On Reconciliation: What Israelis and Palestinians Can Learn from South Africa and Rwanda
- Pacific Time In-Person Program
Course Summary for Search and Accessibility
This course, On Reconciliation: What Israelis and Palestinians Can Learn from South Africa and Rwanda, is an Educational Program offered by New Lehrhaus. It is scheduled for October 15, 2026. The session is held on a Thursday from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM Pacific Time.
The total registration fee is $18.00. The course is conducted Online and focuses on reconciliation and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, truth and reconciliation in South Africa and Rwanda, and the work of author and peace activist Maya Savir.
In 2014, Maya Savir, author of On Reconciliation, made her first trip to South Africa and Rwanda, two societies that had each gone through a long and painful process of reconciliation, one following apartheid and the other genocide. What she learned there became a book, first published in Hebrew in 2017 and now appearing in English, that asks whether lessons from South Africa and Rwanda might offer anything to Israelis and Palestinians confronting their own long-running conflict.
Following October 7 and the war in Gaza, Savir added a new chapter confronting directly whether reconciliation is still something worth imagining. Join her for a conversation about what she learned, what forgiveness does and doesn't have to do with reconciliation, and what it might take to imagine a future beyond the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Who this is for
- Anyone following the Israeli-Palestinian conflict who wants to think past the day's headlines
- Readers interested in truth and reconciliation processes in South Africa and Rwanda and what they might teach other divided societies
- Anyone drawn to the hard, practical work of imagining peace rather than despairing of it
What you'll leave with
- An introduction to Savir's On Reconciliation and the years of work in South Africa and Rwanda behind it
- A clearer picture of what reconciliation does and doesn't require, including its relationship to forgiveness
- A framework for thinking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict informed by other societies that have worked through comparable divides
- The chance to hear directly from the author and ask your own questions
About the Teacher
Maya Savir has spent her adult life doing peace work, not just writing about it. She currently directs Search for Common Ground's work in Israel, the world's largest peacebuilding organization, and spent a decade in Africa before that, work that took her into direct conversation with the people who lived through reconciliation in South Africa and Rwanda rather than just its history. She's also the daughter of Uri Savir, one of the architects of the Oslo Accords, which makes her willingness to look for answers somewhere other than the usual diplomatic playbook all the more striking.
Thursday, October 15, 7–9pm Pacific Time
Details
- Date:
- Time:
- - Pacific Time
Location
Clio's Books
353 Grand Avenue
Oakland, CA 94610
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