USAID’s Conflict Management and Mitigation (CMM) grants support Israelis and Palestinians, and Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel to address issues of common concern. USAID/West Bank and Gaza and the U.S. Department of State jointly manage these grants. CMM activities provide opportunities to cultivate solutions, reconcile differences, and promote greater understanding and mutual trust by working on common goals such as economic development, environment, health, education, sports, music, and information technology. Since the program’s start in 2004, USAID/West Bank and Gaza has invested over $100 million toward 166 CMM activities.
GRANTS MANAGED BY USAID
Tech2Peace (2021-2024; $850,000): The A New Reality: Innovating Together project brings together 740 Palestinian and Israeli youth through high-tech training and joint projects to address the conflict while developing intercultural communication skills and diverse, collaborative and innovative approaches to common challenges.
Palestinian Peace Coalition - PPC (2021-2024; $1,200,000): The Policy Engagement and Constructive Exposure (PEACE): Young Palestinian and Israeli Leaders, or the PEACE for Youth project will engage over 1,000 Palestinian and Israeli youth leaders to build public support for a negotiated resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through grassroots education, P2P encounters, and targeted public advocacy, increasing active support for reconciliation. The project engages hundreds of young Palestinians and Israelis from diverse backgrounds, professional spheres and geographically disparate locations on reconciliation, core conflict and peacebuilding issues.
Northern Israel Center for Arts and Technology - NICAT (2021-2025; $1,349,862): The Innovate2gether project cultivates young Arab and Jewish innovators who impact their communities while advancing conflict mitigation approaches to build a shared society. Through the project, 1,180 Arab and Jewish youth develop conflict resolution and dialogue leadership skills. Participants use 3D art, photography, and film to connect and capture issues concerning today’s youth, while gaining vital skills to identify, design and implement community projects in a bicultural and bilingual context for a more hopeful and joint future in the region.
Yozmot Atid (2021-2024; $1,377,230): The Female-Led Microbusiness Development to Promote a Culture of Peace project empowers female-led microbusinesses and subsequent socioeconomic advancement through training and mentorship, to bring together1,000 Palestinian and Jewish Israeli women from East and West Jerusalem. The project uses this mechanism as a platform for participants to directly address challenges related to the conflict under the guidance of experienced mentors and community leaders.
Collective Impact Initiative - Co-Impact (2021-2023; $1,050,000): The Shared Workplaces, Shared Society project leverages people-to-people connections and interpersonal processes between 200 participants to increase diversity and create inclusive and equitable workplaces for Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel. The personal and professional relationships formed through this project increase mutual trust and respect among Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel.
Hand in Hand (2018-2023; $1,800,000): The Mainstreaming Shared Society project adds three more integrated schools to Hand in Hand’s growing network of Jewish-Arab bilingual schools in Israel benefiting 2,500 students. The project supports local communities to establish and/or expand the constituency of Arab and Jewish families committed to building a viable, growing, and resilient shared society.
Tsofen High Technology Centers (2018-2023; $1,800,000): The Tech Bridges project harnesses common interests among Jewish and Arab individuals to drive changes in perceptions and attitudes that hinder reconciliation and peacebuilding. The project mentors over 6,000 Arab and Jewish Israeli professionals and establishes 18 Israeli startups in predominantly Arab cities. By creating an increasingly integrated hi-tech industry in Israel, Tech Bridges fosters greater mutual understanding between Jewish and Arab citizens, inspiring a more inclusive economy and shared future.
Middle East Entrepreneurs for Tomorrow (2020-2023; $1,400,000): The Northern Innovators (NI) project provides training for over 180 excelling Israeli Arab and Jewish youth from the Nazareth Area, between the ages of 15-17, to advance technology, entrepreneurship, and leadership. This project also establishes networks of mutual trust, understanding, respect, and teamwork.
PeacePlayers International (2020-2023; $1,500,000): The Champions for Peace Initiative project utilizes basketball to develop trust and cooperation among 2,277 Israeli Arab and Jewish youth. The project translates grassroots support for cooperation into attitudinal, behavioral, and structural transformation necessary for sustainable peace.
Appleseeds Academy (2020-2023; $1,050,000): The Rise Together project brings together 120 Jewish and Arab emerging technology professionals from disadvantaged communities to participate in an intensive multi-month technology and leadership training followed by internships in the technology sector. The project develops a coalition of Hi-Tech partners to advance diversity within the Hi-Tech sector that advances the values of shared living.
Peres Center for Peace and Innovation (2020-2023; $1,250,000): The Under the Same Green Roof project brings together over 1,000 Jewish and Arab school children, teenagers, young innovators, and community members to learn and cooperate, through the establishment of Green Roofs in Jewish and Arab communities in Israel to be used as platforms for joint environmental learning and cooperation.
GRANTS MANAGED BY U.S DEPARTMENT OF STATE
A New Way (2021-2023; $150,000): The Collaborate Together - A New Way for Youth Collaboration in a Multicultural Society project creates a new reconciliation process that focuses on building collaboration abilities among Arab and Jewish youth potential leaders. 280 Jewish and Arab high school students participate in collaboration building workshops; some of the students will receive intensive training to cross-culturally advance social causes.
HISTADRUT Working and Studying Youth (2021-2023; $150,000): The Fighting Exploitation Together project empowers a cadre of 100 Jewish and 100 Arab Israeli youth leaders to work together towards fair and safe working conditions for teens, while learning about and working towards the creation of a shared democratic society.
HaPoel Ahva Haifa (2021-2023; $125,000): The Solidarity on the Court and in the Neighborhood – A local Arab-Jewish Sports and Social Club in Haifa project works intensively with 100 Jewish and Arab children and youth from the underserved neighborhoods of lower Haifa, through competitive sports and enrichment afterschool programming, while creating a supportive network around them by engaging their parents, siblings and peers in joint P2P activities.
Kayan Feminist Organization (2021-2023; $150,000): The Uniting to End Gender-Based Violence: A Joint Action with and for Arab and Jewish Women in Israel project brings together 40 Arab and Jewish social workers, political actors, and feminist leaders in a collaborative effort to end gender-based violence, which women on both sides of the conflict face in daily life, regardless of their ethnicity, and has been exacerbated by the Covid crisis.
Mifrasim (Sails) under TOPAZ (2021-2023; $130,000): The Arab and Jewish university students Making Waves project engages 80 Jewish and Arab university students from 3-4 major universities and colleges throughout Israel through a learning process that integrates extensive dialogue-driven sessions into an sailing outdoors experiential context, aboard Israel’s impressive social sailboat.
