Belgian school hires ‘dialogue coach’ to help students talk about Mid East conflict
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Transcript
00:00 "Salaam in Hebrew is 'shalom' it means 'peace' you see that's where it all starts."
00:07 Peace is at the heart of the message Mohammed has come to deliver this morning at this secondary
00:11 school in Brussels.
00:14 Here eight out of ten students are Muslim.
00:17 And so its management team has hired this dialogue coach to come and talk about the
00:22 war between Israel and Hamas.
00:24 "On the 7th of October Hamas attacked Israel.
00:30 Israel responded.
00:31 That is not how a wise person should respond.
00:34 And that goes for both sides."
00:37 By acting out small plays, Mohammed encourages students to empathise.
00:43 Here there's a group of Palestinians.
00:44 The others are Israeli.
00:45 "Hello, what are you doing?
00:46 I'm thirsty.
00:47 I haven't had a drink in three days."
00:48 "Sorry, I'm sorry.
00:49 I'm afraid and so on.
00:50 I have a headache.
00:51 I'm afraid."
00:52 "You shouldn't always believe social media because there's information that isn't true."
01:07 "Some will pick the Palestinian side, others stand with Israel.
01:12 I think that's not the right solution to do that."
01:16 In my opinion, after so many years, no one deserves this.
01:20 Neither the Israelis or Palestinians asked for this war and both are suffering.
01:26 The dialogue is eased by this 26-year-old Palestinian.
01:30 "Mohammed, the fact that he is a Muslim, this makes it very strong.
01:40 The cultural factor is very deep in us and determines a lot, in this instance, in a good
01:46 way."
01:47 Since the Islamist attacks in Brussels, this school is trying to avoid the radicalization
01:56 of its students.
01:57 "We see students here who are still very young and we are looking to work in a preventative
02:04 way.
02:05 We are trying to avoid anything that could bring us back to 2016 when the attacks in
02:08 Belgium took place."
02:09 The importance of dialogue isn't just taught inside the classroom.
02:15 In the school's entrance hall, both the Israeli and Palestinian flags are displayed side by
02:21 side.
02:21 (crowd chattering)