Promoting inclusion and understanding of “the other”

Members of the group present their ideas to other groups at TAU summer university

A group of high school students 16-17 years old, taking part at the Summer Youth University at Tel Aviv University, is very worried about intolerance and decided to change the sad reality.

After an in-depth study based on lectures, tours and workshops, this is what they told us on their about the problem and the desired solution:

“In our personal lives we come across quite a few prejudices and stereotypes. These apply almost to everything: religion, color, community, sexual orientation, political opinion and even our place of residence. People draw an image of the “other” without really knowing him or her at all. However, in many cases, when we meet “the other” face to face – we find that most of these perceptions are wrong.”

“The problem starts with lack of communication – communication that is not influenced by existing media biases and lack of knowledge about the other. This deficiency causes misunderstanding, and when there is no understanding and no listening, conflicts are very difficult to resolve. It is important to solve the problem, because our country has a variety of populations that coexist side by side and yet, rarely meet each other.”

Members of the group present their ideas to other groups at TAU summer university

The group is looking for a solution that will promote meetings between different populations, that currently are almost non-existent. They studied the subject of legislation in Israel under the guidance of an experienced lawyer, and they plan wants to propose a new legislation that requires such meetings to be part of the curriculum in Israel.

The group plans to use digital society tools such as social media and is currently filming a video to promote awareness.