Newswise — Two Middle East scholars " an Israeli from Jerusalem and a Palestinian diplomat from Bethlehem " are spending the summer together at the University of Maryland in a unique conflict resolution experiment. For six weeks they're team-teaching, sharing a house and cell phone and working to create a mini-environment conducive to easing Israeli-Palestinian tensions. They say the experience takes on special significance for them this summer as Mideast conflicts intensify.
"We've been team-teaching for many years and by now we understand how the other thinks and anticipate each other's arguments," says Edy Kaufman, a University of Maryland senior research associate at the Center for International Development and Conflict Management and former director of the Truman Peace Institute at Hebrew University. "We agree about many things, disagree about others. But we begin with a deep, mutual respect and we bring that to the classroom. We often see our Jewish and Muslim students opening up and beginning to appreciate the other's narratives."
"This arrangement has been difficult at times, but we have learned to make it work," says Kaufman's colleague, Manuel Hassassian, also a Maryland senior research associate, the Palestinian ambassador to the U.K. and former rector of Bethlehem University in the West Bank. "We see the project as an experiment in conflict resolution, moving from adversarial discourses about the past, multiple interpretations of what went wrong with the Oslo process, to a search for common ground needed to solve difficult issues such as the future of Jerusalem."
Each summer for the past 12 years " except in 2000 when Hassassian headed the Jerusalem Task Force for the Palestinian Camp David negotiating team " the two have stayed in a house near the university to expand the collaboration beyond the classroom. Even planning the course, "Conflict Resolution: The Israeli-Palestinian Experiment," has sometimes involved difficult negotiations, such as the terms they would use to define wars and territories.
This year's class will cover a broad range of topics, including the current fighting. One of their teaching assistants works at the Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee at Maryland and the other is the past chairperson of the College Park chapter of AIPAC, the American Israel Political Action Committee. "They don't know each other " yet. But in the spirit of our classroom they will also show the strength of cooperation in spite of legitimate disagreements," Kaufman said.
Current Fighting
Both Kaufman and Hassassian agree that the urgent priority now is to stop war rather than make peace. "This may be the last chance to achieve a two-state solution," says Hassassian. "Ultimately, we need to reboot the negotiation process," adds Kaufman.
The project is based at the University of Maryland's Center for International Development and Conflict Management, a major research enterprise that brings together scholars and practitioners to understand the dynamics of societal conflicts over security, identity and distributive justice.
More information about the course is available online: http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/course.asp?id=6; http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/projects/classes/teamteachingconflictsyllabus.pdf
The class meets Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. through Aug. 24.
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