Youth Program

The purpose of Ittijah’s Youth Program is to create a network of NGOs, which will assist these associations in building programs for Arab youth in Israel.

The need for such a program is clear. Research has demonstrated that the Israeli educational system discriminates systematically against Arab youth (See Human Rights Watch, “Second Class – Discrimination Against Palestinian Arab Children in Israel’s Schools”, September 2001). In virtually ever way, the quality of education provided to Israel’s Palestinian citizen children is inferior to that provided to the state’s Jewish children.

Civil society organizations focusing on youth have a critical role to play in filling the gap created by the state’s discrimination against Arab students. Unfortunately, there are very few non-political Arab organizations in Israel with a youth focus. Many organizations list youth as a priority, but due to ad-hoc funding and the numerous issues these organizations must deal with, youth are frequently neglected.

Ittijah’s Youth Program seeks to assist these organizations not only in obtaining funding for their youth-related projects, but also to help them develop a unified, strategic approach to addressing the problems faced by Arab youth in Israel. As the program has evolved, it has developed an increasing focus on gender issues, in particular the needs of young Palestinian women in Israel.

Highlights of the Youth Program

Cyprus Conference. Held at the beginning of June 2000, this conference was held in order to increase co-ordination on youth issues between the three main Palestinian NGO networks in the region: Ittijah, PNGO (the Palestinian NGO network in the West Bank) and the Collective Forum for Palestinian NGOs inside Lebanon. A subsequent follow-up meeting was held in Cyprus at the end of June 2000.

Pilot Project. A pilot training program took place in June 2001, in which 33 Arab high-school students between the ages of 16 and 17 participated. The purpose of the training program was to develop a better understanding of the needs of Arab youth, and to determine whether a larger program could be successful. Evaluations submitted by the participants demonstrated a strong demand for this type of program.

Establishment of an Executive Follow-Up Committee. NGOs participating in the Youth Program created an executive follow-up committee to ensure the success of the program. The committee was responsible for preparing a long-term plan, to be implemented primarily by Baladna – Association for Arab Youth. The proposed long-term plan included seven training sessions, with themes including Societies, Circles of Belonging, Democracy, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. The first training session was scheduled for December 2002; unfortunately, intensive Israeli military attacks on the West Bank in April 2002 forced Ittijah and its member organizations to re-organize their priorities in order to deal with this crisis. As such, the development and implementation of the Youth Program has been delayed.