Feeling into Confusion & Hope: A Conversation About Palestine & Israel

The rupture between Israel and Palestine is neither new, nor limited to the peoples of that land. Nor has it been widely recognized by those of us in North America–until now.

The recent and horrific escalation of violence has seared the ‘conflict’ into the conscience of people worldwide. With so many strong opinions in our feeds, conflicting information from our news sources, and condemnations from people in our families and communities, many of us don't know where we stand.

Or we know where we stand, yet we hesitate to share our perspective. We know way too many people are being killed, yet does support of Palestinians mean we're anti-Jewish? Likewise, does supporting the existence of the state of Israel mean we don't support Palestinians? What do we do with our urgent desire to do something?

These aren't questions that can’t be answered quickly. Instead of seeking a solution, let's tend to ourselves: sharing what we feel tender about in a community setting can be a potent elixir in this time of strong feelings, strong divisions, and global angst.

This public conversation stems from a private conversation between Martha Hurwitz and Maggie Karshner, about the experiences, hesitations, and questions of a non-Jew (Maggie) and a secular Jew (Martha). They expanded the conversation several times with a larger group of friends, and are now taking their unique approach to listening and collective processing to a larger audience.

Martha and Maggie will continue offering these conversations regularly, as long as the community expresses a need.

What Will Happen:

• You will have an opportunity to share what you're confused about, curious about, uncomfortable with, or in internal turmoil about. 
• You will experience equity-infused facilitation that models liberatory practices while featuring the shared wisdom of participants, free from judgment and correction. 

What Might Happen:

• You may leave with clear ideas for your next steps or actions
• You may connect with people with whom to stay in conversation 
• You may learn something about the history and context for the current situation between Palestinians and Israelis

What Won’t Happen:

• The conversation will center around listening and sharing, instead of explicit instruction
• Debate, shaming, or other attempts at convincing others will be tenderly and directly defused

Our Position

We are committed facilitators whose intention is to enable participants to go on their own self-discovery journey regardless of where that leads. We also recognize that objectivity is an illusion and we all come with bias, so we feel it necessary to disclose where we are coming from.

We both want a ceasefire as well as a resolution that honors the humanity of all Israelis and Palestinians. We recognize the Palestinian people as being actively disenfranchised and oppressed by Israel. For this reason we focus our energies towards Palestinian liberation. We also recognize that the people represented by these nationalities hold diverse opinions about the actions of their leadership. We see connecting across experience, perspective and position as a foundational step towards healing and liberation.

About the Facilitators

Martha Hurwitz is a coach, consultant and facilitator focusing on equity and oppression awareness. She is the granddaughter of Eastern European immigrants fleeing anti-Semitism, who arrived in the U.S. as Jews, and became seen as whites. Awakened mid-life to how she benefits as a white person, Martha made an anti-racist, equity-committed shift in her parenting, business focus, and day-to-day priorities. She has an M.Ed. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a wide-ranging career centered around democracy and liberation in education. Currently, she offers one-on-one coaching with people who identify as white, and equity/oppression facilitation with mixed populations in workshops, retreats, meetings, and organizations.

Maggie Karshner is a self-employment coach helping individuals turn their passions into viable businesses. Maggie is widely versed in all things relevant to self-employment. The organizational, structure, financials, management, marketing, and promotion are all of her favorite things! She brings an anti-racist and capitalist-critical analysis to her own business and sessions with clients. She loves working with independent thinkers who want to create an awesome job for themselves while maybe even making the world a better place?!