Semitic Action organizes programs to advance dialogue between the Israelis and Palestinians most directly impacted by the status quo. The sessions begin by utilizing a form of narrative therapy to enable both sides to engage the identities, stories, grievances, and aspirations of the Other without fear.

The second stage of our work helps participants to recognize the material conditions driving our peoples into conflict and how that conflict has benefited and continues to benefit specific Israeli and Palestinian elites, as well as powerful outside interests in our region.

The third stage is a shared struggle based on the construction of a larger and more inclusive narrative that allows each side to see the Other as a co-protagonist in the same story rather than as the antagonist in our respective narrow narratives.

Our facilitators are primarily West Bank Jews and Palestinians seeking to end the occupation, dismantle colonial structures and work towards a future both peoples can experience as deeply just.

What sets our work apart from other “peace” movements is that:

1. We circumvent the international community, the foreign-funded “peace industry” and the failed two-state paradigm that has only exacerbated tensions in recent decades.
2. We reject the notion that westernized “moderates” from both sides can attain peace by signing agreements brokered by foreign powers. Peace can only be achieved by bringing the marginalized “radicals” on both sides to the table – those most fully living the aspirations of their people who until now have been completely excluded from the conversation.
3. We believe that peace cannot be achieved by forcing each side to compromise but rather through reaching a solution that allows each side to fully experience victory according to how victory is defined in each party’s respective narrative. For this to take place, we must first examine the core aspirations and grievances of each side in order to create a larger narrative inclusive enough to encompass both ostensibly rival narratives. The goal should not be to meet in the middle (with each side continuing to feel justifiably suspicious of the Other) but rather winning together through a solution that allows us to transcend the conflict’s destructive either/or paradigm.