Givat Haviva International School (GHIS) is a new Israeli high school with a vision to create a network of young leaders who will promote peace and a shared society in the Middle East. The 55 Palestinian and Israeli students live together on campus, where they are joined by international students in a two-year program that aims to teach them to resolve conflicts and build bridges between their cultures, languages and conflicting historical narratives. The school is based on the experience and knowledge accumulated by Givat Haviva, a peace-making community founded 70 years ago in affiliation with the Kibbutz Federation, which is comprised of 257 kibbutzim and hundreds of educational, industrial and cultural organizations across Israel.
I arrived on the expansive campus located in a rural area surrounded by Arab villages and Jewish agricultural settlements just minutes before the sounding of the sirens calling for a minute of silence during our recent Remembrance Day. I asked Mina, one of the Muslim students, why she stood during the ceremony in remembrance of Israel’s fallen soldiers. “In my village, we...
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