Collective Rights and the Political Future Program
Mada al-Carmel has initiated a new program entitled “Collective Rights and the Political Future”. The program is based on the Haifa Declaration and what has been achieved through it, as well as what has been accomplished through the “Collective Rights” program over previous years. The Haifa Declaration is a consensual document that comprises a collective view relating to the vision held by Palestinian citizens of Israel of their collective future. The declaration emerged as the outcome of prolonged deliberations held over the course of years by a group of intellectuals and political activists, who formed the members of the “General Assembly” of the document. The group drafted the Haifa Declaration in the hope of contributing to the generation of an open, free public debate on the basic issues that concern this segment of the Palestinians.
The “Collective Rights and the Political Future” program is composed of several projects, one of which focuses on the educational field. This project aims to develop the contents of the declaration, its appendices and additional materials into educational and pedagogical materials, and to deliver it to the younger generation of secondary school pupils, university students and youths. For that purpose it will be transformed into an empowering educational program that stimulates discussion and debate within workshops that will be formed as part of the project, either separately or in cooperation with existing groups. Through these activities the students will discover the challenges that the Palestinian community faces, promote their involvement in the basic issues that confront their society, and will be encouraged to play a participatory role in proposing a future vision of their reality, stating from and drawing on the Palestinian historical narrative. They will thereby challenge the policies of ignorance, national nihilism and ‘Israelization’ that the ruling institution is attempting to impose on our students through the existing curricular educational programs imposed on our schools.
The educational project is currently working on the formation of a team of concerned experts in the field who will prepare and supervise an educational program on the contents of the declaration. It is also approaching institutions and organizations active in the field and seeking that they work together, exchange experiences and divide the work among themselves in order to increase its effectiveness and strengthen its impact.
Given the vital need to open the field of discussion and debate on the aforementioned and related issues, and in order to reach additional sectors and groups within the Arab Palestinian public and expand the circle of the supporters of the contents of the declaration and its signatories, the project’s organizers are participating in seminars and lectures open to the general public. They are also approaching the members of the General Assembly who established the declaration and seeking that they play an active role in this discussion and contribute their experience and knowledge of the contents of the declaration and the way in which it was drafted.
In one of the initial activities of the project, Attorney Mohammed Miari – a member of the General Assembly of the Haifa Declaration – recently participated in a seminar held by an association of Arab psychologists before an audience of its members, as part of a public meeting they held in the town of Nazareth. Attorney Miari gave a presentation about the Haifa Declaration within a panel entitled, “The future vision documents for the Arab general public in the country: Is there a future for the vision?” He took part in the ongoing debate on the various documents before over thirty members of the psychologists’ association. Professor Marwan Dwairy also took part in the discussion, speaking about the Future Vision and the Democratic Constitution documents. In his talk, Attorney Mohammed Miari emphasized the importance of the documents’ reaching different sectors and groups, including unionists and representative and elected bodies, in order for them to take their part in the public debate. He confirmed that while the initiative for the declaration came from intellectuals and political activists, which is natural at the stage of initiating the drafting of documents and raising issues for discussions of this sort, the greater importance lies in the possibility of making it part of the public debate and turning it into a reliable reference for many different sectors.
Afnan Agbariya, an educator and member of the General Assembly of the Haifa Declaration, represented the Collective Rights and the Political Future program in a meeting held to discuss the various documents convened by the Jafra Association in Ibilin. Dr. As’ad Ghanem and Attorney Yousef Taysir Jabareen participated in the meeting and spoke about the various documents. Mr. Abd al-Hakim Mufid also participated, presenting his view in rejection of the various documents. The session was moderated by Attorney Ali Heidar. Approximately forty people participated in the session and attended the meeting.