Dozens of NYU community members, including President Linda Mills, attended a discussion featuring four members of Israeli and Palestinian families who were affected by the war in Gaza and decadeslong conflict in the region at the Global Center for Academic and Spiritual Life on Tuesday.
The event was part of a series of events called “NYU in Dialogue,” which seeks to educate community members about different perspectives on current global issues, with most of this semester’s lineup relating to the war in Gaza — which has sparked protests on college campuses across the country. The Tuesday discussion was organized in collaboration with Parents Circle Families Forum, a joint Israeli-Palestinian nonprofit made up of families who have lost loved ones in the war and aims to promote reconciliation among those from the region.
At the discussion, Mills addressed the audience, stating that the “loss of Palestinian and Israeli lives has been far-reaching” and calling the event’s environment a place where “the potential for healing” is “the most fertile.”
“Last year, we focused our attention on ways of talking to each other after seeing a dramatic breakdown of communication in our community this year,” Mills said. “These amazing people who have traveled nearly 6,000 miles to be with us this evening were presented with a stark choice. They could seek revenge, more bloodshed, more hate — or they could seek connection and dialogue.”
The panelists, which comprised two Palestinians and two Israelis, called on attendees to listen “from the heart” — including employing strategies to hold difficult conversations and hear Israeli and Palestinian narratives — to foster peaceful conversations in their own communities, including on college campuses.
“This war is not between obsolete sides or two peoples,” Yonatan Zeigen, one of the panelists from Israel, said at the event. “It’s between forces, between the force of life and wellbeing, and the force of chaos and death. These forces are present in both peoples. So when we create partnerships and cross the divide, then we change the emphasis of this conflict and we can work together to shape the future.”
Arab Aramin, a Palestinian panelist, spoke on the rising tensions on college campuses and protests in the country over the war in Gaza.
“We don’t want you to bring our conflict into your country — I think you have more than enough,” Aramin said. “By standing on one side, you also won’t help us: Palestinians or Israelis. You should be pro-peace and pro-justice and humanity for both sides.”
Kristie Patten, Counselor to the President and organizer of the “NYU in Dialogue” series, told WSN that the event was a product of listening sessions the university had held over the summer. Patten said that “a lot of people” wanted to hear from Israelis and Palestinians who were “directly impacted by this conflict.”
Over 300 students, faculty, staff and administrators took part in more than 20 listening sessions since the end of the spring semester, when Mills said the “only way forward” at NYU would be through the sessions. Mills faced significant backlash for the university administration’s handling of pro-Palestinian demonstrations, including the authorization of the New York City Police Department to sweep two Gaza Soldiary Encampments in Gould Plaza and outside the Paulson Center, which led to the arrests of dozens of students, faculty and alumni.
Angela Chou, the chair of the Student Government Assembly who attended the event, told WSN that she was glad NYU was able to facilitate the discussion and that members in the SGA are currently “in conversation” about future legislation in response to what was discussed in the listening sessions.
“We have already been in conversations, continuing from last year, over the summer and now into this year as well, on what exactly our student demographic needs,” Chou said. “While we’re still in conversation about it, we’re definitely taking steps to ensure that all students’ voices feel not only heard, but that we’re actually taking steps to make a difference as well.”
Contact Mariapaula Gonzalez at [email protected].
