Welcome To TalkMatters
When I know you on an everyday face-to-face basis you can no longer be my enemy and I can no longer be your victim. Then open and honest conversations can more comfortably take place about issues affecting relations between Jewish and Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel and in the wider context of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is what TalkMatters is all about.
Latest Updates & News
What We Do
We inform the UK Jewish, Christian, Muslim and any constituent communities to whom the region has special significance about over thirty associated cooperative grassroots organisations that bring Palestinian and Israeli Jewish people together.
We engage via webinars and live events with the Conversation on the ground. We provide a space for respectful conversation where you can explore the complex issues facing Israel and Palestine on social media via our Campaigns page.
Join our mailing list to receive our regular newsletter, to hear news from our partner initiatives and for information on future webinars and live events.
Tools to Cope with Difficult Conversations
TalkMatters encourages a greater understanding of the very complex Israel-Palestine situation by providing a safe space to listen, learn and discuss the issues faced by the inhabitants of Israel and the Palestinian territories.
In this Tools to Cope series, we will be sharing with you the techniques needed to co-operate and communicate effectively when feelings run high and words get ugly. Tools that help us to think about , empathy, deep listening, understanding nuance, holding space for different truths, etc.
- Empathy
- The Art of Active Listening
- How to challenge your beliefs
- Navigating Nuance
- Choosing Words Carefully when talking about Israel and Palestine
Inspirational people at difficult times
The Jerusalem Youth Chorus (JYC) is an Israeli-Palestinian music and dialogue project raising the voices of young leaders from East and West Jerusalem to the global stages of America’s Got Talent, TED, and beyond. Through the co-creation of music and the sharing of stories, JYC empowers young singers from East and West Jerusalem to speak and sing their truths as they become leaders in their communities and inspire singers and listeners around the world.
This video blends “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana with “Livchor Nachon” (“to choose right” in Hebrew) and “La Moustahila” (“nothing is impossible” in Arabic), three songs about seizing agency and making choices. At such a time of deep and ongoing loss for our young singers, and for all of us, we hope that this new release gives you an uplifting moment of hope and determination today.
Watch our webinars
TalkMatters has hosted and participated in many webinars since our launch. We have archived our previous webinars so that you can watch any that you missed, and while celebrating our first year, we created a series of “highlights” clips which you can watch as a taster, too.
Inspirational Stories
Late Night Encounter – Muhammad from Jericho meets Abraham from Jerusalem at the Lido cafeteria just north of the Dead Sea
It was 1:30 am, on a still and quiet winter’s night. I lay awake in my Jericho home, nervous and restless. I couldn’t sleep. I had been trying for hours but it was useless.
Eventually, I got up and headed to a coffee shop, where one of my friends works, north of the Dead Sea. The small cafeteria called Lido is connected to a gas station and acts as a stopover for travellers and visitors passing through. It is a place fully secured and controlled by the Israeli authorities… continue reading
Israeli and Palestinian fathers bond together through a shared grief
Rami Elhanan is Israeli and Bassam Aramin is Palestinian. They formed a deep bond through the tragic death of their daughters. In 1997 Rami’s 14-year-old Smadar was shopping with friends when two suicide bombers blew themselves up and killed her and four others. In 2007 Bassan’s ten year old daughter Abir was shot with a rubber bullet by a member of the border police outside her school.
Now Rami and Bassam are part of the Bereaved Parents Circle and travel together all over the world telling their story: ‘We are brothers. We have experienced the same. We lost our lovely daughters. Smadar and Abir are victims of the same conflict. Both of them were not guilty of anything and they were killed for nothing…it will not be over until we talk’….continue reading
“How can there be peace without people understanding each other, and how can this be if they don’t know each other?” Lester B. Pearson, former Prime Minister of Canada, Nobel Peace Prize Winner
