How did you overcome the crisis? | Just Vision דילוג לתוכן העיקרי

How did you overcome the crisis?

Michal Eskenazi 10

How did you overcome the crisis?

It was much to the credit of the Dutch facilitators, and it was mostly a matter of time. We had a discussion that night. There are a few reasons [we overcame the crisis]; really we had undergone a process together; we had talked and talked and talked, it wasn't as though we had just arrived at the conference. We really tried speaking as honestly as possible and we told them we could understand them. I felt it was also an act they had to perform in order to demonstrate something. Ultimately, we did get to talking. I felt as though I had been exposed, as though part of my skin had been peeled off. I think that the differences between us within [our] groups became apparent then. We didn't come bearing a single opinion, united; on the contrary. In YIFC, we try to stress that people aren't representatives during the conferences and that people represent themselves. We don't have meetings at night to plot our strategy for the next day and there is room for right-wing people or left-wing people. Every person should say what they think. [The Palestinian participants] had a different approach and perceived [themselves] as one body representing something, and it resulted in asymmetry as well as being a power struggle. In the end, there was a shift within the group.