In Jerusalem this summer, 100 Israeli and Palestinian students are learning to communicate with the "other" while mastering basic science and business skills.
MEET – Middle East Education through Technology -- http://meet.mit.edu/ -- was youth-created in 2004 by students who dreamed of inventing a "social start-up" to engage youths from both sides.
"I had to fly over oceans to meet people who lived 10 minutes away from me [in Israel]," said Anat Binur, founder and member of the executive board, who grew up in the Israeli town of Herzliya.
"We created relationships and a feeling that changed the way I looked at the world and my ability to solve problems. It made it very clear to me that we had to create a generation for whom the reality was very different."
Fellow board member Abeer Hazboun, a native of Bethlehem in the West Bank, said the aim was not necessarily to make the students best friends, but to teach them to work as partners.
"We wanted to create an alternative model for classical conflict resolution and try to bring students who we believe have the potential to be leaders in the future and invest in them, empower them, educate them, provide them with skills of 21st century," Hazboun said.
"It was a great opportunity in MEET to meet Israelis and see their point of view," said Rawan Abu Lafi, a 16-year-old Palestinian junior from Shuafat, a neighborhood bordering Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah.
"It was a great opportunity to meet Palestinians," chimed in Adam Ochayon, 17, from the Israeli town of Mevaseret and a fellow participant in the program.
Participants come from both Arab and Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem, as well as the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem and the Israeli towns of Beit Shemesh and Mevaseret. Those who live outside of Jerusalem reside in campus dormitories in rooms shared by Israelis and Palestinians.
"In the overnight it's a great opportunity to get to know each other," said Ochayon. "It really gets personal. You sleep in the same room. You can't really tell the difference. It doesn't really matter if you are Israeli or Palestinians."
The idea is to teach conflict resolution through computer science and business. Instructors come from prestigious American technology university MIT, the primary partner of MEET.
"On the first day I walked in and I couldn't tell the difference between the Israelis and Palestinians, but I noticed there were clear-cut groups already and they seemed to be speaking either in Arabic or Hebrew and it was hard to try and figure out how to bring them together," said instructor AnnaPremo.
"But after the first week and they knew each other better and it was easier."Read more at The Media Line.
Israelis and Palestinians joined forces for a Startup Weekend, to explore the possibilities of developing new technology businesses together.
Joining a worldwide trend, Israel last week hosted its second annual 'Startup Weekend' - an intense event when young entrepreneurs come together to pitch ideas and develop teams for new high-tech projects. What was different about the Israeli event is that it was attended by both Jews and Palestinians who join an international community of 15,000 entrepreneurs in more than 100 cities around the world.
The July 14 to 16 event was held on the Mediterranean Sea at the new Peres Center for Peace in Jaffa. The meeting included 20 Palestinians from the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Nablus, out of a group of 150 participants, all in their 20s and early 30s. Watching from the wings were sponsors and angel investors, scouting for the next big thing.
Read more at Israel 21c.
(Hat-tip to Libby and Len Traubman)
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