The closing seminar titled “Multicultural and interreligious dialogue with a mixed Population – Theory and Practical ongoing seminar” of the academic training class “New Approaches to Conflict Management in Israeli society” took place for the seventh time on June 2, 2016. Among all of the projects that have been carried out for the last several years by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Israel in cooperation with the department of social sciences of the Bar Ilan University, this program occupies an outstanding position. Akko as a city being home to three religions and a population consisting of Muslims, Jews, Christians, Druses, and Bahais, offers a unique opportunity to experience an active dialogue and co-existence in Israel. The seminar was developed in order to impart theoretical as well as practical experiences in the field of conflict management and to bring together the academic world, meaning students and teaching stuff, with cultural and peace mediators as well as religious leaders and persons in charge of communities in Akko. Furthermore, active dialogue and cooperative efforts with regard to co-existence were supposed to be experienced through examples of everyday challenges.

25 students took part in the seminar. This year’s seminar started with a visit of the municipally owned citizen facility – the “Merkas Gishur”, translated: “Centre of connection and bridge-building” in a neighborhood with a mixed population. This offered the possibility for a lively discussion between voluntary employees and social workers of the city Akko, residents of the neighborhood, and the students. The tasks of the “Merkas Gishur” are to strengthen civic life, promote the individual and offer help with regard to bureaucratic obstacles as well as programs for children and a food bank with food for indigent people. Following a lecture of impressive examples on the active cooperation within the city, the group was welcomed by the municipality which – characteristically for Akko – is led by Arabic and Jewish local politicians. The deputy Muslim mayor of the city, Mister Adham Jamal, and his Jewish counterpart Mister Seev Neuman emphasized the excellent working conditions with the colleagues of the other parties and groups despite different cultural and political memberships. During the discussion with the students, they explained their own view and experience with fruitful cooperation but also the compromises which are needed to govern a Jewish-Arabic city. Both stressed the quality with which they together approach the daily challenges as well as the mutual respect between the different religious and cultural sectors. Both professional cultural and peace mediators as well as Jewish and Arabic citizens of the city spoke about their experiences of trying to bridge the rare tensions in the city through cooperative relations in the fields of religion and culture.

A tour through the old city with focus on the socioeconomic difficulties of the population was one of the highlights of the day. The historian and leader of the “Centre for the economic development Akko”, Mister Roni Myara, headed the following cultural historic seminar with a special focus on the social and cultural historic challenges of living within a religiously and cultrually diverse population. The last part of the study day was a discussion in the civic centre “American Corner”. The guest speakers Awad Khoury, leader of the Christian community of the city Ramle, Ariela Kaderie – leader of the centre for mediation and conflict resolution in the community Ramle, and Alisa Silver - community dialogue coordinator of the Median Centre, spoke impressively of their experiences with the city Ramle and laid out the difficulties as well as the positive challenges that include the life in Ramle. Representatives of the different religious communities took part in the last discussion, too. The students gained insight in the life and philosophy of Muslims, Jews and Baha´i in Akko and received an impression of their efforts to strengthen the relations between the different groups in the city.

The capacity of KAS to function as a catalyst and mediator in an often disrupted reality, which is – despite successful steps towards a peaceful living together – often characterized by disagreements and misunderstanding, can highly contribute to improvement. Even if Akko has an exemplary function in Israel - and can serve as a model for other cities in the world - persons in charge from politics, economy and religion still face major challenges on a daily basis.