The Belfast-Jerusalem Civil Society Partnership (B-JCSP) developed out of exploratory visits by Intercomm & INCORE to Jerusalem in October 2004, and by Ir Amim and Panorama to Belfast in December 2004. During these visits, all members were struck by the similarities between Belfast and Jerusalem as ‘unresolved’ cities whose future may be subject to political deadlocks, vacuums and settlements. In this context, B-JCSP feels it is especially important to enhance the capacity of civil society to contribute to peace in both Jerusalem and Northern Ireland.

The mission of B-JCSP is to share, develop, research and disseminate skills and practices to help build communities, strengthen civil society and transform conflict in Jerusalem and Northern Ireland. To this end, the partnership:

• Acts as a forum for exchange and debate concerning community building, strengthening civil society and conflict transformation in Jerusalem and Northern Ireland.
• Conducts comparative academic and practice-oriented research in the areas of community building, strengthening civil society and conflict transformation in Northern Ireland and Jerusalem.
• Establishes and sustains working relationships between civil society actors in Jerusalem and Northern Ireland.
• Promotes co-ordinated, coherent and evidence-based approaches to community-building, strengthening civil society and conflict transformation in Northern Ireland and Jerusalem.

The Partnership has only just begun, but aims to strengthen civil society and assist in the transformation of conflict in Northern Ireland and Jerusalem by involving research academics and conflict transformation and community development practioners. The Partnership will focus on the following themes:

• Community Building - to include areas of common interest such as community development, single-identity/uni-national work, cross-community work, interface work, social economy/micro-business, conflict resolution & transformation, non-violent strategies, youth work.
• Diversity, Pluralism & Identity - to include areas of common interest such as citizenship & nationality, multiple identities and super-identity, justice and human rights, visions of our cities, mixed/cross-marriage, street art, religion & reconciliation.

Intercomm’s B-JCSP partners are:

• INCORE - an international Centre of Excellence for Peace and Conflict Studies at University of Ulster
• Ir Amim (“City of Nations” or “City of Peoples”) - an NGO founded to engage on those issues impacting on Israeli-Palestinian relations in Jerusalem, and on the political future of the city
• Panorama - an NGO dedicated to the development of Palestinian society and to promoting the notions of civil society among Palestinians.

Helen Lewis (INCORE) with Eetta Prince-Gibson (Ir Amim)
, Walid Salem (Panorama) and Yasser Abu Kater
(Al Quds University) at the University
of Ulster's Magee Campus