One moment from OGS that got stuck with me for a long time.
One moment from OGS that got stuck with me for a long time. The story starts in a room in a really fancy hotel in Cyprus back in 2024, when me and a group of Palestinians and Israelis who are part of the OGS program met for a retreat/dialogue activity in Cyprus. This retreat was my first real interaction with the community since October 7. I remember asking myself questions during that retreat. Am I doing the right thing by being here? Am I being a traitor? Because on one hand, my people were suffering in Gaza and the West Bank, children and women were being slaughtered every day, and on the other hand here I am sitting in Cyprus in a very fancy hotel with Israelis who are, to me and to my people, the cause of our suffering. And for a couple of days I was asking myself these questions, on the third day we had a very interesting dialogue exercise. It was called the fish ball exercise, where we sat in a room, there was a bigger circle of Israelis sitting outside, and there was a smaller circle of Palestinians sitting inside. The Israelis were just listening, and we as Palestinians were talking. Everybody took turns by picking something from the middle, a piece that says i’m taking something from “this space”, and started talking. And when my turn came I said: “I’m scared that I am being a traitor to my own people by being here today. I am being a traitor to the children who are suffering in Gaza. I'm being a traitor to my family who lives in the West Bank." And I was surprised that everybody in the room started sharing that this was the way they felt about being there. And in that moment I realized something: That dialogue is really powerful. It makes people feel heard and understood, and it also gives you the courage to share you share your pain. And it's not just between people from different backgrounds, but also between people from the same community or the same groups. I was scared for my feelings, but once I shared I found that everybody felt that way, everybody had the same concerns, everybody had the same fears. Today, I’m the founder of an AI powered facilitation and dialogue app, the idea was actually born during the same retreat with the same group, in the same fancy hotel.