We envision a world where all people live in peace, with freedom, dignity, equality and justice. This is a world where mutual understanding of a common humanity would overcome the fear and hatred that ultimately took the life of 28-year-old Daniel Braden, who was killed in the 2002 Bali Bombings, and millions of others in conflicts around the world. Encompass was set up by Daniel’s family to fight injustice and prejudice across divided communities, with the hope of fostering understanding, trust and empathy.

Our mission is to facilitate a collaborative space for young Israelis and Palestinians to work towards peace and justice by challenging the status quo, confronting divides, and exploring non-violent alternatives to addressing the conflict. We believe that the violence in Israel Palestine can best be solved through dialogue and education which addresses the root causes of the conflict, encourages honesty, and promotes equality and empathy.

Below are our core principles and we work with participants prior to dialogue sessions to achieve these standards, and to embody the values that foster honest, respectful conversations.

We believe that peace cannot be realised through force and are committed to non-violent forms of conflict resolution. We define peace as the absence of all forms of violence, including structural violence, and the rejection of inequality or the denial of basic human rights.

We believe peace between Israelis and Palestinians is only possible when there is equality, dignity and justice for both sides. These values involve creating a society where everyone has equal access to opportunities and resources, regardless of their background. 

We need to move towards ending Israel’s military occupation, whilst creating a meaningful peace settlement that gives Palestinians the right to self determination and enables Israelis to feel safe within their borders. It is not Encompass’ role to define a peace settlement between Israelis and Palestinians but we believe that the full realisation of economic, political and civil rights for both sides is fundamental to any solution.

We are committed to promoting freedom for all people. We believe everyone should enjoy the same freedoms, including the freedom of expression and movement, and the freedom from fear, violence, discrimination, and oppression.

We embrace empathy and compassion as essential tools for fostering understanding and reconciliation. To overcome conflict and societal divisions, we believe it is important to actively seek to understand the perspectives and experiences of others.

We recognise that for dialogue to create meaningful and long lasting change, it needs to be honest and challenge the root causes of conflict. Our programmes are designed to give participants an opportunity to get to know each other on a human level, in which they can express themselves freely, speak up, and share their stories and daily realities without fear or judgement.

We believe that peace can best be achieved through collaboration and solidarity. A large part of our work focuses on bringing young people together, to draw on their energy and their ability to transform the views of their generation, whilst making life-altering changes to their and others’ future.

We strongly believe in localisation and acknowledge that for peacebuilding programmes to be effective, they must meet the needs and expectations of the communities they seek to transform. With this, all of our programmes are designed and led by our staff members from Israel and Palestine, the majority of whom were once Encompass participants themselves.