About the 8thConference
1. Outline
| Official Domination | Japan-Israel-Palestine Student Conference |
| Duration (tentative) | 8th - 23th Aug., 2010 |
| Cooperated by | 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. |
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:
About 4 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 Okinawa is 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.
Okinawa:
Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost islands in Japan. Okinawa used to be an independent nation about 400 years ago. Because of its location, Okinawa has prospered by trading with other Asian countries. Okinawa is famous for its unique culture and beautiful nature. During World War Two, the battle of Okinawa was the only ground battle in Japan. Today American military bases in Okinawa is a controversial problem in Japan.
Why Okinawa?:
Since the starting of this conference, we have been getting opportunities to think about the issues of “Peace” from the students of Israel, and Palestine. However, as a new approach, we decided to have our 8th conference in Okinawa to provide some opportunities to think about “Peace” from Japanese students. In practice, a study tour is already planed, and the visiting at South Okinawan battle sites of the WW2 / Ie island(one of the main place of the nonviolence movement after the war) is included.
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 Detail of the Conference
a. Schedule
One day-schedule (example)
8:00 Waking up & Breakfast
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 |
| 8th | Arrival in Okinawa / Ice Breaking Party |
| 9th | Field Trip in Okinawa / Discussion |
| 10th | Field Trip / Discussion |
| 11st | Field Trip / Discussion |
| 12nd | Field Trip / Discussion |
| 13rd | Break Day |
| 14th | Field Trip to Ie-Island |
| 15th | Sight Seeing in Ie-Island |
| 16th | Discussion |
| 17th | Discussion / BBQ Party |
| 18th | Discussion |
| 19nd | Symposium and Party |
| 20th | Transfer to Tokyo |
| 21st | Symposium |
| 22nd | Sight Seeing / Farewel Party |
| 23rd | Departure from Japan |
b. Program in detail
Discussions:
The concept of discussion:
Discussion is one of the opportunities to know each other. Through discussion, we would like to make mutual understanding, try to find some agreements, and finally we are going to figure out how the futureof Israel and Palestine should be.
3 steps of the stages:
1. The purpose of the first stage is "mutual understanding". In the first stage, we would like you guys to tell others how you think about each topic. The purpose of this stage is just to put your idea out, and to know other's idea.
The topics of the first stage:
e.g. The origin of this conflict, perception of historoy, about 1948
2. The second stage also focuses on nutual understanding and tries to find similarity
e.g. diversity, the gap about perception of conflict between generations, media bias, the role of Japan
3. In the last stage we are going to try to reach an agreement.
e.g. peace: what is peace for you, water: one of the way to solve this problem
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
Discussion topics that we are thinking to have in the future conference.
-education in Japan,Israel,Palestine
-media in Japan,Israel,Palestine
-human right
-the future
Workshop in Okinawa:
Date: 19th August
In Okinawa we will have an open work shop at downtown of Okinawa city.
In Japan people are not very conversant about Israeli and Palestinian regions. By holding public event, we seek to make people be familiar with and feel closer to Israel and Palestine. Especially, in work shop, we focus on introducing dairy life in Israel and Palestine because it is difficult to know about that in Japan.
Program that we had last year in the past site
- playing traditional games
- talking about “Family”; introduction of each family, customs, some family history and so on.
- eating Israeli and Palestinian food
Symposium:
Date: 21th August
The symposium held in Tokyo is the largest opportunity to output the result of the conference. In this public event, participants have some speeches and discussions with people in Japan.
Timetable
coming soon...
Contents of the symposium that we had last year
- reports of the conference from participants
- Panel discussion; about the heart of the conflict, the future of Israel-Palestine
Communication with local people
The conference is held in country side expect Tokyo and participants have some opportunity to communicate with local people. These programs are enjoyable time for participants and participants can experience Japanese culture through those programs.
-Tour in Okinawa
coming soon...-Local festival
coming soon...
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 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-23th 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.In 8th conference, we are going to create the theme of discussions,or way of discussion togather. Hence you need to participate before the congerence actively.
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 17th February, 2010. 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. If our schedule won't correspond, we will have interview through Internet or telephone.
- The final result of selection will be announced at the beginning of April.
