Date: Friday, April 5
Time: 12:00pm-1:30pm
12:00-12:15pm: arrival & lunch buffet*;
12:15pm: workshop begins
1:15-1:30pm: Q&A
Location: PLEASE NOTE UPDATED LOCATION: College Center Multipurpose Room, on 2nd floor of College Center (connected to Main Building).
Audience: Open to the Public
Description: Middle East Peacebuilding experts Tarek Maassarani, Rawan Odeh and Eran Nissan will facilitate a workshop for Vassar and local communities on identifying practical steps toward post-war futures for Palestinians and Israelis.
The facilitators share learnings from a collaborative democracy process based on a February, 2024 New Story Leadership convening in Geneva, Switzerland. NSL brought together Palestinian and Israeli young people who shared their stories of the ongoing violence and worked to identify consensus-based steps toward claiming livable futures for themselves and their loved ones.
The workshop will then engage community members from Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, and the Hudson Valley themselves in a consensus-based statement crafting process about the conflict by utilizing new, interactive technology platforms that can be accessed through smart phones. (The use of cell phones to participate in the workshop will be encouraged!)
This event is co-organized by Engaged Pluralism at Vassar College and the Dean of the College area.
*We've set aside the buffet time in recognition that a number of those in attendance may be fasting or choose to abstain from lunch out of religious and community commitments. We also know many will have conflicting religious, teaching, and learning commitments. You are welcome to join us for just part of the workshop if needed.
We ask all participants to remain mindful of the variety of needs and commitments present among us.
Questions and accessibility requests? Reach out to the Restorative Practices Offices at: rp@vassar.edu
About the facilitators:
Rawan Odeh is a Palestinian-American who lived half her life in Brooklyn and the other half in Hewara, Palestine. Today, she works in the private sector identifying and launching partnerships with nonprofits to scale solutions that address the world's biggest challenges through technology. Rawan was the Executive Director of New Story Leadership (NSL)- a leading advocacy organization for Palestine and Israel. She was often the only Palestinian woman under 30 in political halls of power in Congress, the White House, and diplomatic channels. While leading NSL, she understood that those closest to the problem are closest to the solution, yet they don't have access. She saw the same story working for Women's World Banking in micro-finance for low-income women worldwide, where 1 billion women remain outside financial systems.
Her passion is to close divides in peacebuilding, women's economic empowerment, and global technology innovation.
Eran Nissan is an Israeli peace activist. He is 31 years old, lives in Jaffa, and currently serves as the CEO of ‘Mehazkim‘, an Israeli progressive movement. Eran served as a combat soldier in the special forces of the Israeli military, and after his release, he decided to promote a peaceful resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Eran’s political motivation is generational, as he believes that a conflict we pass on to our children is a conflict we lost. Eran headed the Education & Advocacy department in ‘Peace Now‘, Israel’s biggest and oldest peace movement advocating for the Two-State-Solution. Eran is also the Israeli regional coordinator for both ‘Solutions not Sides’, a British education programme for British youth which centres the voices and stories of Israeli and Palestinian change-makers, and ‘New Story Leadership’, which focus on equipping a new generation of Palestinian and Israeli leaders with the tools needed to create social, economic and political change in the region. In 2019 Eran interned in a congressional office in Washington D.C. as part of the ‘New Story Leadership’ summer internship program. Eran holds a B.A in political science & Philosophy, and an M.A. in Emergency & Disaster Management. Eran is also a certified dog trainer and a volunteer EMT and ambulance driver.
Tarek Massarani Coming out of law school, Tarek Maassarani engaged in whistleblower advocacy, legal aid for indigent clients, and human rights litigation. Since 2011, Tarek has been an active restorative justice practitioner and organizer. Tarek co-founded RestorativeDC, a project of the local non-profit, SchoolTalk, to provide training and technical support to local schools, agencies, and communities. Tarek has implemented, trained, advised, or otherwise supported a variety of criminal diversion programs, including for the DC Office of Attorney General, the Nevada Attorney General's office, and Virginia Commonwealth Attorneys offices across three different jurisdictions. Tarek was a visiting professor of restorative and social justice at Eastern Mennonite University and continues to teach as an adjunct at Georgetown and Georgetown Law. Tarek has worked with these and a dozen other universities on restorative initiatives and processes. Tarek is a coach for the National Restorative Justice Coaching Program and has trained thousands of educators, youth workers, and others around the United States and internationally. Over the years, Tarek has facilitated hundreds of restorative justice processes, including adult cases of sexual and racial harm and community accountability in activist and faith-based groups. Tarek's life passions also include community organizing, nonviolent action, mediation, dialogue facilitation, and peace education. Tarek descends from a multi-cultural (nationally Palestinian, Israeli, Lebanese, German, American) multi-lingual (Arabic, English, German, French) multi-faith (Muslim, Jewish, Christian) family, which includes two beloved sons.
