MA in Peace And Conflict Management

22/01/2023

In recent weeks the students in the Peace and Conflict Management Program had the opportunity to enjoy 2 , which provided insights into some of the complex conflicts in the region:

On 4th of January, the students from the class Community Conflict and Civil Society, with the professor Harry Frey were on an academic visit to the city of Akko, very close to Haifa, where they had the opportunity to explore and experience the territory from the perspective of local leaders and habitants of the area. Akko is a mixed Jewish-Arab city and the purpose of the visit was for the students to identify the opportunities and challenges that this community has in relation to the social development of the city. The students were invited to reflect on how they, as future peace builders, would face the different challenges that they identify in order to improve the quality of life from all the different populations that live and share the city of Akko.

A few days later, the students from the Peace and Conflict Management Program MA and Diplomacy MA accompanied by Professor Edward (Edy) Kaufman, had the opportunity to walk and experience the city of Haifa from an academic point of view. The tour was carried out with the objective of getting to know the different dynamics and cultures of the people who live in this city and the interaction between them. The field trip leads them to visit the Ahmedian Mosque and talk with one of the leaders, the Beit Hagefen, a well known and a great example of a Community Center in Israel that shares and strive for shared living, working with Arab and Jewish population, a guide tour though Wadi Nisnas neighborhood their history and context. The students and academic companions were also able to stop by the Municipality in Hassan Shukri and get to hear more from their historical main aspects and actual context of the city. Finally, the day ended at the Baha'i World Center, having the complete experience with a walking tour through the gardens, seeking for an open dialogue with some volunteers from the Baha'i faith, sharing their beliefs and identifying shared values that we all have as human beings.

As part of the holistic formation that the Peace and Conflict Management Program is seeking for their students, the field trips are created to help students apply what they learn in the classroom and have the opportunity to identify complex social conflicts in the real and tangible context, having a more rounded approach and developing their leadership, empowered to think how they can add value if intervening as a Peacebuilder/ Conflict Specialist.

01/12/2022

On November 21, 2022, the Program in Peace and Conflict Management at the אוניברסיטת חיפה - University of Haifa held a conference on the occasion of the release of a study conducted by Dr. Rolly Rosen under the supervision of Dr.Keren Sharvit and Dr. Ran Kuttner, entitled “Breaking Down the Walls: Municipal response to the May 2021 riots in Haifa and lessons for managing a shared city”. The study, conducted in collaboration with The Abraham Initiatives, a central NGO focusing on Jewish-Arab relations in Israel, aimed at understanding the dynamics that led to the outbreak of the violent events and their decline; and formulating recommendations to prevent the occurrence of similar events in the future. The conference included a presentation of the study, an academic panel, and roundtables in which participants discussed the recommendations and took part in thinking about future steps. An upcoming follow-up project will include convening key stakeholders from relevant organizations and the public for the joint implementation of the recommendations, thus offering a model for building infrastructure and capacities in mixed Jewish-Arab cities to prepare and better manage possible future escalations. To read the complete study, in Hebrew and Arabic (summary in English in the last 18 pages), see

Special Events Keren Sharvit About 29 November 2022 Hits: 11 Special Events Print Email On November 21, 2022, the Program in Peace and Conflict Management at the University of Haifa held a conference on the occasion of the release of a study conducted by Dr. Rolly Rosen under the supervision of Dr.....

11/05/2022

The PCM Cohort of ‘21-‘22 had their last field trip, to learn about life along the stormy Gaza border. Col. (Ret.) David Hacham highlighted key safety concerns for the military and elaborated on past; negotiations with Arab leaders; doubts about current leadership in both sides and the main obstacles to pursue further peace talks .
While past infiltrations of the border were mentioned at Kibbutz Nachal Oz and Sderot, three main themes came up. The first was the increased sense of security from future infiltrations with new technology. The second was the theme of resilience; how Israelis in communities along the border cope with the constant worry of rocket attacks and kites and/or balloons, with tools taught by organizations such as the Sderot animal-assisted therapy center. The third was the theme of sympathy. Hila Gal (Director of Animal Therapy Center) mentioned that the children in Sderot have sympathy for those in Gaza, and ask questions such as if they also have an animal therapy center. Danny Rachamim from Kibbutz Nachal Oz mentioned the losses the Kibbutz has suffered - both personally and agriculturally. Yet, he emphasized his past relations with individuals who live in Gaza and his ongoing advocacy with Women Waging Peace, for a nonviolent end to the conflict. This Peace Wall, in Netiv HaAsara, is a visible representation of that yearning for peace in the region.

04/04/2022

16/03/2022

Last week, PCM students went to the first of this year. They enjoyed an amazing day in with different guests and conferences about The International Challenges of Cross Border Cooperation and in particular of joint environmental protection.

The students went to the The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the observatory of the old city with Ambassador Aviv Sir-On; to the Bird Observatory, where they had time to sit and observe different bird species in their natural habitat and then attend the conference of The environmental and sustainable challenges of The Red Cross in Israel.

In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the students were able to speak their voices up and share their beliefs and questions about various complexities in the region and in a global way. This was really interesting because they could speak from their own countries' experience and situations that they have seen back home!

18/01/2022

Dr. Ran Kuttner participated in a discussion of the House Committee at The Knesset - הכנסת on the topic of "roadmap for the resolution of disputes", focused on possible ways to transform the Parliament's labor toward more effective management of diversity and disputes.

Over 20 MPs participated in the meeting, emphasizing the importance of the topic. In addition, 8 members of shared-society organizations & academic institutions participated, each addressing the challenge from their own experience.
In his, Dr. Kuttner stated that is the number one security threat to the Israeli society, having a destructive effect on its . He empathized with the MPs, who at time feel obligated to play a role they do not necessarily wish to play, acting with increased adversarial and polarizing tendencies because it seems that this is expected of them. His recommendations were:
1. MPs should work with professionals, conflict engagement specialists, as advisors, with the aim of cultivating practices - even if they seem to contradict certain notions of "good politics" – argumentative, manipulative, even divisive.
2. To adopt models of consensus-based enactment and policy design, or negotiated rulemaking ("reg-neg"), to support collaborative action in early stage of legislation processes.
3. To establish an internal and center at the parliament, consists of professional conflict-engagement specialists, to support the parliamentary work on ongoing basis.

06/01/2022

Earlier this week the PCM Program held its 5th meeting in the Series. We had a fascinating talk by Nadav Tamir, the Executive Director of J Street eet, the political home of pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans. He is on the board of the Mitvim Think Tank for Regional Diplomacy, an Adviser for International Affairs at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation and on the steering committee of the .

Tamir's lecture, a follow up on the visit PCM students had earlier in the semester to the , was titled The Peres Philosophy - the synergy between peace and Innovation.

The 4 pillars of Peres's philosophy, according to Tamir, were , , and always looking for situations.

Diplomacy according to Peres, said Tamir, is not about winning a debate, but winning hearts and minds, which one achieves through .

Tamir uses the acronym , which stands for Hope, Empathy, Listening, Proactive (problem-solving approach) and self-critic (starting by working on oneself).

Peres was young also when 90 years old, said Tamir, as young people are looking forward, while old people are looking backwards. That inspires us to look forward with hope, with Peres's 4 pillars in mind!

16/12/2021

On Monday, the PCM students had the honor of hearing from Yaniv Sagee , the current Educational Advisor to the Ministry of Regional Cooperation and former CEO of Givat Haviva. Sagee discussed how, under his leadership, GH changed its mission statement from creating co-existence to creating a shared society. In addition, he discussed the “Road Map to Shared Society,” presented to the Knesset in 2017 just prior to the changeover in government, which provided tangible steps towards creating a shared society among Jews and Arabs in Israel. Since GH is a glocal organization, their pioneer work and this well researched road map would be a useful tool for any country to achieve their own shared society, based on a system where different cultures are both equal under the law and have good relations.

01/12/2021

We are happy to share that earlier this week the Conflict Resolution Quarterly, the journal of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR), published a Special Issue on Shared Societies (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/15411508), in which Dr. Ran Kuttner, the Head of this Program and Dr.Ehud Eiran, from the School of Political Science at the אוניברסיטת חיפה - University of Haifa , served as Guest Editors. The Issue consists of theory and case studies on Shared Society from various places around the world.
The Special Issue is a result of an international 5-year program on the development of next generation theory and practice of shared society building (https://wp.uni-koblenz.de/sharedsociety/) , in which academicians and practitioners from Israel, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Belgium came together to learn from each other and jointly develop cutting edge theory and practice on these issues.

Click on the title to browse this journal

30/11/2021

Wishing you all, a lot of light in your lives. Happy Hanukkah!

25/11/2021

On Monday the PCM students had a guest lecture by alumni Ameer Fakhoury. Fakhoury is the director of the research department at Wahat al-Salam - Neve Shalom School for Peace and co-director of the The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute - מכון ון ליר בירושלים research group on nationalism and partnership. His work focuses on shared society building and on efforts to develop partnerships and Jewish and Palestinian citizens in Israel. Fakhoury is particularly interested in how culture is related to power. During the Q & A section, he expanded on both the political and social hierarchy of the country as it relates to different cultures, and emphasized the complexity of building a shared society, since there are sub-groups within each designated group.

21/11/2021

Don't miss out our 2nd lecture in the lecture series "Broadening horizons in the peacebuilding field: Meeting practitioners and scholars", tomorrow, Nov. 22 at 16:15.

In this opportunity, our guest speaker is Ameer Fakhoury, who is a graduate of our program who we are very proud of. His work is focused on theories of ethnic and national groups, and inter-group conflicts.

Link for those abroad: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87605708628?pwd=NzQ2U2F5cUFsNWdjamg3OHBseVF0Zz09

15/11/2021

If you are thinking about studying with us, you may want to check the following scholarships to help you out to follow your dreams 😉: https://www.milgapo.co.il/?milga=_e4e-poalim

מלגת פועלים להצלחה, בשיתוף חינוך לפסגות, מעניקה מלגות לסטודנטים בשווי 10,000 שקלים! אלו הן מלגות לפריפריה חברתית וגיאוגרפית, ולסטודנטים במעמד סוציו אקונומי נמוך עד בינ...

10/11/2021

Now that the PCM students have had a month to settle in, we introduced two exciting new supplementary learning opportunities this week.

On Monday, they had their first guest speaker, Professor Rassem Khamaisi, a Professor at the University of Haifa and Urban and Regional planner specializing in planning among the Arabs in Israel and the Palestinians in the Palestinians territory and Jerusalem. Prof. Khamaisi discussed some of the complexities of Jewish-Arab relations here in Israel, including the contradicting narratives and the complications for geographical policy planning.

On Sunday, the students expanded on this knowledge with their first field trip to see the complexities for themselves. On the journey, to the Wadi A'ra region which consists of Jewish and Arab municipalities & villages side by side, they heard from a variety of people, including but not limited to grass roots activists from Givat Haviva, one of the oldest and largest NGOs that conducts shared-society work , current and former politicians, a police deputy that expended on the work with minority groups, and a resident of Barta’a, whose town is divided by the security fence. The trip continued to Jaffa, where they visited the local Arab-Jewish Community Center for Tolerance and Peace Ajcc Jaffa and The Peres Center for Peace & Innovation מרכז פרס לשלום ולחדשנות , to learn about their efforts to build peace and shared living among both Jews and Arabs in Israel, and Israel and the Palestinian Authority. While “challenges” were voiced continuously, the tone of the day was hopeful.

The students will continue to have guest speakers every few weeks throughout the year and have three more field trips planned. Stay tuned to see who else they meet and where else they go.

16/08/2021

Students share with us different experiences regarding the practicum or internship of the program. In this case Constanza from Argentina tell us about her volunteer work at Isha L'Isha - Haifa Feminist Center

02/08/2021

If you missed the graduation ceremony, want to watch it again or just want to share with family or friends, you can find it in the YouTube channel of the University of Haifa, at the following link:

https://youtu.be/fwn1Kcw8T2c
We hope you had enjoyed it! 😉

Catch the International Graduate Programs Ceremony LIVE on Sunday, July 25th at 16:00 (Israel time)....שמחים שקפצתם לביקור! חפשו אותנו גם ב:פייסבוק: http://b...

02/08/2021

We share with you the pictures of the graduation ceremony and some of the students of PCM progam 2020-2021. Congratulations to all!!

You can check on the full photo album of the event and share it with family and friends: https://photos.app.goo.gl/NLkVbCV31ax2vKnM8

We wish you lots of success for your last few weeks of studies at the University!

27/07/2021

Last Sunday, the students of PCM had their graduation ceremony before going back to their respective countries.

Congratulations to all and also to those who were not able to be present but hold the continued effort to take the program virtually from their homes.

In this picture with professors Shervit and Kuttner.