Costs of War on Israeli Society

Within Israel-Palestine there is a spectrum of opinion on the conflict - a range of opinion largely unrecognized in debate in the United States. As a result of diverse experiences of living in Israel, many there are struggling to understand and resolve the conflict through other than entrenchment and military approaches. The presentation offers two distinct voices from the struggle within Israel-Palestine.

Ismail Kharoub is an 11th-generation Palestinian from Yafo (Jaffa), a mixed Arab-Jewish city adjacent to Tel Aviv. Ismail grew up going to both Arab and Jewish schools. Yafo (the subject of Academy Award-nominated Best Foreign picture Ajami) faces many problems such as drugs, crime and gentrification. Ismail, 18, has spoken on behalf of Jewish-Palestinian peace work in England and Belgium.

Ofra Yeshua-Lyth is an Israeli Jew and a military veteran. Her daughter is an army refuser. Lyth is a former journalist who reported from Germany and the U. S. for Maariv, Israel’s second largest newspaper. Lyth is an officer of the Israeli group New Profile. Her recently published memoir examines the Israel-Palestine conflict from the perspective that Israel’s failure to separate church and state has led to the ethnic, social and cultural gaps at the heart of the struggle.

Admission is free.