Friday morning. While we are arranging the library in Wahat al-Salam ~ Neve Shalom ahead of the group meeting, a WhatsApp message arrives from one of the participants:

‘Friends, I am now at the gate of Neve Shalom, turning around and returning home. I was just informed I need to go into home isolation.

August, Corona, life circumstances, ups and downs in the group process itself – all of these are eating away at participation. And yet we persevere and hold the meeting anyway. This time, it’s a hybrid encounter: some of us meet physically and sit face-to-face in a circle in the same room; and some of us meet over Zoom from a distance.

Our perseverance, as always, paid off: we were able to hold a rich and meaningful meeting.

We hosted Adv. Abir Bachar – a lawyer who is expert in the rights of detainees – for a fascinating and thought-provoking lecture, one that went far beyond the scope of her professional field and addressed the essential dilemmas underlying every political / professional / social / civic action.

We had a sincere, profound dialogue around various factors: We discussed our own position vis-à-vis the internal and external processes affecting us and our life in this country, of our belonging to collectives (national and other), of the mutual effects of this reality on us and our own influence upon our reality. We spoke of our guilt, racism, fear, anger, and our burning desire for change.

Yes, all this (and a little more) we managed to ‘compress’ into one Friday. Enough to accompany us for the next two weeks until the next meeting.

Article: Tal Kolka