São Paulo – Graduate and post-graduate students in Brazil may participate in an internship programme in the occupied territories of Palestine and Israel. Enrolment goes up to October 29th and the trip should take place from January 22nd to February 28th, 2013.
The programme is offered by FFIPP-Brasil, the Brazilian branch of Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, an organisation established by university professors and students from Palestine, Israel and other countries to promote the end of Israeli occupation and peace between both peoples.
To participate in the internship programme, as well as being a university student, it is necessary to be 18 years of age, or older, and to have a good knowledge of the English language. The selection process includes two phases. The first is an evaluation of the registration form and the second is a personal interview, in Portuguese and English.
“The idea of the internship is more than work; it is to have a perspective of this position of being in the field, knowing the reality of everyday life, working with people who operate in social change. It is a unique experience to understand the complexity of the situation and to move away from several extreme discourses on either side,” said Yuri Haasz, the president of FFIPP-Brasil.
The internship programme includes one week of guidance in the West Bank and Israel, visits to the cities of Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Ramallah and Hebron, and work in institutions that are partners between Palestine and Israel.
Among the possible areas of operation are English and French teaching, projects with children, work with social movements (women’s rights, farmer unions, Bedouin rights), art projects (music, theatre), human rights, environmental development, organisational development and research (law, journalism, urbanism and social science).
The participating institutions vary according to the area of interest of the students selected to participate in the programme. Among the organisations that partner in the receipt of FFIPP International students are the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), the Palestine Economic Research Centre, Al Safeer Newspaper, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition and the Ramallah Centre for Human Rights Studies, among others.
The cost of the internship programme is US$ 1,500 and does not include the air fare. There are openings for 40 participants and FFIPP-Brasil is seeking partners to offer scholarships to those selected.
Further information on the FFIPP-Brasil internship programme may be found at link http://ffippbrasildotorg.wordpress.com/inscricoes-2012/.
About FFIPP
Established in 2001, the Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace was established with the objective of informing the academic community about the initiatives of the civil society in areas of human rights and research relative to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Later, the network also started being integrated by graduate and post-graduate students.
Born in Israel, Yuri Haasz came to Brazil aged 14. With a Rotary International scholarship, he got a Foreign Relations master in Japan, turned to Studies of Peace and Conflict Resolution. In 2010, during his studies, he participated in an FFIPP international internship and, this year, brought the organisation to Brazil.
“We are taking the first [internship] group and the idea is also to take people from neighbouring countries, like Argentina, Chile and Peru, who may operate as leaders, so that we may later open a branch [of the FFIPP] in those countries,” he explained. Today, FFIPP has units in the United States, France and the Netherlands.
Apart from the internship programme, the activities of FFIPP-Brasil also include the organisation of itinerant talks. “We are going to bring speakers from the occupied [Palestinian] territories and from Israel who may be engaged in social change. We will give the talks in academic environments, cultural centres, communities and wherever there may be opening,” said Haasz. According to him, the participants in the internship will also be invited to share their experiences.
The students who participate in the programme will receive support in case they decide to produce photographic projects, short movies and texts about their experience in the internship. The idea, according to Haasz, is to establish exhibitions of this material in Brazil.
Currently, FFIPP-Brasil counts on the work of ten volunteers, including professors, students and communications professionals. According to Haasz, the network is approaching public and private institutions to seek financial support.
*Translated by Mark Ament
