Americans for Peace Now’s storytelling program, the Dove, was born more than five years ago as an effort to feature stories of people who personally experienced or witnessed the Israeli Palestinian conflict – stories that can offer inspiration and hope for peace.
The first Dove storytelling event was recorded as a live episode of our podcast, PeaceCast. It featured working journalists and former journalists who talked about their experience covering the conflict. Recorded at Busboys and Poets in Washington, Episode #8 of PeaceCast was a success, which prompted us to continue pushing the program.
Shortly after the first Dove, we recorded another PeaceCast episode with our MC, Noa Baum, a professional storyteller and peace activist, about the power of storytelling and the special value of this art form in touching people’s hearts.
And that summer, in 2017, we partnered for the first time with New Story Leadership, a Washington-based organization that brings together young Palestinians and Israelis to Washington for networking, honing leadership skills, and building bridges of peace and mutual understanding. Seven of that year’s NSL delegates told their personal stories. We recorded the live event and it became Episode #19 of PeaceCast.
That summer was the beginning of a tradition. In partnership with NSL, we produced similar Dove events in 2018, 2019, virtually in 2020, and now again after a year’s COVID hiatus, in 2022.
During COVID, we produced several special episodes of “virtual Dove” for PeaceCast. One was a series of stories told by Israeli journalists who covered Palestinian affairs: Gideon Levy, Anat Saragusti, Oren Cohen, and Amira Hass.
We also produced a special Dove with former senior diplomats who served in Israel and the occupied territories. Part one featured former US Consul generals to Jerusalem, Jacob (Jake) Walles and Edward (Ed) Abington, and part two featured former Canadian ambassador to Israel Jon Allen and former US ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer.
If you have a compelling personal story that relates to the conflict and that you would like to pitch for the Dove, please contact us at apndc@peacenow.org and we will consider featuring it on PeaceCast.
To listen to this year’s Dove event recording, click here.