During the 2021-2022 academic year we conducted eight academic courses in six different departments and institutions. In this course we facilitate a dialogue between Palestinian and Jewish students who study together. The dialogue focuses on the students’ identities as members of two conflicting national groups. The courses provide a long-term dialogue opportunity that is unique on the campuses and in Israeli society in general. We wish to impart to these students a wider outlook on the conflict based upon personal experience and to provide them with tools to build a more just, inclusive and peaceful society.

During the second semester, academic campuses throughout the country were in the frontline of a national political debate. As Palestinians commemorated the Nakba day – a Memorial Day of their national catastrophe – Israeli figures did not like the fact that they raised the Palestinian flag proudly and publicly. Flying the Palestinian flag in Israel became legal following the Oslo accords of 1993. Nakba ceremonies are held by more and more Palestinian students in Israeli academic campuses over the past 10 years. But this year, following ceremonies in campuses such as Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beer Sheva –the pressure to re-criminalize the raising of the Palestinian flag became so powerful, that this reached the Knesset in the form of a new bill.

We learn again how important it is for us to reach this arena and bring to it the opportunity for dialogue. One Palestinian student from our group, who also attended the Nakba Day rally on campus said: “I got to say things in this course that I wouldn’t dream of saying in other spaces. This dialogue enabled me, as a Palestinian, to share my thoughts and feelings openly and honestly, not only with my Palestinian colleagues, but also with my Jewish colleagues – and this is rare.”

A Jewish student said: “It seems that the Palestinian participants expressed themselves in an authentic way that I did not previously get to meet, a voice that seems to be silenced for many reasons.”

Participants reported on how their consciousness changed as a result of the course: “I was exposed to issues that were new to me. From the beginning of the course, these have stayed in my consciousness every day.  I have begun to look at many things differently”.

The participants also report how speaking about complex issues contributed to understanding and accepting one another: “Because the conflict becomes a legitimate issue for discussion, a greater understanding is forged between the two national groups of which we are part.”

In October 2022, before the beginning of the new academic year, we will hold a big event in Neve Shalom/Wahat al Salam for all of our university dialogue course graduates.

Many students who participate in the course express their wish to continue to meet and engage in dialogue. The university graduates are especially important to us, since these are young people at the beginning of their careers. They come from different parts of society and express a wide range of interests and occupations. We want to build a strong community of graduates that will continue to impact them and, through them, their professional and social circles, throughout life.

University courses that took place in 2021-2022:

1. The School for Psychological Sciences, Tel Aviv University;
2. The Nursing School, Tel Aviv University;
3. The Department of Political Science, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
4. The Department of Education, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva
5. The Teaching Certificate Training Program in Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva.
6. Faculty of Social and Community Sciences, Ruppin Academic Center, Hefer Valley
7. The Department of Architecture, Bezalel Academy for Arts and Design, Jerusalem
8. Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology, Reichman University, Herzliya