The Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement between People (PCR), Quaker Service- Jerusalem [AFSC] and Holy Land Trust (HLT) are very pleased to invite you to the second “Summer Activists’ Camp” to be held in Bethlehem- Palestine this summer.

1- What is the Summer Camp project?

The Summer Camp will offer ten days of training in strategic nonviolence and organizing skills to Palestinian and International college-age youth. It will take place in Bethlehem from 16-26 July 2006.

Goal:  Empowering young people to organize nonviolently on issues relevant to them

Objectives:

    * Delivery of nonviolence training and training for community organizers
    * Providing a constructive summer activity for young people
    * Community building among the youth
    * Sparking new nonviolence activities and groups

2. Why this project now?

As conditions under the Israeli Occupation have worsened, the Palestinian nonviolent resistance grows. Resistance activities have particularly grown in villages and on university campuses.

The understanding of nonviolent direct action in Palestine, like in most nations of the world, is not very deep. Thus, the joint Holy Land Trust -PCR - QJS work is aimed at providing more training, to educate more persons on its use, viability, effectiveness, and creative application in designing actions for change.

With the current increased demand for nonviolence training, we have initiated a year-long series of activities to promote strategic nonviolence, especially concentrating on providing training. This joint work plan focuses on the delivery of trainings to villages and university students.

This year the Rapprochement Center (PCR) will join the initiative.  PCR has a long-term experience in a civil-based nonviolent resistance and has been involved in co-founding, the International Solidarity Movement, one of the most important nonviolent initiatives in the second Intifada in Palestine.  The ISM had conducted and promoted nonviolent in the Occupied Palestinian Territories since 2001.

This summer camp is an extension of nonviolence trainings delivered throughout the year on university campuses, targeting college-aged youth. The ten-day time plan allows for more extensive, in-depth training on nonviolence and community organizing.

This summer camp ties into the AFSC’s “Faces of Hope: Refusal and Resistance in Israel and Palestine.” In this new campaign, AFSC supports the joint work for Palestinian nonviolent resistance, towards ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, in addition to support work on behalf of Israeli conscientious objectors and military refusers. The campaign includes increased advocacy for a just peace inside the US, lead by the Peace Building Unit’s Middle East program (PBU-ME).

3. Profile of participants:

Audience for the camp are 15 Palestinian and 15 International youths, ages 20-30, ideally equal numbers of males and females, and involving both Muslims and Christian Palestinians and internationals from Europe and North America. The Palestinian participants will be invited from all over the West Bank. Payments can be done through our webpage: Fees & Payment

All participants should speak the English Language, which will be the official language during the Summer Activists Camp.

4. Components of the Summer Camp
The Summer Camp will primarily be an educational function, and will also have advocacy and community organizing elements.

Topics included in the nonviolence training and community-organizing curriculum includes:

   1. An Introduction to Nonviolence;
   2. Conflict Analysis and Understanding;
   3. Responses to Violence;
   4. Practical Nonviolent Resistance;
   5. Communication Skills and Conflict Styles
   6. Media Work for Organizers
   7. Consensus Decision Making
   8. Human Rights and Peacebuilding
   9. Practical Role Plays
  10. Action Planning

Day trips are also planned; both for fun and for helping participants understand the situation in Palestine. The movements restrictions imposed by the Israeli Occupation via checkpoints, by-pass roads, curfews and closures, have isolated one community from another. As a result, a resident of Bethlehem doesn’t know much about what is happening in the Palestinian areas. These field trips will note the problems facing the local communities; visit significant checkpoints, the Wall, Israeli-only by-pass roads, Israeli settlements, Palestinian refugee camps, universities, and grassroots organizations. The field trips will go to: Hebron, Bethlehem, Jericho and the Dead Sea.

In addition to the training schedule, evening activities will include:  noncompetitive games, sports, a camp fire, singing, dancing, arts, storytelling and joining activities in town.

The camps’ training and other activities will be evaluated with a written questionnaire from the participants. In addition, participants will discuss their responses to the camp in a group discussion on the last day.

5. Things you will need to bring for the summer Camp:

For attending this great experience, you are all advised to bring with you the following things:
A flashlight, sport shoes, slippers, a hat, modest summer clothes, your swimsuit, a sleeping bag, towel, toiletries, sunglasses, sunscreen, notebook, jacket for evenings, and Mosquito spray.

6. Accomodation:

Participants will be staying in tents on the grounds of the East Jerusalem YMCA in the town of Beit Sahour, on the eastern edge about 2 kms from Bethlehem. On its premises, the YMCA holds different programs such as the Rehabilitation Program, the YMCA Shop, The Youth Sports Center, a camping area, a swimming pool, and the Shepherds' Field Grotto.

7. Why is this Summer Camp Different

Bringing Palestinian & International Youth together is the idea behind this Summer Camp. Last year we managed to bring international and Palestinian youths to attend this training. So we decided that this experience continue for the coming year as well.

Palestinian college-aged youth are targeted for this summer camp because they are one of the segments of the Palestinian population most interested in ideas of nonviolence. Youth also have the readiness to resort to violence and join the armed groups, so we hope to provide an important alternative to the use of violence, while offering effective tools for resistance.

The youth will be invited from different regions of the West Bank, in order to spread the knowledge to various communities. Their training will help grow the competence of the nonviolent movement, as well has help spread the interest and understanding of the application of nonviolence to local contexts. The training will raise the numbers of nonviolent activists and encourage them in their work.

The Palestinian trainees from the Bethlehem area will be involved with the two local organizing NGOs, and be developed as nonviolence trainers and involved in planning future actions. Moreover, the Palestinian trainees from other areas of the West Bank will be encouraged to start their own local nonviolent resistance groups.

Local organizers will follow-up with them on a monthly basis to see what additional capacity building they need, as well as to facilitate cooperate work across the different regions.

Internationals are also invited to participate in this summer camp, in order to help them understand the conflict and be trained in nonviolence strategies. Bringing internationals to the West Bank can help change their stereotypes of Palestinian youth, to help them see that they share many common dreams and hopes. It will also benefit the Palestinian participants, by broadening their exposure to ideas from outside Palestine, as well make new international friendships.

The camp’s international participants will also learn a good deal about the Israeli occupation of Palestine, empowering them to advocate at home for a just peace, as well as encouraging them to volunteer in Palestine in the future. In the closing camp activities, the international participants will discuss, “what’s next?” to help them plan advocacy activities they will undertake in their home countries. The organizers will stay in touch with these participants to track the activities they undertake.  International participants can also be active with the local organizations remotely.