After the military escalation in Palestine and Israel in the past weeks, two of our partners shared their thoughts and feelings with us. Extracts from their sharings along with a report about the political situation in Israel and Palestine...

The tense political situation in Palestine and Israel has again escalated militarily in recent weeks; despite the „ceasefire“, the military confrontations do not seem to be over yet. Leah R.* (name changed), Israeli coordinator of the partner organization working...

Mira K. from Palestine attended the Women*s Seminar in 2019. Shortly before, she quit her job and following the seminar she went to Belfast to do a postgraduate program in Counselling and Health Communication. Upon her return, she spoke...

David R.* participated in the Allgenders Seminar in 2019. At the time, he talked about his time in the Army, his experiences at the seminar, and his plan to completely cut all ties with the Army and refuse reserve...

Shir B. graduated from the master’s program „Conflict Transformation and Social Justice“ in Belfast in 2020. She wrote her master’s thesis about the Palestinian-Israeli Dialogue Seminar for Women*, which she coordinates. In an interview with Katharina Ochsendorf, she shares...

Samira P.*, 28 years old, was born and raised in Jenin. She recently finished her studies and now lives in another city, far away from her family. In the summer of 2019, she participated in the Allgenders seminar for...

Again and again, participants of our Peace Camps in the former Yugoslavia write that they found friends there that they would never forget. Vanja Nedic tells the story of Emina, Johnny, Nicola, Semir and herself; they met in 2007...

(Text: Tessa Pariyar) In the summer of 2019, together with the coordinators of the Palestinian-Israeli Women’s* seminar, we came up with the idea of a Speakerstour through Germany, where project staff from Israel and Palestine would present their work...

„YU-Peace is for me a big step towards a better world. One great community with one goal, to bring peace to the world. We go step by step, because that is the only way to reach the goal, we...

„It all started on an ordinary day. The phone rang and someone asked, „Would you like to go to a peace camp?“ I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but I said yes and a great adventure began. At...

„I’m not quite sure how to describe what YU-Peace has brought to my life. In so many different ways, it has changed things from the ground for me. The first activity I was a part of was a weekend...

„It is very difficult to leave emotions on paper, especially those that are long-lasting, those that are silent deep inside you and they come out bit by bit, and you are not even sure which one you would rather...

„YU-Peace helped me through various activities, workshops and socializing to primarily build myself as a person, and to develop both leadership and team spirit. YU-Peace encouraged me to work on myself, to show my creativity, imagination and strength, things...

„YU-Peace is a beautiful story of which I became part of in 2019, and I still feel the same emotions I felt the first day. It is a special, positive story, very important for us young people, which teaches...

Why and how much I miss YU-Peace? „This year, most of the time, I missed my friends from YU-Peace, I missed us hanging out, our talks, our hugs, and the fact that together we promote peace. I miss YU-Peace...

In our Annual Report 2019, we already published a detailed article on the exciting follow-up work of the partner organization with whom we organized the Allgenders seminar in 2018. After staying in regular contact, we decided to enter into...

Why I miss YU-Peace? „Locked up in the house because of all this chaos happening around us, I had the opportunity to think about the past, better days. My summer 2019 was marked by the participation in the well-known...

What does the cross boarder network Youth United in Peace (YU-Peace) mean to me? What do I miss?  During the last months we received a lot of feedback on these questions. Within the next weeks, we will publish the...

(Text: Dina G.) The past few months were very troubling and intense on the socio-political level in Israel. Covid 19 had not only affected the public health and financial situation but also vastly highlighted the inequality between different groups...

Jelena Stulic is a long-standing member of YU-Peace and co-founder of LINK, our partner organization in Sombor. In the beginning of September she spoke with Katharina Ochsendorf about the current situation and the work of YU-Peace under Corona conditions....

The members of the Youth United in Peace Network stay in close contact through their Facebook groups and other social networks throughout the Corona period. Again and again they plan to meet each other also in real life, but...

  Tara B.*: The seminar was one of the greatest experiences for me – I’m not exaggerating – the seminar was very important for me. I was discussing it with my coordinator the other day: I think before the...

Almina Šehić is a member of YU-Peace and coordinator of the Youth Center in Gornji Vakuf-Uskoplje, the local partner organization of Vacation From War. In 2019, the “camp”, the organization of which rotates annually between the five partner cities...

This is the third time I have started this letter and as they say, the third time is supposed to bring good luck. I would like to thank you very much because you gave me the opportunity to be...

Hena Trutovic is the daughter of our regional coordinator Alma Dzinic-Trutovic. She has been participating in the encounters ever since she was three years old. She was always enthusiastic about helping everywhere: delivering messages, getting things out of the...

David R.* is 33 years old and grew up in the fourth generation in a Kibbutz near Haifa. He describes his family’s political stance as humanist-liberal-left and went to demonstrations with his parents as a child. Peace and equality...

Yitzchak M. wrote this text two weeks after the Allgenders-seminar and published it on Facebook. He explicitly asked us to publish the it under his real name. Exactly one month ago today, I flew off to Cologne in Germany...

In the “Open Space”, participants of the dialogue seminars themselves have the chance to organize workshops on topics that are important to them. Ahlam D. * and Noah A. *, a Palestinian and an Israeli participant, jointly organized a...

Attempts to invite participants from the Gaza Strip to the seminars have regularly failed in the history of the project: People were not given a travel permit or were too afraid of repression. In 2019, for the first time...

Uros Antic took part in the Peace Camp in Split 2018 and is involved in our partner organization in Vukovar and at YU-Peace. Outraged by the nationalist propaganda on the occasion of the annual commemoration day for Croatian fighters...

It was at the climax of our Israeli-Palestinian seminar: in the heart of the debates, the disagreements, the long nights of conversation, the long days of inhaling and exhaling. The evening before that moment, Alma Dzinic-Trutovic gave a lecture...

I came to Basko Polje without a lot of expectations. I thought I would meet people who do not share my interests and my taste in music, and there would be food I don’t like. Oh man, was I...

A network and its faces “I’ll never forget that experience in my life”: this is the comment we most often hear from participants in our encounters. It always makes us happy to see how often this comes true. In...

Under the shadow of the jasmine tree** My name is Ahmed* (name changed), I am 26 years old and I am currently doing my internship as a physician in a Palestinian hospital. My life so far has been full...

(Text: Tessa Pariyar) In the last days of the Allgenders Seminar 2018, the group which had engaged in the dialogue about the conflict and the occupation through theater methods came up with the idea of continuing to work with...