Title: Georgetown Partners on New Dialogue Program to Address Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Editor’s note: This story was originally published on Sept. 27, 2024. It was updated to include a recent Georgetown event.

Georgetown has partnered with an organization of bereaved Israelis and Palestinian families to produce a program that fosters meaningful dialogue about the human side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The program, Listening from the Heart, aims to equip college students, community and religious leaders, colleagues, teachers, advocates and others to engage in empathetic, constructive conversations about the conflict and reflect on the human stories behind it.   

Since February, Georgetown leaders have worked closely with the Parents Circle Families Forum (PCFF), an organization made up of over 750 Israeli and Palestinian families who have lost an immediate family member to the conflict, and its American Friends organization, to adapt its peace education program in Israel and Palestine for North American audiences.

On Nov. 20, Georgetown and PCFF leaders debuted Listening From the Heart on the Hilltop, showing faculty, students and community members how the program can be used to foster dialogue and healing in different settings.

“Our hope is this program is going to be the leading tool for educators or community leaders to help their communities talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” said Shiri Ourian, executive director of the American Friends of the PCFF. “It’s about being able to engage in a triggering and sensitive subject in a way that is respectful, is empathetic and is humanizing, and also gives people living outside of Israel and Palestine the opportunity to ask themselves a question: Am I helping here?”

Georgetown first connected with PCFF in 2008, when President Emeritus John J. DeGioia invited a delegation of its members to the university to work on conflict resolution and organizational capacity building. This most recent collaboration arose after Georgetown hosted a conversation early in 2024 between a bereaved Israeli mother and a bereaved Palestinian brother who both lost family members in the long-standing conflict and who represented PCFF. 

The organization was eager to expand the conversation model to educational, community and workplace settings, particularly in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the ensuing war.  

On Sept. 17, Georgetown leaders joined PCFF at New York University for an in-person conversation between four bereaved Israelis and Palestinians who shared their stories and journeys toward reconciliation and peace. 

In November, Georgetown and PCFF leaders shared Listening from the Heart with community members in a gathering in Riggs Library. Attendees took part in the curriculum by watching a video from the program, reflecting on it and then discussing it with small groups. Afterward, members of the PCFF community joined Georgetown leaders to discuss the origins of the program and how to implement the curriculum in different settings. 

“We are hopeful for the impact it can have on shared empathy and peace-building,” said Joseph Ferrara, senior vice president and chief of staff. “We are always reminded, through the leadership of the members of the Parents Circle, that when coming together seems difficult, we have two fundamental responsibilities to each other: to uphold the inherent dignity of each person, and to pursue the common good, together.”

Navigating Tough Conversations

Georgetown’s Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS) and the Red House, an incubator that furthers educational innovation at Georgetown, helped develop and design the program. It features activities to create a respectful environment as well as practices to address barriers to listening and how to listen with compassion — especially when participants might feel overwhelmed.

The program includes videos of on-the-ground conversations between bereaved Palestinians and Israelis. Individuals like Bassam Aramin, whose 10-year-old daughter was killed by an Israeli border patrol in front of her school. And Elana Kaminka, an Israeli-American peace activist whose 20-year-old son was killed by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023.

“I am here and I’m in terrible pain at the loss of my son,” Kaminka said in the video. “But I also see your pain.”

Georgetown and PCFF created the values-based materials to help participants center humans at the heart of a painful history and news cycle, said Eddie Maloney, executive director of CNDLS.

“So much of this program is about reminding participants that there are human beings behind this conflict. Human beings who are in pain, who have suffered, and who are at the heart of this conflict. Each has a story,” Maloney said. “The work we did with the PFCC was guided by our Jesuit principles and a desire to help create a learning environment that would foster understanding and empathy, not only for this conflict but in other polarizing conversations in our lives.”

Susannah McGowan, director of curriculum transformation initiatives at the Red House co-led the project, co-led the project with Kim Huisman, assistant director of digital learning at CNDLS. She said the program is designed to be used not only in the classroom but in mosques and synagogues, in board rooms and offices, and in community centers to practice challenging conversations and what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes.

“We need to practice those conversations and practice those muscles to listen well and not respond viscerally,” she said. “The more that we engage through multiple modalities of having productive discussions, the better off we all might be.”

For more information about Listening from the Heart, Georgetown community members can visit the website or contact cndls@georgetown.edu. 

Photo by ©Myaskovsky: Courtesy of NYU Photo Bureau.