Jerusalem

Since 1991, in periods both of hope and despair, we at Search for Common Ground have worked to foster non-violent cooperative solutions to longstanding conflicts in the Middle East. The destruction, death, and injury that the region has witnessed since September 2000 have made our work all the more necessary and important.

Our work includes developing independent media, using the media to discuss critical issues, convening regional dialogues and building regional cooperation, and encouraging local capacity-building.

Many of the peace-building relationships and cooperative activities that have emerged from our work have endured through this difficult period and will serve as a foundation for renewed dialogue in the emerging era of hope and rebuilding. This dialogue can, in turn, help open the way to a more peaceful, prosperous, and stable future for all the peoples of the Middle East.

Read the Jerusalem Update (April 2010): pdf

• Read project evaluations

Jerusalem Programme Activities

Media

Collaboration with Israeli and Palestinian Media Outlets
We believe that strengthening independent media is crucial for stimulating open debate and creating space for alternative voices in today’s political environment in both Israel and in Palestine, which is why we have been collaborating with the Ma’an Network of independent Palestinian TV stations and Alma Films to develop programming for Palestinian and Israeli viewers that supports peaceful ways to resolve conflict. We are also partnering with  Palestinian TV stations to create the first independent Palestinian satellite which will go on air in 2009.

Partnership with Palestinian TV Stations
Over the past seven years, we have developed a strong partnership with the Ma’an Network of independent Palestinian TV stations, covering the West Bank and Gaza. Given the current political climate, strengthening independent media is central to providing an opportunity for constructive dialogue.

A grant from the U.S. Department of State is contributing towards creating the first independent Palestinian satellite channel, which will be supervised by SFCG's Jerusalem office. Especially in the wake of the Gaza crisis, it is clear that a strong, local, independent media is imperative for Gaza and the West Bank providing Palestinians with access to a more moderate, alternative local source of news and information.
 
Palestinian TV Productions
In partnership with the independent Ma’an TV Network, we are co-producing:

• A weekly TV talk show, The Hard Questions, which includes open discussion panels, live international uplinks, and a live participating audience. Issues for discussion are highly relevant to Palestinian daily life. These shows are now in their second season and are expected to run once a week for the entire year. This show is being developed out of the Bethlehem TV studio.
• A medical talk show that focuses on various illnesses using special graphics and animation for further discussion. The conversation is led by a panel of medical professionals providing in-depth analysis of the illness, risks, and treatment. This programme is designed to inform Palestinians about prevalent illnesses which are of concern. This show is being developed out of the Al Quds TV studio.
• An economics talk show, the goal of which is to help people understand the world economic crisis and deal with its effects on their daily lives. This is being developed out of the Nablus TV studio.
• A series dealing with local issues in Gaza, such as the agriculture and fishing industries as well as women’s and children’s health issues. This is being developed out of the Gazan TV studio.

Football Drama Series| The Team
SFCG's Jerusalem office is helping produce TV drama series in both Palestine and Israel as part of a larger SFCG project producing TV and radio drama series in over 10 countries on the theme of football, and the individual and communal benefits of being a team player.

Palestine
The Team follows a football club and its players as they go about their  daily lives in Palestinian society.  The series demonstrates that Palestinians can solve their own problems when they seek cooperative solutions.  The underlying message of the storyline is that if you have a dream and work to reach it, you will succeed. Episodes dramatise the importance of the rule of law, freedom of assembly and association, and the challenges faced by women in an unequal society.  The series seeks to dispel negative stereotypes by portraying characters which are recognisable to the average Palestinian but are rarely represented on the nightly news. 

Israel
SFCG is collaborating with executive producer Arik Bernstein, head of the Israeli company Alma Films, to develop a seven episode football drama series, The Team, based in the mixed (Jewish/Palestinian) and economically challenged town of Ramla, Israel. The purpose is to create increased mutual understanding and empathy amongst the ethnic groups. The script has been written and we are moving ahead to find a top Israeli TV channel to broadcast the series during prime time.

Common Ground News Service (CGNews)
The Common Ground News Service (CGNews) seeks to promote mutual understanding and offer hope, opportunities for dialogue and collaborative suggestions that facilitate peaceful resolution of conflict. We accomplish this goal through providing constructive and solution-oriented news, op-eds, features and analyses to news outlets worldwide on a broad range of issues affecting the Middle East and the relationship between the West and Arab and Muslim communities. CGNews–Middle East is produced out of our Jerusalem office, with weekly articles translated into Arabic, English, and Hebrew. [More]

• CGNews targets media outlets for further republications in the Middle East regional and international press and has succeeded in securing over 11,000 republications of our articles in over 650 media outlets, such as Al-Ahram, Al-Ayyam, Al-Hayat, Al-Quds, Arab News, The Boston Herald, The Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, The Daily Star, The Guardian, Ha’aretz, International Herald Tribune, The Jakarta Post, The Jerusalem Post, The Jerusalem Report, The Jordan Times, The Miami Herald, Le Courrier International, Middle East Times, San Francisco Chronicle, United Press International, The Washington Times and The Washington Post/Newsweek.

• Today, CGNews has 28,000 subscribers, and an active network of contributing authors and major media partners worldwide.

Please click here to subscribe to the CGNews email newsletter.

Eliav-Sartawi Awards for Common Ground Journalism
Since 2000, the Eliav-Sartawi Awards for Middle Eastern Journalism have recognised and encouraged journalism that contributes to better understanding between people and to maintaining political dialogue in the Middle East. Search for Common Ground holds annual awards in Jerusalem to honour the winners who each receive $1000 dollars and a glass plaque.

It is inspiring to see so many constructive, solution-oriented articles written about interesting topics occurring in the Middle East. Visit www.commongroundnews.org to see what we mean and to read winning articles.

Regional Cooperation

Cooperative Disease Monitoring System

Since 2003, we have facilitated regional cooperation against the threat posed by biological attacks and natural disease outbreaks. In partnership with the NTI Global Health and Security Initiative, we formed the Middle East Consortium on Infectious Disease Surveillance (MECIDS), through which the Ministries of Health of Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority are sharing data about disease outbreaks. Over the past five years, MECIDS has been a resounding success and we anticipate that the continuing upgrade of surveillance methods will play an important role in the prevention and control of occurrence and transmission of food-borne and other diseases in these three countries.

Plans are afoot to use the MECIDS model for a cross-border health project focusing on chronic diseases and nutrition.

Holy Sites Initiative              

The main goal of The Holy Sites Initiative (HSI) is to unite the voices of regional religious leaders in a public and symbolic declaration that formally acknowledges and respects the attachments of each of the Abrahamic faiths to their holy sites in Jerusalem and, through the workings of an inter-religious standing committee, to prevent future conflagrations around them. After several years of building connections and trust among key religious leaders and developing a close relationship with the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land, whose secretariat is situated in SFCG’s Jerusalem office, we are now at the culminating stage of the project—a signing ceremony in the presence of world religious leaders. Regional political leaders do not think that the timing is yet ripe to hold such a ceremony – this will depend on the progress of  peace talks, but the draft declaration, developed in collaboration with our Jerusalem office, is already being used as a basis for the development of a universal code on Holy Sites, thus expanding its influence further afield.

Social Entrepreneurs Project

The Palestinian-Israeli Young Social Entrepreneurs Programme is providing 12 carefully selected social entrepreneurs with leadership, communication and conflict resolution skills. This is a joint project of SFCG’s Leadership Wisdom Initiative (LWI), Outward Bound-Canada and our Jerusalem office. The programme calls for shared experiential learning, various joint trips out of the region and individual coaching. The first expedition, a 12-day trek in the US wilderness, took place in late February and retreats have been held in Cyprus in April and Turkey in July.  The programme has been an outstanding success in building relationships amongst the participants as they develop their own, and joint, projects. This network is due to be expanded to include political emerging leaders in the coming year.

Archive of Completed Programming

Media Activities

• The Shape of the Future: Television Documentary Series (2005)
• Il-Dar Dar Abuna: Palestinian Radio Drama Series (2005)
• Twenty-six episodes of MEND's radio soap opera Il-Dar Dar Abuna have been broadcast over two months in the summer of 2003 and was an effective means to educate the target group of 16-25 year-olds.
• Common Ground Film Festival in Jerusalem (2004)

Regional Dialogues

• Madrid+15 Middle East Peace Conference
• Jerusalem Old City Initiative
• Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution (2005)
• Regional Security Dialogue Session (2004)
• A successful dialogue which prompted the CGNews special series on the “Arab Peace Initiative”
• Middle East Chemical Risks Consortium (2004)
• Nonviolence Polls (2002)
• Centre for Applied Research in Education (CARE)

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