THE ISRAEL PALESTINE PROJECT

A common history, an extraordinary future

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 VI.  TIPP Initiatives


Initiative One: To create (or cause to be created) a common historical narrative representative of the national stories of both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.

 

Initiative One is quickly reaching fulfillment. A final draft of the common historical narrative, finalized by the creation team in 2009, has now been reviewed by Israeli and Palestinian historians for historical accuracy and acceptance by their respective mainstream communities. A review board of Israeli and Palestinian people will provide additional acceptance or corrections to our work and approve the final version. The initiative is fulfilled when prominent Israeli and Palestinian personages, at a signing ceremony attended by international media (thus ensuring that the signing becomes a powerful and globally recognized event), will ceremoniously endorse the completed document.

 

The common historical narrative, written as a popular accessible story, consists of 25 chapters linking the origins of the two peoples to the events of the present day (click HERE to view a sample of the draft narrative). The narrative is the work of a creation team anchored by the primary authors of the narrative, a Palestinian journalist and an Israeli major in the Israeli Defense Forces.

 

International members of the writer’s team include a linguistics expert based in Germany and a writer living in London who is a contributing editor of the narrative. Members in the United States include an expert in Palestinian and Israeli popular views, a recorder of the ongoing dialogue, and TIPP founder, Jack Berriault.  The principal editors of the narrative are Jack Berriault and Rick Phillips, a member of the TIPP Board of Directors.

 

The narrative was created through intense, facilitated collaboration – sometimes including highly charged verbal encounters. For all of those involved, it was truly remarkable and inspiring to witness a common historical narrative emerging that is acceptable to the two principal authors representing Israel and Palestine.

 

Initiative Two:  To have the common historical narrative recognized by the mainstream populations of Palestine and Israel as being acceptable and of significant value.

 

This initiative is the focus of TIPP in 2010. For the common narrative to act as an agent of transformation, it is first necessary to expose the narrative widely to the mainstream populations of Israel and Palestine and to gain popular acceptance of the work as being representative and of significant value.

 

Upon completion of Initiative One, the narrative will be published as a short book, principally in Arabic and Hebrew to be easily accessible to the two mainstream populations. It will also be published in English and in age-appropriate editions for children in schools. The books will then be widely promoted and distributed in Palestine and Israel. After a suitable period of time, polls will be conducted across the populations to assess the acceptability of the narrative. Positive polling results will constitute the fulfillment of Initiative Two.

 

Initiative Three:  Building on the acceptance of the common historical narrative, to cause a transformation of the source of the Israel Palestine conflict.

                                                      

We assert that transformation is the creation of a new and previously unavailable arena of possibility, brought to life through guided conversation. Through a program of workshops conducted throughout Israel and Palestine, participants who have read the narrative will lay the past to rest in such a way that a new space – a “clearing” – will be created in which unprecedented possibilities for the relationship between the two peoples can be invented. Such possibilities can then be realized through the inspired action of communities emerging from the workshops and taking on the revitalization of public dialogue freed from the constraints of the past.

 

Within this context, we assert that a whole new body of thought and action will emerge, the result of a transformation of the human spirit. The outcome will be the transformation of the two societies in ways hitherto not possible, clearing the path to the possibility of true reconciliation and a vibrant future of mutual social and economic prosperity.

 

Initiative Three also looks resolutely to the future, the children of Palestine and Israel. Special programs will be developed for schools, and the common historical narrative will be placed widely in schools for reference, inspiration, and educational support.

 

Initiative Four:  To create strategic alliances with all other organizations committed to  equitable and enduring relationships of mutual honor and respect between peoples. in Israel-Palestine and throughout the world.

 

The conversations that support  the long standing relationship between Israel and Palestine  occur throughout the world,and  have not had a positive impact on  the status quo of suspicion, distrust and stalemated progress in resolution of the difficult issues  between the two peoples. Engagement of the world is critical to the fulfillment of new possibilities arising from the transformation of the source of the conflict and to the possibility of this process to serve as a model for conflict resolution worldwide.

 

Under Initiative Four, TIPP will reach out to form alliances with a broad spectrum of organizations within Israel and Palestine and worldwide. These alliances will be for the purpose of promulgating the common historical narrative both within Israel and Palestine and in many other regions, initially in North America and Europe where governments exert a strong influence on Israeli and Palestinian futures.

 

 


 

General Information: info@israelpalestineproject.org
Webmaster: webmaster@israelpalestineproject.org

 


 

General Information: info@israelpalestineproject.org
Webmaster: webmaster@israelpalestineproject.org