Study visits represent the key learning pillar of the ICC programme. They contribute to the transfer of good practices and innovation among member cities and expose a range of policy-makers, practitioners and inclusion advocates to reflections and discussions with peers from across the world.

Haifa, home of Jewish new immigrants (coming mainly from the Former Soviet Union and Ethiopia), local Jewish (residents of Israel for more than 20 years), Arabs both of Muslim and Christian faith, as well as a new growing group of “non-Jewish non-Arabs immigrants” is considered the Israel’s most ethnically mixed city. All along recent history the city has also been the home of Protestant migrants from Germany, Jews from Romania, Bahá í and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, a reformist movement founded in India. The complexity of the picture is increased by the presence of Muslim Sunni, Christian Catholics and Orthodox, as well as Druze. Haifa is therefore a city with an active tradition of diversity, migration and ethnic co-existence which makes it a multi-ethnic and ‘shared’ Israeli city. The climate of deteriorating security and the political context in the region are challenges that the city strives to face to protect its unique nature.

The Study visit will present Haifa’s intercultural practices considering its wider historical and geographical setting, as well as history, geography and politics of the region. It will show how an open management of public space can promote participation, interreligious dialogue and intercultural interaction, as well as the potential that a shared vision of arts and culture can have with regards to living together peacefully in diversity.

• Draft Agenda