ICCI brings together Israeli (Jewish) and Palestinian (Muslim and Christian) high school youth and young adults for intensive conflict transformation and leadership development programs. By cultivating young leadership committed to social change and imparting them with the skills to affect that change, ICCI extends the impact of these programs to schools, communities and the wider public.

 Face to Face/Faith to Faith -- Middle East

ICCI is the Jerusalem partner with the Auburn Theological Seminary for the Face to Face / Faith to Faith program.

Each year, following an intense application and interview process, 12 Palestinian (Muslim and Christian) and Israeli (Jewish) teens from East and West Jerusalem are selected to participate in this yearlong program. The group of teens from Jerusalem travel to Upstate New York to participate in a two-week summer intensive with youth from regions of conflict throughout the world such as Ireland, South Africa, and various communities in the United States.

Upon return to the Middle East, the Face to Face participants engage in bi-monthly dialogue sessions, follow-up activities that focus on “getting to know the other in Jerusalem,” and community service and leadership training. The program culminates with a project designed and led by the youth in order to bring the lessons they have learned back to their communities and to put their leadership skills into action.

In order to affect more people, ICCI also facilitates a dialogue group for parents of Face to Face/Faith to Faith participants, and works with the participants’ high schools, as well as maintaining an active network of alumni who continue to work for peace and coexistence.

To read more and download application forms, click here

 Jerusalem Interreligious Young Adult Council (JIYAC)

The Jerusalem Interreligious Young Adult Council (JIYAC), which began in June 2007, is an innovative and creative interreligious leadership program comprised of students from different colleges and universities in both East and West Jerusalem, which seeks to engage in interreligious dialogue and action in a serious, substantive and sustained manner.  JIYAC aims to bring university students together to change the tenor of public discourse and improve relations between Palestinian (Christian and Muslim) and Jews at their universities and in the city of Jerusalem as a whole. The members of this council play a positive role in mitigating the social and political tension within Jerusalem by identifying problems and implementing action projects of mutual concern. ICCI partners with Religions for Peace for this program.

From Memory to Reconciliation Program

The From Memory to Reconciliation program brings Jewish and Palestinian students from Israel and Buddhist students from Japan to meet each other, share sensitively their thoughts on the universal human role of remembrance in each of our cultures, and encourage each other to explore responses to tragic events within each group’s own history and national narratives.

The central questions which were confronted by the participants in this program this year included:

• Which aspects of each culture’s response to national tragedies are universal, and wherein do we differ from each other?
• What can we learn from each other’s experiences and modes of response and coping?
• How do we relate to our status as victims and our status as aggressors? Is it possible in war to be both aggressor and victim?
• In which ways can our different cultures help each other in this regard? Above all, how can remembrance be used to further reconciliation, forgiveness, and dialogue instead of contributing to feelings of victimization which can become part of the walls we build between our peoples?

This exchange program in which Japanese students visited Israel in August 2007 and Palestinian and Jewish students of Israel visited Japan in April 2008, was recieved as an overwhelming success by the participants involved.

ICCI partners with the Rissho Kose-Kai organization for this program.

"Through Face to Face I had the opportunity to meet people from the "other side."  I, just like the other Christian, Jewish and Muslim participants, had preconceptions and misjudgments about "other side." I thought it was "their fault" and "they" are the ones to blame.  In my community, people are opposed to interacting with Jews, not because they are opposed to peace, but because of what has been done to them by the Israeli military during fifty-eight years of suffering. I don't blame my people for their ideas; nevertheless I am trying, side by side with my F2F group to influence people to negotiate rather than hurt each other. I strongly believe that if everyone, from both sides, could experience what we have experienced, they would conclude that we have wasted too many years trying to reach the same goals with the wrong methods. 

What was our biggest success as a homegroup? If you ask me it was that we guided a tour to the separation barrier/security fence for our families and friends.  We see hope for a brighter future. We think of ourselves as responsible above all else for the security of humanity and we’re motivated to share this with our communities.”

“A few months ago I brought a Palestinian friend of mine from the F2F group to my school.  At first I was completely opposed to the idea.  I remember saying “because Saleh is my friend I will NOT let him come to my school.”  What changed me, though, was Saleh.  No matter what I told him about what could happen he insisted on coming and showed true courage. 

Saleh and I thought about what message we wanted to send.  Most of my classmates had never actually met a Palestinian and heard about Palestinians only on the evening news after a terrorist attack.  You can imagine the stereotypes they had.  With the help of our counselors, Saleh and I got a conversation going in which kids in my class could ask Saleh anything they wanted.  The questions were hard like: “Why don’t we hear any protest from Palestinians who want peace?”  Saleh did his best to answer and asked a few of his own hard questions like:  “Why should I leave my home just because I am Arab?”  After Saleh left, my class continued to discuss issues that until then we had rarely talked about. 

Through that experience I proved to myself that I will do what it takes to stand up for what I believe in even if doing so isn’t the easiest thing to do.  I learned that the most substantial changes don’t happen when everything is easy, but when people are faced with hard realities and questions.”