Visit of the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung in the WBC – April 18, 2018

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The educational materials of the Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung (Federal Agency for Civic Education) have been a staple in every German high school for decades. Almost every German student has them on their desk when they cram their exams in history or political science. It was thus a great honour to welcome some of the thinkers and writers behind these materials for a day of talks and exchanges in the Willy Brandt Center.

The delegation of the Bundeszentrale, including President Thomas Krüger, has been travelling all over Israel to mark the 70th anniversary of the country’s independence. During their visit to the Willy Brandt Center, they enjoyed the opportunity to discuss the prospects and challenges for a political solution to the conflict with Palestinian academics and activists from Jerusalem and the West Bank. Dr Omar Yousef, a distinguished architect and professor of Al Quds University, shared his perspective about the legacy of the Nakba and the discrimination against Palestinian residents of Jerusalem on an institutional and daily level. Riman Barakat and Abeer Natseh, two most impressive business women, talked about their experiences of working in Israeli-Palestinian economic cooperations and equally highlighted how their personal stories have shaped their political outlook on the conflict.

In the final session of the day Maja Sojref, the project coordinator for Peace Education at the Willy Brandt Center, presented the work of the Center and gave insights about the efforts of Israeli and Palestinian youth movements building a joint educational program. We hope to welcome the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung again soon and to continue exchanging how civic political education can help combat polarisation, racism and political apathy in Germany, Israel and Palestine.

UNESCO International Jazz Day 2018 – April 30, 2018

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The Willy Brandt Center partnered with the UNESCO International Jazz Day for the first time. The Jazz Day is a yearly event taking place around the globe on April 30th to celebrate the international art form of jazz and its power to promote dialogue among cultures.

The Jazz Day performances featured the Austrian ensemble Sinfonia de Carnaval, and took place in front of overcrowded halls on the campus of Bethlehem University and at the Austrian Hospice in the very heart of Jerusalem’s Old City. Known for their unique and stylistically open approach, the musicians took their listeners on a rich and varied jazz performance journey that crossed multiple genres across a wide range of improvisations.

The musicians emphasized that it is hard to imagine places more appropriate for the mission of the UNESCO Jazz Day than Bethlehem or Jerusalem. These cities are special because they are fraught with tension and political crisis, but at the same time, are crosspoints of cultures, and filled with lively traditions and rich artistic heritage.

Their artistic contribution therefore reflected the meaning of the worldwide initiative, which, in the words of UNESCO goodwill ambassador Herbie Hancock is “crucial to ensuring that all people continue to hear this positive message and the music behind it”.

The UNESCO Jazz Day events were organized by the Willy Brandt Center in partnership with the UNESCO National Office Ramallah, the Austrian Cultural Forum Tel Aviv, the Austrian Hospice, Bethlehem University and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in Washington.

Red Lounge „Born in Deir Yassin“ – April 8, 2018

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Striving to present and reflect on different narratives in Israel and Palestine, the Willy Brandt Center, in cooperation with the Israeli NGO Zochrot, presented the multi-award winning film „Born in Deir Yassin“.

The movie features the history and development of Deir Yassin, a former Arab village close to Jerusalem which was conquered by the Jewish paramilitary groups Irgun and Lehi in a highly controversial battle in 1948. The village buildings today are part of the Kfar Shaul Mental Health Center, a public psychiatric hospital.

The film traces a young man’s personal journey looking for records of his mother who was hospitalized at the premises. The film unveils not only her personal story but also those of former underground fighters in the war of Independence, who disclose the controversial narratives of Deir Yassin through their contradicting memories.

The well-attended screening was followed by a public discussion with film director Neta Shoshani and historian Dr. Adel Mana (Van Leer Institute), moderated by Debby Farber (Zochrot).

Red Lounge: Mulu and Tsegay – March 14, 2018

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On March 14th we hosted children from the Ben Yehuda School in Jerusalem at the center. Together, we watched the puppet show “Mulu and Tsegay” performed by Shaharit Yerushalmi and Moria Ben Avot.

The performance was based on a children’s book written by Tamar Verete-Zehavi and Ronit Rosenthal and published by Kinneret Publishing in 2014. The book describes the harrowing journey of two siblings, a brother and sister, who ran away from their homes in eastern Africa after witnessing the burning of a neighboring village. Their mother provided them with a magical courage potion and urged them to flee and seek out a refugee camp in order to save their lives. Although the children felt devastated because they had to leave their mother, they set off on the daunting journey in the search of a new home.

Created by: Moriya Benavot, Shaharit Yerushalmy & Hadas Selbst
Concept & Performing: Moriya Benavot & Shaharit Yerushalmy
Director: Hadas Selbst
Dramaturge: Roey Gormezano
Performer & Writer: Shaharit Yerushalmy
Performer & Puppet designer: Moriya Benavot
Original music: Dana Eizen
Table designer: Gilad Nardi
Puppet design consulter: Gili Ulmer- Kuzin
Props consulter: Yaron Karbel
Light designer: Itamar Houri

Shaharit Yerushalmi has a BA in theater and directing at The Kibbutzim College Performing Art School, and is part of the „Holot Legislative Theatre“ – a collaboration between Israelis and asylum seekers in the method of „The Theater of the Oppressed“ by Augusto Boal. In an interview with “Haaretz” she says:“I worked with young people at risk and with disadvantaged populations and joined the ‚legislator theater in Holot‘ through which I was exposed to the refugee community in Israel and to its distress, and I found myself reading and looking for materials and learning about their situation. I read the book to my niece and my tears went on”.

Moria Ben-Avot holds a BA in theater instruction and directing at The Kibbutzim College of Performing Arts School and is a graduate of puppet studies at the Holon Puppet Theater Center. She also has a master’s degree in cinema at Tel Aviv University. „We did an in-depth investigation and spoke with asylum seekers about their childhood, the village where they grew up, the games of childhood, the songs and the way of life, in order to recreate and create it in stage design and in the creative process,“ she says. (‘Haaretz’, November 2017).

In their website, director Hadas Selbst and performers Shaharit Yerushalmi and Moria Benavot write: “Art, as we see it, can serve as a bridge connecting religion, race and culture. Performing the play Mulu and Tsegay is, for us, both a moral act and a social mission. Using puppets to tell a story about children who are forced to become refugees allows us to create a space for the audience to relate to the refugees’ harsh past and unknown future. We know from our work that puppets can bring hearts closer together and allow children to begin to see the ‘other’ as a human being and, in this instance, more than simply an asylum seeker or foreign worker”.

Trailer Mulu and Tsegay

 

Falken Delegations & Archiv Arbeiterjugend visits

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The Easter holidays are always a busy time for the Willy Brandt Center. This year, Falken delegations from Baden Wurttemberg, Hessen and Berlin, as well as from the Archiv der Arbeiterjugend (Working Youth Archive), visited the center to learn more about the cooperation of the IFM-SEI (International Falcon Movement – Socialist Educational International) movements in the Middle East and their relations with SJD – Die Falken.

Each delegation customized their program in Israel according to their exchange partner organization. The Falken from Hessen and Berlin for instance travelled all over the country to meet with the Arab Section of HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed (NOAL) and in the latter case took part in a workshop about anti-racism and cultural appropriation. The group from Baden Wurttemberg organized an exchange in Rishon LeTzion in particular, to learn about the history and political practice of HaShomer HaTzair. On the other hand, the group from the Archiv der Arbeiterjugend visited archives, met with historians and collected sources relating to the Zionist Socialist movements.

Their visit to the Willy Brandt Center was an additional opportunity for delegations to reflect on their time in Israel and to exchange thoughts about current political developments. Participants were particularly interested in the narratives and struggles of different ethnic, religious and political communities in the city and in the controversial decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. So what better place to start talking about these questions than the balcony of the Willy Brandt Center, which offers one of the most stunning views of the Old City and East Jerusalem!

New Project Coordinator for “Social Art”

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Petra Klose is an Austrian-Czech cultural manager who was initially drawn to Jerusalem by a music festival taking place in Israel and Palestine in 2007. From the very first moment, she was fascinated by the many colors, the immense cultural richness and the uncountable number of fascinating stories from Jerusalem’s past and present. Over the years, she has developed a strong connection with the region, the people and cultural life. In 2011 she was assigned by Sari Nuseeibeh, at that time president of Al Quds University, to develop the Al Quds College of Music Project. She has also worked on other projects in the region like the Austrian Hospice Academy and the American Colony Concert Series and has presented Israeli and Palestinian art projects in Europe.

Petra Klose studied Drama and German Literature in Vienna and was also trained in ballet, harp and elocution. She founded „K und K Wien“, an agency for artists and intercultural projects in Vienna which collaborates with organizations like the Vienna Festival, Salzburg Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Scala and the Bolshoi Theatre.

„I see the Willy Brandt Center Jerusalem as an unique creative space for cross-cultural exchange and profound human encounters. Despite or maybe even because of all the challenges artists are facing in this part of the world, I couldn’t think of a more inspiring place for the arts, as I believe that art itself is always destined to find its way to realization beyond all borders.“

Narratives of Longing – March 12-19, 2018

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Five days, eight nations and one show.

Twelve young people between the ages of 19 and 22 came together in Jerusalem and Berlin to set up a performance called “Narratives of Longing”, using approaches such as ethnology, fine arts, performance and video-making.

After a week in Jerusalem in November, they met again in Berlin for 5 days to finalize their performances and present at the Theatre Expedition Metropolis as part of the festival “New Narratives”.

The participants were not only from Germany, Israel and Palestine, but also from Afghanistan, Mexico, Italy, Poland and Romania. Diversity was not merely spoken about, but was also experienced and lived daily. Flight – the search for asylum, threat and discrimination – was a connecting narrative that all participants had experienced in varying degrees, regardless of where they born or raised. The narrative of personal liberation from constraints, permanent expectations and restrictions was a central theme for many.

This authentic performance of diversity attracted a large audience at the festival “New Narratives”.
We are proud to be part of this project and to make a great contribution to its success by providing a safer space across conflict lines at the WBC in Jerusalem.

“Narratives of longing” is a cooperation with: Drei Wünsche Frei-Studio for Hybrid Culture (Berlin), Theater Expedition Metropolis (Berlin), the Center for International Encounters (Jerusalem), the Willy Brandt Center Jerusalem and the Musrara School of Art. Special thanks to the Theater Thikwa Berlin.

This project was funded within the framework of the EUROPEANS FOR PEACE program of the Foundation EVZ (Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft / Remembrance, Responsibility and Future).

Featured image by courtesy of Amal Mattar, 2018

Photo documentation: Michelle Reissmann

 

New Project Coordinator “Peace Education” – Maja Sojref

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In January 2018 Maja Sojref joined the Willy Brandt Center as the new coordinator for the project “Education for Social Change”. She has since spent as much time as possible in the youth clubs and offices of our partner organisations, in order to learn more about them and their approaches to non-formal education.

“These youth movements are radically re-imagining the possibilities for Israeli-Palestinian cooperation. Against all odds, they are determined to find new ways. The region needs youth like them”, she says “and I feel very privileged to work with them.”

Maja is a policy, public affairs and communications specialist with experience in international organisations, NGOs and media in Berlin, London, Oxford and Jerusalem. Before joining the Willy Brandt Center she worked as press consultant for the OECD Berlin office.

Growing up in Berlin Maja, was an active member of SJD-Die Falken. During countless trips to Israel and Palestine, she discovered her passion for Middle Eastern politics, history and languages and fell in love with Jerusalem: “There is no place like Jerusalem. In Jerusalem you can see both the ugliest face of the conflict and a blueprint for solidarity and shared existence.”

Holot Theatre Group performes „One Love“ at the WBC

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Nesamama (“One Love”)

by Hannah Bernstein

A performance by the Holot Theatre Group, based on real-life experiences, was the latest event of the Red Lounge hosted in WBC on 27th of January. A composition of Asylum seekers and Israelis, who initially started working in the Holot Detention Camp in the Negev Desert presented the challenges caused by the policy of the government toward refugees and asylum seekers in Israel.

“Nesamama”, meaning “One Love” inspired the message of the play – for people to live all together in harmony. The actors and actresses were singing in Eritrean, while sitting in a row, holding flags of the aligned countries and of Israel, the destination country. Seven people, out of the initial group of twenty one, presented personal testimonies of the participants, forced to leave their former home. During the play, characters shifted between the performers, at times they were in the position of the powerful, and at others in the role of the newcomer, which here unfortunately was the obedient. This constant switching showed the arbitrariness of the system on which the individual is dependent.

During the past year, the participants of Holot Theatre have explored various techniques, exercises, and improvisations, inspired by Augusto Boal’s “Theatre of the Oppressed,” in order to process personal and social problems of asylum seekers in Israel. This constellation provides a democratic framework whereby legal issues can be critically examined and discussed with the audience, who is invited to actively imagine the possibility of policy and legal change toward asylum seekers in Israel.

The audience was then asked which scene they would like to interfere in to achieve another result. By slipping into the role of one of the participants, individuals in the audience were invited to transform these situations. They replayed the challenging crossing of the border between Sinai and Israel, where they were postponed and sent to the visa department and the discussion with the manager at a pastry factory, where they were asking to be allowed to visit their own wife giving birth at hospital.

Uncovering these personal stories, and giving individuals the chance to empathise with different situations and individuals, the group aims to inspire public discussion and social transformation, which may ultimately result in governmental transformation.

Director: Chen Alon Actors and creative partners: Omad Shakur, Rotem Goldenberg, Doron Lev, Awet Asheber, Shaharit Yerushalmi, Nouraldin Musa, Yonatan Yohanns Estifanos

Intercultural Project “Narratives of Longing” in Jerusalem and Berlin

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In November young artists  from Berlin and Jerusalem came together in Jerusalem.
They arrived with distinctive backgrounds of five different nations and are trained in fields  such as ethnology, fine arts, performance and videomaking. Together they started working on a performance about „longing“
The project will continue in March 2018 in Berlin.

„Narratives of longing“ is a cooperation with Drei Wünsche Frei-Studio for Hybrid Culture (Berlin), Theater Expedition Metropolis (Berlin) and the Center for International Encounters (Jerusalem) and is funded within the framework of the EUROPEANS FOR PEACE programme of the Foundation EVZ (Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft/ Remembrance, Responsibility and Future).