The Peres Center, in cooperation with Fundacion Picasso and the Palestinian Al-Quds Daily Newspaper, held a contest entitled "Illuminating Picasso’s Dove of Peace." This cultural expression competition, which was advertised in various local newspapers and subsequently evaluated by such sources, invited Mediterranean youth to interpret Pablo Picasso’s 1949 depiction of the "Dove of Peace". In addition to the Al-Quds Daily, Egypt’s Al-Ahram Newspaper, Israel’s Yediot Ahronot, Turkey's Zaman Daily Newspaper, Bosnia's Oslobodjenje, Morocco’s Le Matin and Malta's Maltastar joined the alliance to bring this project to fruition.
Youth from around the Mediterranean region holding their "Joint Declaration" at the Peres Center's peacebuilding seminar in Spain, November 2007
Following the competition, in November 2007, the winning contestants were invited to participate in a four-day peacebuilding seminar at Fundacion Picasso in Malaga, Spain. The youth participants represented a diverse array of Mediterranean countries, including Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, France, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Spain and Malta.
Following ice-breaking and team-bonding activities and exercises, the youth participated in sessions focused on cross-cultural similarities, common values, and topics including gender issues, peace, and equality. The youth spent much time building trust between, and real friendships with, one another, and the seminar culminated in the signing of a Joint Declaration embodying the notions of a Mediterranean identity and inter-cultural cooperation.
The project also encouraged cooperation between journalists from these countries, who joined the youth in Malaga. They discussed the role of the media as a tool to encourage a culture of peace, with particular reference to the concurrent Annapolis conference.
The initiative was supported by the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for Dialogue between Cultures.
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