Young professionals are young people who have attained respectable positions, mostly due to their leadership abilities. At YIFC we claim that although they have achieved a lot for their age, it hasn't amounted to that much, broadly speaking. These leaders are in the outer circles; for example, assistants to members of parliament. There isn't a tendency to welcome young people [in politics], quite the contrary. So these people work as parliamentary assistants or student union leaders and relative to their age they are successful, but we believe that there is much more to be desired. These people are very open, they are creative and flexible thinkers and have fewer commitments than they will have ten years from now. In ten years, they will be committed to family life or work; they are employed now but there are still more possibilities open to them now. We believe that these [young] leaders are situated between civil society and decision makers.
Michal Eskenazi
2
Vision
Please tell me about YIFC.
YIFC was founded with three goals in mind. The first is promoting Israeli-Palestinian dialogue. The second is less common in this field, to promote European involvement in dialogue here and in the conflict. We believe Europe has much to contribute and we stress the importance of relations between Israel and Europe. The third goal is creating a framework for young leadership in this context. In Hebrew, we haven't yet found a term for distinguishing young leadership from young professionals. Young professionals are young people who have attained respectable positions, mostly due to their leadership abilities. At YIFC we claim that although they have achieved a lot for their age, it hasn't amounted to that much, broadly speaking. These leaders are in the outer circles; for example, assistants to members of parliament. There isn't a tendency to welcome young people [in politics], quite the contrary. So these people work as parliamentary assistants or student union leaders and relative to their age they are successful, but we believe that there is much more to be desired. These people are very open, they are creative and flexible thinkers and have fewer commitments than they will have ten years from now. In ten years, they will be committed to family life or work; they are employed now but there are still more possibilities open to them now. We believe that these [young] leaders are situated between civil society and decision makers. What is special about YIFC is that it wasn't founded after there were funds or even in an organized manner. The organization was founded two and a half years ago, in August 2003, and already we are working on our sixth conference, besides many other projects and Euro-Med conferences. Our main focus is on organizing conferences. There were activities going on even before the organization was set up. Besides the conferences, YIFC focuses on examples from other conflicts and their solutions, such as Ireland and Moldova, and examining solutions vis-à-vis the conflict here, keeping in mind the question of whether implementing solutions found abroad is even possible. There are Euro-Med projects, a conference in Ireland that focuses on conflict resolution, projects focusing on vision, how we would like this region to be in twenty years. We put together a team of Palestinians, Israelis and Europeans to work and "envision" the future together and then to examine the ways by which to realize their vision. Methodologically, we define and examine our aims, the obstacles that exist, and then search for a solution. Another thing we do is emphasize the importance of follow-up activities. The next conference in Germany won't be completed when the conference ends. The conference plan includes the follow-up meeting scheduled to take place a month later. I want to stress that we have always planned to do this but lacked the funds.