This week, we have launched two new videos giving overviews of research projects. The videos from the Strengthening Local Capacities for UCP (Rural Women’s Peace Link, Kenya), and Community strategies for Unarmed Civilian Protection in South-West Colombia: local experiences and lessons learned projects are now available on our YouTube Channel. Please feel free to watch these videos, and leave any feedback, reflections, or questions for the PI’s on this Mural page.

Creating Safer Space network PI Berit Bliesemann de Guevara and project PI Sukanya Podder will be chairing a section on ‘Civilian agency in war and violent conflict: Exploring the power of self-protection’ at the 16^th Pan-European Conference (PEC) of the European International Studies Association (EISA). The conference will take place in Potsdam, Germany from 5-9 September 2023. The deadline for submitting a paper or roundtable abstract to the section is 15 March 2023. See the EISA PEC 2023 website for more information: http://pec2023.eisa-net.org/section-list/. We look forward to receiving submissions from the Creating Safer Space community.

Marwan Darweish, Mahmoud Soliman and Andrew Rigby spent ten days doing field research in the South Hebron Hills, in the south of the occupied West Bank, during October-November 2022.

A few weeks prior to our visit one of our co-participants in our research project, a community leader in the village of Al Tuwani, suffered serious injury at the hands of thugs from a neighbouring illegal settlement, who attacked him with staves and metal bars, breaking both his hands.

The settler-thugs acted with complete impunity – confident they would face no legal sanctions for their acts of violence. They are emboldened by the knowledge that the violence they perpetrate against Palestinians serves as a major informal tool of the Israeli state in its pursuance of its annexationist policies. In the words of a report by the Israeli human rights agency B’tselem, ‘settler violence is a form of government policy, aided and abetted by official state authorities with their active participation.’

In such an asymmetric struggle the local inhabitants have few resources of resistance beyond their own everyday courage, tenacity and stubborn steadfastness – sumud. To support them different Palestinian, Israeli and international agencies, organisations and groups have sought to offer various forms of accompaniment as agents of civilian protection, assisting the local Palestinian communities in their efforts to achieve a degree of ‘safe space’ within which to pursue their lives.

During our field work we interviewed local Palestinian community leaders and activists, in addition to members of international groups engaged in different forms of ‘accompaniment’. We are now engaged in the process of analysing the material we gathered from our interviews and observations. A number of interesting insights are beginning to emerge, which we shall pursue in subsequent fieldwork. 

1) The limitations of traditional approaches to accompaniment and civilian protection when the local population face risks to their well-being around the clock, with night raids by settlers increasing in frequency.

2) The symbiotic relationship between local Palestinians and international accompaniers. The accompaniers are there to enhance the security of the Palestinians, but the Palestinian in turn ‘protect’ the internationals – advising them of potential threats, identifying escape routes in case of attack, indicating where they should stand in order to minimise the risk of injury during encounters with settlers.

3) One of the key ways in which internationals can enhance the capacities for self-protection of local Palestinians is by letting the locals know that they are not alone. This awareness has a significant impact on local morale.

Mahmoud Soliman and Marwan Darweish talking to Abu Nidal from South Hebron Hills (Masafer Yatta), October 2022.

Soldiers from one side and activists on the other side. Al Tuwani October 2022.

This month, Creating Safer Space is co-hosting a collaborative workshop with Nonviolent Peaceforce and Institut Catholique de Paris.

In this event, Dr Cécile Dubernet and Prof Rachel Julian will lead a French language session with top tips on how to write a grant application. There will be time for questions and discussions following a presentation.

16.30 – 17:30 UTC on Wednesday 14 December 2022.

Please use a timezone converter to check your local time.

All welcome, join the meeting here: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86973196809

Following a successful first meeting, the working group on Innovation in Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning in Unarmed Civilian Protection / Accompaniment will meet again:

14:00-16:00 UTC on Tuesday 24 January 2023. Please use a timezone converter to check your local time.

The Working Group will discuss participatory methods of monitoring and evaluation and how best to jointly work towards methods of monitoring and evaluation suited to UCP/A.

Welcome to the launch for the working group on Innovation in Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning in Unarmed Civilian Protection / Accompaniment.

The Working Group will discuss participatory methods of monitoring and evaluation and how best to jointly work towards methods of monitoring and evaluation suited to UCP/A.

2 – 4 pm UTC on Thursday 1 December
Please use a timezone converter to check your local time.

The session will be held in English and Spanish with simultaneous translation.

The Creating Safer Space network has funded 21 research projects around the world, and we have set aside funding for a few more projects. These will undertake research in 10 different countries in the Global South.

You can find a summary of each project by clicking on the pins on our Project Map. Each project also has a bespoke website on our Projects Page, where they provide more detailed information about their plans and activities.

The Creating Safer Space research network invites Expressions of Interest to participate in a 10-week training course on Strengthening Civilian Capacities to Protect Civilians.

This course is an introduction to the objectives, principles, sources of guidance, and methods of Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP). The course is led by Dr Ellen Furnari and Dr Thor Wagstrom, and is based on course content developed by our partner organisation Nonviolent Peaceforce. There are no course fees, and course material will be provided for free. More information about the course is available on our website.

Course Structure
The course dates are 7 January – 17 March 2023. The course will require about 8-10 hours per week to read, participate and complete assignments. Participants complete all activities online through modules that are accessed through the course website. There are no required meetings for this course. However, participants are invited to meet the course facilitators and each other during an informal kick-off Zoom meeting on Saturday 7 January. Up to three additional meetings will be arranged during the course for opportunities to meet and question experienced UCP practitioners and to practice UCP methods through role-play exercises. Attendance for these meetings will not be required but is encouraged.

Eligibility
Researchers, Masters/PhD students and relevant practitioners are invited to submit an Expression of Interest to participate in this course. Anyone is welcome to apply, but places are limited. Priority will be given to those candidates who are most likely to benefit from the course, with priority to candidates from the UK and from the Global South. We especially encourage Principal Investigators, Co-Investigators, Project Partners and Research Assistants on Creating Safer Space research projects to participate in the course.

How to apply
Please submit an Expression of Interest of no more than 100 words to creating-safer-space@aber.ac.uk by 22 November 2022, with an explanation of your interest in the course and how it would benefit you in your work or studies. Please specify if you are involved in a Creating Safer Space research project, including your role in the project.

The aim of the Creating Safer Space Café is to enable people in different parts of the world to exchange knowledge and to help build a community of Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP) researchers and practitioners.

This month, Prof. Chantana Wungaeo and Prof. Mark Tamthai will discuss their Creating Safer Space research project, “Introducing Unarmed Civilian Protection in Thai Society: Opportunities and Challenges”. The team will share the aims of the project, their experiences of carrying out the project, and preliminary findings and anticipated outcomes.

12.30 – 1.30 pm UTC on Thursday 17 November
Please use a timezone converter to check your local time.

The session will be held in English and Spanish with simultaneous translation.

All welcome; please register here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcrdu6vrzwqGNAh3SRpvoWosvRm2c4sBn9L

We are pleased to announce that a new research project will start in October: “Safety and dignity: Enhancing unarmed civilian protection amongst Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills (Masafer Yatta)”

The project received a Creating Safer Space Small Grant through our open funding competition.

The project is led by Marwan Darweish at Coventry University (UK), in collaboration with Co-Investigators at Coventry University and the Al-Shmoh Cultural Center (Palestine).

The project focuses on the South Hebron Hills of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), where the civilian population face acts of violence by Israeli settlers in which their crops, livestock, dwellings and lives have been targeted. The project will analyse attempts by civilian actors to support the local communities in their attempts to create safer spaces within which they can continue to maintain their livelihoods, hold on to their land and way of life.

More information about the project is available here:
https://creating-safer-space.com/safety-and-dignity-enhancing-unarmed-civilian-protection-amongst-palestinian-communities-in-the-south-hebron-hills-masafer-yatta/