LivingFuture congress in Tel Aviv

 

Young Israelis and Germans meet to shape a joint future.

 

It was a colourful mix of young people who gathered on the rooftop terrace of the Jewish-Arabic community centre in the Jaffa district of Tel Aviv for a shared buffet, wine and beer to kick off the congress “LivingFuture! Shared societies”. The sense of familiarity was tangible. The 120 participants – almost all in their 20s – knew one another; they were all alumni of the bilateral projects the German-Israeli Future Forum (DIZF) Foundation has been supporting since 2009. They were invited to take part in a three-day intercultural discourse in Israel in mid-November. The civil society multipliers from both countries had met in Berlin in May for an initial dialogue round.

On this evening the Mediterranean breeze may well have helped those arriving from Germany to forget the cold European winter, but not the events that had transformed Paris into a city of terror the night before. The flag of the French Embassy directly neighbouring the community centre was at half-mast. “And we had considered whether or not to cancel the congress in light of the recent wave of knife attacks,” said Andreas Eberhardt, Director of the German-Israeli Future Forum. “Now it seems it can be far more dangerous to travel to our neighbouring country of France.” Those looking for a symbol of shared future challenges need look no further.

 

Yet of course, in the following days it was not anti-terror strategies that were on the agenda, but thinking about a better future in societies shaped by cultural diversity. The congress was intended to be a kind of “laboratory with highly practical exercises on cooperation”, as the organisers stated. The objective was to explore the benefits of cross-border cooperation and the hope was that in this way new partnerships can form too. “Our bond rests on shared values. We are unified by a commitment to democracy, with Israel being the only democracy in the Middle East, and here too there is an active and lively civil society – that is the best thing that both sides have,” emphasised Eberhardt. Nevertheless, he warned against jumping to conclusions regarding German-Israeli relations. “We always say that we have a special relationship and that implies that we know each other, but don’t know each other.” There was a different kind of interaction in almost all areas and people are used to engaging in different ways, he added.

 

For this reason, the aim was to “get close to realities”. The specific form this can take became apparent the following morning in the working group “Community, wireless networks and political action”. The participants were asked to log into an independent network on their mobile phones visible only as a small device on the table. A list of questions appeared on the displays, the participants entered their name, place of residence, occupation and uploaded a selfie and that was all it took for them all to be connected without a superordinate server – from Google, Facebook or WhatsApp – being given access to the data. Whereas the initiators, Andreas Unteidig and Lutz Reiter from Berlin University of the Arts, and the other German participants immediately saw this as an obvious advantage (no adverts, no external access to data), the Israelis’ response was hesitant. “What’s the problem if my Google account isn’t protected?”, asked one man. The woman sitting next to him added: “In Israel we take a much more relaxed approach to the topic of privacy. We openly ask how much people earn, for example.” A German participant, in contrast, said that he did worry about who read his emails.

 

Looking back on the working group, Andreas Unteidig, who has frequently cooperated with the Israeli Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in the last three years, noted the “extreme difference” with regard to data security, privacy, and surveillance. “Here in Israel it is not talked about. Germans needed to discuss the topic a lot more.” Initially the Israelis didn’t see the need for such a network, but then joined in helping to fine-tune two apps which in their own way reduce global technologies to a local scale.

One is called “Mass around” and can be used to improve coordination for demonstration organisers. The other, known as “Someone near you”, is intended to enable users to get in contact with interesting people located nearby. “The idea is to get talking to people you want to talk to, even if you don’t know them. For critical discussions or for dating purposes”, explained Unteidig.

 

Comparative learning was also among the fundamental principles of the working group “DiverseCity – A comparative learning of Berlin and Tel Aviv”. Here the question specifically arose as to what extent personal histories are a suitable means to better deal with cultural diversity. Listening carefully leads to empathy (which does not necessarily mean agreement) and thus to an opportunity to engage in dialogue with the other person. After an Arab Israeli from Jaffa spoke of his balancing act in terms of identity, a lesbian participant from Berlin also gave a very impressive account of her experiences with the society she grew up in. Similarly, participants of the working group “Intercultural Spaces – Memories of the future” sought a joint platform for highly differing narratives. This group likewise developed an app. First, they asked Jews and Arabs in the local neighbourhood of Ajami about their biographies. Now with the app, when walking through the quarter pop-up windows appear on the display of the user’s mobile phone in front of various buildings that tell one of the life stories of the residents.