a training team of educators from Israel, the Palestinian Autonomous Territories and Jordan.

Besides preparing the teachers for teaching the program in their schools, the workshop especially focused on the tri-national meeting between the teachers from the respective countries. Several social gatherings were organized in order to give the teachers the possibility to meet and get acquainted on a more private level:

"It is really amazing. Five years ago, I never thought I would even like to speak with an Israeli at all. And now we are sitting here together and getting along so well", one teacher from Jordan emphasized. Project director Dr. Lars Hänsel, representative of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Israel, added: "This is a very unique project and it not only strengthens civic education as a pillar of democracy but also brings together teachers from different political and religious backgrounds and therefore contributes to better understanding."

The "Training of Trainers" Seminar will be followed by a "Classroom program" during the coming school year. The teachers trained at the workshop will then teach the program in their schools. Later on, a "Get-Together" Workshop will be held in "Neve Shalom", Israel and will bring together Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian students and teachers participating in the classroom program.

The project is co-financed by the EU and is implemented by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and its partners in the framework of the EU Partnership for Peace Program.