Willy Brandt Center Jerusalem

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Willy Brandt Center Jerusalem
logo
legal form registered association
Seat Berlin
founding 1996

place Jerusalem
Website willybrandtcenter.org

The German-Israeli-Palestinian Willy Brandt Center Jerusalem (WBC) is a center of encounter and understanding between young people from Israel, Palestine and Europe. The WBC is run by the Willy-Brandt-Zentrum eV based in Berlin.

The Willy Brandt Center with the Old City of Jerusalem in the background.

history

The idea of ​​a trilateral center arose with the Jusos in 1993 after initial contacts were made in the Palestinian autonomous territories as a result of the Oslo peace process , which supplemented the traditional relations with the Israeli partner organizations. After lengthy negotiations, Andrea Nahles (Jusos), Ofer Dekel (Mischmeret Tse'irah schel Mifleged Awoda ) and Sabri Tomezi (Shabibet Fatah ) and the other members of the delegations signed a contract on April 9, 1996 in Ramallah . In this, the youth organizations of the German SPD , the Israeli labor party Avoda and the Palestinian liberation movement Fatah agreed to promote the establishment of a joint center in Jerusalem that was to bear the name of Willy Brandt. With seminars, events and a lively youth exchange, the three founding organizations participate in the work of the WBC together with other civil society associations and in cooperation with various foundations and the German-Israeli youth exchange.

Civil Peace Service

With funds from the Federal Development Ministry and in cooperation with the Forum Civil Peace Service , civil peace service projects have been taking place under the umbrella of the WBC since 2000. At that time Matthias Ries could be sent to Jerusalem as a peace specialist, who opened his first office there. The WBC is based on the ideas of the Civil Peace Service in connection with the values ​​associated with the person of Willy Brandt . "The aim of the activities is the development of peace-political (educational) concepts as real alternatives to violence by young political and social decision-makers from Germany, Israel and Palestine." The WBC wants to strengthen trust and solidarity between committed young people and forms active forms with them develop coexistence based on social and political equality. The WBC currently hosts three Civil Peace Service projects:

  • The cooperation of activists from the Mischmeret Tse'irah, the Shabibet Fatah and the Tse'irei Meretz , who, as future decision-makers in their civil societies, are building a cross-border network, gaining understanding for the other side and getting to know methods of nonviolence.
  • The youth education associations Athad Schebab Alasetqelal, Hashomer Hatzair and Noar Oved, which belong to the International Falcon Movement (IFM-SEI) , are supported in their cooperation activities so that they can bring the idea of ​​coexistence on equal terms to a large number of young people.
  • A network of independent cultural workers as well as initiatives develops projects of encounter and peace education with the help of methods of "social arts" .

International meeting center

On October 8, 2003 the meeting center opened at the interface of the conflict. The house was by the Member of Parliament Kerstin Griese , the Knesset -Abgeordneten Isaac Herzog opened and Emile Jarjoui, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. This is on the "Green Line" in the Abu Tor district of Jerusalem, in the middle of the former no man's land, which until 1967 stretched between the east and west of Jerusalem. Today's owner of the house is the Jerusalem Center for International Encounters Ltd. , a non-profit subsidiary of the Willy-Brandt-Zentrum eV

Sponsoring association

The Förderverein Willy-Brandt-Zentrum Jerusalem eV was founded in 1997 in order to implement the Willy Brandt Center, which had been contractually established in Ramallah the year before. The non-profit association is a member of forumZFD . The purpose is lobbying, applying for project funds, exchanging information and establishing contacts with European, Israeli and Palestinian partners and institutions. The board of directors includes Andrea Nahles (chairwoman), Judith Klose (deputy chairwoman), Immanuel Benz, Delara Burkhardt , Leonard von Galen, Raana Gräsle, Jana Herrmann, Julia Maas and Harald Schrapers .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harald Schrapers: The long history of the Willy Brandt Center. In: Jusos in the SPD (ed.): 20 years of the Willy Brandt Center. Berlin 2016, p. 10 ff
  2. ^ Center in Jerusalem. In: Niederrhein Magazin 3–4 / 1996 , p. 20 f
  3. ↑ Andrea Nahles: Woman, believing, left . Pattloch, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-426-40251-1 , p. 111 ff .
  4. ↑ Heike Kratt: Civil conflict management in Israel and Palestine, p. 44. In: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 9/2010, p. 41 ff
  5. ^ Matthias Ries: Journey to Jerusalem. In: Matthias Catón, Julia Leininger, Philip Stöver (eds.): Political science in work. Lit Verlag, Berlin 2005, p. 147 ff

Coordinates: 31 ° 45 '59.6 "  N , 35 ° 13' 43.8"  E