QUESTIONS

• Peace efforts like Oslo Accords faced challenges, leaving the conflict unresolved and deeply entrenched
• How the Israel-Palestine conflict influences the creative expression of children


  • Children use art, music, and writing to express their feelings about the conflict
  • UNICEF's campaigns create safe spaces for children to express themselves and improve their psychological and social well-being using expressive arts tools
  • Children's artworks provide a glimpse into their inner lives and resilience, revealing their longing for peace and normalcy amidst chaos
  • Encouraging and supporting these forms of expression can help amplify their voices and promote healing
• Children's perspectives on peace and conflict in Israel and Palestine


  • Differ from those of adults, who view peace through a historic narrative and political lens
  • Children see peace with an optimistic simplicity that yearns for stability, safety and normalcy, and focus on shared humanity and friendship across divides
  • Blending children's hopeful angles with adults' practical considerations can lead to a comprehensive peace approach addressing historical injustices alongside growing empathy and mutual understanding
• Children's experiences in the Israel-Palestine conflict

  • Uniquely harsh
  • Long-standing and deep-rooted nature
  • Complexity and history of the area make things worse
  • Ongoing violence
  • Restricted access to basic needs
  • Constant fear of living in uncertainty
• Conflict zones


  • High population density
  • Daily activities like going to school or playing outside can be dangerous
• Israel-Palestine conflict


  • Proximity of communities on both sides
  • Children exposed to both direct and indirect violence
  • Deeply affecting their mental health
• Generations of children have been raised knowing nothing but violence
• Israel-Palestine conflict

  • Creates deep-seated trauma and feeling of instability
  • Second only to more entrenched conflict zones where violence may be more sporadic or short-lived
• Humanitarian organisations like UNICEF, Save the Children, and UNRWA


  Significantly impact children in the Israel-Palestine conflict, although their efforts are often hampered by funding and access issues
• Services provided by humanitarian organisations

  • Food
  • Clean water
  • Medical care
  • Education
  • Psychological support
• UNICEF's programs

  Help children cope with trauma
• Save the Children's focus

  Education and protection
• UNRWA's schools for Palestinian refugees


  Offer education, recreational activities, and psychosocial support, giving children a sense of normalcy
• Humanitarian organisations


  Address both immediate and long-term needs, helping to stabilise children's lives and offer them better future opportunities
• How the Israel-Palestine conflict started

  1. Began in late 19th and early 20th centuries

  2. Driven by competing nationalisms amid Ottoman Empire's collapse

  3. 1917 Balfour Declaration supported Jewish homeland in Palestine

  4. Increased Jewish immigration and tensions with Arabs

  5. After WWII and Holocaust, UN's 1947 Partition Plan proposed separate Jewish and Arab states

  6. Jews accepted, Arabs rejected

  7. 1948 Arab-Israeli War led to Israel's establishment and Palestinian displacement
• Key issues in the conflict

  • Land claims
  • Palestinian statehood
  • Israeli security
  • Jerusalem's status
  • Refugees
  • Settlements
• Peace efforts like the Oslo Accords have faced many challenges, leaving the conflict unresolved
• Israel-Palestine conflict


  Influences the creative expression of children in the region
• Creative expression of children in the region


  • Serves as a way to process and express their experiences and emotions
  • Conveys their feelings about the conflict
• Creative expression of children


  • Art
  • Music
  • Writing
• UNICEF's programs in Gaza use art to help children express themselves and improve their psychological well-being
• Creative expression


  Acts as a coping mechanism and form of resistance<|>Offers insights into their inner lives and resilience
• Supporting these forms of creative expression can help amplify the voices of children and promote healing
• Children's perspectives on peace and conflict in Israel and Palestine


  Differ from those of adults
• Adults' perspectives on peace


  • Viewed through historical and political lenses
  • Focused on security concerns, national identity, and past grievances
  • Shaped by experiences of violence and survival
  • Pragmatic views on peace negotiations
• Children's perspectives on peace


  • See peace with hopeful simplicity
  • Long for stability, safety, and normalcy
  • Focus on shared humanity and the possibility of living together peacefully
  • Expressed through art and stories
  • Highlight hope and a desire for a conflict-free future
• Combining children's hopeful views


  • With adults' practical considerations
  • Could help create a more comprehensive and lasting peace approach