About the 6thConference
1. Outline
| Official Domination | Japan-Israel-Palestine Student Conference |
| Duration (tentative) | 12th - 31th Aug., 2008 |
| Cooperated by | Nagaoka-city, Nagano-city and Musashino-city |
| Sponsored by | Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) |
| Supported by | Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan-Arab Association |
| Programs | Our programs will be decided by discussion among participants. (Please see “about the 5th conference” for your reference) |
The Purpose:
- To promote mutual understanding between Israelis and Palestinians through dialogue and to make common value from dialogue that can overcome the difference between Israelis and Palestinians. Here dialogue means not only serious discussion but also various communications that happened while we spend time together.
- To share what we found during this conference and we also attempt to inform of dairy life and cultural matter in Israel and Palestine which are not familiar to Japanese.
Number of Participants:
Some people from each region.*Participants must be students
Participation fee:
Refer to your application form.
2. Accommodation
As one of characteristic of the conference, participants share their lives; cooking, eating, cleaning together and sleeping in the big room. In fact, accommodation in Nagaoka and Nagano are far away from the city so it is not easy to go around the city or hung out at night. It may be inconvenient and annoying in some points but participants can enjoy beautiful nature and communicate closer with others.
Nagaoka:
Nagaoka has an interesting history. It experienced three ravages; internal war in 19th century, air raid during WWⅡ by USA, and the earth quake happened in 2004. However it recovered thanks to cooperation in the community. In addition, Yamakoshi, which is the village where we stay in Nagaoka-city, is famous for its beautiful scenery of farming village.
Nagano:
Nagano is the city that has two sides. One is that it remains Japanese tradition and history. There is the big temple called Zenkoji in the center of the city and it is famous among people. On the other hand, there are lots of activities related to international exchanges since the winter Olympic was held in 1998 and Special Olympics in 2005. In Nagano, participants stay at the Youth Training Center which is located in the mountain. In the center, staff holds many activities related to environmental education and food education. In addition, there are gyms and ground where participants can enjoy sports.
Tokyo:
Participants may have known already, Tokyo is the capital of Japan. Participants can find many things in Tokyo, both of traditional ones and new technological ones.
3. About The Last Conference
a. Schedule
One day-schedule (example)
8:00 Waking up & Breakfast
9:00 Morning assembly
9:30 Discussion #3 (150min.)
13:00 Lunch break
13:30 Participating in Yamakoshi Festival
20:00 Dinner
21:00 Free/shower time
23:00 Light-out time
| Date | Content |
| 11th | Arrival to Japan + Transfer to Niigata |
| 12th | Discussion 1/Tour in Yamakoshi |
| 13th | Discussion 2/ Preparation for work shop |
| 14th | Work shop |
| 15th | Discussion 3/ bull fighting festival |
| 16th | Join the local festival |
| 17th | Discussion 4 / Reception party |
| 18th | Transfer to Nagano |
| 19th | Discussion with high school students |
| 20th | Discussion with high school students |
| 21st | Farewell Party/ Sightseeing |
| 22nd | Discussion 5/ cooking with local people |
| 23rd | Discussion 6/ Prepare for events |
| 24th | Transfer to Tokyo |
| 25th | Special project ”Paper Plane for peace” |
| 26th | Discussion 7+ Preparation for Symposium |
| 27th | Symposium + Reception party |
| 28th | Sight seeing in Tokyo |
| 28th | Departure from Japan |
b. Program in detail
Discussions:
In discussions, the main part of the conference, we sought to exchange our point of view talking about some aspects of the conflict. Topics and way of discussion were determined by all the participants among Israelis, Palestinians and Japanese. In the final discussion, we exchanged impressions of the conference and sought to lay out how to maintain and deepen the relationship built in the conference.
Discussion topics that we had in past conference.
-today's situation
-history, origin of the conflict
-diversity, cultural ideology
-politics…security policy, the wall, settlement etc.
-education and media
-the future
Workshop:
People in Japan are not very conversant about Israeli and Palestinian regions. By holding public event, we sought to make people be familiar with and feel closer to Israel and Palestine. Especially, in work shop, we focused on introducing dairy life in Israel and Palestine because it is difficult to know about that in Japan.
Program that we had last year
- playing traditional games
- talking about “Family”; introduction of each family, customs, some family history and so on.
- eating Israeli and Palestinian food
Symposium:
The symposium held in Tokyo was the largest opportunity to output the result of the conference. 65 people came to the symposium. In this public event, participants had some speeches and discussions with people in Japan.
Contents of the symposium that we had last year
- special lecture by the professor
- reports of the conference from participants
- Panel discussion; about the heart of the conflict, the future of Israel-Palestine
Discussions with High-School Students in Nagano:
This is an educational project for high-school students and also was refreshment for us in the middle of the conference. High-school students could learn a lot from this international communication. On the other hand participants could experience different communication and could encounter with the new perspectives with younger people.
Program that we had last year
-Icebreaking- game, cocking Israeli and Palestinian food
-Speech about dairy life and idea about the conflict from Israeli/Palestinian participants
-discussion based on Q&A style…high school students asked participants about the conflict
-BBQ, Farewell party
*this year we are planning to hold this program but contents will be discussed among participants.
Communication with local people
The conference is held in country side expect Tokyo and participants had some opportunity to communicate with local people. These programs were enjoyable time for participants and participants could experience Japanese culture through those programs.
-Tour in Yamakoshi
Yamakoshi has an interesting history that showed strong relation in the community so we saw around the tunnel that people there constructed with their cooperation and some place that remains attack of the earth quake three years ago.-Bull fighting festival
Bull fighting festival is one of the things that people in Yamakoshi are looking forward. Participants could enjoy one of traditional matter in Japan.
-Local festival (Mishima festival)
Mishima festival is one-day festival that includes many activities. First, participants joined log-cutting competition, which is that participants make a pair and cut log with their cooperation. After that, participants joined carrying portable shrine. At night, participants enjoyed watching big fire works and going around stand-shops.
-Making straw sandals
Participants made straw sandals with direction of local people. Participants could experience one of Japanese tradition and enjoy communication with local people.
-Cooking Japanese traditional food.
In Nagano, participants cooked traditional food called “Oyaki”. Oyaki is made with flour and vegetables are inside that. After making Oyaki, participants enjoyed eating and talking with local people.
Special Project: LAUNCH THE “PAPER PLANES FOR PEACE”:
Israeli and Palestinians students planted three olive trees in the 3 rd conference with hope for peace. On the other hand, the green park, where olives are planted, was the factory of airplanes in wartime. This project intersects two places and two histories. Participants listen to the speech by people who experienced the war and also give a speech about Israel-Palestine conflict. After that, participants and guests who came to the event plant an olive tree together. Then, participants made and launched a paper plane which will be a symbol of peace.
4. Notice and Requirement for applicants
- Selection
- Participation
- Contact before the conference
- Insurance
- Media and public events
- Photos and Films
- After the conference
Selection of participants consists of two stages. The first stage is upon your essays on this application form. For those who have passed the first selection, we would conduct an oral interview through internet/telephone as the second selection. The result of the final selection is to be announced at the beginning of April.
Participants are required to attend the whole conference of 8th-27th of August. You CANNOT join/leave in the middle of the conference.
Participants are needed to have close contact with us mainly by e-mail, otherwise we cannot invite you to the conference.
Participants are required to get travel insurance during the conference in order to receive medical treatment in case of any accidents and health problems. We cannot take whole responsibility for any accidents during conference.
Our conference will be reported in media such as TV and news papers, and also have public and open events. We expect participants to actively cooperate in our performance.
Participants are required to agree with our using photos and films of you taken during the conference for our activity to report about the conference, provided that this condition can be discussed case by case.
Participants are required to write articles for our publications. Ensure that you are expected to keep in touch with us.
5. Requirement for applicants
We are looking forward the students who….
- cooperate with us to build the conference together
- take part in each program actively
- is well-motivated
- enjoy living together with others
- like to know different culture
6. Selection Process
How to Enter:
- Upon completing reading the notices, get an application form here.
- Fill out the form thoroughly and send it at <af@jipsc.org>.
The dead line is 7th February, 2008. We will confirm on receipt of your forms by sending out notices. - The result of the first selection will be announced in the end of February
- The second selection, which is an interview by members of JIPSC, is going to be conducted in the middle of March in Israel/Palestine.
- The final result of selection will be announced at the beginning of April.
Number of the last conference:
| Number of applicants | Number of Participants | |
| Israel-Male | 9 | 1 |
| Israel-Female | 10 | 1 |
| Palestine-Male | 18 | 1 |
| Palestine-Female | 12 | 1 |
| Israeli-Arab | 5 | 1 |
