One might be wondering why in the world is this Singaporean social worker in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, a specific answer to the question would probably not be found in this post (perhaps a later one). For the time being, will just be sharing certain key experiences worth documenting.
Today a couple of the team (when I say team, I mean a group of us who are familiar with Narrative ways of working) were treated to a tour arranged by Yishai Shalif, who is an orthodox Jewish person, and also the director of a school psychology program in Israel. Personally I was impressed by Yishai's modest demeanor and his openness in sharing with us intricacies and symbolisms within the practices of Judaism.
After an intense day where we learnt about the horrors of the holocaust, we then retreated to Yishai's home to engage in conversations with other practitioners about the work that he and other fellow members of the Narrative therapy community were currently doing.
One interesting conversation was the "Care-Full Listening and Conversations" program which seeks to create dialogical conversations between people from conflicting multi-cultural groups in Israel. I was particularly moved by the work that was done by a team comprising of a Jewish woman and a Palestinian man, who sought to create platforms for peaceful dialogues between members from the two communities. We heard of Iyad's experiences of attempting to foster such conversations amongst the Palestinian youths in East Jerusalem, an endeavor done at great personal risk to himself. He received death threats and was even called a traitor by members of his own community for engaging Israeli citizens, and normalizing the bigger issue of Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Iyad, however, continues his mission in spite of the multiple challenges, as he sees the value of such dialogues in fostering his hope that such conversations could be the key towards peaceful resolution of the conflict in the area. The work that he does with the other practitioners has the potential to form a strong basis for cross cultural dialogues in many different contexts. If such ideas could be useful in an area with such a complicacies, one might only imagine their utility in other multi cultural contexts, even Singapore.
In spite of all these learnings, I come off these experiences with more questions than answers:
Could such conversations (which assume that both sides start from level playing fields) occur in a context where the inequality was so apparent? These conversations were happening in the midst of severe oppression, typified by a recent event just a few days before our meeting where a Palestinian man was shot when he was involved in an accident with an Israeli soldier.
Could it be hypocrisy if conversations were made without due acknowledgements of the inequality that was apparent between the Israeli and Palestinian communities? If this was so, then the Palestinians' anger towards Iyad's attempts for conversations could be justified.
At the same time, if no conversations were made, how then could any hope of peaceful resolution occur? What could be an alternative model for resolution, and more importantly a resolution that serves social justice by addressing the inequality?
I certainly cannot come to any conclusion. Perhaps the efforts of Yishai, Iyad and the other members of their team could potentially yield lasting effects for both communities.
Perhaps not.
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