Outrage, Empathy, and Involvement - How to Talk About the Middle East Conflict
Panel
Saturday, 08 Mar 2025
The panel “Outrage, Empathy, and Engagement” focuses on the Middle East conflict and the tensions surrounding the discourse on Israel-Palestine. Central to the discussion is how to foster a dialogue that remains free from anti-Semitic, racist, or anti-Arab sentiments, while seriously acknowledging the suffering and perspectives of all parties involved. How can we talk about such an emotionally and historically charged topic without falling into polarization, and instead create a space for dialogue?
The panel features author and cultural critic Jens Balzer, who critically examines the reactions of the progressive left to the events of October 7th in his essay After Woke. Tom Khaled Würdemann, a Middle East scholar at the Graduate School “Ambivalent Hostility” at the University of Jewish Studies and Heidelberg University, who researches the Palestinian national movement and is active as an educator against racism, anti-Semitism, and extremism. Jouanna Hassoun, who fled Lebanon before the civil war and has Palestinian roots, advocates for Palestinian-Jewish dialogue and against anti-Semitism and Islamophobia as a co-founder of among other initiatives the association Transaidency. The panel will be moderated by ORF journalist Yilmaz Gülüm.