This simulation was created by and published courtesy of Dr. Mohammed Abu-Nimer.

Title: Peacebuilders Simulation

Description:  Participants will explore the various elements, issues, and challenges that Palestinian and Israeli peacebuilders face in their work and daily lives.    

Goal: Introduce peacebuilders work and various perspectives on the conflict and conflict resolution. 

Supplies: Handout

Estimated Time:  2.5hrs

Suggested group size: 15-20

Portrait: Various

Pre-Session: Divide participants into two groups, Palestinians and Israelis.  Assign each participant a peacebuilder from Just Vision’s Visionaries section.  Ask participants to read the full interview on Just Vision’s website as well as research 2 outside articles about the individual.  While reading, they should think about how the peacebuilder would answer the following questions:

1. Why are you involved in your work?
2. How do you see and react to the situation today?
3. What are the core values of peace that guide your work?
4. How would you react to an invitation to work with the other side under the current reality? 
5. What are some of the challenges you face in doing this work (either internally, socially, or pragmatically)?

Session: give participants the following scenario. 

You are a director/staff members of several Israeli-Palestinian human rights and peace organizations and you work with educators and civil society groups.  The recent events in Gaza and the West Bank produced a real sense of crisis in your staff.  Earlier this year, Palestinians were killed in Gaza, and Qassam rockets landed in South Israel in the town of Sderot.

During 2008-2009, you have managed to conduct two dialogue programs for the Israeli and Palestinian civil society groups (Jerusalem and Istanbul).  However, these meetings were difficult and required enormous efforts to organize.

Today, you are invited to this meeting to explore how other organizations are dealing with the situation and to decide on the ways to address the 2009-2010 planned activities with the other group (your partner on the other side).

Role Play: ask participants to each try to the best of her/his ability to stay in role of the peacebuilder she/he each studied and try to answer the questions according to the peacebuilder’s perspective. 

Divide participants into two uni-national groups, all Palestinian peacebuilders together, and all Israeli peacebuilders together.  In their uni-national groups, ask participants the following questions:

1. Briefly introduce yourself and your organization’s activities.
2. How have recent events affected you and your work?  What have been some of the challenges you have been faced with?
3. What motivated you to come to the meeting here today? What do you hope you could accomplish as an individual or as a group?
4. What are some of your concerns?

Then ask participants to stay in role play and mix the two groups together to create one bi-national group.  In the bi-national group, ask the peacebuilders to discuss the following:

1. Introduce yourself and your organization’s activities.
2. What would you say to the partner from the other side about the current situation? (feelings, issues, dynamics).
3. How do you feel about the possibility of future dialogue under these circumstances?
4. What will you recommend to do with the remaining program?

Debrief: after the simulation is completed, bring participants together for a debrief.  Some questions to lead the discussion could be:

1. What are your overall reactions to the exercise?
2. What were some of the challenges you faced in portraying the individual? 
3. What were some of the challenges you faced in the group?
4. Despite all of the subjects being peacebuilders, what differences in approach/opinion did you see?
5. Did you see any differences between the approaches of the Palestinian peacebuilders versus the Israeli peacebuilders?
6. Did you face any difficulty or challenges in developing a joint project?