Published: 12 May 2025
Last updated: 13 May 2025
Eva Dalak is a Palestinian citizen of Israel born in Jaffa to a family that lived there for generations, but many of whom now live in Gaza. I am a Jewish Israeli, raised in Orthodox Brooklyn, New York.
Together we host a podcast called Women Ending War, a determined effort to change our reality and end this violence.
A core aspect of what we are trying to accomplish is to always incorporate diverse voices. We try to have Palestinian and Jewish women in every episode, though it does not always work out that way.
We also try to create an atmosphere of holding space, even when it’s hard. This means allowing people to tell their life stories without arguing or correcting them. Palestinians on the podcast may use words like “genocide”, “ethnic cleansing”, and “colonialism”, and I never challenge or try to “correct” the usage of these terms, despite all the Zionist upbringing that trained me to do exactly that.
Comments3
Jo15 May at 01:50 am
In case anyone is truly wondering what I mean when I say “Free Palestine” I mean let the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea be a democratic state where no one has special rights because of their religion.
Ian Grinblat14 May at 04:12 am
Rachel is absolutely correct.
As for Elana’s consideration (and dismissal) of a return to Brooklyn, I ask, what will she think when citizens of the US decide that the Jews in their midst have to go ‘somewhere else’? It is not impossible – after a setllementof almost 1000 years, the Jews of Poland learned that there was no place for them in Poland. It didn’t end well.
Rachel Sussman13 May at 09:51 am
Listening is always important and I admire your willingness to do so…
Listening is an important part of every communication, I know this well as a counsellor who worked with people all my working life.
I equally know that listening without questioning and without presenting new possibilities will leave people stuck ( and this by no means is the same as – or should be confused with – invalidating what another says or arguing with it)…
While I am willing to listen I am not willing to be so ‘humble’ as to allow false narratives to continue flourishing… it is one thing to empathise and feel compassion, it is another to allow myself to be diminishef by another who choses to use terms that have no room in true historical context and remain silent… peace is built on listening and on truth; without truth telling it has no foundation… so whilst I admire the efforts of listening however painful, I feel sad that self denial and self efacing seems to be part of the listening… sadly it will not work, it will not heal, it will not bring power to either side nor responsibility and consequently it cannot result with a true peace where two partners are equally powerful and able to act and make choices…