作者：Tom Vizel 和 George Stevens 2023 年 2 月 24 日
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/rehumanizing-the-dehumanized-rethinking-people-to-people-exchanges-in-mena/
人文交流 (P2P) 长期以来一直被认为是促进和平和解决冲突的重要工具。在以巴背景下，P2P 倡议在 1990 年代广受欢迎，但在实现两国人民关系的有意义的变化方面仍面临重大挑战。尽管如此，P2P 交流在区域层面促进理解和合作的潜力仍未得到开发。
本文阐述了“中东和北非青年”(Y4MENA) 倡议的 P2P 方法，这是一个新兴的合作伙伴网络，他们寻求利用 P2P 交流来建立更具包容性、弹性和可持续性的社会。 Y4MENA 网络由 NOAL（以色列最大的犹太-阿拉伯青年组织）和 Dror Israel（NOAL 的青年领袖校友网络，致力于建设更加公正和包容的以色列）创立，旨在团结整个地区志同道合的组织，在中东和北非 (MENA) 各国青年和年轻人之间建立物理和虚拟交流，并基于对我们社会具有战略意义的主题建立桥梁。
在讨论 Y4MENA 的运营之前，重要的是解决该地区的非人化问题，以便将 NOAL-Dror Israel 的教育方法置于特定环境中。
重新人性的挑战
以色列及其阿拉伯和穆斯林世界的邻国经历了多代人的相互非人化过程。阿拉伯世界的政治和知识精英将以色列和犹太人描绘成欧洲殖民主义的外国代理人，并利用反犹太宣传在其民众中煽动仇恨。反过来，以色列的犹太人多数派与阿拉伯和穆斯林世界隔绝，宁愿将自己定义为“西方”国家，忽视学习阿拉伯语，并且通常对邻国丰富的文化价值一无所知。
结果是，以色列彻底将对方非人化，并通过简单的刻板印象来看待对方，而没有更深入地了解其社会、生活经历和内部斗争。即使在与以色列签订了数十年和平协议的国家（即埃及和约旦），阿道夫·希特勒的《我的奋斗》也广为流传，而以色列人（万一他们确实访问了埃及的西奈或约旦的佩特拉）则尽量避免与当地居民互动。
因此，民间社会领导人面临的根本挑战是重新人性化。换句话说，体验“他者”作为个人和社会——作为一幅丰富的故事、困境和梦想的锦缎，即使他们不同意，个人也可以感同身受。
虽然远非完美，但 2020 年《亚伯拉罕协议》（以色列与阿拉伯联合酋长国、巴林、摩洛哥和苏丹之间达成的一系列联合正常化协议）为教育工作者、政府官员和民间社会领导人提供了一个独特的战略机遇，让他们开始在这些社会内部和之间进行再人性化进程。再人性化不仅有可能加深不同国家之间的和平，而且还可能加强每个国家的内部实力，因为以非人性化的另一个版本为基础的社会很少能有效应对内部挑战。
再人性化有几个关键组成部分。第一步是建立共性。P2P 领导者必须培养友谊，包括强调和加强人与人之间的共同价值观。他们必须表明，尽管来自不同的社会，但人们已经分享了他们生活经历的一部分。
在 2022 年最后一个季度举行的 Y4MENA 以色列-摩洛哥青年交流中，一个由 30 人组成的小组（主要包括摩洛哥人和以色列人以及一些阿拉伯以色列人）在拉巴特和耶路撒冷接受了联合培训，深入了解了摩洛哥犹太人以及以色列的阿拉伯人和德鲁兹人社区的故事。这些经历使摩洛哥和以色列身份的简单概念变得复杂。它们融合了美丽和心碎，并强调了这些民族、国家和宗教之间在历史上和现在存在的重叠。
其次，必须从共同价值观的角度来面对根本问题。阿拉伯教育工作者需要了解大屠杀和反犹太主义，以重新人性化以色列人并挑战他们自己的社会。访问以色列并了解大屠杀——无论是在德国、波兰还是在耶路撒冷的 Yad Vashem 博物馆——都是令人不舒服但关键的步骤，必须在 MENA 社会中引起涟漪。正如大屠杀历史学家耶胡达·鲍尔 (Yehuda Bauer) 所说，反犹太主义不仅摧毁了犹太人的生活，还摧毁了将其作为应对机制的社会结构。
同样，以色列犹太人必须探索
殖民主义和伊斯兰恐惧症，以了解中东和北非人民的经历。这种对抗需要具有建设性和吸引力，而不是分裂性。
真正的影响：建立区域教育交流网络
为了使人性化成为改变游戏规则的因素而不仅仅是一个美好的想法，必须在所有可能的国家建立一个志同道合的机构网络，而不仅仅是培训个人。非政府组织、学校、宗教中心、大学和政府机构具有个人（无论多么有才华）无法企及的长寿、愿景和发展潜力。
Y4MENA 寻找组织和机构合作伙伴，分享其对该地区所有国家和宗教更积极、更宽容和更可持续未来的愿景。该组织在会议上或在线上会面，建立伙伴关系，并讨论具体的合作。从那里开始，它进行小规模的高级领导交流以试水，建立更大规模的交流，并寻找政府和慈善伙伴，使真正的合作成为可能。
Y4MENA 的最终目标是建立一个网络，为类似计划奠定基础，例如伊拉斯谟计划（为欧盟稳定做出了贡献）或以色列出生权计划（成功加强了以色列与犹太人之间的联系）。
明年，Y4MENA 预计将召集数百名来自 MENA 地区的年轻人。每位毕业生将把自己的经历带给 10 到 20 名同龄人、家庭成员和/或社区领袖，从而扩大该计划的影响力。但要产生重大影响——成功地为该地区数百万年轻人带来改变——它最终必须惠及数万名直接参与者和数十万受益者。这种持续增长只有通过志同道合的机构网络才有可能实现。
新视野
Y4MENA 已在四个 MENA 国家（摩洛哥、约旦、埃及和巴勒斯坦领土）直接开展业务，目前正在与另外五个国家建立合作伙伴关系。
为了真正发挥作用，Y4MENA 需要看看其他人遇到困难或不敢尝试的地方，以开辟更多的可能性。
在以色列方面，这意味着要吸纳通常被排除在以色列传统和平阵营之外的群体——米兹拉希、俄罗斯和埃塞俄比亚犹太人，并带来自豪的以色列、犹太人和犹太复国主义叙事。这也意味着愿意面对巴勒斯坦问题并与巴勒斯坦伙伴建立关系。P2P 社区必须自豪而大胆地站在邻居的立场上。它还必须关注在以色列犹太人和阿拉伯公众中有着深厚基层联系的组织（这种经验在跨境 P2P 工作中是无价的）。
作为生活在 MENA 地区的国家，其人民必须共同面对气候变化、极端主义和整个地区青年所面临的绝望。这些是共同的问题，它们创造了基于共同需求的合作潜力——这是重新人性化的关键要素。
这种模式还处于起步阶段，并没有为区域社会之间的重新人性化提供完美的路线图。然而，Y4MENA 项目确实提供了从深度和广度两方面应对这一挑战的新途径。
Tom Vizel 是 Y4MENA 的执行董事，也是 NOAL 教育部负责人。
George Stevens 担任 Y4MENA 运营总监和 NOAL 财务经理。
Rehumanizing the dehumanized: Rethinking People-to-People exchanges in MENA
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/rehumanizing-the-dehumanized-rethinking-people-to-people-exchanges-in-mena/?
By Tom Vizel and George Stevens February 24, 2023
People-to-people (P2P) exchanges have long been recognized as a crucial tool in promoting peace and resolving conflicts. In the Israeli-Palestinian context, P2P initiatives gained popularity in the 1990s, but still face significant challenges in bringing about meaningful change in relations between the two peoples. Despite this, the potential for P2P exchanges to foster understanding and cooperation on a regional level remains untapped.
This piece lays out the P2P approach of the “Youth for the Middle East & North Africa” (Y4MENA) initiative, a budding network of partners who seek to use P2P exchanges to build more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable societies. Founded by NOAL (the General Federation of Working and Studying Youth)—Israel’s largest Jewish-Arab youth organization—and Dror Israel—NOAL’s alumni network of young leaders working towards a more just and inclusive Israel—the Y4MENA network seeks to unite like-minded organizations from the entire region, create physical and virtual exchanges between youth and young adults from various Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, and build bridges based on topics of strategic significance to our societies.
Before addressing Y4MENA’s operations, it is important to address the problem of dehumanization in the region in order to contextualize NOAL-Dror Israel’s educational approach.
The challenge of rehumanization
Israel and its neighbors in the Arab and Muslim world have undergone a multi-generation process of mutual dehumanization. The Arab world’s political and intellectual elites have portrayed Israel and Jews as foreign agents of European colonialism and used anti-Semitic propaganda to foster hate among their populations. In turn, Israel’s Jewish majority has cut itself off from the Arab and Muslim world, preferring to define itself as a “Western” country, neglecting to learn Arabic, and generally living in ignorance of the rich cultural value of its neighbors.The result is one in which the other is thoroughly dehumanized and viewed through simplistic stereotypes without a deeper understanding of its societies, lived experiences, and internal struggles. Even in countries with which Israel has enjoyed decades-long peace agreements—namely Egypt and Jordan—Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf is widely sold, while Israelis—in the off chance that they do visit the Sinai in Egypt or Petra in Jordan—try to avoid interacting with the local population.
As a result, the fundamental challenge civil society leaders face is rehumanization. In other words, experiencing the “other” as an individual and as a society—as a rich tapestry of stories, dilemmas, and dreams with whom individuals can empathize even if they disagree.
While far from perfect, here is where the 2020 Abraham Accords (a series of joint normalization accords that have been established between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan) represent a unique strategic opportunity for educators, government officials, and civil society leaders to begin the process of rehumanization within and between these respective societies. Rehumanization has the potential not only to deepen the peace between different countries, but also to strengthen each country internally, for societies that base their self-identity on a dehumanized version of the other are rarely effective at confronting their internal challenges.
Rehumanization has a few key components. The first step is building commonality. P2P leaders must foster friendships, which includes highlighting and strengthening shared values between people. They must show that people already share parts of their lived experiences despite being from different societies.
In Y4MENA’s Israel-Moroccan youth exchange, which took place in the last quarter of 2022, a thirty-person group—which included mostly Moroccan and Israelis and some Arab Israelis—underwent joint training in Rabat and then in Jerusalem, diving into the story of Moroccan Jewry and Arab and Druze communities in Israel. These experiences complicated simplified notions of what Moroccan and Israeli identities are. They mixed beauty and heartbreak, and highlighted the overlaps that exist historically and currently between these peoples, nations, and religions.
Second, fundamental issues must be confronted from a place of common values. Arab educators need to learn about the Holocaust and anti-Semitism to rehumanize Israelis and challenge their own societies. Visiting Israel and learning about the holocaust—whether in Germany or Poland or at Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem—are uncomfortable but key steps that must send ripples through MENA societies. As Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer has taught, anti-Semitism not only destroys Jewish life, it destroys the fabric of the society that adopts it as a coping mechanism.
Similarly, Israeli Jews must explore colonialism and Islamophobia to understand the experience of MENA people. This confrontation needs to be constructive and inviting rather than divisive.
Real impact: Building a regional educational exchange network
To make rehumanization a game changer rather than just a beautiful idea, a network of like-minded institutions must be built across all possible countries, rather than just train individuals. NGOs, schools, religious centers, universities, and governmental bodies have the longevity, vision, and potential for growth that individuals—however talented—simply cannot reach.Y4MENA seeks out organizational and institutional partners that share its vision of a more positive, tolerant, and sustainable future for all the nations and religions in the region. The group meets at conferences or online, forms partnerships, and discusses concrete collaboration. From there, it does small-scale senior leadership exchanges to test the waters, build larger-scale exchanges, and find the governmental and philanthropic partners to make real collaboration possible.
The ultimate goal of Y4MENA is to establish a network that can serve as a foundation for similar initiatives like the Erasmus program, which has contributed to the stability of the European Union, or Birthright Israel, which has been successful in strengthening the connections between Israel and Diaspora Jewry.
In the coming year, Y4MENA is expected to bring together a few hundred youths from the MENA region. Each graduate will bring their experiences to ten to twenty peers, family members, and/or community leaders, thus, amplifying the program’s reach. But to generate a significant impact—one that will succeed in making a difference among the millions of youths living in the region—it must ultimately reach tens of thousands of direct participants and hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries. This type of sustained growth is only possible through a network of like-minded institutions.
New horizons
Y4MENA has directly operated in four MENA countries—Morocco, Jordan, Egypt, and the Palestinian territories—and is currently building partnerships in five more.
To be truly effective, Y4MENA need to look at where others had difficulties—or didn’t venture—to open more possibilities.
On the Israeli end, this means incorporating groups—Mizrahi, Russian, and Ethiopian Jews—generally left out of Israel’s traditional peace camp, and bringing a proud Israeli, Jewish, and Zionist narrative to encounter. It also means being willing to confront the Palestinian issue and building relationships with Palestinian partners. The P2P community must proudly and boldly step into the shoes of their neighbors. It must also focus on organizations with deep grassroots connections among both the Jewish and Arab publics in Israel (this experience is invaluable in cross-border P2P work).
Together as countries living in the MENA region, its people must confront climate change, extremism, and the despair faced by youth across the region. These are common issues that create the potential for cooperation based on shared needs—a key element in rehumanization.
This model is in its infancy and it does not present a perfect roadmap for rehumanization between regional societies. The Y4MENA project does, however, offer new avenues to tackle this challenge with both depth and breadth.
Tom Vizel is the Executive Director of Y4MENA and the Head of the Educational Department at NOAL.
George Stevens serves as the Director of Operations Y4MENA and Finance Manager at NOAL.
