Intensive Interpersonal Training --Nonviolent Communication (NVC) Training

From February 26-March 5,  I participated in training with about 70 other people divided fairly evenly among Israeli Jews, Israeli/West Bank Arabs, and Internationals at  Talitha Kumi, Beit Jala near Bethlehem.  I will just briefly provide a few stories and incidents from an intense 9 days.  There will be a separate post with pictures of the Internationals' trip to Bethlehem when the Israeli citizens voted on Monday.  The Palestinians who couldn't vote were going to have an individual program.

During the first day introduction, we found out  that after Trump’s plan- Palestinian Authority and Israeli government shut down all of the conferences, trainings, meetings in Beit Jala. IIT was to be cancelled as well, but trainers and organizers explained that it was under the auspices of an international organization, the Center for Nonviolent Communication and was communication training for Palestinians and Others.  Still Palestians had many barriers to coming including all of the checkpoints.  

Talked to a woman from Nazareth who had 4 sons and worries similarly as mothers of color worry about their sons in the US.  She sees the fear in Israeli police and soldiers’ eyes.  When they look at her and her family, they see terrorists. I sat with men from Hebron at dinner. One of them, whose English is slightly better than my Arabic, told and me and showed me a picture of his daughter with the Palestinian army. 

First Empathy pod, our Palestinian member talked about finding freedom through divorce, but there is a stigma that she struggles to overcome.  Our Israeli member lives outside Jaff, probably near where our Palestinian’s family was forced out of the area, according to her recollection.

Surrounding Grounds at  Talitha Kumi

One of our participants dressed as Unicorn on an early morning clean-up of the property

Feb. 28: Empathy-went to a session that was in Arabic, and I had an individual translator. Wonderful listening to a group of five Palestinian women.

Feb. 29^: morning session- another trainer embraces two of the male participants' anger when they feel ignored.  Amazing and heartwarming to watch and feel the changes that occurred among all of us.

Afternoon session: Palestinian woman’s story of occupation. Israeli soldiers would come to her  family home regularly when she was young and still at home.  They would round up all of the family members and make them stay in one room sometimes for several days.  The soldiers would make the father of the household walk up the 3-4 flights of stairs while the soldiers checked every room.  Her father had a heart condition, but when the woman protested. she was shrugged off.  She asked the participants if any had served in the Israeli army. She gasped when she saw the hands. The interaction that followed was painful and human.  A ray of light... 

Evening: In front of the whole group, one of the  Palestinian women told everybody that she had been approached twice by a male participant who made sexually insinuating comments towards her.  She was requesting a restorative justice circle. The Palestinian men became angry feeling that they were being targeted.  The participants discussed global systematic sexual harassment--not just Palestinian, Arabic, Israeli but also American, German, Dutch--still occurs throughout the world. The discussion continued for several hours.  Amazingly the men remain, the man who had made the comments participated in the restorative circle and reported back together with the translator to the group. He discussed his understanding of how she felt and his assurance of not repeating the actions.  Work on the issue continued over several days:  feelings, needs, requests-backbone of NVC continued to be called on during the intervention