Israeli and Palestinian Peace Builders

On 13 February the IEF was delighted to host a very special group of visitors at the Black Mountain Action Group.

This group was led by Daniel Wehrenfennig from the ‘Centre for International Experiential Learning’ (CIEL) with Jess Brandler from ‘Solutions Not Sides’ and consisted of Israeli and Palestinian peace builders.  They had come to learn about how Integrated Education has contributed to the peace process in Northern Ireland.

The event brought together people from across the Integrated Education movement, including Lagan College’s Head Boy; AlumNI trustees; founding Principals; IEF Board and staff; the NICIE CEO; community workers; members from All Children Together (ACT); and advocates working to grow Integrated Education today.

There was lively and engaging conversation throughout the room as the groups shared their personal experiences, asked questions and learned from one another.

Personal Perspective by Molly Goyer Gorman, Fundraising Coordinator:

On a wet, windy morning in February, the grim weather did little to dampen the spirits of people arriving into Black Mountain Action Group, a small, vibrant community centre in West Belfast. Old friends who had travelled from across Northern Ireland greeted each other warmly. When a coachload of 22 young, international guests arrived, the ‘locals’ pressed to welcome them with handshakes and smiles. After helping themselves to scones and tea, participants settled around tables in small groups for a morning of rich conversation.

This special visit of Israeli and Palestinian peace builders was organised by the Centre for Experiential Learning (CIEL) and the Integrated Education Fund (IEF). Both supported by the Pears Foundation, these two organisations have collaborated for several years on hosting visiting groups to Northern Ireland to learn about Integrated Education. These peacebuilders, a group of activists and community workers from Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, were on a week-long trip to Northern Ireland, supported by facilitators from the UK-based charity Solutions Not Sides. They were keen to learn about Integrated Education and to meet people involved in the Movement. The IEF had assembled a broad range of ‘host’ guests including its own staff and Board Chair, teachers in Integrated schools, campaigners and activists from the early days of the movement, a Trustee from the Integrated AlumNI organisation and the Head Boy of Lagan College, Northern Ireland’s first Integrated school. This made for a lively intergenerational gathering.

The IEF chose to hold the event in Black Mountain Action Group, a community group supported in its establishment by the late Baroness May Blood, who was also a great friend and campaigner for Integrated Education. They were delighted when two of the Action Group’s staff, Donna and Paula, asked to take part in the event. As youth workers in a largely single identity area of Belfast, trying to create opportunities for young people to broaden their horizons and meet others from different backgrounds, their perspective in the discussions was invaluable.

The event began with introductory words from Jack Hassard, Head Boy of Lagan College, and Mal O’Farrell, Trustee of the Integrated AlumNI. Jack has spent his whole education in the Integrated system, whereas Mal didn’t have the opportunity to make friends with people from another religious tradition until they went to university. Jack and Mal’s sharing of their contrasting school experiences set the tone for a morning of honest, generous exchange, with an emphasis on personal experience.

The Centre for Experiential Learning has a distinctively informal approach to events, based on freeform conversation and exchange, and this was no different. Each of the eight tables spread across the room had a mixture of locals and visitors. They were invited to introduce themselves, then simply to follow the organic flow of the conversation. Daniel Wehrenfennig, Director and Founder of CIEL, encouraged participants to take this opportunity to ask the questions they were most interested in: much easier to do in small groups than in front of an assembled audience. After 45 minutes of conversation, the visitors moved on to a new table while the hosts stayed put. It is impossible to summarise all the conversations that took place, but overheard topics included differences in education systems, experiences of inter-faith marriage, Northern Irish young people’s perceptions of the Middle East conflict, and comparisons of expressions in Irish, Arabic and Hebrew. The sharing of personal stories was paramount. Guests from Northern Ireland remarked on how the learning was very much two-way: they had the chance to interact with people living through a conflict played out daily in our media.

After two hours of listening and sharing, it was time to move on. Participants exchanged contact details and took selfies with each other. Both CIEL and the IEF hope that this event will lead to opportunities for peacebuilders from the Middle East to engage directly with Integrated schools in the future, something that the visitors were very keen to do.

As they helped clear the room for the next event (an intergenerational afternoon tea), IEF staff and supporters reflected on what they will take from the morning. There was consensus that, at a time when media coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict is dominated by hard-line rhetoric and unimaginable violence, it gives hope to meet ordinary people who are working, day in, day out at grassroots level to build bridges with the other side. For those present who had lived through the worst of Northern Ireland’s Troubles, it prompted reflection on how far we have come. And it served as a reminder that even on the greyest of days, a morning of tea, scones and good conversation can give us heart for the road.