Israel and Northern Ireland: Sharing Peacebuilding Experiences

11 June 2013 - The Interpeace programme in Israel, Base 4 Discussion (B4D), in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, works with various key groups of Israeli society to promote commitment to peace and dialogue. One of these groups, with which B4D has been engaging since 2007, is the traditional religious population. Notably, several influential ultra-orthodox rabbis, who took part in an 18-month training programme organized by B4D, created the Committee of Rabbis, which is currently working on a Religious Peace Initiative – a set of concrete recommendations for solutions to the conflict, with a focus on religious elements. As part of this process, a delegation of rabbis recently had the opportunity to travel to Belfast, Northern Ireland to meet with religious and political leaders from both the republican and unionist communities.

Relationship between religion and politics
During these meetings, the rabbis were able to have discussions about the relationship between religion and politics, both in the context of Northern Ireland and of Israel. The speakers from Northern Ireland gave an honest overvie...

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