Our Mission
To work toward mutual understanding amongst Israelis and Palestinians, based on a dual-narrative model in which people of each nationality are exposed to their opposing narrative
Our Mission
To work toward mutual understanding amongst Israelis and Palestinians, based on a dual-narrative model in which people of each nationality are exposed to their opposing narrative
Our Mission
To work toward mutual understanding amongst Israelis and Palestinians, based on a dual-narrative model in which people of each nationality are exposed to their opposing narrative
Our Mission
To work toward mutual understanding between Israelis and Palestinians, based on a dual-narrative model, exposing people of each nationality to the narrative of the other
About us
Sipur-Hikaya was founded in 2017 by entrepreneurs, academics, and teachers who took part in writing the book Side by Side: Parallel Histories of Israel-Palestine. The name of our non-profit organization consists of the Hebrew word for story, “sipur,” and “hikaya,” which means story in Arabic. Two stories = two narratives.
We believe that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will come after a long process which requires the people of both nationalities, Israeli and Palestinian, to truly believe in peace as a moral obligation and push their political leaders to reach historical agreements.
What makes us Unique
Some peace organizations focus on encouraging politicians to sign a peace treaty as fast as possible. Others focus on ending the occupation. Still more focus on encouraging co-existence within Israel.
We, at Sipur-Hikaya, focus on promoting peace building through education, with an emphasis on teaching about the concept of the dual narrative.
We aim to raise awareness to the content of Side by Side: Parallel Histories of Israel-Palestine -- with lectures in various locations, through social media platforms as well as by speaking with opinion leaders -- to encourage communities, on both sides of the conflict, to participate in social change and pave the way to peaceful co-existence.
Our Vision
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been going on for more than 100 years, and many people are sure it will never end.
We believe that there is a lack of understanding amongst both Israelis and Palestinians as to how the conflict even started. Most of those involved in the conflict only know ”their” narrative and almost know virtually nothing about the narrative of the other side. This is due both to a lack of exposure and a lack of interest. Many Israelis, especially the younger generation, believe that this land was practically barren when the Zionist movement started.
Amongst Israelis familiar with the Palestinian narrative, many believe that there is nobody to talk with on the Palestinian side about peace, and thus there is no hope in solving the conflict. Amongst Palestinians, most know nothing about Zionist history, see Zionists as invaders and colonizers, and demand that their leaders fight to implement the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees.
Our goal is to expose communities to the dual-narrative concept within a few years, so that they will come to understand the narrative of the other side and also to comprehend how complex the conflict really is. When that happens, we believe that more communities will encourage their leaders to push for a peace agreement.
Founders
Naomi Vered
I have been a history and citizenship teacher for many years, during which I created seminars to learn about the Arab minority in Israel and meetings with Arab-Israeli youth. I joined the two-narrative project out of interest, belief in the importance of the process and hope for its positive impact. I was privileged to teach in its spirit.
Sefi Donner - Chairman
As a businessman, I found myself employing Arab workers and selling products to Arab customers in Israel and several neighboring countries. Getting to know them moved me in heart and mind. I thought to myself that it is impossible to never reach peace with our Palestinian neighbors. When I was exposed to the "green book" as Side by Side: Parallel Histories of Israel-Palestine is known, I felt that I had found the path to success. I founded the foundation in the belief that even if the chance is small - it's worth a try!
Eyal Nave - President
Using the past can promote reconciliation between enemies or can perpetuate and intensify hostility. To begin the reconciliation process it is necessary to recognize the other. A pre-condition for recognizing the other is to know the other. This is the modest goal of the bi-narrative approach.
Avi Daul
In recent years, I have decided to work harder to bring hearts closer together between Israelis and Palestinians for the sake of peace and reconciliation. I participated in narrative workshops of the Israeli-Palestinian Bereaved Families Forum. I volunteer at On the Way to Recovery, a non-profit that helps Palestinian patients, especially children with cancer, to get from border checkpoints to Israeli hospitals. I am active in Standing Together, a movement which seeks social social justice, equality between Jews and Arabs and peace. In addition, I joined the team that translates into Hebrew stories written by young Palestinians, who write to the world on the We Are Not Numbers website and share their experiences in Gaza. The stories are posted on a corresponding Israeli website, Beyond the Border, which aims to introduce young people from the two sides to each other. I believe that through personal acquaintances we can bring about change.
Rachel Tzuk
As a history teacher at a high school in south Tel Aviv, I participated in the team of teachers who compiled the textbook with two narratives and experimented with teaching through it. I introduced my students to the Palestinian narrative, and I believe that I succeeded in sowing seeds of recognition and understanding that will germinate in the future under appropriate conditions. My goal in the foundation is to expand this educational activity.
Yehoshua Ratz
I am an educator and high school citizenship teacher. I teach at Oranim College and conducts workshops for Jews, Arabs and Palestinians. Engaged in "peace education" in various aspects for many years, I believe that beyond the supreme importance of ending the conflict, there is an even more vital and urgent need - to educate and raise the future generation on the basis of hope and optimism and belief that human nature is fundamentally good.
Carmel Breiting
Educational Coordinator
A mediator, personal trainer, group facilitator with a bachelor's degree in law. I lead processes of change, development and growth. I also lead workshops and dialogue groups on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, mediation processes and communal justice. I am a social activist, promoting a shared society and seeking to bring hearts closer through dialogue meetings and joint action. I am a founding partner in the establishment of JACAhub - a Jewish-Arab regional innovation center, and active in peace organizations. My heart is full of hope and faith in the good: we must be active, and out of compassion enhance the common good, and work for mutual recognition of the other side's narrative as part of promoting a process of reconciliation between our peoples and developing dialectical thinking, to change reality and build a better future in which there is a place for both peoples to live between the Jordan and the sea, a life of honor, security and peace.
Leora Goldman
I live in Haifa and am married to Mordi. We have two sons, Assaf and Omari. I retired many years ago. I graduated with a bachelor's degree in nursing and a master's degree in public health. During my professional working years, I worked in various positions in health systems. When my professional activity focused on working at a community level in Jewish and Arab society, the issue of the Zionist-Palestinian conflict began to occupy me. My interest intensified during the Yom Kippur War when my brother, Yakov, fell in the war. The need to know the other was born in me then. This is one of the reasons I chose to work with Arab society. I believe in equality, ending the occupation and finding a solution to the conflict. This view led me to volunteer for the "Story of Hakaya" which sees a prospect for the conflict through a reconciliation that stems from knowing the narratives of each side and the other side. I am a member of the Israeli- Palestinian Bereaved Families Forum. It sharpened my sense that sincere closeness between the Jews and the Palestinians in Israel can be built if we courageously listen to the variety of voices in the Jewish and the Palestinian in Israel regarding a common life here.
Tamar (Tami) Stein
I am a member of Lochamei HaGetaot Kibbutz and the daughter of two Holocaust survivor parents, who instilled in me the belief in humanistic, anti-racist and anti-nationalist Zionism. I am a retired social worker. Upon retirement, I looked for a place where I could be involved in activities that promote reconciliation and bringing together Jews and Arabs within the State of Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Along with learning Arabic, I joined the Sipur Hikaya. And maybe I will live to see the repeal of the Natinality Law and the end of the occupation....
Shay Meiselman
I have been a history teacher for more than 20 years and was a partner in the process of writing the book from the beginning. I joined Sipur-Hikaya believing that education based on dialogue, listening and interest in others is one of the most important ways in the long journey towards a future of peace and reconciliation in our region.
Dror Eitan
I joined Sipur-Hikaya in search of a place that would allow me to act and do something with all the insights and feelings I have had in recent years regarding my life as an Israeli and a Jew in this small part of the world. My conclusion is that unless we -- both Israelis and the residents of the territories -- find a way to learn to live together, the Zionist dream that brought my family to the region from Poland and the United States is in tangible danger. I am disconcerted by the growing number of Isaeli Jews who seem to believe that listening to listen another point of view, is in itself an act of weakness, confusion or worse. The activities of Sipur-Hikaya allow me to promote a shared existence between the river and the sea of Arabs and Jews, while contending with difficulties at its heart. I believe that by listening and understanding the story of the other, without giving up my story, it will be possible to move in a new direction.
Rasha Sharkia
There are two things I love very much: stories and people. That's why I started my career as an investigator in television and docuseries. From there, my journey expanded to other areas, including human rights, media consulting, leadership and leading change in different ways, but mainly with Palestinian and Israeli partners. Today, I coach people for growth and leadership. My mission is to accompany them on their journey "home." Sipur-Hikaya really resonated with me in this sense because it deals with people, stories, identities, change, and an essential journey to a better and more reconciled future for all of us. As a Palestinian Arab citizen of Israel, I believe that my complex identity has great weight in building bridges and connection between the two sides of the conflict in our region.
Riad Kabha
I believe in an Arab-Jewish partnership that is built on trust, recognition and familiarity that will bring peace, equality and partnership. There is no doubt that the Sipur-Hikaya's goals and objectives lead to Jewish-Arab partnership. Knowing the other side and getting to know his narrative will lead to understanding and flexibility in positions. That's why I joined the foundation as a continuation of my work of 50 years in fighting prejudice and working for a shared society.
Mahajna Faisel
I am married and the father of four children from Umm El Fahm. I am from a displaced family from Kfar Eleljon (on the village lands where Kibbutz Megiddo and Kibbutz Madrech Oz now stand). I have a bachelor's degree in economics and statistics from the Hebrew University and a master's degree in economics from Tel Aviv University. I was a manager at Bank Hapoalim and the manager the business division of the Center for Jewish-Arab Economic Development. For the past ten years I have been a social political activist. I was elected chairman of the opposition in the Umm Al Fahm municipality from 2009 to 2 013 and was the founder of Neighbors of Peace in the Wadi Aara region and have been active in various peace organizations. I have served as the chairman of the environmental association in Wadi Aara and the region and was a founder of the Correct Narrative Group in Umm El Fahm. When I heard from Safi about Sipur-Hikaya, I really connected with the idea which coalesced with my view of the importance of exposing Jewish society in Israel to the Palestinian narrative in order to reach peace. This needs to lead to the process of a vision process shared by a Palestinian Jew so that there can be a sustainable solution which guarantees a normal life for future generations for all Jews and all Palestinians.
Eshel Kleinhauz
I have been involved in education as a history teacher, a school principal, a hiking group leader and more. I currently serve as director of principal certification at Avney Rosha Institute. I joined the writing of Side by Side: Parallel Histories of Israel-Palestine and Sipur-Hikaya out of the optimism of an educator and faith in our abilities to change the world and the country in which we live. The struggle between the national movements and between the two peoples living here may have been a matter of destiny, but its duration and its heavy costs are not so. I believe in the power of stories and narratives to be not only divisive factors but also fraternal factors that contribute to recovery and reconciliation.
Sokina Taoon
I have a bachelor's degree in social sciences, and a master's degree in public policy, specializing in local government. I facilitate groups in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and am a social activist in promoting the Arab-Jewish partnership throughout the country, with extensive experience in leading social change processes. I am involved in a rich and diverse array of social activism, including with the Geneva Ambassadors program, Arkan Shahrit Institute, and the A Place for Me project. Professionally, I am a partner in the management of the project Cities Leading Change. I coordinated a program to prevent drug and alcohol violence in the educational space, and as a citizenship teacher, preparing high school students for matriculation in the past. Today I lead a community in the organization Hand in Hand at a school in the Galilee. I believe in social action as a tool for changing the social space and reducing the gaps in Israel."
Horizon to the Conflict
A program for studying the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in high schools
The Sipur-Hikaya Foundation has written a program for studying the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in high schools
The program presents the conflict from several perspectives:
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A theoretical explanation of the concept of conflict and the two-narrative approach.
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Studying the historical roots of the Israeli-Arab conflict and evolution during the 20th century through the Zionist narrative and through the Palestinian narrative
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Showing options for action in reference to it
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Helping students form their personal positions based on studying and learning about the two narratives
The program can be taught in grades 10-12 as an annual 10th grade class, as part of an annual lesson of "general education" in grade 10, as part of various subjects taught at school, in education classes and as a 3 day seminar dealing with the Jewish-Palestinian conflict.
The original program is divided into 9 units. It can be taught in its entirety or in part.
Teachers who teach the program receive professional guidance from the education coordinators and the foundation's professional teaching staff.
We would like to emphasize that you do not need to be an expert in history or citizenship to teach the program, either in the classroom and in the seminar.
All that is required is a commitment to the idea that knowing the other side in the complexity of the Jewish-Palestinian conflict will better enable our teenagers to be citizens who are responsible for their country based on knowledge, critical thinking, a democratic position and the ability to maintain dialogue and reciprocity. We attach enormous importance to the teaching of the program as political education that requires study and knowledge before forming a position. We believe in the importance of engaging teenagers in intellectual discussion with reflection, and respect for other positions. Through this process, we hope to promote understanding and moderation between our two people.
Teachers and principals: we invite you to fill out the application form and join the list of schools that teach the program or are interested in it
Zoom Lectures
A community meeting that allows you to receive and expand knowledge on current, political and historical issues related to the conflict.
At each meeting there is a lecture and discussion on the topic.
To view previous lectures - Enter our YouTube channel
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Bank Hapoalim (12)
Branch 791 (The Bay)
Account number 669971
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Sipur - Hikaya
Palmach 34 Haifa
3455831
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