Arab and Jewish journalism students at a college in northern Israel have produced a newspaper in Arabic and Hebrew for distribution with several local professional newspapers in a project aimed at producing "messengers of peace".
Shaul Zadka, head of the Emek Yezreel College's media department, said the aim was to "produce 24 media professionals who could also be potential messengers of peace in the future".
The newspaper, In a Different Eye , could become a monthly venture, researched, written and produced by the students.
The programme involved pairing the students into Jewish and Arab teams.
They listened to each other, to newspaper editors and to representatives of bereaved families. The students then conducted the fieldwork and produced the newspaper.
The stories dealt with subjects such as mixed marriages between Arabs and Jews. Some 100,000 copies were distributed through the regional network of Haaretz and the weekly A-Sinara .
Dr Zadka said: "My students represent potential messengers of peace. If we can create professional links and ties of friendship between them now, the hope is that they will carry those relationships with them into their careers in the Israeli media."
The three-month pilot project, which is one module for the students'
undergraduate degrees, is a joint venture with the London-based Media Diversity Institute and is financed by the European Cultural Foundation, the Sigrid Rausing Trust and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.