Palestine Study Visit 2022

The Raising Peace Study Visit to Palestine, organized by CCIVS in collaboration with Baladna and IPYL, focused on capacity building, supporting the Palestinian cause, and fostering understanding through direct experiences. The project was supported by the Erasmus + programme of the European Union.


The Study Visit to Palestine was developed by CCIVS with its member organisations Baladna and IPYL to focus on the following areas:
– Capacity Building and Networking; opportunities for participants and their organisations to exchange good practice, increase their knowledge and improve their skills in the field youth empowerment through the development of new partnerships for future networking and capacity building initiatives.
– Support to the Palestinian cause; As highlighted in a 2019 report by the UN “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967”, the Israeli government’s policy is depriving 5 million Palestinians of natural resources, hopes and opportunities (A/HRC/40/73, page 1). In the same report, the Gaza Strip could become “unliveable” by 2020. According to demographic reports, the percentage of young people in Palestine has reached 30% of the total population. Overall, there has been a 180% increase in the youth refugee population in the West Bank since 1975 and a 274.7 % increase in Gaza. In these regions, young people suffer from the daily threat on their lives, discrimination, limited access to resources, and restricted mobility. The presence of international activists and the development of future cooperation projects shows solidarity to the Palestinians organisations and to the local young people.
– Understanding and critical thinking; the project allowed international participants to see first-hand what the situation is like on the ground and provided a platform for them to share their experiences and to develop future solidarity actions. 

The Study Visit took place in September 2022 (postponed from 2020)  and was hosted by our member organisations Baladna based in Haifa and IPYL based in Hebron.
During the Study Visit participants discussed the political context of Palestinian youth (challenges, current situation, future perspectives) and about the work of the hosts (goals, projects, areas of intervention, challenges, educational approaches, social inclusion). With attention on PVE strategies, and exchanges of best practices. Visits over the 8 day programme took the group to a diversity of cities including; Hebron, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Nablus, Jericho, Bethlehem, Jaffa, Haifa, Lajun, Rahat. The participants visited diverse organisations, institutions and projects whose work focuses on one or more of the following areas: youth work; human rights; conflict transformation; tackling violent extremism; occupation; non violent resistance; political prisoners; peace work, interdisciplinary approaches to promote non-violence through art and creativity; and the promotion of culture, history & cultural heritage. Refugee camps, internally displaced people, and unrecognized villages made part of the visit. Due to the 15-year blockade on Gaza, it was impossible to visit the local organisations; however a video call was set up to learn more about the work of Gaza youth and activists. 

The study visit provided an opportunity for participants to gain knowledge and tools that will allow them not only to support the Palestinian cause and to develop new projects with the Palestinian member organisations, but also to apply what they have learnt  within their sending organisations. 

Following the visit on November 29, the participants developed a proposal to celebrate The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. As a result, CCIVS supported the organisation of an online symposium, Volunteering in Palestine. https://palestineforum.weebly.com/media.html. The aims of the online event were to raise awareness of the situation in Palestine, share insights with the international volunteering community on volunteering in conflict areas, and encourage the public to show concern about the situation of our Palestinian brothers and sisters. The participants/attendees from all over the world heard stories from our network of volunteers who are (or have been) actively involved in social work with and for the Palestinians.

A Position Paper was also written by the participants of the Study Visit and validated by the Alliance General Assembly and the CCIVS Executive Committee it can be found here.