The program will train 70 Jewish and Arab women to establish and lead joint tourist initiatives in Jerusalem.
The 70 women participating in the program are community activists, each running a women's activity center with 25-30 members. These women will be trained to establish tourist initiatives and to lead the women in their groups to operate them in the city's neighborhoods (1,800 women in total).
The program has two stages. The first stage focuses on creating motivation for cooperation between the Jewish and Arab women. The second stage deals with the development and operation of tourist initiatives, and will provide professional guidance of the Ministry of Tourism, the Jerusalem Municipality and the Mosaica Center. |
About the Project
The Jewish and Arab communities in Jerusalem lead separate lives in the areas of commerce and trade, education, culture and society, infrastructure, tourism, etc. This separation curtails the city's natural growth potential, dependent on cooperation and connection between communities. The area of tourism is one of the aspects most significantly injured by this separation.
The Jerusalem Municipality Unit for Developing Community Leadership has declared the year of 2010 “The Year of Tourism”. The “Women between East and West” project paves the way for cooperation between Jewish and Arab women, from the eastern and western parts of the city, in the area of social-community entrepreneurship which can contribute to the development of tourism in Jerusalem.
Despite the obvious economic potential of cooperation between the two parties, there are deep and ingrained levels of hostility, suspicion, separation and gaps between the communities, based on historic, cultural, religious and, of course, geographic factors. These gaps, from the start, curb any motivation for cooperation and prevent the development of the resource available to these women of entrepreneurship in the area of tourism and in the establishment of joint initiatives that will develop tourism in the city.
Thus, this project must contend with the complex challenge of reducing levels of hostility, alienation, ignorance and other existing gaps between the two sides, and create a connection via trust building between the participants' various personal and group identities (cultural, religious, national, personality, professional, etc.). Creating such a connection will constitute a solid basis for the development of partnership, on the ground, between the parties in the area of tourism.
The program has two stages. The first stage focuses on creating motivation for cooperation between the Jewish and Arab women. The second stage deals with the development and operation of tourist initiatives, and will provide professional guidance to the participants.
The first stage was launched in December 2009 facilitated by Gita Hazani and Mona Mahajneh. The project consists of dialogue workshops based on a multi-dimensional outlook, which perceives the encounter between groups as a dialogue process between various identities: religious, cultural, historical, ethnic, national, political, professional, and others, which requires the use of a variety of languages and methodologies related to these identities.
The second stage will consist of professional training for the creation and development of tourist initiatives and business cooperation, and their implementation on the ground. For this purpose, workshops will be held, under the professional guidance of the Ministry of Tourism, the Jerusalem Municipality and the Mosaica Center.
Planned tourist initiatives include joint food, arts and crafts fairs; authentic tours (by the women) in the city neighborhoods; families hosting story-telling events; joint theatre, planting of a joint Garden of Peace, etc.
Target population
70 Jewish and Arab women, community activists, each running a women's activity center with 25-30 members. These 70 community activists will be trained to establish tourist ventures and to lead the women in their groups to operate them in the city's neighborhoods (1,800 women in total). The women hail from all over Jerusalem, from Musrara, Bakaa, Talpiot, East Talpiot, the Bukharim neighborhhod, the Old City quarters (Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Armenian), Gilo, Wadi Joz (Pelli Center), Jabel Mukabbar, Beit Hanina, El-Isawiya, Um Tuba, Zur Baher, Silwan, Abu Tor. The women's participation in the program could have an impact on their family, neighborhood and community. The Jerusalem Municipality will include these tourist initiatives in its official list of the City's tourist attractions, publicized and distributed among tourist populations visiting the City. Tour in Nachalat Shiva neighborhood, 13-01-2010, led by Jewish participants for the Arab participants Tour in East Jerusalem, 27-01-2010, conducted by the Arab participants of the group The tours' objective was to experience the preparation of a tour and to enable the participants an encounter with sites with historical significance, to learn about the historical-cultural-national-religious narrative of the Jewish and Arab population in Jerusalem and for each group to explore the meaning of this narrative for the other group. |
