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Nursery for Israelis and Palestinians

A diverse, committed panel of 14 presenters from around the world has been assembled to present stories and strategies on bringing communities together after and during armed conflict at Working Forum Belfast (November 17 - 19, 2004).  One early childhood leader you will meet is Aisheh Najjar from Israel.  Here is a small part of her story:

"At the age of twenty, shortly after I had come to live in the then tiny community of Wahat al-Salam/Neve Shalom, I was asked to take on the responsibility of opening a nursery for the Palestinian and Jewish children who were beginning to grow up here. At the time, I had no certification or experience, and we hardly noticed that what we were attempting to do was in fact revolutionary: it was to be the first bilingual and binational educational framework in Israel....

"I rule over two kingdoms: the first is my family of four children (three girls and a boy). The second is the kindergarten of WAS/NS, which has an enrollment this year of 29 children (13 Palestinians and 16 Jews) aged from four to six.... My Jewish partner in the work is Eliza, who commutes to the kindergarten each day from a nearby town. She has worked with me now for the last five years...

"The kindergarten is bilingual and binational. I speak with all of the children in Arabic, and Eliza speaks to them in Hebrew. Some of the children also speak a third language which they have learned at home, in the case that one of their parents is a new immigrant to Israel.

"I am responsible for imparting the Arab cultural content in the kindergarten, just as Eliza is responsible for the Jewish cultural content. This framework requires that the teacher will have a high-degree of self-confidence, as well as esteem and awareness of her own culture, if she is to impart it to the children. In addition, she must be capable of understanding and accepting the culture and social norms of the other group. It is important that the kindergarten teachers of the two conflict groups will have equal levels of knowledge and experience, since they must be perceived as equal by the children and their parents...."

To learn more about Ms Najjar and the other 13 presenters, go to: http://mail.ccie.com/go/eed/0356

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