gil bar-sela

Note: After our 34 journeys to Israel-Palestine, the Compassionate Listening Project is unable to offer peacemaking journeys there at this time due to on-going safety concerns for our prospective participants. We hope to return to the land as soon as possible.

Gil co-leads annual delegations to the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict organized by The Compassionate Listening Project. Today, after 34 Journeys and many conflict transformation workshops for Israelis and Palestinians, we are one of the oldest organizations engaged in people-to-people peacemaking.  

The unfathomable events that have taken place over the past three years — from Octover 7th through the ongoing genocide in Gaza — have left an indelible mark on the hearts of all of us witnessing them, and have re-centered Palestine and Israel on the global stage. We are going back with a renewed intention: 

To help foster courageous, well informed change-makers for the sake of Palestinian and Israeli co-liberation, and a shared future for everyone on the land. 

This is not a tourist trip. We will be journeying into the hearts and homes of Palestinians and Israelis who are profoundly impacted by this conflict, and will learn from their lived experiences. We will visit the West Bank and meet with Palestinians living under occupation. We will visit Israelis communities impacted by October 7, 2023. We will hear directly from Palestininas in Gaza. We will meet with scholars, ex-combatants from both communities, settlers and, most importantly, Israeli and Palestinian peace makers who are working side by side for the sake of a different future. Participants give the gift of bearing witness and in exchange, receive an education on key components of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from its inception to this day.

We will be grappling with some tough questions, such as: 
 
   •    What is Zionism, and what have been the implications of it for Israelis and Palestinians, respectively?
   •    What has been the role of intergenerational trauma in shaping the minds and hearts of people impacted by it? 
   •    What is the role of political violence? 
   •    Why has this conflict been so intractable, despite several meaningful peace attempts? 
   •    What could a different path forward look like? 

Throughout this journey, we will consider the lens of co-liberation, in which one’s safety and dignity are intertwined with the other’s. It is a lens which says, “I am not free, until you are free.” We will  challenge ourselves to hold the humanity, pain and dignity of everyone involved.

    Watch Gil’s talk on Compassionate Listening!   

For more information on delegations: The Compassionate Listening Project