Baladna – Haifa, Israel

Project Title: Democracy & Community Development

Baladna, the Association for Arab Youth, was formed in order to balance the educational resources available to the Palestinians in Israel. As Israel is a Jewish state according to its leaders, the Palestinian minority in Israel suffers from institutionalized marginalization.

Government agencies effect this discrimination on two different levels, according to Baladna. First, the government of Israel does not allocate resources based on proportion of the population. In other words, the budgets for Palestinians are unfair in that they do not reflect their demographics.

Second, the government of Israel propagates an Israeli-Zionist version of Palestinian history. This is done to limit the awareness of Palestinians in Israel of their national identity, culture, and history.

Combating the asymmetrical educational system in Israel was the engine of growth for the development of Baladna. Their answer has been to re-affirm the identity of Palestinians in Israel as Palestinians.

Baladna’s project entails training Palestinian youth in leadership skills so that they will have the capacity to teach secondary schools students about issues concerning “democracy, human rights, minority rights, women rights, gender equality, identity, culture and Palestinian history.”

Participants come from many areas in Israel and they are expected to teach what they have been trained in their home communities. Eventually, Baladna intends to establish “local chapters” throughout Israel.