Jews and Arabs develop solutions for Middle East peace in hackathon
For 24 hours, they defied barriers to peace and developed possible solutions.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFUpdated: NOVEMBER 19, 2018 00:17Participants take part in the Women Wage Peace Hackathon(photo credit: WOMEN WAGE PEACE)
Fifty young women and men took part in a hackathon in order to find solutions to the barriers to Middle East peace on Friday. The young people came from all over Israel and from almost all of the country’s universities and colleges. Two-thirds of the participants were Jews and the rest were Arabs, Druze and others; 60% of the participants were women.For 24 hours, they defined barriers to peace and developed possible solutions for them.At the end of the process, a panel of judges – including Saviona Rotlevy, Gabi Shalev, Benny Landa, Zehava Solomon and Hason Hason – scored the teams’ findings in terms of creativity and efficacy.First prize went to Iman Salalha, Tal Forsher, Adi Kriaf and Tal Angert for their -#Unfiltered application which enables direct communication with people of like-interest around the world. The idea is to allow direct communication with no hindrance of borders or other barriers.Second prize went to Watfa Canaan, Yoav Caspi, Miriam Arta and Walla Hamud for the idea of a campaign for a Ministry of Peace, which would be financed and dedicated to a wide range of subjects related to peace and the developing strategies for peace.Third prize went to Rima Basis, Neri Cohen, Yael Abadi and Tslil Rubinstein for the idea of -#hi(gherkin)me – an economic solution to the dire Gaza situation, which is a barrier to peace. By improving this state of affairs and by having personal interaction with the people there, peace could be developed.Apart from the prizes received, the teams will get a chance to present their findings to cabinet ministers, members of the Knesset and experts during the Women Wage Peace International Congress for removing barriers to Middle East peace. The congress will take place on November 27 at Tel Aviv University’s Smolarz Auditorium.Women Wage Peace is a broad, grassroots movement with over 40,000 supporters from across the political spectrum. The movement works to widen public support for a mutual, binding and nonviolent accord, agreeable to both Israelis and Palestinians. The movement believes that women should take responsibility for the future generation – and that involving women in the process, according to UN resolution 1325, increases the chances of a lasting peace.
