When Progressives Meet Israel

Key Findings:

The author provides insights as to what works (and what does not) when it comes to mending the unnecessary yet apparent gap between progressive leaning individuals and support for Israel. 

Felson highlights the reality that many individuals have only perceived Israel from a two dimensional point of view– through words, images, the news, etc. Providing examples from his work experiences, he insists that personal encounters are crucial as they provide the opportunity of showing the face of Israeli humanity. Real life experiences have the potential to cause shifts that are incomparable to what any amount of information or history lessons can. Felson argues against going the informational route when trying to bridge this gap. 

When progressive leaning individuals are given the opportunity of bonding over shared values with Israelis, their perception around Israeli society can dramatically shift as well.  The author strongly advocates for organized trips and programs that will cater to this demographic, specifically programming around highlighting said shared values.“Trips enable progressive audiences to appreciate that, like America, Israel is a work in progress, far from perfect, but grounded in a commitment to fairness, compassion, and decency.”

The author argues that said audiences who come to visit Israel in person should be welcomed to meet and speak with Palestinian individuals as well, as it is a core social justice issue for many progressives. “When we trust our trip participants to reconcile what they hear from Palestinians with what they hear from Israelis, without contextualizing it for them, their respect for the complexity of the conflict expands, including questioning simplistic solutions and zero-sum formulas, such as BDS.” 

The investment in personal meetings and highlighting shared humanity is of significant importance in shifting perspective.