Middle East Initiative
Neve Shalom Wahat Al Salam (NSWAS)

Project Team

Project: Mediation in a Multi-Cultural Context

Partners

• Neve Shalom Wahat Al Salam (NSWAS)
• Pluralistic Spirituality Center Project
  

Executive Summary

Mediators Beyond Borders, Middle East Initiative, is working with Neve Shalom Wahat Al Salam (NSWAS), an intentional Israeli village of Palestinian/Israeli and Jewish/Israeli families founded in 1978, to assist their Pluralistic Spirituality Center, PSC, on their program “Mediation in a Multi-Cultural Context”. 

Assessment Team
An MBB/MEI Team traveled to Israel in February 2008, to assess how we could collaborate to expand their conflict engagement resolution capacity and formally began our 5-year commitment in 2009.  

Engagement Team
In October 2009, an MEI team of three mediators spent time in NSWAS to engage with Phase II of their program to research the feasibility of a multi-cultural mediation curriculum custom designed for use by Palestinian and Jewish Israelis.  

We participated with and observed a group of Palestinian and Jewish mediators, educators and community leaders from across Israel in their 3-day seminar proceedings and presented three workshops on Identity and Social Relations as approaches to multi-culturalism and mediation: Leveraging Power Dynamics, Non-Violent Dialogue, and Experiencing History in the Body. The MEI team also participated in an evaluation of this program and was immersed in deeper engagement with the village’s long-standing programs, the Bi-Cultural Primary School K-6, the School for Peace/Encounters Program, and the Pluralistic Spirituality Center. 

Readers Team
In April 2010, an MBB/MEI Readers Team was created for an ongoing process of collaborative research, evaluation and feedback on their developing curriculum/toolbox to expand ways and tools for deep engagement between Palestinian and Jewish groups in mixed population cites in Israel. The MBB/MEI will further assist the PSC in developing a symposium to be attended by Israeli, American and European mediators who have an expertise in multi-culturalism, conflict assessment and engagement and educational curriculum development.

Slideshows

October 2009 Trip

Other Resources

	Full Circle: Reflections on Working in the Mideast A teleseminar with Robin Amadei, Rachel Wohl & Dorit Cypis that took place on Wednesday, November 11, 2009.
	Zochrot

Map