Facing the Erupting Storm

Facilitating the professional development program of the WASNS elementary school Bi-National Educational Staff

Article extended summary

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This is an extended summary of an article which is in the process of being written by the SFP facilitators, analyzing a three-year facilitation process with teachers in the Palestinian-Jewish bilingual school in WASNS. Conducted as a voluntary professional development program, the process combined regular meetings during the academic year with full-day training sessions on the weekends. During its second year, following October 7th, 2023 and the war in Gaza, it also included a multi-day seminar in Cyprus, underscoring both the staff’s deep commitment to the elementary school’s vision and the difficulty of participation under acute political constraints.

The process included dialogue workshops, day-long sessions, retreats, case presentations, and ongoing coordination with school leadership. In the immediate aftermath of October 7th, 2023, the staff met via Zoom in a state of profound shock. This initial interaction revealed a significant asymmetry in experience: Jewish teachers spoke openly of their helplessness, anxiety, and concern for family members in the military, whereas Palestinian teachers remained largely silent. This silence was not a lack of emotion but a mechanism of survival and resistance against “loyalty tests” prevalent in the Israeli public sphere. While Jewish colleagues sometimes misinterpreted this silence as support for violence, the Palestinian teachers were actually navigating fears of surveillance, professional risk, and the danger of speaking Arabic or wearing a hijab in public.

The facilitators employed the SFP approach to dialogue, which views the group as a microcosm of the broader society. A key methodology involved splitting the staff into uninational subgroups, allowing participants to share authentically in their native languages without the fear of self-censorship or the need to appease the other side. This strategy helped transition the group from a “therapeutic” focus on individual trauma to a “pedagogical-political” discourse that acknowledged collective national identities and power imbalances.

Despite years of shared practice, including bilingual instruction, recognition of both national calendars, and sustained collaboration, the war intensified ideological gaps, emotional asymmetries, and unequal exposure to risk and systemic oppression. Teachers described a hesitant staff room, uncertainty about responding to students’ political statements, and a widening gap between what could be said at home and at work.

To further bridge the divide, the staff participated in a retreat to Cyprus. The seminar deliberately removed the group from their immediate political and institutional context, enabling forms of reflection largely inaccessible within Israel. This distance generated comparative learning about the conflict in Cyprus and moments of pride regarding the rarity and difficulty of sustaining a shared educational institution during active conflict.

By observing the Greek-Turkish divide in Nicosia, the teachers could discuss sensitive concepts like “borders,” “occupation,” and “checkpoints” with less immediate defensiveness. This external perspective allowed for a deep discussion on terminology and power, such as when Palestinian teachers noted that what was a “crossing” in Cyprus was a “checkpoint” involving weapons and fear in their own daily lives.

A central challenge for the facilitators was managing the tension between “protection” and “challenging.” While there was a desire to protect the teachers from the violence of the public sphere, the facilitators argued that avoiding political discussion is itself a political act that preserves the status quo. They pushed the staff to engage with difficult materials, such as an art exhibition about the war, which eventually served as a healing experience that enabled the group to return to their professional roles with greater awareness. Ultimately, the facilitation sought to integrate the “here and now” of group dynamics with the seemingly more distant political context. By the end of the process, the staff had moved from a state of paralysis and suspicion to a more resilient partnership.

The program explored different forms of silence. Palestinian teachers practiced strategic silence as a survival mechanism shaped by personal and institutional vulnerability, repression, and threat of sanction. Jewish teachers described silencing themselves out of caution, uncertainty, and an unfamiliar need to self-limit. Misreading these silences generated resentment and moral accusation.

The authors argue that self-censorship can function as a conscious survival practice only when named and collectively reflected upon; unspoken censorship produces stagnation and dangerous projections. They also critically examine moments when their desire to protect the group may have limited necessary challenges, raising questions about the educator’s responsibility to introduce political perspectives, despite resistance.

The process demonstrates that sustained, critically grounded facilitation can help binational educational teams and binational teams in general remain functional under extreme conditions. While power asymmetries cannot be resolved within the limitations of professional development in the constraints of a state-funded public school, they can be made visible and partially worked through. The authors conclude that the ability of the staff to “look reality in the face” without their partnership collapsing demonstrates the possibility of maintaining a vibrant binational educational mission even during times of extreme crisis.

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