Flagship program
The Parallel Narrative Experience
Over three months, Israelis and Palestinians learn each other’s personal, national and historical narratives — and stop needing an exclusive truth.
The program
Ten years, forty cohorts
The Parents Circle has run the Parallel Narrative Experience, its flagship program, for nearly ten years. In that time 40 cohorts have taken part, reaching nearly 1,200 Israeli and Palestinian participants.
The module is made up of unilateral and bilateral workshops and dialogue activities between Israelis and Palestinians. Over three months they learn the personal, national and historical narratives of the other side. The program supports both sides in moving beyond exclusive truths, building trust, generating empathy and humanising the other.
Part of learning those national narratives is going to see them. Cohorts visit Lifta, a Palestinian village destroyed in 1948 during the Nakba, and they visit Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, together.
In the field
Where a cohort goes
Three months of workshops, and two journeys that put the other side’s history in front of you rather than in a book about it.
40
Cohorts have been through the program
1,200
Israeli and Palestinian participants, in nearly ten years
$30,000
The cost of one module for 30 Israelis and Palestinians
What an evaluation found
The evaluation of a recent cohort — funded by USAID’s Cultivating a Culture of Non-Violence project — measured the change in the group before and after the three-month module.
- 73%
- Had a better understanding of the other that changed their attitude for the better.
- 98%
- Increased their understanding of the other’s narrative, and 95% acknowledged that the other has an alternative narrative of the conflict.
- 88%
- Had more empathy toward the other afterwards, and 76% had greater trust in the other side.
- 97%
- Were interested in acting to end the conflict, and 96% were willing to work with the other side on common issues.
- 88%
- Shared what they had experienced with other circles.
In their own words
“I did not think this would happen — that I would put my hands in yours, that I would meet women with pure hearts. I promise to become more active and continue this way and bring other women to join us.”
“I hope that we will remember this lesson even when difficult things happen — that we are all human beings.”
This program was funded by
Next month, the 40th group begins.
Funding for the PNE was abruptly terminated by USAID after nearly ten years, when the U.S. government stopped supporting cross-border work. Please step in where it stepped out.
More ways to give
Every gift is tax-deductible and goes to the families running this work.
EIN 95-4869142
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