IPCRI Israeli Palestinian

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IPCRIIsraeli Palestinian Center for Research and
Information
IPCRIS PROFILE AND WORK PLAN 2005
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IPCRIs Mandate Statement

• Israel/Palestine Center for Research and
  Information was launched in 1988 in order to
  promote dialogue at various levels between the
  Israeli and Palestinian civil societies aimed at
  
• Advancing peace on the basis of the two-state
  solution.
  
• IPCRI is one of the oldest of the bridge-building
  initiatives and also one of the very few to
  survive the onslaught of the Al Aqsa intifada and
  its associated restrictions placed by both
  parties on dialogue.
• IPCRI was founded on the principle of partnership
  between Israeli and Palestinian intellectuals,
  reflecting a conviction that peace-building must
  similarly be a joint and bi-partisan effort
  (assisted by the international community).

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IPCRI engages in two broad areas strategies for
its work

• Peacemaking and Peace building
• Peacemaking refers to the think-tank analytical
  and development of public policy alternatives.
  This is achieved through bringing Israelis and
  Palestinians together for policy oriented
  discussions and planning aimed at creating policy
  alternatives for the leaders of Israel, Palestine
  and the international community in order to
  advance peace processes between them.
• Peace building refers to the do-tank work of
  bringing Israelis and Palestinians together in
  cooperative programs aimed at developing greater
  understanding between them and at building
  constituencies for peace. Generally this work is
  carried out in programs on the environment, water
  and education for peace.

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IPCRIs Focus Areas
Peace Education (peace building) Water and Envi
ronment (peace building) Strategic Affairs Unit (
peace making)
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IPCRIs Profile

• Founded
• March 1988
• Registration
• Palestinian Authority Non-Governmental
  Organization, Registered with the Ministry of
  Interior, Ministry of Finance (Income Tax
  Registration)
• Israel A public benefit not for profit company
• USA 501 (c)(3) Not for profit public
  organization
  

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• Staff 10 people (2005)
• Budget - 1.2 million
• Main Donors Foreign Governments and Private
  Foundations

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• IPCRI, with its active information activities
  and joint Israeli-Palestinian forums, is unique
  in that it is the only Israeli-Palestinian joint
  research center in the region.
• From the start it was based on what was then,
  and still is, a unique premise IPCRI should be a
  truly joint Israeli-Palestinian organization with
  its governance and management built on
  co-leadership. Consequently it has a board of
  directors of 8 Israelis and 8 Palestinians (a
  rotating chairmanship every six months) and 2
  co-ceos

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• In promoting its role and identity in the
  peace-building process IPCRI defines itself as a
  think tank and a do tank aimed at engaging
  Israelis and Palestinians of significance in a
  public peace process and at creating cooperation
  and interaction on an ongoing basis.
• During these times of complete political
  stalemate and impasse, IPCRI aims its political,
  analytical and strategic planning work at trying
  to bring about a resumption of the political
  process of direct internationally assisted
  Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

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IPCRIs Uniqueness

• Founded in 1988 has run hundreds of practical
  programs in education, security, economics, law,
  agriculture, environment, water, Jerusalem,
  permanent status issues, and on-going
  negotiations.
• Internationally recognized and the winner of
  several prestigious awards
  

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World Movement for Democracy Tribute for Courage
for Peace and Democracy, 2004 Prize for Peace of
the Turkish Foreign Policy Institute, 2004
Histadrut Prize for Peace and Coexistence, 1996
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IPCRIs Uniqueness

• Since IPCRIs establishment it has continued to
  bring together Israelis and Palestinians,
  officials and non-officials, regularly through
  good times as well as during the bad times.
• IPCRI is a multi-disciplinary center engaging in
  a broad range of activities concerning the
  Israeli-Palestinian relationship.
  
• A long tradition of cooperation with
  international and local research centers and
  non-governmental organization
  
• All of IPCRIs policy planning groups include
  Israeli and Palestinian civil servants,
  academics, and professionals
  

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• We are not neutral
• We are not partisan
• Our challenge is to think about the interests of
  both sides and to identify the meeting points in
  interests that advance peace
  
• We are pluralistic and encourage ideas, creative
  thinking and initiatives

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• We seek to influence
• We seek to create opportunities for dialogue,
  engagement and negotiations
  
• IPCRIs identity, name, purpose and existence is
  based on mutual recognition of political rights
  through the two state solution.

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IPCRI has a tradition of praxis integrating
theory and reality developing practical
approaches to policy planning and development.
While engaging in active criticism of
governments policies, IPCRI always strives to be
constructive offering alternative policies
aimed at advancing peace. IPCRI aims to influ
ence policy and decision makers by engaging them
in the policy development work.
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Peace Education Department

• Program Rational
• Those who live under conditions of an ongoing
  violent conflict find themselves accustomed to
  attitudes and behaviors which derive from a
  situation of violence and distrust. This context
  refuels attitudes and behaviors that construct
  and reinforce it, and so we find ourselves
  imprisoned in a vicious cycle of violence.
• Our goal is to bring about change, social
  change, a change in awareness and patterns of
  thought that bring forth a change in the behavior
  patterns of all those who are involved in the
  educational process (students, teachers, school
  principals, the programs staff etc.) a
  structural change in which the vision of an
  equal, just society, that contains and accepts
  the other within will be actualized a society
  that regards just peace as a state of mind, a
  chosen value and a way of life.

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Education for peace is an ongoing and continuous
process

• The objectives of peace education are the
  imparting of values of tolerance and acceptance
  of the other, mutual respect of rights, equality
  and social justice. This is a critical thinking
  process, in which all who are involved in it are
  asked to examine themselves, their truths, and
  their patterns of behavior towards their
  environment and surroundings, and then towards
  the remote environment and their enemies.

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Water and Environment

• The IPCRI Environment and Water Program has been
  in existence since 1994. Since then, the
  Environment and Water Program has worked to
  promote effective cooperation between Israelis
  and Palestinians in the field of environment with
  a special emphasis on Water issues. It has
  successfully secured cooperation from the Israeli
  and Palestinian Environment Ministries, local
  authorities, NGOs and a wide variety of academic
  institutions. Many of the projects which it has
  carried out have been highly innovative.

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• SIWI
• Following the success of the IPCRI sponsored
  seminar on the Israeli/Palestinian water issues
  held during the World Water Week in Stockholm in
  August 2003, IPCRI and the Stockholm
  International Water Institute, SIWI, are now
  organizing a second whole-day seminar for the
  World Water Week 2005. The World Water Week takes
  place from 15-20 August 2005, and the Seminar on
  August 19th. This years emphasis will be on
  desalination, wastewater disposal in the West
  Bank and Gaza, the donors role in the region,
  and private financing of public water projects.
  Certain key research projects will also be
  presented.

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• OPTIMA
• IPCRI is participating in the OPTIMA
  (OPTImisation for Sustainable Water MAnagement)
  that brings together 14 partners from 12
  different Mediterranean countries. IPCRIs part
  in the project is concerned with the
  socio-economic management of the Mountain
  Aquifer. The project is supported by the European
  Union.
• OPTIMA seeks to improve efficiency in the use and
  allocation of water in the Mediterranean region,
  especially in the coastal zone of the South and
  East, in order to ensure sustainable development
  where economies are developing, and land use and
  demography are changing.

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Methyl Bromide

• Methyl Bromide (MBr) is one of the most potent
  ozone- depending chemicals known to humanity.
  Israel having signed and ratified the Montreal
  Protocol London on substances that deplete the
  ozone layer, the London Amendment, and the
  Copenhagen Amendment, is obliged to phase out its
  use of MBr by the year 2005. Israeli
  professionals have conducted research on this
  matter and have found a number of possible
  replacements for Israeli agriculture, and the
  limit of 2005 may very well be met. However, the
  Palestinian authority faces this deadline with
  urgency. Israel's compliance with the Montreal
  protocol applies to the PA as well. It has only
  until 2005 to eliminate its presently high level
  of MBr consumption.
• IPCRI is now setting up eight experimental and
  training plots in Gaza.

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Eurep-Gap

• Euro-Retailer Produce Working Group for Good
  Agricultural Practices
  
• The program is designed to help Palestinian
  farmers meet the standards for their produce
  required by EUREPGAP, a list of conditions which
  farmers must meet if they mean to export to
  Europe which is laid down by the relevant
  directorates of the European Union. It is
  essential that farmers should meet these
  standards if they mean to continue to export to
  Europe. Failure to meet them will mean that
  farmers are unable to sell their produce in their
  major international market.

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Strategic Affairs Unit

• The primary focus of IPCRIs strategic work is
  on proposing policy options and alternatives
  aimed at paving the way for the resumption of the
  political process. IPCRI is concentrating its
  efforts on confronting the here and now and not
  on permanent status issues.

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The Strategic Process

• STAT the Strategic Thinking and Analysis team
• The Economic Working Group
• The Political Working Group

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Paving the Way Towards a Realistic Political
Understanding leading toThe Notre Dame
Conference 22-23 Nov. 2004
The Goals of the Strategic Thinking- Planning
Process are To map, define and develop the fiel
ds of interests for Israel and Palestine within
the current given political context
The enrich the conceptual map of decision makers,
to challenge the public debate and to enable a
concrete expression of the efforts to resume
dialogue and negotiations towards the full
resumption of a political negotiated process.
To create and develop mechanisms for coordination
and cooperation on the basis of mutual interests
To break the impasse that blocks coordination and
cooperation between the parties.
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The Proposed Washington Conference

• State of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process
• An Annual Conference in Washington 
• Concept
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• Once a year, a gathering of the most significant
  institutions working on the Israeli-Palestinian
  question in the US along with significant
  participants fro Israel/Palestine would convene a
  stock-taking conference in DC. The main emphasis
  of the gathering would be to assess and evaluate
  the performance of the parties, including that of
  the US and the rest of Quartet with regards to
  advancing peace and to address new ideas for
  advancing the political process.

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• The event would be an excellent opportunity for
  cross pollination of ideas amongst the most
  important think-tank and research institutions
  working in the field. The event would seek to
  include in the audience senior policy makers from
  the US Government, Dept. of State, Dept. of
  Defense, NSC, The House and the Senate, as well
  as Ambassadors serving in Washington.
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• A joint steering committee with representatives
  from various institutions would be charged with
  setting the program and managing the conference.
  IPCRI would play a key role in coordinating
  between the Israeli and Palestinian institutions
  involved.  IPCRI, as a joint Israeli-Palestinian
  institution with 16 years experience working in
  the field can serve as a bridge between all of
  the institutions concerned.  IPCRI would chair
  the steering committee which would be composed of
  representatives of the participating
  institutions.
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• It is suggested that one Washington based
  Institution will be the center-point for the
  organization and administration of the event.