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2011 Program Overview and Guidelines

International Conference on
Practical Models For Peace:
Making a Difference Now

October 27-30, 2011 ~ Wahat Al Salaam/Neve Shalom, Israel

Sponsored by:
Common Bond Institute, Wahat Al Salaam/Neve Shalom, People's Peace Fund,
International Humanistic Psychology Association

Official Partner of:
Charter for Compassion
and
Parliament of World's Religions

2011 PMP Full Program

* On This Page Find:
Sample of Presenters and Sessions,
Conference Features & Daily Schedule,
Description of Program Components,
and Guidelines for Compassionate Dialogue

Keynotes by:
      Gershon Baskin, Jane Goodall

Samples of  Workshops include:

1) "Dialogue Challenging Identity"
This session addresses the question of majority - minority group relations in the context of an on-going conflict, examining processes of identity formation that the dominant or majority group undergoes in interaction with the minority group during the course of a series of planned inter-group encounter workshops (in the unique method developed by SFP). It focuses on A) The Jewish group's de-humanization of the other as a resource in the majority group's construction of their own identity & the patterns in the struggle over who is more humane during a Jewish-Palestinian encounter, & B) The sense of threat that the Jewish Israeli group feels during the course of intensive encounters with the Palestinian group. 4 different & interrelated components of threat are identified: a permanent existential threat, the realistic threat from Palestinians; the threat to Jewish hegemony in the State of Israel; & the threat to the moral worth of the Jews' national identity. We describe each component, how they interrelate, and explore the interrelations between dehumanization, identity threat & power relations. The processes of change occurring in the Israeli-Jewish group and the change undergone by the Jewish participants during the dialogue are described.
       Nava Sonnenschein, Ahmad Hijazi

2)  "Introduction to Compassionate Listening"
The practice of Compassionate Listening helps us awaken the inner wisdom by listening and speaking from the heart even in the heat of conflict. This workshop will introduce compassionate listening practice and participants will be able to sample some of the exercises.
     Maha El-Taji Daghash

3) "Reflections on Phototherapy in Times of Conflict in the Middle East"
Could the camera and photographic images be an effective tool to promote interaction and dialogue between groups in conflict and help both sides open their eyes and promote change? This session will illustrate these possibilities by bringing a personal journey and examples from different projects currently taking place in our region.
      Brigitte Anor, Ph.D.

4) "My Story, Our Conflict: Using Personal Narratives In Peace Building"
We will explore the diverse and deep uses of personal narratives in the Israeli-Palestinian context. Participants will learn how to elicit and reflect on personal experiences, especially in intergroup work, as a way to open up dialogue, making significant joint peace building endeavors possible.
     Julia Chaitin, PhD

5)  "Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information"
IPCRI is a joint institution of Israelis and Palestinians dedicated to the resolution of the Israeli - Palestinian conflict on the basis of "two states for two peoples". IPCRI recognizes the rights of the Jewish people and the Palestinian people to fulfill their national interests within the framework of achieving national self-determination within their own states and by establishing peaceful relations between two democratic states living side-by-side. IPCRI is divided into 3 departments; Environment, Public Media,and Research. Each is responsible for its own projects and management with significant coordination between departments.
Gershon Baskin, Hanna Siniora

6) "Experience Wounded Xrossing Borders"
The members of Wounded Xrossing Borders will present personal stories of change and transformation from difficult beginnings and conditions, and share the process they have gone through and are still going through, within themselves and between themselves.
      Sulaiman Khatib, Dudu Shilo, Jamal Meqbel, Yafa Sulimani,
        with other members of Wounded Xrossing Borders.

7)  "JustVision"
Just Vision emerged in 2003 in response to the lack of media coverage of Palestinian and Israeli civilians working to end the occupation and the conflict. While violent extremism receives front-page exposure, courageous nonviolence leaders and peacebuilders are relegated to occasional human interest stories. Consequently, at Just Vision, we work to ensure that these Palestinian and Israeli civic leaders are not only taken seriously as partners in the quest for peace, but are also more visible, valued and influential in their efforts. Today, Just Vision informs local and international audiences about under-documented Palestinian and Israeli civilian efforts to resolve the conflict nonviolently. By creating award-winning films that tell the otherwise unknown stories of these individuals and complementing them with online educational tools, we equip journalists, community leaders, educators, students and facilitators with information, access and content so they can learn from, report on, support or join Palestinian and Israeli civilians working for freedom, dignity, security and peace without arms. Our materials have opened hundreds of doors for the people we highlight, empowering them to connect with audiences worldwide, to spread their message and to gain greater support at home and abroad.
      Irene Nasser

8)  "WASATIA: Engaging the Mainstream by Promoting Centrism and Moderation"
A presentation of the WASATIA program and how it is promoting its values of peace and ideals of moderation within both the Palestinian and Israeli communities. WASATIA is a peace program working to heal the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians through religious understanding and tolerance by seeking common values between the different faiths and to expose how religion is misinterpreted to widen the gap among the three Abrahamic religions. We will share the mutual challenges faced, and explore possibilities for mutual support and strategic collaboration.
      Mohamed Dajani, Zeina Barakat

9)  "Peace Research Village As A Model For New Culture"
How a small group can has a global effect? Sharing from the experience of the last 8 years in Tamera community (Portugal), where Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals live together, study and prepare themselves for building a peace research village in the Middle East.
      Emma Sham-Ba Ayalon, Aida Shibli

10)  "EcoME Centre"
The presentation will discuss the experience of EcoME Centre: A unique home for peace, supporting social and environmental sustainability. The session will include lessons learned from EcoME's first stage, challenges, next phases, questions and an open discussion with participants.
      Rina Kedema, et el

11)  "Social Entrepreneurship and Peace: Leveraging Economics as an Alternative Approach"
Social entrepreneurship (SE) focuses on how business principles and market-oriented approaches can be used to tackle the world's most entrenched problems. This workshop will focus on how SE can be utilized as an alternative approach to peace. A case study on the Arab-Israeli conflict will be presented, following which participants will discuss how SE can be applied to their own areas of interest.
     Zack Bluestone

Film and Dialogue: Budrus
Budrus is an award-winning feature documentary film about a Palestinian community organizer, Ayed Morrar, who unites local Fatah & Hamas members along with Israeli supporters in an unarmed movement to save his village of Budrus from destruction by Israel's Separation Barrier. Success eludes them until his 15-year-old daughter, Iltezam, launches a women's contingent that quickly moves to the front lines. Struggling side by side, father & daughter unleash an inspiring, yet little-known, movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that is still gaining ground today. In an action-filled documentary chronicling this movement from its infancy, Budrus shines a light on people who choose nonviolence to confront a threat.
While this film is about one Palestinian village, it tells a much bigger story about what is possible in the Middle East. Ayed succeeded in doing what many people believe to be impossible: he united feuding Palestinian political groups, including Fatah and Hamas; he brought women to the heart of the struggle by encouraging his daughter Iltezam's leadership; & welcoming hundreds of Israelis to cross into Palestinian territory for the first time & join this nonviolent effort. Many of the activists who joined the villagers of Budrus are now continuing to support nonviolence efforts in villages from Bil'in to Nabi Saleh to Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem.
     Irene Nasser

Sample of  Plenary Roundtables include:

    "Transgenerational Trauma: Communal Wounds and Victim Identities"

 Conference Components

A 4 day Schedule of:

1.  Concurrent Break-out sessions of Workshops and
      Practical presentations
   
2.  Topical Roundtables
3.  Keynote Speakers
4.  Daily Conference-wide Facilitated Dialogue and
      Action planning Groups
5.  Live 2-way Global Links to other countries
   
6.  On-site Pod-casting and Blogging
7.  Rich Networking for Cooperation on Applications
   
8.  Cultural Events and Performances
   
9.  Multi-cultural Community
10.  Displays
    

Location:  Wahat Al Salaam/Neve Shalom, Israel             

Conference Program Schedule
          Full Program to be posted in the near future

Thursday, October 27

    5:00 pm                     *On-Site Registration & Check-in
    6:30 pm - 8:00 pm:    CONFERENCE OPENING
    8:00 pm - 9:30 pm:    Cultural event

Friday, October 28
9:30 am - 9:30 pm:

   9:30 am -  11:00 am:   Concurrent Breakout Sessions - A
  11:15 am - 12:45 pm:   Concurrent Breakout Sessions - B
  12:45 pm -  2:30 pm:    Lunch
    2:30 pm -  4:00 pm:    Concurrent Breakout Sessions - C
    4:15 pm -  6:00 pm:    Session - D 
    6:00 pm -  7:30 pm:    Dinner
    7:30 pm -  9:30 pm:    Social/Cultural Event

Saturday, October 29
9:30 am - 9:30 pm:

   9:30 am -  11:00 am:   Concurrent Breakout Sessions - E
  11:15 am - 12:45 pm:   Concurrent Breakout Sessions - F
  12:45 pm -  2:30 pm:    Lunch
    2:30 pm -  4:00 pm:    Concurrent Breakout Sessions - G
    4:15 pm -  6:00 pm:    Plenary Session - H  (full conference)
    6:00 pm -  7:30 pm:    Dinner
    7:30 pm -  9:30 pm:    Social/Cultural Event

Sunday, October 30
9:30 am - 4:30 pm:
(7:00 pm - 10:00 pm: Farewell Banquet)

    9:30 am - 11:00 am:   Concurrent Breakout Sessions - I
  11:00 pm -  1:30 pm:    Lunch
    1:30 am -  3:00 pm:    Plenary Session - J  (full conference)
                                       Final Dialogue
                                        Processing conference experience,
                                        brainstorming practical applications,
                                        action planning, networking for beyond
                                        conference, and recommendations for
                                       developing the conference.
    3:00 pm -  4:30 pm:   PMP  CONFERENCE CLOSING
                                        Final community experience affirmations of
                                        positive action beyond the conference, reflection,
                                        insight, transition, and farewell
    7:00 pm - 10:00 pm:   Farewell Dinner Party
                                          (a final time to break bread together)

Description of Intent and Format of Facilitated Dialogue and
          Action Planning Groups, Panels, and Breakout sessions:

1) Facilitated Dialogue & Action Planning Groups - Putting Principles Into Practice:
These are daily focused sessions all participants engage in. Dialogue groups are seen as the engines of the conference essential to engaging and integrating formal learning. Content from keynotes, workshops, and roundtables provide stimulus and focus for this discourse woven throughout the days of the program. They are intended for engaging in deep listening, sharing narratives, processing the conference experience and addressing issues, developing practical actions for applying learning in our communities beyond the conference, and networking. Material emerging from these group discussions is also used to inform future planning for our conferences. Participants self select breakout sessions and the content is determined by what partcipants of each group bring up.

2) Roundtables:
In keeping with the character of the conference, roundtables are intended to be more of an interactive dialogue between members - rather than a series of mini-presentations, and at some point to extend the dialogue out to include the full audience for a significant portion of the session to promote a wider, more inclusive, and more fruitful discussion on the topic. This entire process is guided and facilitated by moderator(s) to ensure opportunities for multiple voices, the focus is maintained, and to keep things on track in terms of time.

3) Concurrent Breakout Sessions:
Session format is intended to promote participants as both learners and teachers - learning from prepared material while also bringing their own wisdom to the table. As a result, workshops and roundtables are intended to offer personal experience, skills training, active learning, interaction, and dynamic dialogue.

 Guidelines For Compassionate Dialogue

The PMP Conference strives to promote an inclusive, compassionate dialogue that honors different personal experiences, perspectives, and narratives, while allowing for better expressing and listening to each other as we work together toward understanding and harmony. Our intention is to create an open venue where we can engage meaningfully and invite in a public dialogue that brings our joint wisdom to bear in exploring sometimes difficult issues that effect us all. This is based on the premise that it does not require that we be the same to be appreciate of, at peace with, and secure in our relationships with each other; only that we be familiar enough with each others story to share the humanity and trustworthiness that resides in each of us.
We ask all participants to assist us by carrying and expressing this intent throughout the conference.

NonViolent Communication Guidelines: (Adapted from Marshall Rosenberg)

Unique Assumptions—NVC begins by assuming that we are all compassionate by nature and that violent strategies—whether verbal or physical—are learned behaviors taught and supported by the prevailing culture. It also assumes that we all share the same, basic human needs, and that all actions are a strategy to meet one or more of these needs.

While NVC is much more than a communication model, the components below provide a structural concept of the process that leads to giving and receiving from the heart.

Honestly Expressing how I am and what I would like without using blame, criticism or demands

Empathically Receiving how another is and what he/she would like without hearing blame, criticism or demands  

Whether expressing or receiving, NVC focuses our attention on four pieces of information:

Observations—Objectively describing what is going on without using evaluation, moralistic judgment, interpretation or diagnosis
Feelings—Saying how you feel (emotions and body sensations) about what you have observed without assigning blame
Needs—The basic human needs that are or not being met and are the source of feelings
Requests—Clear request for actions that can meet needs

International Conference on
Practical Models For Peace:
Making a Difference Now

~ October 27-30, 2011 ~
Wahat Al Salaam/Neve Shalom, Israel

Registration Open To All

2011 PMP Conference Information:

  Underlying Concepts
Main PMP Conference Page  
2011 PMP Full Program
2011 Presenter Biographicals
Program Overview, Presenters, Samples, & Guidelines
Fees and Registration
Site and Travel
PMP Press Room
      1 Page Color PMP Conference flyer  - pdf
      1 Page PMP Black & White flyer  - pdf
      1 Page Text Flyer  - pdf
      Conference E-Mail Notice
PMP Conference Staff Contacts

Workshop Presenter Proposal Form: html Version  pdf Version
Dialogue Group Facilitatior Form:      html Version  pdf Version   

Advertize and Donate:
   Advertize in On-Site Conference Program
   Advertize on Participant Tote Bag
   Donate to our subsidy fund
      through the International Humanistic Psychology Association

Join our conference Volunteer Team
Contact: Common Bond Institute

     The Charter For Compassion
      On-Site Video Interviews and Proceedings

Registration is Open To All
(Program details to be posted)