We are happy to announce that our Executive Director, Dr. Salim Munayer, has accepted a new role as the Network Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa for the Peace and Reconciliation Network (PRN).

We have elections next month, the fourth elections in two years. As a result, we are experiencing political unrest from both governmental instability and the pandemic.

Since the last time I wrote in April, there have been many changes to the Munayer family and their lives.

Musalaha is celebrating 30 years of reconciliation work in Palestine/Israel and this year is particularly different with the Coronavirus.

I was on my way to enter my house when a neighbour stopped me and pointed to my Christmas tree that was visible from the window…

As the advent season is coming up, we began to discuss as a family about who we will invite and host for Christmas in our home…

The Musalaha board and staff gathered in August for the 2020 strategy meeting…

One of the programs we are currently running at Musalaha is the joint Muslim-Christian volunteering initiative. This group has made me reflect upon Muslim-Christian relations in Israel/Palestine…

This year has been full of changes for all of us. I think the most difficult part is the change in our social connections and interactions…

Last month I travelled abroad to attend my Father-in-law’s funeral. This was the first time I had travelled since the outbreak of COVID-19. It was a weird and unfamiliar experience.

One of the biggest challenges in our field of work is promoting reconciliation to those who purposely oppose it. But how does one relate to such opposition and segments of society?

While engaging in conversation with Israeli-Jews and Palestinians about the annexation and structural racism, I noticed a common denominator across the fragmented segments of our societies – nobody thinks that the political reality is going to improve, and we will never achieve reconciliation…

Statements we told our children like ‘do well in university and you will get a good job that will allow you to buy a house’ are not true anymore…

The issue of racism in the US and around the world is shocking. It has major consequences on the fabric of society and the political climate.

If we continue to ignite the fire of the conflict, it will be far more dangerous than the Coronavirus and no lockdown will help us.

While the context in the UK is very different from Israel/Palestine this research has shown that this model can be used in this context to enable successful interfaith dialogue to develop.

One of the most respectable newspapers in Israel dedicated an article in the economic section about how the Palestinians in Israel helped combat the Coronavirus in Israel…

You often hear adults say ‘they are too young’, when discussing children and youth learning about the historical narrative of the ‘other’ side. When should we teach our children and youth about the other side’s narrative?

In the last two weeks, there were several events that I had observed that relate to the Coronavirus and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. I would like to elaborate in this short reflection some of my observations and comments.

For the past two weeks, more than any time before, we felt the negative impacts of social distancing in Jerusalem over Easter (Western calendar) and Passover. This will continue in the upcoming weeks…