Yochi Fisher and Loaay Wattad–On Seeing the Trauma of the Other

On Being with Krista Tippett

On Being Studios

Society, Spirituality, Society & Culture, Sociology, Culture, Science, Religion & Spirituality, Krista Tippett, Social Sciences, On Being, Arts

4.7 • 10.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2025

⏱️ 97 minutes

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Summary

This episode emerged from a private gathering in The Hague in the fall of 2024 with a small group of people who live in Israel — both Jewish and Palestinian, Jews and Palestinians who continue to share life. We’re pleased to invite you now to overhear this particular conversation, with the permission of all involved. It centered around the matter of intergenerational trauma and healing — in a land in which the traumas of two peoples are terribly, inextricably intertwined. Yochi Fischer is a historian. Loaay Wattad is a lecturer, translator, and editor focused on children’s and adolescent literature in Arabic and also in Hebrew. It is a gift to experience the friendship between them, as well as the struggle. This, and the passionate interaction with others in the room that follows, holds complexity and nuance and persistent humanity that news from this part of the world rarely conveys. We were brought together by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I was equal parts honored and daunted by an invitation in the fall of 2024 to lead a series of conversations in the Hague with a small group of Israelis, both Jewish and Palestinian, Jews and Palestinians who continue to share life.
0:18.5	The conversation you're about to hear was centered around the matter of
0:22.4	intergenerational trauma and healing, in a land in which the traumas of two peoples are terribly,
0:30.1	inextricably intertwined. Yoki Fisher is a historian. Luai Wattad is a lecturer, translator, and editor
0:38.9	focused on children's and adolescent literature in Arabic and also in Hebrew.
0:45.3	It is a gift to experience the friendship between these two, as well as the struggle.
0:51.6	This and the passionate interaction in the room that follows holds
0:56.3	complexity and nuance and persistent humanity that news from this part of the world rarely
1:03.7	conveys. I'm Krista Tippett, and this is On Being.
1:20.8	We were convened by the Van Lear Jerusalem Institute.
1:24.8	My colleague in the social healing at On Being, Lucas Johnson, joined me in facilitating this conversation and the entire gathering,
1:29.7	and you'll hear his voice too.
1:35.2	So good morning. So for this conversation, there were four questions. I was given to Frame,
1:48.3	to think about this. And what I want to do again is that we are up here maybe for 40 minutes, something like that, and then open this conversation
1:55.1	to the room. And I think these questions are so huge and rich. and I'm going to repeat them again at the end
2:02.3	that we can kind of collectively, or you can collectively also ponder them.
2:07.3	How do we reckon with our collective traumas when they are so closely intertwined with the collective traumas of another community?
2:15.7	What do we do on our own? What do we do together?
2:19.3	How do we use this reckoning as the basis of healing?
2:24.3	I think I said at the beginning that I think of myself primarily as a student of the human condition,
2:31.3	a listener to the human condition, And for me, the geologic layers
2:35.6	of human pain and fear and trauma that underlie the realities and struggles we've been talking
	...

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