Today is “Nakba Day”

in the Givat Haviva
Collaborative Art Center

The day of the “Nakba” – the “catastrophe” – is the day the Palestinian people commemorates the tragedy that befell them in 1948, when between 700,000 and 1,000,000 Palestinians became refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Arab states, and other places around the world, and many others became “internal refugees,” uprooted from their homes, who came to live elsewhere in Israel.

The Nakba is an open wound that burns and throbs in Palestinian collective memory. For twenty percent of the citizens of our country, Israel, Nakba Day symbolizes their national trauma of expulsion and destruction, and the personal and family trauma of losing relatives, homes, land, trees and flowers – a loss that has accompanied their families and people since 1948. In order for us to be able to have a shared life here, we must heal the rifts and accept our different identities. In order to have a future of peace, we must build a foundation of a shared society in the present, based on recognition, equality, trust, sincerity, and goodwill, to accept each other and the harm we inflict on each other.

Both sides have a need to express their pain, fear, and anger, and to have their own sense of harm recognized. This is possible without blaming the other, simply by recognizing the others’ suffering and taking personal and collective responsibility. This is why it is so important to stop Israel’s institutionalized efforts to ignore the Nakba. The sooner we can change and consent to be changed, the sooner we can accept the Nakba, the harm, and the associated responsibility, the sooner we can bring peace and an end to the violence. As we cultivate our ability to understand that the Nakba continues today (in Palestine, in our country, and around the world, there is already a fourth generation of Palestinian refugees), we will hasten our reconciliation and mutual recognition, and enhance our ability to maintain Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, which is also a state of all its citizens, with full equality for its Arab-Palestinian citizens. That is why I feel compelled today to commemorate the Nakba.

Thus, together with my partners, Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, we will succeed in building a shared society here, and to turn conflicting identities into inclusive identities. This is how we will build a bridge to peace, to ensure the future of our country and of our children.

Yaniv Sagee,

Givat Haviva

Comments

Visit of the President of Austria, Mr. Alexander van der Belen

During a parliamentary visit to Israel, President of Austria Mr. Alexander van der Belen and his entourage chose to visit Givat Haviva, as a leading organization building a shared society in Israel. In his remarks, the President thanked Givat Haviva for being a source of hope not only for Israel but for people throughout the world. The President praised Givat Haviva for being an inclusive and unusual institution in its successful and pioneering activity toward building a shared society. He said he hopes to share our experience and lessons learned with the inhabitants of Austria, involved in their struggle to build their own society. He took particular pleasure in meeting the students of the Givat Haviva International School and their fresh, young spirit. Read more about President van der Belen’s visit <here> Album of the event <here>

NRW Justice Min visit 11.18

Nov 2, 2018 Visit of the Minister of Justice of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Mr. Peter Biesenbach. The Minister of Justice of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Mr. Peter Biesenbach, arrived at Givat Haviva at the head of a delegation of jurists. This is Mr. Bisenbach's fifth visit to Israel and his fourth to Givat Haviva. The Minister asked to hear about Givat Haviva’s educational programs and encounters. He was especially interested in following up what was revealed to him during his previous visits, in particular how to create real, social and interpersonal interactions in these meetings beyond mere formal meetings between the young students. During his visit, the minister and his delegation also met with students from the International School and heard about the reasons that led them to come to study at GHIS. The delegation included: Minister of Justice of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Mr. Peter Biesenbach; Dr. Andreas Christians, Head of the Depa...

Givat Haviva’s statement in response to the National State Law

We, the members of Givat Haviva’s Public Council, stand in support of all those who are leading together the agenda for creating a shared society in Israel - even at these difficult times in the wake of the National State Law - An Israeli society based on civic equality, substantive democracy and protection for minorities: these are the values expressed in the Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel. We are categorically opposed to the oppressive National State law whose hasty enactment has created a deep rift between Arab citizens and the state, and we seek its immediate revocation. This law delivers a mortal wound to Israel’s social resilience and undermines the legitimacy of the citizenship of some 20 percent of the country's population. The law nullifies the principle of equality, which is critical to our efforts to establish a shared society, and undermines the foundations of equality that we have been working on for 70 years. Alongside our serious...

Givat Haviva Voice

Search This Blog