We held several online dialogue sessions for SFP groups, some of them were planned before the war and their content was adapted to address the situation, some of them were called upon by participants or facilitators to proactively address the situation. 5 groups met online, some of the more then once: The Jewish-Palestinian planners’ forum, graduates of the change-agents courses in the mixed cities, SFP facilitators team, ongoing course for advanced issues in facilitations and the ongoing course of change-agents in the field of climatic justice.

As we were hesitant at first about the willingness of our participants to take part in a dialogue session in such a difficult moment, we were surprised to realize that a lot of participants had a strong desire to meet up and speak with their peers from both sides. And lots of them indeed showed up. We had some beautiful, hard meetings in which people expressed their emotions, shared terrible experiences of losing dear ones or of friends being arrested for expressing their opinions and the deep fear to speak publicly at this time because of persecution.

Here are several quotes from the different meetings that represent some of the states of mind of our participants at the moment:

Jewish participant: “The massacre pressed buttons of intergenerational historical trauma for us. I wonder how we can continue from here, all beliefs and values are in question again… Everything has been shaken.”

Palestinian participant: “We are on the defensive. If we are silent – we are attacked, if we speak  – we are attacked… not an easy situation. I am afraid for my children. A guy from our village who was a paramedic at the Nova party [where a massacre by Hamas occurred] was killed. Did they differentiate? We are all in the same place.”

Palestinian participant: “We are neither here nor there. We cannot sympathize with this thing, we are in a big problem… In the occupied territories we are seen as Israelis, and in Israel we are seen as the enemy. All Arab citizens are afraid to walk around in Jewish areas now”

Jewish participant: “I have a sense of urgency and I think that the joint contract of both sides in the struggle for the liberation of the Palestinians should also be redrafted. It is precisely the public that believes in peace that needs basic lines for the struggle.”

We will continue to be an anchor and safe haven for our graduates, both in dealing with the personal and national cost of this crisis, and in their continued important work towards building a better society in an increasingly hostile and divisive environment.