Making Israel and Palestine Negotiable

Making Israel and Palestine talkable: A multi-perspective discussion format on dealing with the Middle East conflict for actors in dance mediation.

With Ahmad Dakhnous and Johanna Voß. Using methods from the educational material Israel-Palestine educational videos (www.israelpalästinavideos.org).

A cooperation between Access Point Tanz, Offensive Tanz für junges Audience, Tanz Zeit e.V. The workshop was organised as a “Relaxte Event”.

It is not only since 7 October 2023 that many have felt a great need to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is also a particular challenge for actors in dance mediation. In this practice-oriented workshop, the participants learned how to talk openly and respectfully to colleagues or students on this highly complex topic. Guided by Ahmad Dakhnous and Johanna Voß, the participants reflected on their own perspective on the Israel/Palestine conflict and analysed the field of discourse in Germany. The initial questions were: Against what social and historical background are we talking about Palestine and Israel, and what dynamics shape this discourse? What symbols, terms and slogans often appear in this debate?

The aim of the workshop was to create a space for actors of dance mediation who together seek orientation in this discourse and want to develop a human rights-oriented attitude with which they feel pedagogically secure. The aim was also to provide more certainty in dealing with complex and emotionally charged discussions and to convey practical approaches to promoting an open and respectful culture of conversation.

This documentation collects the contributions and perspectives of various actors who participated in the workshop in different roles / functions:

Agnieszka Habraschka, Access consultant, describes the preconditions that have been implemented to design the workshop as a “Relaxed Event”.

Ahmad Dakhnous and Johanna Voß, workshop leaders, answer some questions about the specific experience of this workshop and the knowledge it conveyed. 

Martina Maria Helmke, community dance practitioner, education officer and participant of the workshop, as well as another participant who wants to remain anonymous, tell in a mini-interview what the workshop has brought them and how they may integrate this knowledge into their practice as mediators. 
 

1. Evaluation "Make Israel and Palestine talkable" as a relaxed event by Agnieszka Habraschka

The "Make Israel and Palestine Talkable" event was implemented as a "Relaxed Event". Relaxed events are based on the Relaxed Performance format and aim to create accessibility for neurodivergent people, people with chronic diseases/pain and people with invisible disabilities. Relaxed events, however, also offer access for all (even non-disabled) participants to politically and emotionally charged topics.

The event offered various seating options that were used individually or changed/adapted during the current event. A retreat was available and actively used. At the beginning of the event, trauma-sensitive physical exercises were presented, which could be repeated at the request of the participants in the course of the workshop. Stimtoys and blankets lay out in various places. Stimtoys are small, soothing objects such as stress balls, clay or pressure rings that help neurodivergent people regulate their nervous system. In addition, the breaks were deliberately designed to provide sufficient recovery periods. Participants were informed that they could take breaks on their own. Snacks and refreshments were provided. Clearly communicated content notes in advance ensured that participants were prepared for potentially difficult content. This is especially important for emotionally charged topics, so as not to unintentionally overwhelm or re-traumatize anyone.

Physical interventions such as stimtoys and trauma-sensitive exercises (e.g. tapping or breathing techniques) can play a crucial role in promoting physical and emotional regulation in conflict-laden conversations, as well as regulating the nervous system. Not only can they help reduce individual tension, but they can also relax the collective atmosphere, opening up space for productive and respectful discussions. Trauma is stored in the body and yet often a negation of the body or feelings takes place in conversations on politically grueling topics. Relaxed events and the introduction of trauma-sensitive exercises and stimtoys start right here and do not place the body outside, but in the center. The totality of these approaches creates the feeling that emotions and physical reactions are not disturbing or undesirable, but may be a natural part of difficult conversations.

Overall, it turned out that all elements of the relaxed event were positively received and used by the participants.

In the following, the above-mentioned approaches and methods, as well as their positive effects, are deepened:

Approaches and Methods:

Stimtoys allow for calming, repetitive movements that stabilize the nervous system and provide a sense of security. They help reduce stress without people having to ‘react’ verbally or visibly.

● Tapping techniques and cross-arm exercises calm the vagus nerve and activate the parasympathetic state (‘rest mode’), allowing participants to remain present even when faced with difficult or stressful issues.

Breathing exercises directly affect the physiological stress response by slowing the heartbeat, improving oxygenation, and returning a sense of control.

● Joint exercises at the beginning of the event and on request in between promote solidarity and show that self-regulation does not have to take place in isolation, but can be embedded in a supportive social framework.

Positive impact:

● Interruption of escalations: When people have the opportunity to reduce stress through simple techniques, the likelihood of emotional or aggressive escalation is reduced.

● Promoting mindfulness and empowering empathy: The openness and sensitivity conveyed during relaxed events promote an attitude of mindfulness, caring and mutual respect. This reduces pressure and helps to experience/make situations more respectful and less conflictual. Physical soothing exercises bring people back to the present moment, which makes it easier to focus on the subject rather than being overwhelmed by old injuries or fears. As emotional tension decreases, people are better able to listen and move into other perspectives.

● Reduction of stress and tension: Being able to move freely, take breaks or go to a retreat also reduces stress and tension.

● Inclusivity: Relaxed events are explicitly aimed at people with different needs, such as neurodivergent people or people with chronic diseases, as well as people with experience of trauma. This means that even those who would not normally participate due to the often intense dynamics of such discussions can be included.

Many people deal with complex (political) issues in different ways, be it through movement, demands or periods of rest. Relaxed events provide the space for this diversity without evaluating it. As a result, a more constructive and diverse examination of difficult topics can take place.

● Awareness of Power Dynamics: By focusing on accessibility, sensitive communication and flexibility, participants can develop attention and awareness about hierarchical structures that often occur in discussions on political issues.

2. Three questions for Ahmad Dakhnous and Johanna Voß

The very first exercise of the workshop My glasses - Your glasses combines many central aspects of your work and plays a central, supporting role in the day workshop. The exercise is also intended as a tool for participants to apply in their work contexts. How does the exercise work and what is particularly important to you about it?

With the exercise My glasses - Your glasses, we very often open our workshops, as it allows the participants to get to know themselves and the others a little better and thus contributes to a benevolent and empathetic atmosphere. During the exercise, the participants reflect on why they look like Israel and Palestine. They consider what personal events and experiences have shaped and shaped their perspective and feelings on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The exercise takes place in three phases:

[1] Self-reflection: At the beginning, the key question “What personal experiences and experiences have shaped my perspective on and feelings about the Palestine-Israel conflict?” will be presented visibly to all. Participants are invited to paint symbolic glasses on a piece of paper and answer the question in a keyword-like manner.

[2] Small group work (3-4 groups): In small groups, the participants talk about the creation of their own "glasses" and get to know the perspectives and spaces of experience of others. Value-free listening is the focus. Together, it is considered whether the group notices similarities and differences and what kind of experiences and experiences were particularly formative. It is important to stress here that each person only communicates what they want to communicate.

[3] In a third step, everyone comes together in the plenary and reports on the small group work. This is about the evaluation and reflection of the method. Key questions could therefore be: How was it for you to think about the creation of your own glasses, to tell about it and to hear about the glasses of others? Were there similarities or differences?

The exercise is particularly suitable as an introduction to the workshop, as it offers the opportunity to reflect and share different perspectives, even those that may be very dissimilar to one's own. Central to this is the realization that especially experiences and experiences associated with strong emotions can significantly shape and change one's own perspective. Reflecting on this creates a basis for mutual understanding among the participants. The exercise also helps to distinguish between positioning (active positioning, possibly reflection of one's own position in social relations) and positioning (the external assignment of a person to a certain position due to external characteristics).

Important to note during the implementation:

Voluntary and sensitive handling of identities: Voluntary action must be explicitly emphasised. TNs must not be pressured to share personal experiences or aspects of their identity.

· Include emotional reactions, as it is about personal experiences and experiences

· Intervention only in case of discrimination, otherwise allow an open and value-free space. The workshop was aimed at dance mediators inside and dance educators inside, i.e. professionals who work and teach with and through the body. In your experience so far, what role can the body play when we deal with the aim of ‘making Israel and Palestine communicable’ in the German discourse? Can you share your observations with us, even for a concrete example?

Talking about Palestine and Israel is not easy for many people for different reasons – we also feel it in our workshops. We meet people who are in unimaginable concern for their family members or friends, who are struggling to survive in the Gaza Strip and people who have felt alienated from the local society since October 7, because they are not shown empathy or solidarity and anti-Palestinian racism and anti-Semitism are becoming more and more normalized. But even people who are involved in Nazi crimes in a family or collective biographic way often have inhibitions when speaking. So there are an incredible amount of emotions in the room – anger, fear, grief, shame, despair or insecurity. These emotions are manifested in our bodies, e.g. in which we freeze, our breath falters, we get a lump in our throats or suddenly become very hot.

In our educational work, we encourage the participants to perceive their feelings, to express them and to reflect them against the background of social dynamics, because often emotions are not as individual as we think, but socially shaped. We do this, for example, by working with photos of faces, using creative methods or doing small physical exercises – but unfortunately we are not trained bodyworkers in a team – here it would be nice to learn more and to incorporate these impulses more strongly into our work.

The fact that emotions (and bodies) are considered in political education is a rather new development. For a long time, emotions were perceived as disturbing and excluded. This also had to do with the widespread notion that body and mind, emotions and reason are separate spheres. Politics was created in the sphere of

Spirit is located. This location was also a sexist, racist and classicist tool to expel women, racialised people and workers from the political sphere by labeling them as ‘too emotional’ and ‘not reasonable’. But there has been a rethinking in recent years and one came to the realization that emotions are very much political. They influence how we perceive the world, what values we represent and thus also what political convictions we hold within us and what decisions we make. This “emotional turn” has led to the search now also in civic education for ways in which emotions can be included in learning or how they can be explicitly made the subject of civic education. What do you take from our common experience in the workshop in the field of dance mediation? What role do the small somatic exercises that we have introduced and that have accompanied us through the day have for you?

We got to know the concept of the “Relaxed Event”, which was very inspiring for us. The concept is about making events as barrier-free and inclusive as possible, so that, for example, neurodivergent people can easily participate. For this, Agnieszka has offered various seating, designed a room for retreat and agreed with us in advance that we plan many and long breaks. In addition, there were many small toys in the middle of the room that could be pressed, kneaded or jumped to relieve tension. At the beginning of the workshop, Agnieszka showed us three physical exercises that accompanied us through the day and were repeated whenever there was tension in the room, heaviness spread or we had to “get air”. It would be very exciting for us to integrate more such elements into our educational work in the future and to plan and design our events even more “relaxed” overall.

3. Perspectives of two participants

What made you want to participate in the workshop?

Martina Maria Helmke: For a long time I have come to the point with friends, especially from creative and body work, of recognizing speechlessness in relation to Israel and Palestine as a verbal one and activating the understanding of the need for other forms of expression and perception in order to...? Yeah, about what? In order to pursue a diffuse pressure of responsibility that I feel as a dance and education facilitator – German. To create perhaps less burned, hurtful, possibly more humane and emotional, less rational ways of encounter and confrontation. The spaces that we create in community dance or in the therapeutic context for dance work, among other things, on the basis of a central message: There is no right and no wrong. This is a premise that is difficult to sustain in the face of countless deaths and acute suffering. And I'm not sure if it's the right one right now. Does it have an activating effect or does it have a debilitating effect? What do I need to know, what perspectives do I need to be aware of in order to be able to contribute politically through, with, from my work and experience in the field of dance? And who is actually giving me this mandate?

The workshop appealed to me because of the specific target group of participants and the explicitly multi-perspective approach. When I read the offer, I was just grateful for this opportunity. Grateful for the concrete addressing of a politically-acute topic, which we may not yet be able to address in our body-focused, sensual contexts, but which in truth shakes us all to the core and cries out for physical-emotional expression. The experience of this war already has an immense, destructive physical and mental level. How can we as body and creative practitioners meet them sooner or later?

Anonymous participant: I participated in the workshop because, on one hand, I have a personal connection to the conflict between Israel and Palestine and seek spaces where I can discuss it beyond my immediate personal context. On the other hand, I am particularly interested at the moment in exploring and learning mediation and conflict resolution strategies as well as non-violent forms of communication. (Original)

I participated in the workshop because, on the one hand, I have a personal connection to the conflict between Israel and Palestine and I am looking for spaces in which I can discuss it beyond my immediate personal context. On the other hand, I am currently particularly interested in exploring and learning mediation and conflict resolution strategies as well as nonviolent forms of communication. (Translated from English by the documentation team)

What moved you the most during the workshop and kept you busy in the long term?

Martina Maria Helmke: On the one hand, I was surprised and inspired by the framework, the “relaxed workshop” format and a lot of it went straight back into my own practical work in Hamburg – thank you very much for that! The understanding, the attention, the openness, the curiosity and the desire of all participants for confrontation and understanding have also impressed me.

My defining term for the experience of this workshop is probably “multiperspective triangular constellations”. The idea of a triangle through which we leave the bipolarity of perspectives and create space for a third. Three perspectives that together form a center, create a space that I can look at. I find this idea everywhere – in my notes and in the meetings on the ground. The tripartite talk about our (biographical) glasses on the subject of Israel-Palestine was eye-opening and world-opening for me. How diverse and complex and at the same time so obvious and understandable are the stories behind our attitudes and reactions! And how unifying it can be to simply be able to tell them and to let them stand together as simultaneity. Another triangle was that of the social perspectives in the German-language discourse on Israel-Palestine: post-National Socialist, post-migrant and post-colonial. I also found this to be very conclusive and am grateful to the speakers for this analysis. Although I could clearly see the different hierarchization in the German political discourse, I did not feel pressured to give one or the other a greater or lesser weight. It was enough to see them at all. I have been invited and encouraged to take these different perspectives in a self-determined way and to derive consequences and attitudes from them – both in connection and independently of myself.

Anonymous participant: After the workshop, I had a critical reflection with the moderators, which I wasn’t able to share with the other participants, and I feel this might be an appropriate space to do so. I noticed that some participants (though not the moderators) drew on U.S. American discourses on race to discuss the Palestinian struggle, for example mentioning ‘Black Life Matters’ and ‘White Supremacy’. While I understand the intention to draw parallels with discourses that play a big role in how we view and understand the world today in Europe, I believe that conversations around systemic racism are deeply tied to specific historical, cultural, and political contexts. Applying the U.S. framework to entirely different situations can obscure the unique complexities at hand, making it even harder to meaningfully address and unpack the realities we are discussing. (Original)

After the workshop, I had a critical reflection with the presenters, which I could not share with the other participants, and I think this could be a suitable place for this. I noticed that some participants (but not the moderators) used US discourses on ethnicity to discuss the Palestinian struggle, for example by mentioning ‘Black Life Matters’ and ‘White Supremacy’. While I understand the intention to draw parallels to discourses that play a major role in how we see and understand the world today in Europe, I believe that conversations about systemic racism are deeply linked to specific historical, cultural and political contexts. Applying the US framework to completely different situations can obscure the unique complexities, making it even more difficult to meaningfully decipher the realities we are discussing. (Translated from English by the documentation team)

Have you thought about how to apply the experience and knowledge of the workshop in your mediation work and dance practice?

Martina Maria Helmke: Yes :-) I would find it exciting to physically bring this idea of a multiperspective triangle into space, to find out what connects the poles as lines and to emotionally charge an interior that I can look at from all three points. Which experiences and biographies, which pictures and stories, which current and old traumas manifest themselves in the respective poles? How do I connect, what does that require of me, how narrow or wide is the path, is the tape? And to what extent can the interior, as a space for emotional expression, become a place of encounter. How does looking at anger affect me from one perspective or another? Like grief and despair? And how important is it to know which pole this feeling has just sprung from? Can I know myself? These are the first drafts of ideas for an experiment, for which I alone currently lack the capacities. For the moment, I would like to continue to work on the topics of contradiction and empathy as well as fault-friendliness and courage as part of my dance experience. This includes healing through encounter and embodiment. After the workshop, I realized again that I really know little about what the participants of my courses think and feel about politically disturbing topics. I have not yet dared to ‘open’ the corresponding barrels for fear of not being able to hold the frame – perhaps that would be the next step. The workshop has at least helped me to have more courage, clarity and honesty with myself and I think that should be the basis of the work in this field anyway.

Anonymous participant: One of the most significant frameworks introduced by the workshop leaders was: “You can say the wrong thing.” Within a workshop, I found this to be a crucial tool for fostering a space where different opinions can coexist, and where participants can trust that any difficult or uncomfortable moments will be addressed in a constructive, non-violent way.

Another key takeaway for me was the first exercise we did in small groups, ‘My glasses / your glasses’. This exercise provided a structure for self-reflection and encouraged us to examine our own personal histories and how they shaped our current opinions and beliefs. It also created an opportunity to listen to others’ perspectives without judgment. (Original)

One of the main framework terms introduced by the workshop leaders was “You can say the wrong thing”. I found that this is an important tool in a workshop to create a space where different opinions can coexist and where participants can trust that difficult or unpleasant moments are addressed in a constructive, non-violent way.

Another important insight for me was the first exercise we did in small groups: “My glasses/your glasses”. This exercise provided a structure for self-reflection and encouraged us to examine our own personal history and find out how it shaped our current opinions and beliefs. It also offered the opportunity to listen to others' views without evaluating them. (Translated from English by the documentation team)

biographies

Agnieszka Habraschka is a consultant, dramaturge and production manager with a focus on barrier-free and anti-ableistic cultural work/performance art, aesthetics of access and intersectional anti-discrimination. Until March 2024, Agnieszka worked as production manager for the network project Making a Difference. Agnieszka is neurodivergent, has invisible disabilities and has experiences of migration and poverty.

Ahmad Dakhnous is a speaker for political education with a focus on racism and anti-Semitism criticism, flight and migration, arrival processes and Israel/Palestine. He studied education, economics and political sciences with a special focus on the Middle East conflict. Raised in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, he has lived in Germany since 2016.

Johanna Voß has been working for many years as an education officer in political education with a focus on anti-Semitism, racism and discrimination criticism. She studied Public History, European Studies and the Honors Program for Peace and Conflict Studies in Haifa, Israel.

Martina Maria Helmke has been working and working in Hamburg for several years in the areas of education and project management as well as as a community dance practitioner (AdkB Remscheid) and including dance mediator (Lola-Rogge-Schule, DanceAbility®). She is particularly interested in the connection between collectivity, the promotion of empathy and dance. Since June 2024, she has been training as a dance and movement therapist.