Event Reports
The first day started with youth-led ice- breaking activities splitting students into “family groups” in which they learned together throughout the three days conference. Afterward the students gathered for the workshop “how small acts of kindness can cross borders” by Dan Liebeschütz, the founder of “BKind”, a social business. ‘What kind of world do you want to live in?’ he asked the youth and encouraged them to contribute to a better world by starting a chain of good deeds. The BKind Cards, the youth received, are being passed on after a good deed has been done and can then be tracked around the world.
The official opening ceremony of YOCOPAS 2017 has successfully fueled its participants with the sense of excitement by the memorable opening ceremony with the attendance of 300 participants including parents, educators, ambassadors, and students from 15 schools and more 50 countries. The on-board entertainment started with Linda Yuan, playing a beautiful song on her unique Guzheng. It was a beautiful piece where everyone was able to indulge in the Chinese culture.
Dr. Kobi Naveh, the CEO of HaKfar HaYarok, was to greet the audience and spoke about the chances the YOCOPAS- conference offered to the youth. He stressed the important role education plays when it comes to reaching the goal of peace and sustainability and thanked especially the educators for their contribution and efforts. After him spoke Oded Rose who founded EMIS in 2014 enabling students to study in an international environment thus being able to develop a deep respect towards people with different backgrounds and to actively cross borders. Emanuele Giaufret, the ambassador of the European Union to Israel, praised the mission of EMIS and the contribution it makes towards overcoming borders. The European Union, he said, is likewise all about crossing borders. Dr. Nedal Jayousi, the chairman of the Palestinian House for Professional Solutions (HPS) stressed how complicated it was to bring Palestinian students to Israel and that not many had the opportunity to cross borders. Dr. Jayousi asked all the Palestinians to stand and it was eye-opening to see how many people were able to cross borders and join the movement.
The evening continued with a performance from three of EMIS students. Sara and Irene Diaz performed a flamenco performance, while the unique Mario Martin showed his musician skills playing the guitar. Margarida Mano and Laurence Pais, representatives of the Union of the Mediterranean admired the dedication with which the youth had planned the event and encouraged them to keep speaking up for a better future. Samar Qassasafeh gave a stupendous performance. She sung Helwa Ya Baladi /My beautiful country, and got the whole crowd clapping and dancing along. Dr. Alexander Brakel, head of the KAS office in Israel, thanked the youth for their commitment towards a better world and stressed the importance of encounters when it comes to building trust. YOCOPAS provides the necessary stage for encounters and thereby contributes to a mutual understanding, Brakel said.
At the end of the ceremony, Keren Saba, a member of the YOCOPAS-Team, concluded the event by calling on everyone present to take action in order to make a change and cross borders. She gave an encouraging speech about the importance of activism rather than just plain talking. She highlighted the hard work and all the efforts the YOCOPAS committee put, in order to make this conference.
After the greetings the students sang “Imagine” by John Lennon causing the whole auditorium to get up on their feet. The first day closed with YOCOtalks event by Arthur Rashkovan from Surfing 4 Peace, Samy and the film director Mayasaloun Hamoud. The three have described their personal life stories and their actions of crossing borders.
The second day of YOCOPAS was a full and intense day. In the early morning, students started their days with breakfast and warm-up family group activities then continued by a very interesting panel discussion. The guest speakers were Dr. Rev. Gary Mason from Northern Ireland, founder and director of the conflict transformation NGO 'Rethinking Conflict’, Omer Gendler, a Ph.D. student for International Relations and International Political Economy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and lastly Ayed Atmawi, a Palestinian political and peace activist from Qalqilia and Ramallah. They described different perspectives on the conflict by approaching it in an engaging way and answering many questions raised by the audience. The speaker spoke about the differences and similarities between the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other conflicts around the world.
Later on, students were able to get engaged in a variety of workshops and activities that perceived peace, conflict and borders in many different areas related to “Borders and Society”. They participated in workshops that studied the idea of crossing borders in the area of music, gender, sustainability, education and much more. Liron LAvi Turkenich gave a workshop about “Borders & Language” and how one script for both Hebrew and Arabic can bring people closer. The educator Yair Leibel gave a workshop about “Borders & Education” and what is the role of education in shaping the world. Moshe Sluhovsky gave a workshop about “Visible and Invisible borders in urban communities” and used Jerusalem as a study case. Jodie Ferise spoke in her workshop about “Borders & Social Stereotypes” and Sarah Perle talked about “Borders & Storytelling” and the power of storytelling in the context of conflict. Hannah Wenger taught the students how to write a spoken word and Ronnie Wanger taught about music as a cross-border activity. Maya Arbel discussed the issue of “Borders & Gender” and how gender constructs borders and how can we cross them. Dr. Robert Roach spoke about “Resources without Borders” on his workshop about environmental sustainability.
Afterwards, the workshops continued under the topic “Borders and Conflicts”. This time the students approached the concept of crossing borders from a perspective of power and interests. Nimrod Rosler explained about the conflict in Northern-Ireland and the similarities to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Dr. Ina Kubbe lectured about the social-psychological approaches in conflict resolution and transformation. Two representatives of Women Wage Peace discussed feminism and conflicts and showed how women can cross political borders. D’Arcy Lunn introduced the work of his organization “Teaspoons of Change” and encouraged the students to think what small steps they can do for global goals such as peace and justice. Dr. Yuval Ben-Ziman gave a workshop about “Borders & Narratives” and explained his participants the similarities between both sides of a conflict and the way they project their fears and mistrust on the other side. Jodie Ferise gave a workshop about “Conflict & Psychology” and stressed the psychological elements of conflicts and the ways to be aware to them in order to reduce them. Stephanie Fox & Sami explained in their workshop “Peace starts with your mind” how feelings are a subjective thing and do not represent an objective reality and therefore in order to solve conflicts one must first confront his negative feelings towards the other. At Arik Segal’s workshop “Conflict Management: Crossing borders with Technology and Innovation” the participants discussed the late technological developments and how they can promote peace.
After a festive Shabbat Dinner, students had a fascinating discussion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict along with the Catalonia independence. This activity allowed students to express their opinions, listen to local students’ perspectives and discuss the possible future solutions.
The last day of the conference came to encourage the participants to create and make a change in the world. After breakfast and morning activity with family groups, Haya Amzaleg- Bahr gave a useful lecture which explained to the participants how to initiate a project. Participants crossed borders in the last 2 days and this lecture made them focus on project planning, coming up with creative community-based ideas. Each family group was divided into smaller groups of 3-4 people, each group had between 4-5 hours to plan their projects. At the end of the day, the students presented their proposals in front of teachers, guests, and other groups. Finally, during the closing ceremony, the 3 winning groups were announced, "Running for equality" between male and female, "Teddy bear crossing borders" and "Together for you".
For a video from the conference please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Letw_LqLv4&feature=youtu.be