The second Gemini seminar was held on May 2^nd-4^th in Nazareth. 42 participants from the Gemini groups in Tel Aviv, Beit Berl, Netanya, Haifa and Jerusalem joined the project’s interns, facilitators and staff members. The seminar, themed around activism and joint struggles, included work in home groups to continue the group process, a political panel with social activists and hands-on workshops in which the participants gained practical tools for social activism in their campuses.

During the seminar discussions were held revolving joint social activism, joint struggles, partnership and shared space. The seminar provided a place and a space for initiating and developing practical social-activism ideas by way of experiencing the use of different tools.

“We must fight this crime. We should fight against the policy of expelling residents of Jaffa and Southern neighborhoods from their homes.If you do not participate the struggle for “the right of housing for residents of Jaffa ” and stop the gentrification , we will be a partners in this crime.

Join the struggle

This cry that went out by “for change” group in the last week when they launched the video  of housing awareness campaignRecently we witness for many change features of Ajami  neighborhood in jaffa .Since the advent of new residents who are changing the natives through the expropriation of lands without any alternative solution for the old residents.

Before 1948 jaffa contained between 100000 to 120000 people , in 1949 the numbers turned to be between 3000 to 4000 people. Today jaffa contains 20000 palestinian residents from within 55000 general residents. Samira judge, 42 years, in 1999she married Sami and moved to live in the house of his mother in the Ajami neighborhood. After Samira’s mother in low died Sami and Samira continued  live in the house that follows the housing company Hallamish , but today the state does not recognize them as a legal residents in their own house and therefore the battle to keep their home is still continuing.

 

The Facilitators’ Training Course has begun and is set to train Jewish and Palestinian facilitators to work with youth according to the pedagogical framework that has been developed in Sadaka Reut for the past 30 years. This program seeks to develop a generation of professional facilitators who use political education as a tool for creating social change.

Sadaka Reut’s pedagogy takes a unique approach to group dynamics, reality analysis and activism within that same reality. This process creates changes in perspectives and behavior among the youth and helps steer them to advocate for a bi-national civil, social and political partnership.

The course has 18 Palestinian and Jewish participants. Ella, a Jewish participant, said, “I’ve taken so much even from our first meeting, and as the course is moving along, I am implementing the things I learn in my work as an educator at a school”

Rula, a Palestinian participant, said, “I have been participating in this course for about half a year and now I truly understand the importance of my participation, I am learning a lot in every single one of our meetings and feel like I’m gaining a toolkit of skills that comes out through my job with youth”.

In January Sadaka Reut held its first Youth Seminar of 2013 in Givat Chavivah. Sixty people participated in the seminar from the different regions of Sadaka Reut’s activities of Kalansiyah, Taybeh, Natanya, K’far Kasem, Jaffa, Kiryat Shalem and K’far Shalom.

The educational staff from the Youth Project chose to focus the seminar on housing rights, as a basic human right for all. The seminar opened with a plenary, following which participants were split into three groups for icebreakers and getting-to-know-you activities. The first workshop dealt with the question “What does home mean to me?” Participants shared with their group what characterizes their home, what they love about it, and what feelings home produces for them, which included security, protection and shelter. Many of the participants shared personal stories and we learned how holidays are celebrated in different homes and the in different cultures. In the evening we had fun team-building activities for the participants-they prepared food as a team and sang karaoke songs in Hebrew, Arabic and English.

On the second day we went from dealing with the personal to learning about housing rights in the state of Israel, which is a signatory to the Convention on Human Rights. The workshop raised a lot of questions and discussions about the fact that 70% of the citizens of the Israel cannot afford to buy a home even taking out a mortage.

Later the seminar hosted three political and social activists from places where there are housing struggles, each participant chose one housing struggle to understand in greater depth; Hana Amori, the co-Director of Sadaka Reut discussed the housing struggle in Yafo. Yael Ben Yefet , the Director of the organization “The Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow” and former Tel Aviv-Jaffa city council member, spoke about the struggle in Kfar Shalom. Shirli Shirabi from the Dora neighborhood spoke about her leadership role in the 2011 protests in Netanya.

Mahmad Amar, a participant from the Kfar Kasem group said about his experience, “I am really happy to meet people from many different places that come from different environments. I learned a lot about the issue of human rights generally and the issue of housing rights in particular, and the violations of these rights in the country. Where I am from, in Kfar Kasem, there are a lot of home demolition orders due to ‘illegal building’ and no one does anything about it. I hope that it is within our power as young people to create political and social change.”

In a conversation with Uri from the group from the Democratic School in Jaffa we heard, “I believe that the tycoons are the ones that are ultimately ruling Israel because they have so much money, therefore 70% of the public in Israel can not buy an apartment. We as youth have the same rights as all other citizens and we must act to bring about political change and social equality.”

In the final unit of the seminar the participants applied what they learned to work on the design and creation of posters relating to housing rights. Over the next month the participants will choose which one of their posters will be designed and printed professionally. The participants will hang up the printed poster in the different towns and neighborhoods that they are from as part of their political activism in Sadaka Reut.

On December 6th, 2012, Sadaka Reut’s youth opened Building a Culture of Peace’s activity year in the first bi-national meeting that took place at Academic College of Jaffa. Fifty Palestinian and Jewish participants of Sadaka Reut arrived from different parts of the country such as Qalanswa, Kufur Kaseem, Taybe, Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Lod, Kfar Shalem, Netanya and Kiryat Shalom.
The activity day began with the participants getting to know each other and continued with workshops on human rights, where the participants examined the concept of rights versus desires.
Eden Tatour, one of the Jaffa group participants, said, “It is my second year in Sadaka, and I feel this place is like a family to me. I waited for this activity for a long, and I am excited to get to know new people and hope to see them all in future gatherings.”
David from Kfar Shalem said “This is the first time I’m meeting Arabs. I came to this activity with a whole lot of prejudice and slowly my opinions are diminishing. I realized they’re just like us.”
During the activity, the project coordinators spoke about Building a Culture of Peace and explained the importance of bi-national activities. They also spoke about human rights and the struggle for change, which is the subject the project will deal with this year.
At the end of the activity the participants gathered to summarize their experience. The facilitators presented their words in a funny and theatrical way. The participants were given stickers and bracelets with slogans against racism and were invited to keep in touch through Facebook as they prepare for next month’s bi-national activity.
Tzvika Naim, the facilitator of Netanya’s group, wrote, “Imagine a picture – the bus comes to Dora and my kids are unsure whether to go on it or not. They don’t really understand what is about to happen. Two of them decide in the same second to give up and you can see how uncomfortable they are. My fear is growing as the general feeling is that the bi-national activity will be particularly difficult this time. Five of my kids go on the bus anyways, among them the wonderful Sapir who, in her free time, encourages her fellow group members, helping them to be more open-minded. After 10 minutes of driving we’re already playing translation word games on the bus. The Dora kids are answering in Hebrew, while Kufur Qaseem, Qalanswa and Taybe are yelling back in Arabic. It starts with “car” and “watermelon” and moves on to “soccer” and “road”. Three hours later, on the way back, it’s dark and everyone is tired. Too tired for games. The kids from Dora ask me quietly how to say “We’ll see you soon” in Arabic. The Kufur Qaseem kids smile and answer back. When they all get off the bus, I hear “Bill shupkum kariv!” and I understand just how special this evening was.”

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=116399085196421&set=a.116399081863088.21886.105153172987679&type=1&theater

In the late October, the members of “for a change” group got out with a campaign which asked “Where’s the Arabic ?!” the members of the group  through the project asked the Ministry of Transportation and the transportation companies : why didn’t they enter the Arabic language to bus stations in Tel Aviv-Jaffa area. The campaign included several steps, the first of these steps were stickers  written at them the question “where’s the Arabic?!”  also there was a page which explained the reasons for this campaign and what applications for those who made it for both the Jewish and Palestinians. As a continuation of this work the participants have left a petition:

We are, “for a change” group Sadaka-Reut, we demand to add the Arabic language to bus stations in Jaffa-tel aviv

There’s two official languages in this state, Arabic and Hebrew , there’s no sense that the dominant language in the area is Hebrew only.

We fight and struggling for the Arabic language, which disappear from public places.

We turn to the Transport Company “Dan” we want them to introduce the Arabic language for buses and stations and the public spaces .

Join us and signed the petition.