The Just Jerusalem Competition (JJC), Jerusalem 2050’s focal event, was the engagement of the world in a dialogue to envision a peaceful, just, and sustainable city by looking at the complexity of life within the city through 4 entry points: economic, physical, civic, and symbolic infrastructures. Additionally, 4 winners were chosen in order to help illustrate the projects commitment to a holistic approach and to the understanding that there is not one single solution but many solutions, projects, organizations, and stakeholders needed to create peace. While Jerusalem is contested by two nations, its symbolic nature, religious significance, and situation within a globalizing world and within the growing connection of people focused on a shared humanity and interconnectedness, has caused people to take an active interested in the violence and conflict within Israel-Palestine and Jerusalem. More and more people are seeing themselves as stakeholders, to greater or lesser degrees, in the conflict and they want to help create and support non-violent, just, sustainable solutions for the betterment of all living in Jerusalem and Israel-Palestine.
Israel-Palestine cannot be neatly packed into the molds of other conflicts, nor can solutions from elsewhere simply be imposed on it. This does not mean, however, that lessons, methods, and projects from other conflict cities have no useful knowledge to impart. Many of the Just Jerusalem’s registrants come from conflict cities and are happy to share their wisdom and empathy from their personal experiences as a starting place for initiatives that will be re-formulated to be appropriate for Jerusalemites.
Despite being a Competition, the aim of the JJC was to flip the normal use of competition for dominance to a collaborative, dialectic methodology to creatively brainstorm. It was an experiment in pooling resources, knowledge, and creativity. While not perfect in execution, this tool has shown itself to have powerful potential for future use.
This is just an overview; please see the “Just Jerusalem Competition” menu tab for more information on the structure, criteria, participants, and results of the Competition.
