The aim of the Youth, Peace & Dialogue project is to influence the Finnish public discussion on Israel and Palestine. We want to bring together a group of young people, who are interested in the topic, provide them with an opportunity to delve deeper into the situation in Israel and Palestine, learn about different forms of peace work and raise the issue in Finland as they see fit. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been going on for decades and due to the complexity of the situation, the public discussion on the subject in Finland often remains superficial and easily polarized. In addition, political actors and violent aspects of the conflict are usually emphasized, while the grassroots action promoting dialogue in the region is forgotten. We, therefore, feel that there is more and more need for a project that emphasizes depolarization, peace and dialogue. The project aims to break away from polarized political attitudes and instead tries to make visible people-centred grassroots activities that often get upstaged by politics and bring them into the Finnish public debate through a campaign conducted by the participants of this project.
