Second-year Reema Hijazi's hair is cropped short. A skinny yellow scarf coils about her neck, even as she sits indoors. There's nothing about her appearance that says "mainstream," and it seems that's exactly how she wants it.
Hijazi is passionate: an activist, a thinker, a doer. She's a member of Critical Mass, a decidedly leftist student group that's part-publication and part-demonstration. This fall, she founded Students for Peace and Justice in Palestine, a group she said focuses its efforts on a magazine, through which the students do their best to inform without bias.
And Hijazi is a member of the University's Jewish-Arab Sustained Dialogue.
Through the testimonials of various Dialogue members, the message was spelled out clearly: Jews and Arabs haven't been the best of friends historically. Descending through generations, the groups transfer traditions, values and beliefs. And one of those familial beliefs is an inclination to resent "the other kind."
In Jewish-Arab Sustained Dialogue, students tackle the taboos, stereotypes and harsh beliefs that have been directly or indirectly hammered into their heads. Through talking, and more importantly, listening, they face the feelings that have been passed down through this old, rocky relationship and learn to replace it with a new, positive relationship.
The group officially had its start in fall 2003. Fourth-year College student Samar Katnani, who had helped to found the original Sustained Dialogue at the University, worked with fourth-year Continuing Education student Lela Graham to develop a specific sustained dialogue for Jewish and Arab students.
"The main reason I started thinking about a Jewish-Arab Sustained Dialogue was that I realized I myself held certain stereotypes," Katnani said. "At first I said the typical, 'no, I don't hold negative stereotypes -- I have Jewish friends!' But then I thought, what are my first reactions [towards Jewish people]? They aren't always positive feelings."
As Katnani was on her way to forming the Jewish-Arab Sustained Dialogue, she suggested the idea to a friend, second-year College student Aseil Abu-Baker.
"At first I really didn't see a point," admitted Abu-Baker, president of the Arab Student Organization. "If you're going to bring people from different points of contention, you'll just end up agreeing to disagree."
But after Katnani explained the main idea, Abu-Baker said she saw that it could work. Rather than solely grabbing for larger issues, such as the politics behind the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, participants said Jewish-Arab Sustained Dialogue concentrates on tensions between individuals.
To facilitate the social, yet serious, mood of dialogue, the group meets weekly, usually alternating between social events and dialogue sessions, according to Katnani. Sometimes they'll combine the two -- having a potluck dinner and dialogue in one, for example.
At the dialogues, one of the moderators, either Katnani or Graham, leads with a question to stimulate ideas. Group members then talk freely.
"The ultimate goal is to talk about personal experiences, not hypothetical situations," Katnani said. "We focus on the emotional side of things first, so we know where you're coming from. The next level is analytical: How can we look at it and what can we do about it?"
Katnani explained that the method behind this kind of sustained dialogue was started about 10 years ago by two couples, one Jewish and one Palestinian. They introduced the idea of casual "living room conversations" to cultivate understanding and have continued conversing ever since. One of the couples, Len and Libby Traubman, sent materials to the University's Jewish-Arab Sustained Dialogue and assisted the group in its initial stages.
Despite its informal method, Jewish-Arab Sustained Dialogue maintains several rules.
"One of the big things is to use 'I' statements," Katnani said. "It's about representing yourself. We can't come and say, 'my people' and 'your people' are having problems."
Yet, this task -- to detach oneself from one's background -- is difficult. The title of the dialogue alone, "Jewish" and "Arab," declares the existence of two distinct groups, and the division is the reason that the dialogue was born.
Second-year College student Abby Bellows, newly-elected president of the Hillel Jewish Student Union, said she believes that the pursuit of complete individualization cannot, and should not, occur.
"As much as we try to separate ourselves, we still come as members of communities and those identities are intrinsic to us," Bellows said. "As much as dialogue tries to transcend borders, the deeper subtlety is that those communities are who we are."
Even so, Dialogue members said they make a great effort to avoid clamping down categories. A noticeable number of members are leaders of student organizations, yet they're not pegged as representatives of a larger student body.
"Before I came in, I was like, 'do I have to be careful?'" Abu-Baker said. "'Are they going to attach what I say to my organization?' But then it really wasn't a problem."
Though many of the members admit to being politically active, they said diatribes don't run rampant in Jewish-Arab Sustained Dialogue. Members agreed that they are open-minded and careful to respect each other because they want to understand each other versus fueling debate on issues that take place thousands of miles away.
For this reason, politics -- despite its gravity within the Israel-Palestine conflict -- is not a topic that fits snugly into the atmosphere of Jewish-Arab Sustained Dialogue.
"We never really talk about policy," Hijazi said. "What it's really about is confronting those things that we've always believed to be true and taking them apart. A lot of people have said, 'These were the conceptions I grew up with: Jews are cheap, Arabs are always late.'"
Bellows expressed a similar sentiment.
"We can't just focus on Israel," she said. "We focus on the lives of students here."
And even when it comes to those uneasy matters of friction, the students said they keep their minds open, both in and out of the dialogue setting.
"I deeply support the state of Israel," Bellows said. "And at the same time, I think that to have peace there are many issues that need to be addressed in regard to the Palestinians."
Hijazi said she believes that the existence of Palestine should be recognized but does not limit herself to a narrow perspective.
"I don't say I'm 'pro-Palestinian' because there are too many sides," Hijazi said. "I'm a firm believer that this conflict isn't just two sides. You have to contribute your voice, but that doesn't mean taking a side."
Although there have been "a few emotional moments," according to Katnani, the members agreed that they talk to each other in a relaxed atmosphere.
"I've never left feeling angry," Hijazi said. "The group has a great dynamic."
At the same time, participants said this happy vibe may be Jewish-Arab Sustained Dialogue's number one problem. Participation is voluntary, which means that students who join tend to welcome differences.
"We're all really understanding of each other, so in a way, we're not really accomplishing anything," Hijazi said. "It would benefit us more if we had different people who didn't agree with us."
Quite a quandary: bring in the extremes, and the group's comfort diffuses.
Still, Dialogue members said they will try to reach out as far as they can into the University community because, after all, that's the point.
Second-year College student Kate Ulanksy explained why it's so important to bring in new people.
"We're looking to find challenges and solve problems," Ulansky said. "We need more extreme people so that the dialogue can function as it's supposed to, instead of everyone just patting each other on the back. It's great that everyone can share your views, but that's not really the purpose."
Aside from that problem, the students said they have been pleased with the results of the dialogues.
"Miracles can happen when people make themselves personally vulnerable," Bellows said, her eyes brimming with emotion. "The power of dialogue is continually awe-inspiring."
The larger question which remains is how dialogue will affect the University community as a whole, and whether relationships between groups can improve over time. Dialogue members recognized that notions etched over generations won't be rubbed away in a few months by a group of 10 people. But it's a beginning.
"One of the hardest things is that there are few tangible ways in which to measure" our success, Katnani said. "I just believe in the process. We'll keep hoping and keep trying"
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