Upcoming Events

1.  Sunday October 16, at 6pm @ Bus Boys and Poets: Popular Revolutions and Political Impass: Israeli and Palestinian Bloggers Discuss Diplomacy and Regional Changes

2. Tuesday October 25th, at 11am in Founder’s Hall Room 322: A Video-Conference with Palestinians

Past Events

National Capital Area Chapter People to People International and ICAR’s Center for World Religions, Diplomacy & Conflict Resolution

invite you to:

From Revenge to Reconciliation
A presentation on the Israeli / Palestinian peace movement

We are pleased to present the story of the Palestinian and Israeli peace building partners, Aziz Abu Sarah and Kobi Skolnick.  Aziz and Kobi will talk about their work in a lecture called “From Revenge to Reconciliation.”

Mary Jean Eisenhower, President and CEO of People to People
International (PTPI), and granddaughter of President Dwight D.
Eisenhower who founded People to People International, will join us to
present the PTPI Lifetime Achievement Award to Ambassador John W.
McDonald.

COST:
Member: $15 per person /  $20 at the door
Guests: $20 per person / $25 at the door
Students: FREE!!

Please RSVP by November 12th to Meg Carter, by email or phone (703) 266-8576
Send your check, payable to NCAC/PTPI to:

Ms. Margaret Carter
6603 Little Brook Court
Clifton, VA 20124

Aziz Abu Sarah, a Palestinian born and raised in Jerusalem, is a veteran practitioner in the Palestinian-Israeli peace movement. Most notably, he was the chairman of Parents Circle-Bereaved Families Forum, which is a joint organization of 500 Israeli and Palestinian bereaved families who work for reconciliation. He is co-founder of Al-Tariq Institute, which runs projects in the West Bank for democracy, non-violent education and civil society. Aziz has an educational background in Biblical studies and professional background in tourism management.

Kobi Skolnick is an associate at the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution (CRDC), George Mason University. Kobi was born into a Hasidic family in Israel and moved to a settlement in the West Bank during his high school years. He was a member of the fundamentalist Kahana youth movement that promoted Jewish power and regularly encouraged its members to assault Palestinians. During his service in the Israeli army, he became aware of the complexity of the conflict and began to open his mind to other perspectives. Today, he is highly involved in the Israeli-Palestinian peace movement.

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RECENT ACTIVITIES

CRDC COMPLETES ITS FIRST EVER JOINT SYRIAN – AMERICAN PROGRAM IN CITIZEN DIPLOMACY AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION

See more photos from the trip here!

The Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution, George Mason University (CRDC) has just completed its first ever joint program between an American graduate program and a Syrian post-graduate training center in citizen diplomacy and conflict resolution. Study in Syria constituted George Mason University’s Institute of Conflict Analysis and Resolution’s first ever course located in Damascus, Syria. Twenty graduates students, mostly from ICAR, but also from the Fletcher School, American University, George Washington and Georgetown travelled to Syria to study the first ever graduate course in citizen diplomacy with Dr. Marc Gopin, Director of CRDC, and author of the recently published To Make the Earth Whole: Citizen Diplomacy in an Age of Religious Militancy. CRDC combined classes with the Syrian International Academy, whose students joined Gopin’s class, thus culminating their certificate in citizen diplomacy and conflict resolution, bestowed by CRDC, under the direction of Hind Kabawat, director of CRDC-Damascus. The Syrian and Mason students developed an intensive and extraordinary working social network of partnerships that has already resulted in a Syrian/American Facebook group of alumni dedicated to small projects creation and mutual aid in the development of a social network for peacebuilding and other joint projects of positive social change. The week of study and touring of cultural and religious sites culminated in the Syrian students’ gala graduation celebration, attended by a number of Syrian dignitaries, embassy representatives, especially from Spain, the EU, and the United States.

The week of intensive training combined class lectures, joint innovative project creation, as well as high level meetings with significant figures in Syria, including Dr. Bouthaina Shaban, and Michel Smacha, Presidential Advisors, the President of Damascus University, as well as a special meeting with the Grand Mufti of Syria, Sheikh Hassoun, as well as theGrand Mufti of Damascus, and the Chief of the Religious Legal Courts (Sharia Courts) of Syria. That meeting – which was reported on by Haaretz – was an emotional reunion of Dr. Gopin and Sheikh Hassoun, a review of the results of the devastating wars of the region, especially in Iraq, with simple and profound messages for President Obama as to where the United States should put its future efforts in the region. It became a joint call for life-affirming American contributions to the region and its suffering refugees, with wonderful student engagement with the Mufti. Gopin noted, “In all my 27 years of interfaith peace work in the region, never have I seen such a high level and profound engagement of shared humanity as was expressed in that room with the Grand Mufti. To see so many prominent clergy weeping together with students over the losses of children to war in the region was the greatest testimony I have ever witnessed to the true spirit of Islam and the Abrahamic Faiths.”

Students were astonished at how quickly they would become immersed in and responsible for high level meetings and the mechanics, challenges, and surprising breakthroughs of citizen diplomacy, all under the watchful and quixotic eye of international media. They did not just study citizen diplomacy. After an intensive interview process to be accepted into the program, they were quickly called upon to be diplomats themselves, agents of positive change, in highly sensitive and challenging environments. They were also treated to a night out at the opera by the Spanish Ambassador, in addition to celebrations with their fellow students almost every night, a dinner sponsored by the United States Embassy, and a beautiful dinner at the ancient home of Hind and Samer Kabawat in the Old City.

Plans for the future include next year’s program of new students, citizen diplomacy tourism to the region, videos, op-eds, and the development of a social network of students committed to conflict resolution and citizen diplomacy.

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CRDC HOLDS UNPRECEDENTED INTERFAITH DINNER AT THE RESIDENCE OF MOROCCAN AMBASSADOR AZIZ MEKOUAR

November 17, 2009

See more photos from the evening here!

On Tuesday night, November 17, CRDC sponsored a unique event at the residence of the Moroccan Ambassador, his Excellency Aziz Mekouar. The group of 50 people came together for a special presentation and dinner. The invitation read:

We at CRDC would like to send a warm and personal invitation to you to participate in a special interfaith Abrahamic evening at the residence of His Excellency Aziz Mekouar, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco to the United States.

CRDC staff Scott Cooper, Becca Grimm, and Fadwa Barzinji worked tirelessly to create this special gathering. CRDC’s newly recruited Jennifer Aldridge helped weave together the atmosphere, as did ICAR’s Ph.D. students Roi Ben Yehuda and Marci Moberg. ICAR’s Paul Snodgrass played a crucial role in the seamless presentation of two films, one from Marc Gopin’s Unusual Pairs videos, created by David Vyorst and funded by the Fetzer Foundation, on Palestinian/Jewish peace work in Jerusalem, and a film on the Parliament of World Religions, introduced by Ruth Broyde Sharone, director of the successful film, God and Allah Need to Talk.

Also in attendance was CRDC Chair Joseph Montville, and Board Members Dr. Robert Eisen and Leo Kramer. Marc Gopin mc’d the evening, introducing the Ambassador to this gathering of Muslims, Christians and Jews, with a special emphasis on those with Middle Eastern origins. Also in attendance were clerics, professionals from the State Department, AID, USIP, George Washington University, and a variety of corporations.

After the films, the crowd was graced by a breathtaking blessing by Imam Yahya Hendi, chaplain at Georgetown University, together with Rabbi Gerald Serrotta, who are the two founders of Clergy Beyond Borders, and one of the most amazing Palestinian/Jewish teams for peacemaking.

The magnificent dinner and the friendly and warm ambiance were all made possible by the incredible professional staff of the Embassy. Peace in the region was a central theme of the evening, and considering the difficulty of the topic, CRDC wishes to express its gratitude to all 50 attendees for the grace, generosity and good will that they all showed to each other. Marc Gopin said of the evening:

“The atmosphere was captivating in its peacefulness, the conversations profound, all created by the quality of CRDC’s staff and volunteers, the charm and professionalism of the Embassy staff, and the character of the pro-peace and justice people who came. We wanted good but isolated people to know each other at a more profound level. We wanted to model a different Middle East, what it could be. And we did just that.”

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CRDC HOSTS ITS 1ST ANNUAL CITIZEN DIPLOMACY EVENING

October 19, 2009

ICAR Report of the event:

Description

The Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution (CRDC) was pleased to host a joyous “Citizen Diplomacy Evening” at 7:30pm on Monday October 19 in Room 555 of the Truland Building. CRDC’s first Citizen Diplomacy Award was presented to CRDC Senior Associate Hind Kabawat, and a new film on Hind Kabawat and her pioneering work in Syria, directed by David Vyorst and funded by the Fetzer Institute was screened.

Watch the entire event here!

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See photos from the event here!

Event Invitation

(graciously donated by the Barzinji family)

Detailed Event Invitation

The Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution (CRDC) is pleased to invite everyone to a joyous “Citizen Diplomacy Evening” at 7:30pm on Monday October 19 in Room 555 of the Truland Building. We will be presenting CRDC’s first Citizen Diplomacy Award to CRDC Senior Associate Hind Kabawat, and screening a new film on Hind Kabawat and her pioneering work in Syria, directed by David Vyorst and funded by the Fetzer Institute. Hind will be in attendance to describe the context of the film and respond to questions. But mostly this will be an evening of celebration of achievements, together with friends, diplomats and fellow travelers.

The film is part of a series entitled UNUSUAL PAIRS: Friends Across the Divide. This is a multi-year project designed by CRDC Director Marc Gopin and film director David Vyorst, and it consists of online films and a forthcoming book by Marc that analyzes the anatomy of ‘beloved enemies’, friendships and partnerships across dangerous divides, both in the world’s wisdom literature and in the actual lived experiences of contemporary peace partners who display evidence of truly equal partnerships.

The approach to positive change that the project presents is largely unknown. That is why Marc together with Fetzer considered it a vital contemporary social need for many more people to know of this work. We are presenting these beautiful films in the widest possible venue and completely free of charge, a series of films and a book that would otherwise be quite expensive. The purpose of making this work generously available is to make the public a part of our efforts to engage the world, educate the world, and create a social network committed to positive social change even for those people embroiled in deadly conflict.

Our special focus for this stage of the project is the Middle East, and in particular a set of Arab/Jewish relationships. The films introduce an in-depth look at unique partners who develop friendship, devotion, cooperation and path-breaking peace work across the lines of enemy groups. They have developed these friendships and partnerships even in the midst of war, loss, grievance, pain, and even with accusations all around them of treason and betrayal. Yet these unusual men and women have formed effective bridges of humanity where none existed. They have proven to be resilient, creative, persistent, compassionate and visionary when others around them give up hope. They are models to be studied and debated, and those presented in the films are but a few of thousands of ‘unusual pairs’ across the globe today waiting to be discovered, learned from, and supported.

Our project wants to know, what makes these people tick? Who are they and why do they do what they do? And how can they be a role model for thousands of others in such a way that makes these ‘citizen diplomats’ so numerous that they have a positive impact on missing or weak government peace processes? We are looking for viewers in the public to send us links to other stories of a similar nature, in order to help us build a powerful reservoir of human knowledge on social change.

We will have many distinguished guests to celebrate the film and the award, and Marc will also introduce at the end of the evening excerpts from his latest book, To Make the Earth Whole: The Art of Citizen Diplomacy an the Age of Religious Militancy (Rowman Littlefield), which analyzes the past five years of Hind’s work and his in Syria.

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AZIZ AND KOBI SPEAK AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI ON RECONCILIATION, JUSTICE AND PEACE

September 24, 2009

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MARC GOPIN IN TORONTO

DR. MARC GOPIN

Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 7pm

Director of the Center on Religion, Diplomacy, and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution will be speaking about his new book “To Make the Earth Whole” at:

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Indigo Books and Music

Manulife Center – Bay and Bloor

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Please join us to hear and meet the author of this important work and buy a signed copy of the book

To Make the Earth Whole: The Art of Citizen Diplomacy in an Age of Religious Militancy

To Make the Earth Whole studies the art of citizen diplomacy—a process that can address clashes of religion and culture across regional lines even when traditional negotiations between governments can fail. While faith and regional differences have been sources of division around the world in recent decades, millions of citizens are also creating bonds of friendship and collaboration that are forming the basis of a global community.

Drawing on the experiences gleaned from years practicing citizen diplomacy in some of the world’s most politically charged climates, scholar-practitioner of conflict resolution and rabbi Marc Gopin describes his work in Syria as a central case study of the book. The author outlines the strategic basis for creating community across lines of enmity, the social network theory to explain how this happens, and the long term vision required for a progressive but inclusive global community that respects religious communities even as it limits their coercive power over others. This powerful and practical book outlines an incremental and evolutionary strategy of positive change that stands a strong chance of success, even in today’s most conservative and repressive religious and political contexts. To Make the Earth Whole also examines the ethical challenges of citizen diplomacy from the perspectives of both Western and Eastern philosophies and religions. The world’s wisdom traditions are essential in devising a way for citizens to develop the foundations for global community.

• A compelling combination of the latest theories in conflict resolution and rich personal experience in the field of interreligious peacebuilding, particularly in the Middle East.
• Central case study of Syria sheds light on a little-understood country that is key to efforts towards peace in the region.
• Accessibly written for use by students, scholars and practitioners in the field of conflict resolution, government officials, and general readers interested in the potential for citizen diplomacy to make a positive change in our world.

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CRDC welcomes new Director of Middle East Projects, veteran Palestinian peacebuilder Aziz Abu Sarah

Aziz Abu Sarah is a Palestinian who has spent the last ten years working as a peacebuilding practitioner. Born and raised in Jerusalem, Abu Sarah lost his brother to the conflict when he was just ten years old. As a result of this tragic loss, he joined the Fatah movement where he spent years writing angry articles for their youth magazine. At the age of 18, as a young Palestinian looking to survive in Jerusalem, he determined that he needed to learn Hebrew and signed up for a Hebrew language course (Ulpan). As the only Palestinian in a class of Israels, he had the experience of meeting Jews and Israelis for the first time, not as soldiers, but as human beings with similar interests, hopes, dreams and tragedies. These experiences changed him forever.

Since then, Abu Sarah has been one of the most dedicated and beloved activists in the Palestinian-Israeli peace movement. Most recently he served as the Palestinian chairman for the Bereaved Families Forum in Israel-Palestine, a group of 500 Israeli and Palestinian Bereaved Families who work for peace. He is a co-founder of Al-Tariq, the Palestinian Institute for Democracy and Development, a Palestinian NGO that runs projects in the West Bank on democracy, non-violent education and civic empowerment. Abu Sarah, along with a Jewish Israeli partner, co-hosted “Changing Directions,” a bilingual radio show in Jerusalem, for three years. Broadcasting from the station ‘All Radio for Peace’ they interviewed thousands of Palestinians and Israelis who underwent a significant transformation in their lives from violence or hatred to peace.

Abu Sarah is a seasoned lecturer who has spoken in hundreds of churches, synagogues and mosques on interfaith dialogue and on the role of religion in reconciliation and has addressed countless international organizations and universities, including the European Parliament, Georgetown University, Columbia, Princeton, Brandeis, Yale, and Fordham. Abu Sarah is highly involved in the Israeli-Palestinian peace movement and, as a result of his work, he has been honored to receive the Silver Rose Award from the European Parliament, the Goldberg Prize for Peace in the Middle East from the Institute of International Education, and the Eisenhower Medallion from People to People International. Abu Sarah’s educational background is in Biblical studies.

Since coming to CRDC, Abu Sarah has designed several new projects along with CRDC’s Director Dr. Marc Gopin and Managing Director, Scott Cooper. The projects they have created all fall under the rubric of a larger project, The Arab Jewish Alliance, which seeks to ” facilitate people-to-people relationship transformation to create a critical mass for social change in the Arab-Jewish relationship.”

Some projects include:

• Citizen Diplomacy Tours to Palestine and Israel with a foucs on systematically overlooked local peacebuilding initiatives and honest, equitable small business partnerships between Arabs, Jews, Israelis, Palestinians.
• “Peace Steps: Paths to Positive Change,” a regular audio visual podcast show featuring Abu Sarah, Gopin and other pairs of hosts who come from across enemy lines. Episodes will:
  • Focus on the chronically overlooked stories of those individuals and organizations that offer positive and constructive solutions to daily challenges.
  • Explore ‘taboo’ topics, analyze current events and offer alternative perspectives on the Middle Eastern Conflict.

If you’re interested in contacting Aziz about guest lecturing or CRDC about more information or getting involved, send an email to crdc@gmu.edu

Aziz is truly one of the finest Palestinian peacebuilders – We at CRDC feel blessed that he decided to join our team.

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Women of Syria for Peace and Justice: Hind Kabawat orchestrates unprecedented event with CRDC Director Rabbi/Dr. Marc Gopin at Assad library in Damascus

CRDC recently obtained the actual footage of one of our most inspiring acts of citizen diplomacy to date. It was the first public dialogue in Syria on peace in the Middle East in over forty years. Millions of people witnessed history as the amazing event was broadcasted all over major TV outlets throughout the Arab world. It is true testament to what a unique pair of committed peacemakers, Arab and Jewish, can do with perseverance, care and of course a little bit of risk. Watch the encouraging event here. Learn more about it in Dr. Gopin’s new book, To Make the Earth Whole: The Art of Citizen Diplomacy in an Age of Religious Militancy.

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Read Marc’s report in Common Ground News here.

PAST ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS

CRDC Coordinates Historic Meeting between His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan and American Rabbis

King Abdullah II of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan had an unprecedented meeting with over 60 rabbis, in an event held September 21, 2005 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington DC. The event was initiated by King Abdullah, sponsored by the Embassy of Jordan, and coordinated by the CRDC and Dr. Robert Eisen of George Washington University. King Abdullah gave a speech entitled “Judaism and Islam: Beyond Tolerance,” which is available as a pdf document here. A full report with more photos can be found here.

The September meeting with King Abdullah led Rabbi Dr. Barry Dov Schwartz to organize a series of discussions on Judaism and Islam for his synagogue in New York. More…

“Realities and Challenges: Worldly and Religious With Discussion of the Palestinian-Israeli Case.”

Dr. Bernard Sabella, Professor of Sociology at Bethlehem University and Director of Services for Palestinian Refugees for the Middle East Council of Churches, spoke at CRDC on September 1, 2005. More…

Interfaith Dialogue in Damascus

CRDC co-sponsored a televised debate in Syria on religion, tolerance, and the state of political relations in the Middle East on May 25, 2005. Conceived by local Syrian activists, the event was sponsored as a debate in order to recognize the difficult divisions facing the Middle East in which religion and politics intersect, such as the Palestinian/Israeli conflict or the war on terrorism.

The debate was covered by all the major newspapers in Syria and attended by numerous ambassadors and citizens. As with the CRDC-sponsored event six months before in Damascus, the floor was opened to questions from the audience and lively debate ensued. These were both unprecedented events in terms of audience participation.

A full report of Dr. Gopin’s May 2005 trip to Syria is available here.

CRDC holds first training in Religion, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution

In May 2005 the Center held its first training on religion, diplomacy and conflict resolution. Participants came from a broad spectrum of sectors, and included government and non-profit workers, academics, cultural specialists, former diplomats, and religious leaders. If you are interested in future trainings, let us know.

Religious Tolerance in Syria: Building a Culture of Peace

In a presentation cosponsored by the Syrian Public Relatons Association, on April 14, 2005 Syrian peacebuilder Hind Kabawat spoke at the Center on issues relating to religious tolerance and tradition in Syria. The talk was followed by a fruitful and often intense discussion, moderated by CRDC Director Marc Gopin.

Religious Tolerance in Uzbekistan

March 18, 2005 CRDC hosted a discussion at the Center with religious leaders from Uzbekistan, who were in the U.S. as part of an IREX exchange program. ICAR Faculty Member Karyna Korostelina and CRDC staff facilitated the discussion.

“Women, the Arts, and Islam” with Saudi Poet Nimah Nawwab

In a lunchtime seminar on February 16, 2005, Saudi poet Nimah Ismail Nawwab discussed “Women, the Arts, and Islam” and shared some of her poetry.

“Reconciliation in Abrahamic Perspective: Lessons from the Middle East”

The CRDC hosted a brown bag lunch meeting of the
Washington D.C. chapter of the Council on Faith and International Affairs on February 15, 2005. Marc Gopin spoke on the topic of “Reconciliation in Abrahamic Perspective: Lessons from the Middle East.” Marc shared some of of the lessens learned on his recent trip to Israel and Syria.

Center Director Marc Gopin speaks on lessons in back-channel diplomacy learned from his recent trip to the Middle East

Dr. Tom Farr on “Religious Freedom and the State Department: Problems & Promises”

The CRDC hosted a brown bag lunch meeting of the
Washington D.C. chapter of the Council on Faith and International Affairs on January 27, 2005. Dr. Tom Farr spoke on the topic of “Religious Freedom and the State Department: Problems & Promises” Dr Farr was the first Director of the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, and served there from 1999 to 2005.

Dr. Farr, former Director of the Office of International Religious
Freedom at the US State Department, listens to a question from a participant

Interfaith Dialogue in Syria

In a public dialogue in Damascus, Syria, Hind Kabawat, a Christian religious peace activist and resident of Damascus and Toronto, spoke on ‘A Culture of Peace’ in the Assad National library in Damascus with over three hundred people in attendance. CRDC Director Marc Gopin responded, followed by a stimulating question and answer session with the audience. The event received national publicity with interviews on National television and radio. More about the dialogue and Dr. Gopin’s January trip to Syria can be found here: Winds of Change in Syria: An In-depth Report.

Dialogue with Saudi and Jewish Scholars

In December 2004, the CRDC and the United States Institute for Peaceco-sponsored a day of dialogue between six Saudi Islamic scholars and a group of Jewish scholars as part of a week-long encounter between the Saudi group and others in Washington. The purpose of the day of meetings was the creation of linkages and friendships leading to a reduction of stereotypes that have plagued the Jewish-Islamic encounter, and to lay the groundwork for shared discussion on legal reform, religious tolerance and new definitions of Jewish-Islamic relations.

The Role of Elections in Post-Conflict Reconstruction: The 2004 Afghanistan Elections

This forum, held November 1, 2004, was a stimulating discussion of local and international perspectives on elections and democracy. Speakers were The Hon. Peter R. Chaveas, Senior Research Professor at the School of Public Policy, George Mason University, and former U.S. ambassador to Sierra Leone; The Hon. Peter Tomsen, Ambassador in Residence at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and former U.S. Special Envoy and Ambassador on Afghanistan; Dr. Marina S. Ottaway, Senior Associate in Democracy and Rule of Law at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; and Ms. Sima Wali, President of Refugee Women in Development.

The Hon. Peter Tomsen, former U.S. Special Envoy
and Ambassador on Afghanistan, speaking on the elections in Afghanistan

Agenda for Reconciliation:
Peacebuilding in the Middle East

With Initiatives of Change, in August 2004 CRDC co-sponsored a conference in Caux, Switzerland entitled ‘Agenda for Reconciliation,’ which brings together numerous groups from several regions of conflict. For seven days in August 2004, signatories of the Geneva Accord, as well as a number of Israeli and Palestinian civil society activists met with CRDC board members Zainab al-Suwaij, Patrice Brodeur, Robert Eisen, Libby Hoffman, and Joseph Montville, as well as ICAR faculty member Kevin Avruch and ICAR student Adina Friedman. The conference was on the future of the Geneva Accord, and relations between Palestine and Israel with particular reference to religion.

CRDC Senior Fellow Coordinates Abrahamic Residency at National Cathedral’s College of Preachers

CRDC board members Abdul Azziz Sachedina, Krister Stendahl, and Marc Gopin were scholars in residence at the National Cathedral’s College of Preachers for two weeks in June 2004. This event, bringing together clerics from the Abrahamic faiths, was conceived and developed by CRDC senior fellow Joseph Montville. A full report is available here.

Abrahamic Dialogue in Morocco

In June 2004 CRDC cosponsored a unique event in Morocco together with Initiatives of Change and The Center for Islam and Democracy. Board members Patrice Brodeur and Robert Eisen, as well as CRDC’s Senior Fellow Joseph Montville, and Director Marc Dr. Gopin engaged in an intensive conference engaging members of the three Abrahamic traditions and senior representatives of Morocco, the Arab League, USAID, and several other organizations. The relationships created in Fez were extraordinary, and several initiatives are emerging from that event.

“Incorporating Religion into Israeli-Palestinian Peacemaking: Recommendations for Policymakers”

CRDC Research Associate Dr. Peter Weinberger gave a presentation March 23, 2004 on the benefits of incorporating religion into policy regarding intractable conflicts, specifically in the Middle East. Dr. Weinberger’s paper, “Incorporating Religion into Israeli-Palestinian Peacemaking: Recommendations for Policymakers,” can be found on our Resources section.