From Jerusalem to DC, Mason alumna dedicates her life to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Mariam Aburdeineh — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 05:00:00 +0000

From Jerusalem to DC, Mason alumna dedicates her life to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Mariam Aburdeineh Wed, 09/23/2020 - 01:00

After graduating from Mason, Fakhira Halloun returned to Jerusalem, where she works as a civil society and peacebuilding consultant at the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. Photo provided.

Fakhira Halloun holds two contradictory identities: She is Palestinian and an Israeli citizen.

It wasn’t until she began facilitating peace dialogues between Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem in 2000, that she realized Palestinian citizens of Israel could be the missing link in bridging ties between the two groups.

“Palestinian citizens of Israel have an important role to play in solving the conflict,” said Halloun, a 2019 PhD graduate of George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. “We know the mindset of the Palestinians in the West Bank and share the same national identity and culture; at the same time, we know the Jews in Israel because we live with them and a lot of relationships are built there.”

That realization inspired her studies at Mason and life goal of bringing about peace, she said.

After graduating from Mason, Halloun returned to Jerusalem, where she works as a civil society and peacebuilding consultant at the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.

“This was my dream work,” Halloun said. “I’m helping civil society organizations engaged in peacebuilding work on both sides to reexamine and redefine their work in order to make a difference.”

Though she is overseas, Halloun’s impact in the Washington, D.C., area remains.

Halloun was part of a team that established the D.C.-based Museum of the Palestinian People, which highlights the history, identity, culture and achievements of Palestinians.

Fakhira Halloun (left) shows a guest around the Museum of the Palestinian People, which she helped establish. Photo provided.

“Usually the story about the Palestinian people is very narrow, and it’s linked with the conflict,” Halloun said. “We wanted to expand their narrative and bring out the complexity of it so that Americans and others can see themselves through the stories of the Palestinian people.”

Halloun has also stayed connected to Mason.

Since 2019, she has been co-teaching a study-abroad course with professor Marc Gopin that takes students to Israel and Palestinian territories to understand the conflict from both sides.

It’s an enlightening course, Halloun said, and one she also took as a student.

“Fakhira is an extraordinary peacemaker who understands intellectually and personally the power of compassion and the heart to heal wounds of war and conflict,” Gopin said. “She combines that with reasoning and strategy to build bridges across lines of adversaries.”

“I brought my passion, commitment and persistence to impact my reality, but professors like Dr. [Kevin] Avruch and Dr. Gopin equipped me with a deep lens in conflict resolution through their knowledge, analysis and approaches to understand,” Halloun said. “I couldn’t be successful now where I work in the UN without their contribution to who I am.”

Creating a better future is Halloun’s top goal, she said. According to her professors, she has what it takes.

“If peace with justice is ever to have a chance, it will be people like Fakhira—on all sides—who will commit to seeing it through, and bring it about,” Avruch said.

Fakhira Halloun (far right) with her students in Jerusalem. Photo provided.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Carter School Affiliate Faculty

peacemaking

peacebuilding and analysis

Building ties across enemy lines

Damian Cristodero — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 16:54:14 +0000

Building ties across enemy lines Damian Cristodero Mon, 02/25/2019 - 11:54

Professor Marc Gopin's students engage in peacebuilding and analysis on both sides of seemingly intractable conflicts.

“One of the reasons people flock to us from other prestigious universities is that we’re one of the only ones who have gotten inside. Most universities don’t do this," Gopin said. Photo by Lathan Goumas.

The Holocaust had ended by the time George Mason University professor Marc Gopin was a child, but the suffering it caused his family, neighbors and teachers had not.

Because he knew people who had fled for their lives, were tortured, hid for safety, lost loved ones or were living with post-traumatic stress disorder and the emotional weight of their experiences, Gopin was sensitive to the suffering he felt around him. He was also perplexed by why some enlightened societies in history could become destructive and revert back again.

“I was trying to think about that from the time I was little,” he said.

It’s clear Gopin’s done more than think about issues of war and peace since then. The founder and director of Mason’s Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution (CRDC) has pioneered projects in Bosnia, Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, Palestine, Israel, Turkey, Jordan and Syria, and has trained thousands of people worldwide in peacebuilding strategies through CRDC for more than 15 years.

“I started becoming passionate about [being] antiwar in the early ’80s,” Gopin said. “It was the time of danger of nuclear escalation, and I had always been particularly wounded by World War II.” Though he cherished Israel as a haven for Jews, he said he “started to disagree strongly with Israel’s use of force in Lebanon and of the treatment of Palestinians.”

On his own, Gopin sought out Palestinians in Israel to talk about peacebuilding and forgiveness. At the time, crossing enemy lines was both unheard of and dangerous, as Jews were hated in many parts of the Middle East due to the Arab-Israeli wars.

“I became stubborn and determined to make peace in the Middle East, and I developed an expertise in conflict resolution, particularly in Arab and Jewish cultures,” he said.

As Gopin combined conflict resolution with his previous studies of religion, philosophy and ethics, he became familiar with Mason’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, where he now teaches and continues his peacebuilding efforts.

At Mason, students get to be a part of the work that includes engaging with families affected by wars, listening and being compassionate to people from diverse backgrounds and engaging in peacebuilding operations and analysis on both sides of seemingly intractable conflicts.

“One of the reasons people flock to us from other prestigious universities is that we’re one of the only ones who have gotten inside,” said Gopin. “Most universities don’t do this.”

Sarah Sadowski, MS Conflict Analysis and Resolution ’16, has gone on three trips with the center.

“I kept going back for more experiences because [CRDC does] an excellent job of showing all sides of the conflict,” said Sadowski, who worked with people who experienced the Northern Ireland conflict, and with Israelis and Palestinians overseas. “These experiences helped me find compassion for both sides of a conflict instead of victimizing or blaming.”

According to Gopin, that compassion is a foundation of peacebuilding that comes about when the contact with others is deep. And the effects are noticeable.

“The most inspiring results of the work have been developing such close friendships across enemy lines that we figured out a way to help people save lives that other people had not,” Gopin said.

For example, when hospitals in Syria were being bombed, his group was able to support people who were working to outsmart the destruction. They were also able to gather people from various backgrounds to help with local councils formed at the time.

No matter the country, the school’s peacebuilding methodologies have led to a coalition of people who put aside differences to work together.

“It becomes a chain of support, which is a new and novel way of empowerment,” Gopin said.

The center’s most recent project is focused on empowering Syrian women in political roles. Because men are the main combatants in war, women are in a potentially powerful position to be the binders of society, Gopin said.

“That’s why they need political empowerment. They need education and they need a voice. Our programs are giving them exactly that.”

The experiences are transformative for students, too.

“Many people report to us that their lives have changed completely because they’ve never been on that side of the war before; they’ve never been able to see the receiving end of conflict,” Gopin said. “My aspiration is for my students to become those ambassadors for a constraint of war as far as possible, and for the rational focus on real recovery.”

And the impact of the program could extend even further.

“CRDC gives you that real-world experience that people in this field need to truly understand the work and to be effective,” said Sadowski. “The experience you have teaches you more than you may ever come to realize.”

Mason students listen to Arab and Jewish members of Non Violent Communication Galilee tell stories about their family histories in villages around Mount Tabor in Israel. Photo courtesy of Mason's Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution.

Impact

Quality

School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution Center for World Religions

Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution (CRDC)

Faculty

Marc Gopin

Sarah Sadowski

peacebuilding and analysis

Academics