BRYN MAWR – On a bright and blustery Sunday afternoon, Bi-Co Atidna, a chapter of the international organization that aims to facilitate dialogue and education around Israel and Palestine, hosted Khaled Abu Awwad and Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger for a talk entitled “Two Truths in One Heart, Two Peoples in One Land.”
Awwad is the Palestinian co-director of Roots, the only Israeli-Palestinian community center in the West Bank. Atidna International is the campus affiliate of Roots, with chapters at colleges and universities across the country. Schlesinger is an American-born rabbi who has lived in the West Bank for over 40 years and is a co-founder of Roots. The talk was held in Old Library 110 on March 2, with attendees of students, faculty, and community members numbering about 35.
The main goal of the talk was to tell the stories of Awwad and Schlelsinger, how they each came to a place of understanding, respect, and eventually partnership with each other and other Israelis and Palestinians. Bi-Co Atidna also intended to combat a sense of hopelessness, saying “We want to inform people and connect them with groups that are making a positive difference in the day to day lives of Palestinians and Israelis.” “Each of us comes to you bearing the pain of his people,” said Schlesinger at the start of the presentation. However, he affirmed that there is “absolutely no competition of suffering between us.”
Each speaker told the story of how they came to want to understand one another, describing feelings of intense confusion and having to reckon with how the beliefs they initially had about the other group contradicted with the reality of another human being.
“The other half of the truth is in the story of the other,” said Awwad.
Schlesinger emphasized listening to each other as fundamental in the beginning of the reconciliation process, saying that “we listened until it hurt and we listened some more.”
Schlesinger said that listening is also vital in on-campus discussions, many of which can be very polarizing. At the beginning of the talk, Bi-Co Atidna co-treasurer and co-founder Lori Ackerman said that “we hear from folks around campus that they don’t see the point in dialogue.” Schlesinger’s solution to this came from his own experience in discussions with Palestinians.
“We did not engage in dialogue,” he said, “we did what you could call storytelling.”
Awwad also discouraged on-campus aggression, saying that “the conflict is there [Israel and Palestine] and the fighting is here [universities in the United States].” and “we don’t need you to start another war here.”
Awwad and Schlesinger also laid out the main goals and programs of Roots, with Awwad saying that the organization aims for “reconciliation that will lead into real peace.” Since its inception in 2014, the cornerstone of Roots’s work has been “people-to-people” programs that foster connection between Israelis and Palestinians. But after the Oct. 7 attacks, “hearts have been hardened on both sides,” said Schlesinger. Due to this polarization and the Israeli army’s restriction on Palestinian movement, Roots has moved away from reconciliation programs and focused on humanitarian work, intra-community work, trauma therapy, and nonviolence advocacy.
The event ended with an opportunity for audience members to ask questions. One student asked about Awwad and Schlesinger’s advice for college students and faculty, to which Schlesinger emphasized the importance of listening. Schlesinger specifically referenced occasions where Jewish students on campus told him that they wanted to “talk with Muslim, Arab, or Palestinian students,” but found them unwilling. Schlesinger said that his advice in these cases was once again to listen, even when it is uncomfortable or if one disagrees.
Another student asked how Awwad and Schlesinger were able to remain hopeful when there is so much negativity. Awwad replied that Atidna International, which was founded in 2022 by Jewish/Israeli and Arab/Palestinian students at University of Texas at Austin and has chapters at universities across the country, gives him hope. Schlesinger described hope as a desire for a certain outcome and a belief that it will happen, saying that “I believe that [a peaceful solution is] possible, but I do not believe that it is probable in my lifetime. Both speakers said that engaging with organizations like Atidna and Roots gave them more hope.
Schlesinger ended the talk by suggesting ways to engage with Roots and Atidna International, as well as ways to support a message of peace and reconciliation. Some of these suggestions were to primarily post positive messages about Israel and Palestine online and visiting both Israel and Palestine when traveling to the region. Awwad had to leave the talk a few minutes early in order to break his fast for the second day of Ramadan. Bi-Co Atidna aimed to help students “feel empowered to make a difference” with this talk. From the attendance of this event, it seems that many members of the Bi-Co are interested in the process of fostering peace and understanding both here at the colleges and in the Middle East.
