TEDxJaffa - Carol Daniel Kasbari - Israel-Palestine: Going Beyond the Dialogue of Words

Comment

Comment by Stewart Mills on February 3, 2012 at 6:20pm

 

Thanks for sharing the video Yuval!

 

What a fantastic presentation by Carol.

 

Desire to know the Other - Quotes

 

“Refusing to do the traditional path” – at 18 years of age leaving Nazareth to go to university in Jerusalem

 

“Moving from the known to the unknown…the familiar to the unfamiliar”

 

“Getting to know the other”  – her meeting with Jewish-Israelis

“Facing my prejudices”

“Communication barrier” – she hardly had communicated in Hebrew

“Our inherited fear is so powerful”

“Letting go of stories – what I heard from my parents, TV”

 

“Crossing another line” -  in 1997 – visiting Ramallah – first time to the West Bank.

“It was this other I had heard of but never had met before”.

Falling in love – meeting her husband.

 

“Both families had to cross an emotional border to connect”.

 

Identity – might be an obstacle – but it was a gift and a resource for me and others to use.

 

Life as a facilitator

 

Main resource – to come back to who I am – my identity.

 

“What can we do to create change on the ground and not just inside ourselves?”

 

“Engage in more than dialogue of words but dialogue by actions”.  This does not just mean [protests] it might mean visiting other people

 

Creating social and political change in our communities

[Dialogue ‘tips’]

 

1. Cross the border

 

Ahmad – idea – I would like to invite Israelis to visit us in Palestine

Result – Visit Palestine – brings 100s of Israelis to the West Bank to learn about the other

Ahmad – let go of his fear

 

 

2. Invite the media to see what you see to help inform public opinion

 

 

Israeli Palestinian media forum – visit of Balata refugee camp at Nablus of 45 Israeli and Palestinian journalists.  Experiencing a context they had never seen before.  This was a lifetime experience for so many of them. This brought the story of Balata to the attention of the Israeli public.

 

Coming face to face with

Fear of the unknown

Crossing the line

 

3. Bring the unconvinced into the circle

 

Dialogue with the other – don’t exclude thos who don’t agree with you

I understand the sensitivities of why some Palestinians might not want to talk with settlers.

eg [bring right and left wing]

 

Wounded Crossing Borders – soldiers and ex-prisoners

 

4.  Invite people who matter to you the most

 

Need for support group (family, friends, neighbours) in sustaining dialogue.

 

Dialogue programs – involve exchange stories of loss and despair

Jamal of Beit Omar – his invitation of Israeli’s to Bet Omar and of his visit to Sderot

 

Closing

This is a time that calls us all to action  - by crossing these borders

 

“The limitation that fear places on us”

 

“Go outside your comfort zone”

“Extend your hand and be in someone elses story for a while.  The action has ripple effects that we may not know about. When we go outside of what we know then we have the opportunity to a place of us to move to a more generous place”

Also see

 

My Jerusalem by Carol Daniel Kasbari

24 June 2010

http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=28023&lan=en&...

 

Reflections on Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, 16 December 2010

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/reflections-on-israeli...