Let's Talk:
Palestine and Israel

Let me know if this sounds familiar. You’re sitting in your class about human rights, discussing topics like orientalism, the history of the UN, sovereignty, and self-defense. Or maybe you’re discussing liberation movements in India, South Africa and-or Latin America. Questions come up that you desperately want to raise. Points that you feel the urge to bring up. There is this ever-present feeling in the air, it permeates in every aspect of daily life. Everyone is thinking it, no one can focus on class, and no one wants to be the first to open the Pandora’s Box of Palestine-Israel.

Many of us have the war on our minds all day. You may have lost people yourself or know people who are affected. Maybe you know people who were, yet we go about our days, somehow managing a smile and we push through the day. The silence, our own and that of others, is deafening.

I imagine Florentine and Laura must have felt the same when they decided to organize an event for interested and willing students to get together and discuss the relationship between the state of Israel and Palestine) within the framework of the student organized UNi-Group Berlin-Brandenburg.

I was fortunate to sit down to participate in the event held on November 15th and even have a chat with the two.

So, I asked them why they do what they do, voluntarily, and what they hope to accomplish.

They told me they felt the need for a space where a conversation and an open discourse on the conflict can take place. Such a space seems otherwise lacking now in our day to day lives on the campus. Laura, who herself has some experience at the German foreign office, said she would like to see some more focus on practical and concrete solutions at the national and international level. “As it stands it seems like many students are way too lost in the theory to engage with real world politics.”

And on exactly those two, the event delivered:

We were gathered in a dark room with large dark wooden tables and large paintings. The sort of room one would imagine 20th century diplomats gathering in, smoking their cigars, and deciding on how to carve up the world. I really doubt this effect was what they intended, but the irony remains.

The event started with a comprehensive summary of the history of the conflict, the role of the UN, highlighting key moments, different attempts at peace and why they failed as well as a much-needed illustration of perspectives, both the Palestinian and the Israeli view of the events as well as the clarification of terms like the Nakba and the 1st and 2nd Intifada.

Having painted a picture of the current status quo it was time to discuss. The people who participated were mostly Political Science and Law students, though the event was open to all.

The conversation went on for hours. A wide spread of topics was addressed. From comments made by world leaders such as Ursula von der Leyen’s declaration of support for Israel on behalf of the EU or the comments made by UN Secretary General António Guterres declaring that an end must be put to the humanitarian plight the people in Gaza are experiencing through a ceasefire. A lot of time was spent discussing the two proposed resolutions at the UN, the countries supporting them and the differences between “Ceasefire” and “Humanitarian Pause”.

Much time was also spent untangling the web of alliances entangled in this war and what that might look like in the immediate and or long-term future of the region and the international system. The role of the Islamic Republic of Iran as well as other countries in the region. The role of the US and Europe and what each country stands to gain or lose in this conflict.

All the while Laura and Florentine did an excellent job moderating the conversation, always trying to bring it back to finding concrete, actionable solutions, as well as the role of the UN and the international community in facilitating peace.

As expected, we did not figure out a solution to this 75-year-old conflict – surprise, surprise – what did happen was that we got to talk. Of things we agree on, which in this tense climate can provide comfort, hope and a path forward, and things we disagree on, which creates an opportunity for listening and understanding; the first step to work towards peace. Lasting peace. One that is not just to the benefit of Israelis and Palestinians, but the entire global community. This is the only way to end this everlasting cleavage, which is as old as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN itself.

After months of increasing tensions, the rise of hate crimes against Jews and Muslims here in Germany and around the world, an increasing hostility towards migrants, cancelled events and banned protests, and countless clashes between police demonstrators, spaces like this, where open conversation is made possible are required more than ever.