Social exclusion and violence:
Education for social cohesion

The Hope Flowers School

Al-Khadr, Bethlehem - PALESTINE

Located in the city of Al-Khadr, south of Bethlehem (West Bank), the Hope Flowers School is the first Palestinian school in having adopted, on the one hand, an educational philosophy based on democracy and peace, and on the other hand, in offering a bilingual Arabic-Hebrew learning process. The private school has primary and secondary co-educational classes for Christian and Muslim students, and it expects to incorporate Jewish students too. After the new Intifada in the fall of 2000, the school has had to face the difficulty of keeping practical contacts between Israeli and Palestinian students. While waiting for a more peaceful time to come and the re-assumption of the Palestinian-Israeli activities, the school has initiated a supporting program for Palestinian children affected by daily violence.

Education for peace is an integral part of the Hope Flowers School's curriculum. Every week, the teachers give a course based on this subject. It can range from the good way of treating the animals, for the younger ones, to the negative consequence of stereotypes, and the necessity of a dialogue with Israeli people. The same school exists and it is called the Democratic School of Hadera in Israel, the school receives especially Jerusalem's rabbis, talking about Judaism, and international educators (Swedish, English, Dutch, Americans, etc.) to advice the teachers on the best methods to be adopted in order to sensitize young people about peace. Exchanges between Palestinian and Israeli students are organized in collaboration with Israeli schools every Wednesday. Together, they follow a course based on the protection of the environment, and cultivate a small tract of fertile land. On Sundays, they are in the zoo, where they get familiarized with the animal world. Another way for the Hope Flowers School to promote contacts with the Israeli people, is the teaching of Hebrew. To break the language barrier allows easier communication and understanding processes between the youths of both peoples. Finally, since 1996, thanks to seminars on peace and the necessity to live together, the school met Palestinian and Israeli parents, children and teachers. With this direct involvement in the Jewish and Arabian people's dialog, the students learn to discover, accept and respect their own differences.

Having grown up in the Deheishe camp, south of Bethlehem, Hussein Ibrahim Issa (1947-2000),the founder of the school, had as a principal goal to put an end to the extremely precarious situation of Palestinian children and their families. Considering peace as the sole alternative to violence-ravaged childhood, it creates children's care center, in whose framework, there were many encounters between children of the two origins. The project was enlarged until it became an elementary and secondary school in 1994, acknowledged by for its promotion of peace and democracy, which aims at securing a harmonious and violence-free environment for the children of the region.

Ms. Ghada ISSA
Project Coordinator Hope Flowers School
P.O. Box 732 Bethlehem
West Bank, PALESTINE
Tel.: 00972-2-274 06 93 / 00972-2-274-4975
Fax: 00972-2-274-7084
E-mail: amalzh@hally.net
Web-site: http://www.mideastweb.org/HopeFlowers/

Institutional Partners
The Democratic Hadera School
The Adam School, Jerusalem
HaRishonim High School, Herzliya
Ahad Ha'am High School, Tel Aviv

1984: Creation of the Children's Care Center 1984-1994: The settlement leaves the Bet Jala Region to establish itself in the city of Al Khadr. It progressively grew bigger and becomes primary and secondary school.