Dialogue #8: How Interfaith encounters build relationships: a story from the Holy Land

Description

Yehuda Stolov, Executive Director of the Interfaith Encounter Association (IEA), explains a grassroots model for building durable relationships among Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze and others in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Founded during the second intifada, IEA deliberately avoids taking organisational positions on contested political questions. Instead, it brings neighbouring communities together around meaningful religious and cultural subjects, allowing participants to discover similarities while also learning how to sustain friendship across real disagreement.

Stolov argues that a single positive encounter is not enough: lasting change requires recurring local groups whose members meet over months and years, become friends, and gradually carry different attitudes back into their families, workplaces and communities. He describes groups involving Israelis and Palestinians, including settlers and Palestinians in places such as Hebron, as well as work with schools, universities, women and young adults. The discussion addresses anti-normalization pressures, unequal internet access during COVID-19, funding constraints, Druze participation, work in Palestinian communities, and the practical methods IEA uses to make dialogue safe, substantive and repeatable.