So, you wanna know who I work for?

This will take you twenty minutes to half an hour to read but if it's worth it for you, giver.
The following is our formal statement....our business plan, if you will.....
Zochrot - 2006 'Zochrot' (ReMembering) is a registered Israeli Not-for-Profit NGO (580389526) that was established in 2002 in order to introduce the Palestinian Nakba to the Israeli public, especially to the Jewish population in Israel. The Palestinian Nakba refers to the "Catastrophe" the Palestinians suffered in 1948 when Israel moved into the Holy Land, dispersing the Palestinians and declaring statehood. Between the years 2002-2005 Zochrot has worked mostly as a volunteer organization, working from activists' homes and mobile phones. Throughout 2005 Zochrot has managed, thanks to many world-wide supporters, to develop a physical office and to open and operate the first-ever Information and Visitors’ Center about the Nakba in Israel. We have enlarged our staff to include six workers to support our programs. And we also welcomed a full-time intern to work in our offices for the next three years. Our organizational structure has developed to include a full-time manager, working alongside five part-time coordinators: the Visitors’ Center Coordinator; an Information Center Coordinator; the Haifa Region Coordinator; an Educational Programs Coordinator; and a Resources and Development Coordinator; and our Intern.In 2006 Zochrot will continue to develope organically, both responding to grassroots' needs and initiating various activities in order to fulfill our mission.
Our Vision - Is that a true reconciliation process will develop between two peoples: Israelis and Palestinians, which will aim at resolving, rightfully, the ongoing tragedy of the Palestinian refugees. This process must be based on an Israeli recognition of the refugee’s rights and the State’s responsibility in creating their tragedy. Our Mission – Is to initiate, support and sustain an ongoing Israeli public-debate about the Palestinian Nakba, the Refugee Problem and their right of return. This is our mission because Israeli Jews are rarely aware of what happened in Palestine in 1948; they are oblivious to the destruction and the intended demolition of most of Palestine's villages and towns and the expulsion of inhabitants. We believe that this same ongoing and directed ignorance is what now stands in the way of finding a just solution to the Palestinian Refugee Problem. Moreover, this ignorance promotes and strengthens ethnocentric and even racist attitudes amongst Israeli-Jews. It also prevents Israelis from deeply understanding the reality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its historical sources, thus leaving little hope for real reconciliation between the two peoples in the future. We see the ongoing oppression of the Palestinians, both inside and outside the 1948 borders of Israel, as a continuation of the form of relations established during the Nakba of 1948. We also support a solution for Palestinians refugees based on their right of return and hope that the Israeli government and official establishments recognize their responsibility for some part of the events taking place in 1948 and thereafter. Our main goal is to bring as many people, and especially Jewish Israelis, as possible to meet the facts and the stories of the Palestinian Nakba of 1948 and to understand the ongoing reality created by it.
Our Programs – As part of our mission of ‘ReMembering’, we wish to accomplish all the above by operating three major programs that include several projects in each category: ’RePlacing’, ’ReSourcing’ and ‘ReEducating’.
‘RePlacing’– Background – This program aims to counter the physical erasure and the way the space and landscape was, and still is, re-organized by Israel since 1948. Our goals here are to Re-visit and Re-name as many existing and destroyed locations as possible, including establishing connection to refugees from these locations and to collect and translate as many materials as possible into Hebrew (see also below in ‘ReSourcing’). Goals – Our goal in this program is to put forward alternative physical landmarks and signs, and / or to initiate events that mark the physical landscape and will challenge both the public and authorities with the erasure and forgetfulness of Palestine and Palestinian life.Beneficiaries – First and foremost we are aiming to influence the Jewish Israeli public. A second group, which we consider as major beneficiaries, are the Palestinian refugees’ communities inside, and outside of, Israel. We also look at a third group, which is a global, international group that should benefit from Zochrot’s actions, and thus are all supporters of a Palestine state and of reconciliation and just peace in the region and around the world. Evaluation - There are several criteria by which we can evaluate this program: Number of activities.The amount of new knowledge and materials the actions produce.The number and variety of participants and their willingness to get involved in further engagement with Zochrot or the concerned issues. The impact of the activities on the local populations, the public and the general political public-debate, through our website / center and through various Media forums and online-debates.The possibility to produce further actions out of the action taken. Many of Zochrot’s activities do trigger new ideas and initiatives for ongoing projects.
In 2006, this Program will include several ongoing projects:Tours and Visits - Touring and posting signs at destroyed Palestinian villages and towns: before every new tour we will have a preparatory process of research in order to see the place and decide where to post the signs and to locate materials, and tour guides from the local communities. We will publicize the event beforehand in local newspapers, on the Internet, in our website and other related sites, and in other relevant public arenas. After finishing the preparations, Zochrot will organize transportation that will travel to the location of a destroyed village in a certain area. The tour will be guided either by refugees from the destroyed village, by their children or by other experts on the location. We aim to include as many women as possible as such guides and experts. Whenever possible, some Hebrew and Arabic material about the villages will be produced and provided, including map-transcripts of the places before '48 (see below ‘ReSourcing’ for more details). In every village we visit, we intend to affect the participants towards understanding and sensitivity and to listen to testimonies or conduct a ceremony. We will also post signs at the location in Hebrew and in Arabic, with the names of the villages and other important information. We plan to visit as many destroyed villages as possible and to have a geographical spread which will not exclude any area of the country.Official Campaigns and Objections – Campainging for the official signing of destroyed Palestinian locations and to object to the further destruction of them, where still possible: in every possible case Zochrot will engage with the authorities in order to stress the need to officially and clearly sign the remains and location of destroyed Palestinian villages and towns. We will also conduct official objections' procedures, where still possible, to prevent official plans of further destruction of Palestinian sites, in order to start a debate on the authorities' plans. Memorial Events – Commemorating special dates relating to the Nakba: this project intends to produce special events on three specific dates: first, the Israeli day of Independence (on which we usually join in the "March of Return" organized by the Central Committee of the Internally Displaced Palestinians in Israel). Each year the march is conducted in a different village and we usually commemorate this village by a sign(s) and organize some special input by Zochrot for that day. Second, around April 9th, the Deir-Yassin Memorial Day, we join "Deir-Yassin Remembered" in a ceremony, or other event, in the village itself. Third, on the official Nakba day on May 15th, we usually conduct a public event in a central location in order to introduce the Israeli public with the importance of the day to Palestinian refugees.Operating Local Volunteers Groups – Initiating and supporting local groups to take on activities on the Nakba in their region: Zochrot wishes to empower and support local organizations of activists from existing organizations and as new initiatives to take up activities and research concerning the Nakba and the refugees. We will keep close contact with such groups and will push forward to initiate such groups wherever a substantial group of activists exist.A Hebrew Map of Palestine – Recreating a map of Palestine in Hebrew: Zochrot wishes to produce a map of the Nakba of Palestine in Hebrew to serve the public. This is based on existing maps and research and on our own research and experience.Travel Guide to Destroyed Villages – Offering a counter-tour-guide to destroyed Palestinian locations: towards the main Jewish holidays the daily newspapers offer families in Israel additional sections with tours in the country. It goes without saying that these sections do not even mention the Palestinian locations, still existing, yet destroyed. We wish to prepare and distribute a small booklet offering some alternative tours for families and individuals interested in exploring what is also erased from the landscape.
‘ReSourcing’ – Background – This program aims to counter the lack of information resources in Hebrew about the Nakba. We wish to collect and translate as many new materials as possible into Hebrew and to operate a growing and dynamic Information and Visitor’s Center to help interested people have a reachable place to help their interest. This Center will also serve as a communal and cultural center for the distribution of knowledge and information about the Nakba. We wish to operate and update a dynamic and interactive website that will serve as a database for introductory information about the Nakba and will invite visitors for further research on the subject.Goals – Our goals here are to put forward as many materials as possible, preferably new ones (or at least new in Hebrew) and to serve the need for more knowledge and data about the Nakba, the Refugees Problem and the right of return. Beneficiaries – First and foremost we are aiming to influence the Jewish Israeli public and the Hebrew speaking public outside Israel. We also specially target students at schools and universities, and researchers from various fields and disciplines. Evaluation- The impact of this program can be evaluated by the following criteria:Number of Publications added to the Information Center (Printed, Audio and Visual).Number of new web pages added to the website.New features and an ongoing upgrading of the website.Amount of new testimonies available in Hebrew.Increased access to our website and contacts through it.Number of visitors to the center and number of students, and other individuals, using the resources available there to investigate and research about the Nakba.
The Projects of this program includes:Hebrew website about the Nakba – Operating, maintaining and upgrading the first and largest Hebrew-speaking virtual center on the web about the Palestinian Nakba – www.zochrot.org. As of today, Zochrot's web site serves as the biggest online Hebrew source devoted to the Palestinian narrative of the Nakba. We announce all our activities through this site; we also communicate with pictures and individual stories; we upload testimonies to the site and we offer there a virtual library, including academic lectures and reports about the Nakba and the Palestinian refugees from such people as Benny Morris, Ilan Pape, Salman Abu Sita, Scott Leckie, Salim Tammary, the “Badil” organization and others. In our site we also have interactive maps of Palestine that show the location of every Palestinian village and town in Palestine before 1948. We are working today, and throughout 2006, to upgrade the website with new media forms and new presentations.Library and Visitors and Information Center – Operating a physical center for Zochrot's activities, to serve as an address for collecting and distributing knowledge (through all sorts of media); and for conducting research about the Palestinian Nakba. We intend to keep a dynamic center that will collect whatever new materials are available on the subject and that will serve as a resources bank for researchers and individuals interested in the subject.Publications and Presentations – Publishing booklets about the toured Palestinian villages (see above at RePlacing), and developing various forms of presentations on the subject of the Nakba to the general public. Here, we include the booklets we intend to produce before embarking on a tour to a new location. We also intend to produce smaller publications, such as brochures and different invitations to specific events and and specific dates. Collecting Testimonies – Countering the aging of the first generation witnesses of the Nakba of 1948 by collecting oral histories and existing testimonies to establish a large database for further educating and research: we intend to contact as many survivors in different regions of Israel, Palestine and elsewhere as possible, and to collect their testimonies. This is intended to be done with the participation of our activists and supporters everywhere, in order to offer avenues to investigate the local region and to be involved with learning about close communities.
‘ReEducating’ – Background – This program aims to counter the educational efforts by Israel to erase any memory of Palestine and the Nakba of 1948. As was mentioned above, the Palestinian Nakba is systematically erased from the Israeli landscape and consciousness. In this process the educational system plays a major role: the history and geography of Palestine and the events that changed it into the Jewish state of Israel are not addressed both in the official and in the non-official educational systems. We operate with different methods and in alternative forums to include the issues of the Nakba and the refugees in the educational agenda.Goals – Our goals here are to develop an option for formal and informal systems of education to engage in learning and teaching about the Palestinian Nakba.Beneficiaries – First and foremost, we are aiming to influence the Jewish Israeli public education system. We also aim to offer various educational experiences for the general public. The largest beneficiary group would be the younger generation: we believe that a generation that grows knowing more about 1948 and has the Nakba within its world view will be better equipped to be a part of a reconciliation process. Evaluation- The criteria to evaluate this program are:Number of schools or teachers that are involved with ZochrotThe variety of educational materials that are available for educating about the Nakba in Hebrew.The number and variety of different NGOs and youth groups / movements which are ready to approach these issues, including them in their agendas.The number of participants at the public evening events.The variation of topics and speakers who are willing to speak to the public about these issues.
The Projects include:Education Packet – Collecting and developing various educational materials for a Nakba course, in schools and elsewhere. Groups of teachers – Organizing regional groups for support and learning from teachers who are teaching the Nakba in their daily work. We plan to initiate regional teachers groups that will serve a supporting and learning purposes. We also wish to start collecting the knowledge manufactured in those monthly meetings into a written course that will allow others to engage in educating the Nakba. As part of this project we also wish to make contact with new schools and different educational frameworks, and to incorporate them into this project or other projects that Zochrot operates, including the tours and memorial events we put on.Developing Children’s Games – Searching possibilities to bring the issues to children as games or in different medias.Reaching Youth Groups – Connecting with various youth groups and NGOs in order to bring Zochrot’s agenda closer to their activities.Public Evenings – As part of the Visitor’s Center we invite people for regular lectures and presentations, from a variety of focuses, about the Nakba and related issues. We intend to conduct public events on a regular basis dedicated to many of the controversial issues concerning the Nakba, the Palestinian refugees issue or the right of return. We are currently using our new Nakba Information Center in Tel-Aviv / Jaffa for that purpose and using different spaces in other cities (Haifa). This is in order to produce lectures, movie screenings, or open discussions about some aspects of the Nakba (for example- we did an influential and well reported evening about the Nakba and Israeli architecture and a full-day about Women and the Nakba). We will distribute an invitation to these events and will publicize it in relevant media bodies. The events will be documented and reported-on in our website and our larger mailing list (over 1500 listed). Facilitating Dialogue between Israelis and Palestinian refugees from the same location – Bringing together Palestinian refugees with Jewish Israelis that live on their lands today: we are offering to organize and facilitate a Dialogue Workshop in small groups (up to 20 in each group – 10 Jews and 10 Palestinians). The workshops will include two main stages: the first will be the learning and discussion of the history and the second will be looking to the future with possible outcomes to the dialogue, and with suggested actions that might be taken, in order to move towards a just solution for the Palestinian refugees. A first stage will be to collect a group of people interested in this kind of dialogue. Then we plan to hold a workshop over a weekend (two days) for an introduction and ventilation of hard feelings and anger; then we wish to move the workshop to a "neutral" area, preferably abroad (Cyprus or Turkey can be a close-by possibility), for another four days of work (usually Thursday to Sunday). In these four days the main work can be done with the possibility of spending twenty-four hours together helping to achieve positive results for the working group. (An alternative to going abroad, where such a possibility would be difficult for the participants, we intend to replace the four days with two long weekends, thus achieving the wished for 4 days of work).Participating in Conferences about the Nakba and the refugee’s issue – Taking part in different public conferences: local, regional and international. Zochrot is invited time and again to different regional and international conferences that deal with the framework of refugees' issues in general, and with the regional issues of the Palestinian refugees in particular. Zochrot is also taking part in organizing such conferences, for example with the Tel-Aviv University or the Emil Tomma Institute in Haifa.
Capacity Building – Additionally to the above programs, Zochrot will develop its own capacities and capabilities in order to strengthen the organization and develop this knowledge from internal and external resources. This we wish to do in participating in courses by different organizations and coalitions, initiating our own internal seminars and learning days, developing a Media team that will learn how to enhance our Media exposure and by conducting empowering events for Zochrot's activists and staff.