Tag Archives: conflict resolution

Palestinian Peace Activator – Eva Dalak

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Eva Dalak. You can view the video of our conversation here: https://youtu.be/jmHc-b3oC18?si=jddkFtv0uATJwYUn or just listen to the recording on my podcast here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1827447/15086746.

Eva was born in Israel in a Muslim family and as a child, learned to think of herself as an Arab-Israeli. She moved to France to study and received a double Masters degree in International Relations and International Administration from the Sorbonne. Her skills, and the fact that she speaks five languages fluently, led her to Brussels to work with an NGO and also as a consultant to the European Union. Living there for 10 years, she took on Belgian nationality. Her work included extensive conflict resolution projects in Africa and later New York.

Eventually, she came to the U.S. and began looking more deeply into the psychological and spiritual roots of conflict and realized she needed to do the work within herself before she could help others. She now likes to use the term “peace activator” to describe what she does, rather than peace activist, noting that it is the peace within that needs to be activated and brought out into the world.

Her self exploration and truth seeking led her to embrace her identity as a Palestinian. Especially now, she devotes herself to working with both Jewish Israelis and Palestinians. In her work with them as individuals and in groups, people find the common humanity they share with the people they had come to see as “others.” She sees this as getting to the roots of the conflict and a necessary part of finding solutions that will bring about justice and peace.


I found the work she does through PeaceActivation of great interest. As well, her life journey, crossing boundaries of different national or ethnic identities, seems to give her a clear vision of the role identity plays in all of us. I have found that when we recognize and accept our personal and collective identifications, we can more genuinely transcend the separative aspects of those identities and experience ourselves as fundamentally spiritual beings living in a human family. Eva Dalak seems to me to be someone who has done the work and is helping others find the way.

Eva and her partner live in Costa Rica and have a healing retreat center where they have “PeaceActivation” workshops and trainings.

Please see the links below to find out more about her work and ways to take part:

 Eva’s article on Medium – “Are You Ready..”  

Peace Activation – To register for the weekly calls https://peaceactivation.org/weekly-zo……

For individual coaching with Eva – http://www.evadalak.me 

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Crossing Boundaries for Peacebuilding – Paula Green

“It is time to let go of the notion
that we are independent individuals and disconnected nations.”
— Paula Green

“Our survival depends
on a significant portion of the human race
accomplishing a change in worldview,
from one of patriotic and tribal loyalties
to loyalty to life itself.” 
—Paula Green

My interest in crossing boundaries goes back many years, focusing on individuals who adopted whole new belief systems and practices from the ones in which they were raised, to groups reaching across the chasms that divide them from other groups and finding common ground and appreciation.

In my last message I brought some focus to the work of Paula Green and the project Hands Across the Hills that brings together liberals from Western Mass. with Trump supporters from coal country Kentucky. Since then I’ve had the privilege of interviewing Paula and we had a wonderful conversation which is available on my YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBTcFhpF_7838Ckgn-8rf508QrjEqc9GA. Please listen in when you have some time. Paula is truly an amazing “peacebuilder” as she calls her work. She founded the Karuna Centerwhich developed projects all over the world helping build bridges between people in areas wracked by violence and war. That work took her to Burma, Bosnia, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Nepal and Israel/Palestine.

She also established the CONTACT program, Conflict Transformation Across Cultures, which brings people from conflict areas around the world together for training in peacebuilding and meeting and learning from each other. 

About Hands Across the Hills, Paula has said, “I believe, the project offers hope in a time of national despair.” We all can benefit from more hope

There is much to learn from Paula’s work and how it relates to our own consciousness. As she says, “Our challenge is to understand …and take responsibility for our role in the dance. The harm of mutually destructive simplifications reminds us to monitor our own steady stream of judging and dividing, a far more productive investment than trying to change others.”  We would all do well and benefit from learning to monitor our own stream of judging and dividing.