Balfour Project Peace Advocacy Fellowship Programme
for the Academic Year 2020-21
APPLY TODAY
Application deadline – Sunday 11 October 2020
1. Call for Balfour Project Peace Advocacy Fellows 2020-21
The Balfour Project intends to appoint ten Balfour Project Peace Advocacy Fellows for the academic year 2020-1. If you are a post-graduate or final year undergraduate with an interest in the problems of the Middle East, you are welcome to apply.
The selected fellows will be paid a bursary of £700, payable in two tranches at the midpoint and end of the academic year.
2. What will be expected of you as a Peace Advocacy Fellow?
As a fellow, you will be given the opportunity to make a tangible contribution to the work of the Balfour Project by campaigning for peace on the basis of the BP approach (see 6 below) within your academic institution and more generally. The kind of activities that would be envisaged in normal circumstances are set out in 3 below, but it is acknowledged that the Coronavirus pandemic is likely to remain disruptive throughout 2020-21 and that flexibility will be required. We are looking for innovative and creative thinkers. You will work on your personal project, developing your own particular interests connected to the issues involved in the Israel/Palestine conflict, potentially with other fellows, to further the aims of the Balfour Project.
3. Activities in which the fellows will be expected to participate.
These will include taking part in campus events organised by groups on both sides of the “Israel/Palestine” debate, ideally as speakers, and organise an event on campus to promote a just approach to this conflict:
(a) to focus on Britain’s failure to live up to its historic responsibility in Palestine, and
(b) to call upon Britain to take leadership in promoting peace based on the rights of the parties in international law.
As a fellow, you will also assist the Balfour Project in organising a conference on Jerusalem that is planned to take place virtually on 27 October. You will work closely with, and will always be subject to supervision by, the Balfour Project team administering the fellowship scheme.
4. Training for the Balfour Project Peace Advocacy Fellows
The Peace Advocacy Fellows will be provided with a reading list on the Israel/Palestine issue and Britain’s historic responsibility for this dispute, and will attend a number of sessions and workshops. These will be held online, unless the guidelines for meeting in person will allow us to. These will include knowledge based topics, such as:
- The creation and termination of the Palestine Mandate in international law.
- How does the British government make decisions on Middle-East issues?
- How the UN and the Foreign and Commonwealth office work and policy is developed?
- What can we learn from other conflicts, e.g. Northern Ireland?
And skills based topics, such as:
- Writing skills.
- Public speaking and persuasion skills.
- Negotiation skills.
- Awareness raising, fundraising and event planning.
5. Timeline for appointment and training of the Peace Advocacy Fellows
We are open for applications between 7 September and- 9 October. Some interviews may be held between 14-18 September, with others to follow after 9 October. The fellows will be appointed on 16 October.
Workshops will take place throughout the academic year in coordination with the fellows.
6. The aims and objectives of the Balfour Project
The following are the aims and objectives of the Balfour Project:
The Balfour Project hopes to achieve a much greater public awareness of Britain’s current and historic responsibilities in the Middle East, and in particular its role there in the first half of the twentieth century.
The Balfour Project accordingly invites the government and people of the United Kingdom
– to learn what the Balfour Declaration and Palestine mean for both Arabs and Jews,
– to acknowledge that while a homeland for the Jewish people has been achieved, the promise to protect the rights of the Palestinian people has not been fulfilled,
– and to urge effective action to promote justice, security and peace for Israelis and Palestinians.
For more about the Balfour Project, see www.balfourproject.org.