ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR: TEACHING AND LEARNING ABOUT THE CONFLICT

by Or Shemer and Carl Schrag

The iCenter is predicated on the belief that good education challenges people to broaden their scope of vision, venture beyond their ‘silo,’ and actively seek to engage with ideas that challenge.

When did the conflict start? That is one of the first things we ask participants in The iCenter’s Conflicts of Interest (COI) certificate program. Though apparently a simple question, the wide range of responses underscores its complexity.

From the answers, we can learn how each one understands what has transpired since. Someone who dates the starting point at 1917 or even 1967, for example, will likely bring very different perspectives than someone else who dates it back to biblical times or focuses solely on the post-October 7 reality.

At The iCenter we use a range of teaching methods to help educators rethink how they engage their learners around the conflict. These pedagogies are designed to help them tailor their teaching, employing approaches to content that invite their learners to think deeply – and sometimes differently – and support them as confident, humble, critical thinkers.

When The iCenter launched COI in August 2023, it was predicated on the belief that good education challenges people to broaden their scope of vision, venture beyond their “silo,” and actively seek to engage with ideas that challenge, confound, or even upset them. The purpose is not to change anyone’s mind. We believe that applying critical thinking skills to topics that matter dearly can deepen our understanding of the complexity surrounding them.

Since COI’s inception, hundreds of Jewish educators from across North America have immersed themselves in a substantive, critical consideration of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Surveys of participants show that they graduate from the program with increased confidence in their abilities to guide learners through challenging, nuanced, and meaningful explorations. Their experiences in the program and takeaways from it, are relevant to anyone who cares about supporting educators in this increasingly challenging space.

A polarized, anxious world

Such work is not easy. In this program, we guide educators through tough discussions around the realities of ongoing war with a terror organization, hostages, displaced families, dead children, fallen soldiers, extremism, and polarization. The pedagogies used during the training, such as expanding our field of vision and exploring multiple perspectives, prove resilient and helpful in traversing tough territory that pushes each participant to go beyond their previous knowledge and perspectives.

We live in a polarized world that is filled with messages of who is right and who is wrong. Online information often advances narrow agendas, leaving us with a limited view. As educators, we have a responsibility to go beyond justifying policies or actions.
By including parts of the story often left out of social media snippets, we empower individuals to deepen their knowledge, explore nuanced perspectives, converse with each other, and craft their own informed approaches.

This transforms the learning environment from a space of one-way information transmission into a dynamic arena for critical thinking and genuine dialogue.

An ever-changing reality

Just as the “start date” ascribed by each person to the conflict impacts his or her perspective, so, too, do the headlines that resonate at any given moment.

Each of the 10 COI cohorts that have taken place was informed by the trending stories at the time of our gathering.

First, it was the intense debate over the Israeli government’s judicial reform plans. Then, it was the horror of the October 7 attacks, and a continual series of events that reads like a never-ending doomscroll of the past two years.

We’ve strived to balance the very natural need to live in the moment with the importance of stepping back and considering the historical context and multiple narratives that shape our understanding of the conflict.

When the most recent cohort convened, the headlines that dominated our news feeds and those of our participants presented new challenges. Reports of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza alongside disturbing images of hostages sparked difficult but necessary conversations among participants. While we were deep in our learning, the headlines shifted to the Israeli government’s plans to occupy Gaza City. We were experiencing the never-ending flow of the news cycle, literally in real time.

Instead of trying to debunk unsettling reports, our approach requires us to consider those reports and to confront hard truths that may challenge the narrative or beliefs embraced by participants and ourselves. We never tell people what to think; rather, we challenge them to think.

Education at its best does not provide answers. It builds the capacity to wrestle with hard questions and multiple truths. Our hope is that alumni bring the energy, drive, and commitment to help their own learners navigate these multiple truths, even in the most trying times.

Or Shemer is program director of Conflicts of Interest at The iCenter. Carl Schrag is an educator and former journalist who has been involved in developing The iCenter’s Conflicts of Interest program.