How Does the Media Shape Our Understanding of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?
Date & Time: Monday, May 9th, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Location: Centre Church, 193 Main Street, Brattleboro VT 05301
Suggested Donation: $5
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been a source of tension and frustration, not only in the Middle East and around the world but here in Brattleboro. This event is the result of a collaborative effort within our community to engage in the type of dialogue necessary if there is to be peace – anywhere.
Peace activist Noa Milman has been invited to facilitate an interactive program exploring multiple perspectives and approaches to the conflict designed to foster greater understanding and cooperation within our community and beyond. Participation from as many Brattleboro area residents as possible representing diverse viewpoints will insure the success of our collective intentions.
Program Description
There is no such thing as an "objective" way of reporting a conflict. Moreover, no account of the Israeli-Arab conflict is neutral or natural. Every account is shaped by the frame that underlies it. Frames are central organizing ideas or coherent storylines that make sense of a messy and erratic reality. Frames determine which facts are included and which we deem irrelevant, they shape the vocabulary we use (is it an Arab-Israeli conflict, a Palestinian-Israeli conflict, a Jewish-Muslim conflict?), and inform the quotes and images we choose to include. As a result frames shape our understanding of the conflict; they imply the source of the problem, and the most desired and adequate solution. We cannot operate in the world without these meaning-giving frames, and there can be no media account without an underlying frame. Because of frames’ power in shaping our understanding of the conflict and possible solutions, it is important to be able to identify the frames which inform each account.
In this activity we will assign participants to 5 different groups, which will be asked to prepare an outline and select visuals and quotes for a documentary on the conflict. Each group will have an assigned frame about the conflict (feuding neighbors, strategic interest, Arab intransigence, Israeli expansionism), which will guide their account of the conflict. Participants will then be asked to consider what the possibilities are (if there are any) for a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, from the standpoint of the frame they are using. What does the frame imply would need to be done for a resolution of the conflict? At the end of the activity, participants will read their account of the conflict and the rest of the groups will be asked to identify which frame underlies the report.
Facilitator Noa Milman
A former prominent activist in the Israeli peace movement and the environmental movement in Israel, Ms. Milman worked as a community organizer for Peace Now and Green Course (a student-based environmental organization). In addition, she was a student at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, a regional program that caters for Israeli, Jordanian, Palestinian and American students.
Noa Milman lectures about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and co-existent initiatives as well as on environmental challenges and the environmental movement in Israel. At Boston College Ms. Milman studies social movements and the intersection of race, class, and gender in Israeli society. She teaches classes on social theory and an introductory class to sociology.
Pre-program Reception at BAJC
At 5:00 p.m. on May 9th, BAJC members and Hebrew School parents are invited to join the school to meet Israeli peace activist, Noa Milman, who will be the keynote speaker later in
the evening at WVMH, and to partake of a buffet-style Israeli supper that includes falafel, pita, hummus,
Israeli salad and other Middle Eastern delicacies.
This event, organized by Brattleboro Area Jewish Community, is co-sponsored by the following organizations:
- The Brattleboro Area Interfaith Clergy Association (BAICA)
- The Brattleboro Area Interfaith Initiative (BAII)
- The Conflict Transformation Department of the SIT Graduate Institute
- All Souls Church Unitarian Universalist
- Centre Congregational Church
- First Baptist Church of Brattleboro
- First Congregational Church of West Brattleboro, United Church of Christ
- The Consulate General of Israel to New England
For more information, please call 802-257-1959.
|
