This weekend I had an occasion to co-organize a post-taglit seminar in Cracow. I thought it might be nice to invite some people from local Palestinian diaspora to talk with taglit alumni and widen their view and knowledge about Israel. I think it is important to show that Jews and Palestinians can normally talk with one another. But on the other hand I was afraid that it might hard to 'control' and moderate the discussion. I also asked one Israeli to come, so it would be more pluralistic as there will be a chance to compare both points of view.
Meeting went quite well, there weren't any scandalous situations. But I have some impressions after it. First of all, 'our' Palestinians were saying different things in a public meeting (such as this one) in comparision to what they say in personal, informal talk after the meeting (then, they are more realistic). Secondly, both sides had a problem with being tolerant to others' side history, especially with traumatic parts of it. Also, there is a problem that both sides just couldn't come to an agreement on a common version of their history. That's why we were trying to talk more about the future and what we should do to make our peace-making efforts more effective. We came to the conclusion that such meetings definetely helps, but still there is a long way ahead us.
Anyway, I think it was a good idea, and I got some feedback from participants that it was also important and meaningful for them.
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