PNE Alumni Community

The PCFF Parallel Narrative Experience (PNE) provides a life altering experience for many of its participants. Palestinians and Israelis complete the program with a new understanding of the conflict and of the other side, with a belief that reconciliation is possible, and with a desire to keep in touch with each other and to work together to promote a change in the harsh reality of the conflict.

It is this desire that spurred on various groups of project graduates in 2015, to initiate and implement activities and shared projects for the benefit of the communities on both sides. The initiatives and the projects are based on the insights the participants gained from the Parallel Narratives Project.

Some of the adapted activities for the different needs of the communities, which the PNE Alumni Community had identified:

• A playroom for kids in the Palestinian village Idna: The playroom is operated by teenagers from the village and provides a solution for the lack of after-school enrichment for children.
• Production of a Hebrew-Arabic phrase booklet: The booklet is used by several hospital units, where both Jewish and Arab patients who don’t have a shared language are hospitalized.
• Development of a web site called “Hokokona” (“Our Rights”): The site organizes information in Arabic about entities and organizations that help and support Palestinians whose rights are being compromised.
• The launch of the “It’s Time for Peace” Facebook page: As part of the campaign, pairs of Israelis and Palestinians are photographed together, in an effort to promote reconciliation and peace between the peoples, and to emphasize the importance of familiarity when breaking the barrier of fear and stereotypes.
• Tatreez for Peace project: The project connects between fashion companies and Palestinian embroiderers, for the development of products that combine special embroidery, to promote the message of peace and support the employment of the embroidering women.

As more participants completed the PNE, a growing alumni base organically grew out of the project – Israelis and Palestinians who, after experiencing a transformation in the PNE phase, solidified their commitment to reconciliation and have a high potential and desire to be agents of change.

This alumni body is a vital resource, not only for the PCFF, but also for a more vibrant civil society. In 2017, it was decided to recognize all the PNE alumni as a single community, and establish a framework of activities for this community which currently includes nearly 1,000 people. The Alumni Action Program provides opportunities for the graduates to meet, learn and work together as agents of change and ambassadors who carry and voice PCFF messages.

The community is being mobilized by selected alumni, within four committees:

• Steering committee: Oversees all alumni community activities, connects between the entire alumni community and the various committees and coordinates the activities of all the committees.
• Language committee: Promotes learning the language of the other peoples among the PNE graduates, in order to improve the ability of Israeli and Palestinian alumni to work together.
• Education for peace committee: Organizes lectures, field trips, workshops and other activities, that aim to expand the graduates’ knowledge about the conflict and its manifestation in day-to-day life, in order to provide them with tools to help them in planning activities to change the current reality.
• The solidarity committee: Organizes activities among the Israeli and Palestinian public, to promote reconciliation and non-violence.