Women from Jewish and Palestinian backgrounds unite in dialogue amid conflict

This morning we’re learning more about a group of women whose response to the Israel Hamas war stands in contrast to the protests that have rocked college campuses and encampment last month. At the University of Michigan is just one example of those protests, but not far from that. Campus women of Jewish and Palestinian backgrounds are using dialogue to find common ground. The group has been sharing candid conversations with each other now for more than 20 years, and Lisa Link sat in on their chats before campus protests escalated. But their conversations are as relevant as ever. So I am in Ann Arbor, MI right now, and I’ve been invited to join a group of Jewish and Palestinian women to do something that seems pretty impossible these days, which is they get together and talk 4 hours, you have no time. But before they talk, they eat a delicious spread made by tonight’s host Wad Abed, who is Palestinian and one of the founders of the group. 93 year old Irene Butter, a survivor of the Holocaust, takes her final sips of wine before the group segues to the living room where the heaviness of the Israeli Palestinian crisis sets in. It’s been really tough lately with with all the news, lots of crying, lots of tears. The worst part for me is that I don’t see an ending. These women, six Jewish and six Palestinian, have been meeting twice a month for over 20 years. They call themselves Zeituna, the Arabic word for olive tree. Their motto? Refusing to be enemies. Every woman in the group here, I feel, is like a sister. I don’t even see Jewish or Palestinian anymore. I just see human beings. Each session has specific ground rules which allow for each member to speak freely. You’re throwing something out for people to think about and react to and people build on that. The safety of this environment has allowed these women to remain committed to each other in the face of October 7th. And after you absorbed my pain, as I absorbed your pain. Coming here is a safe place to be to express my emotions and to be with with people who feel the same way about the the misery and and what’s happening in Razam and of course all the other deaths in Israel too. Thank you to Grace for mentioning Israel. That really matters to me. Have you all talked about ways in which you think that we could get to a better place? We’re seeing communities dig in and lose a perspective, that there’s room in a humanitarian way to recognize the trauma of the other. But that doesn’t mean conversations are easy. I feel that Zionism deprived me of my rights to be a full-fledged Palestinian in my ancestral home. When Widad brings up Zionism, the movement for the development and protection of the State of Israel, it’s clear among some of the Jewish women there are conflicted feelings. It is hard for me to absorb that. Being Jewish and being a Zionist of sorts. I can’t reject my growing up there and and becoming part of the the culture of Israel that somehow I have to sever that and and I can’t. And so it’s painful. My journey has been How do I hold on to the love I had for the land and yet distance myself from a government that is doing unimaginable things right now? These women strive for peace, and their efforts to promote it extend far beyond this room, including on college campuses, which have become deeply polarized. At the University of Michigan, two students, one Jewish and one Palestinian, started the Arab Jewish Alliance more than a year ago. To foster better relations between cultures, the club sought out Zeituna for mentorship. I grew up Jewish and the only time when I ever met Arab students was in my Arabic class. You know, I started talking to people in my class. I was like, how can we bring Arab students and Jewish students together? And and this kind of set us down this path. I think like the week after October 7th, I was looking on my Twitter and I saw the rhetoric, the the dehumanizing rhetoric. And so I thought, I want to like find a club where I can actually interact with people on the other side because I hadn’t had a chance to interact with people. You are the the future for the Day Tunas, who are mostly over 60, These young students embody the mission they’ve spent decades building. I think that when you meet a group like Zeituna, who’s been around for so many years, I think it reassures you that these friendships, they can last forever. As a Holocaust survivor, this is what I learned. All human beings are the same, and if we could only realize that, then I think we could build a better world. It was 911 that originally brought these women together, and some of them said that they had never known each other really, or or those from the other side until they join the group. I love that conversation so much, Lisa. It’s so important you see how if you just sit together in a room and talk things through, it’s these women making a change. But in light of all the campus protests that we’ve been seeing and so close to home, they’re there at the University of Michigan. How has that impacted the group? It really hasn’t, Natalie. And they say it is that history that has allowed them to stay so committed to one another. And Evan, the leader of the Arab Jewish Student Alliance at the University of Michigan, he has graduated, but another Jewish student has stepped in to Co lead along with his Arab Co founder. And so they also remain as committed as ever to trying to continue seeing the humanity in one another. Hmm. That’s wonderful. Thank you so much for bringing that to us, Lisa. Lisa Ling there for us.