The Diary of a Worldly Streetsmart Traveller: Israel

Did those pine trees have pinenuts (typo'd pinebuts)? Ask around about pignoli!

listening in!

Holy mother of wow.

day 1 of workshop finished. very heavy, emotional, almost explosive stuff. i have a lump in my stomach even though half of what was spoken was in hebrew and arabic.
i lead the session in the morning. good luck to me.
hopefully the evening socializing will ease the situation

As I have predicted, I have failed utterly in this round of the diary. Maybe I'll come back to it one day. Meanwhile, here are some pics:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=212942&id=697154364&l=6dd6ba0d09


Oh, and the greatest revelation in Palestine was the spice mix called za'atar. They use it for dipping flat bread in after dipping it in olive oil. I myself love it on my tomatos.
http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/zaatar.html

I have za-atar!

Thanks, Dag, I took a quick glance and plan to pore over the lot of them.

is that the moroccan spice thing you got?

i love love love it. One week into being back and i'm running out of the stuff. i brought a whole bag of it.

So, can you give us any details about these dialogues that you've attended? What is the crux, for both sides, of these dialogues? In what are these dialogues left at?

Ah, a question. Good. I would not be able to do a real diary in retrospect.

The dialogue workshops were training of trainers. The trainees are Israeli and Arab and Palestinian social workers (also already skilled group facilitators). The workshop itself was two days, focusing on 'historical conciliation' - an approach I helped to develop when I lived in Boston. Which essentially just means engaging history and memory as part of the dialogue process rather than sweeping them under the carpet, which is what commonly happens.
The process of the community dialogue follows an exchange of "fears, needs, hopes, concerns" lists between ethnic communities (this is the hardest part, can be very explosive and emotional) and later sharing personal family narratives as they relate to the conflict in order to establish a space of trust from which a program of future common action can be built by the group.

This week, the dialogues themselves have started in 6 communities. Each is led by two participants - 1 Jewish and 1 Arab/Palestinian. These communities are in different parts of Israel and are mixed - Jewish, Arab, Christian, Druze, Bedouin... and have a history of conflict (which community does not in Israel...). I am getting reports of the first meetings and am anxiously anticipating the next ones. Keeping fingers crossed.

Thank you for replying to my questions, dagmar.
Can you give us any details about the fears and concerns, and the needs and hopes that the communities express in these exchanges? I am deeply interested in the details of the personal perspective of the conflict seeing as how most of the information about it is from the governmental and ideological (which I know informs in a large measure the personal) perspective.

This is fascinating stuff. I am so very very proud that I know someone doing such important work.

thanks, panz, though i am not the one out there leading the community dialogues, merely prepping the people that go out there. they deserve the real credit.

the fears, needs, hopes, concerns lists are done in the two ethnic groups that are a part of the dialogue. Each group quite literally compiles a list of these in a form that they see fit and then they share it with each other. Group 1 reads out loud, Group 2 listens (without taking notes) and then reflects back what they heard. Then Group 1 clarifies what was misheard or misinterpreted, missed, etc. Then they switch.

Few things are notable about this. With Jewish and Arab groups, the two groups always choose a different form. The Arab list tends to be more cautious, more orderly and organized, more of a collective process, too. The Jewish list tends to be a long rambling list of random things brought up by individuals...it is quite telling about the differing cultures as well as differing situations in life. WHile the Jewish group has a state and status where they have something to lose, the Arab group is in a position of a minority fighting for its rights...that has impact on things they chose.

The lists touch on issues that go way back in collective memory and that is in turn connected to strong emotions, thus it needs to be addressed. Also, it is useful as a method to bring participants to understand how identity is constructed and to some extent arbitrary. And changeable and multiple.

In real life, this process lasts a whole weekend, the first day being very stormy and emotional, using the evening and night for socializing and informal connecting, next day for debriefing and reflecting.

In Armenian - Azerbaijani groups there is another step before this one, but there's no recipe....each group is an animal of its own and requires its own adjusted approach.

i should add that each group works on the list alone for about an hour and that it's a list of fears, needs, hopes, concerns related to the other group and the conflict itself...didn't explain this part above.

Can you be more specific, as in examples, of what these things are?

be very proud of you Dasha...


<reading along>

thanks, izzie. how you doin, girl?!

which things, chai? the fears, needs, hopes, concern?

some are almost identical, almost funny (it a very twisted way). The Jews have a fear of being pushed back into the sea, Arabs of being thrown into Jordan (both metaphors reflecting the fragility of the state of Israel and of Palestine). Arabs focus on rights they want to attain - hope of their own state, hope of being able to travel and for "refugees" to come back (right of return)... Israelis have a lot more fear (more things to lose), they voice stereotypes a lot more (doesn't mean they have more stereotypes, but that in this process, this group voices them more...eh). It is damned hard, because the process of writing the list in the group is freeflowing and easy, but once you have to read it to the face of the other group, it can get ugly (including feeling ugly about self) and raw.

You ever pointed out to both that genetically there is nary a difference between them. Their DNA are the same.

It is just their fanatic religions that are dividing them.

this is about cultural differences. these are peacemakers, hardly fanatics.

<i'm doin' okeydokey thankee - very good to see you Dag - must get on FBk more to check out what you're up to and catchup on what's been going on in your life - it's so full - you amaze me in what you're doing - very interesting/fascinating/scary/emotional.... and more - good on you girl!>

well, i'll be around here a wee bit more now, summer is slower for me so i have some more time.
i don't do nothing, this is my former work, and i came to this workshop as a blind chicken to corn...as we say.
but i'd like to resume, looking for a good culprit here in slovakia.