Conflicts of Interest: iCenter takes on Israeli-Palestinian issue with new program
By Judah Ari Gross
eJewishPhilanthropy
May 16, 2023
“Inevitably, the conversation around Israel always turns to conflict: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Arab-Israeli conflict, Israel’s myriad domestic conflicts.
And yet Israel educators report feeling “fear, angst and anxiety” when teaching about those conflicts and therefore try to avoid discussing them, according to Alex Harris of Chicago’s iCenter…
“To address this, last year the iCenter launched a new initiative to develop a framework to prepare educators to teach their students about these conflicts and conflict in general. This week, the organization is rolling out this new program, which it is calling “Conflicts of Interest.”
“’It’s all about how do we engage in conversations about controversial issues, how do we facilitate those dialogues, how do we train educators to be the best educators possible to deal with these complex and controversial issues,’ said Harris…
Benjamin Jacobs, director of iCenter’s graduate program in Israel Education at George Washington University, who advised on the project, said the team also spoke to a number of outside consultants, including a former State Department employee and academics focused on both the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and “peace education.” Harris said an Israeli woman involved in education and politics, as well as a Palestinian expert who has been involved in peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, were also involved…
Harris said the ultimate goal of the project is to give the participants “the three Cs” needed to teach about conflicts: “competence, confidence and capacity.”
According to iCenter CEO Anne Lanski, the multitiered Conflicts of Interest program is not a specific curriculum — with specific facts, values, messages and narratives – but a broader pedagogical method that individual institutions and teachers can adapt to their own perspectives on the issues of Israel, Zionism and the Palestinians.”
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