On Thursday, April 3, during X-block, the Coexistence Club hosted guest speakers, Neta Weiner and Akiva Leibowitz, for a discussion on how collaboration between communities could challenge deeply ingrained systems of discrimination and oppression. The featured speakers were Weiner, an artist and social activist based in Jaffa, Israel, and Leibowitz, a candidate for School Committee, physician at Beth Israel and activist.

With firsthand experience of the conflict and its consequences, Weiner presented his perspective on how collaboration is not only possible but necessary for creating meaningful change. To Weiner, acknowledging the conflict is crucial for progress.

“The conflict and the fights are raw material,” Weiner said. “It’s the only thing that keeps us going. We don’t pretend it’s not there. We live with it and work through it.”

Weiner challenged the commonly used notion of coexistence, instead advocating for a more active and united approach to addressing injustice.

“It’s not about coexistence. It’s about co-resistance,” Weiner said. “It wasn’t about saying what in reality we can accept, but what we would like to see, what home we would like to live in together one day.”

Sophomore Ori Levy, a student who attended the event, reflected on how the space for collaboration between Palestinians and Israelis could offer hope.

“It really shows that there can be spaces where people can live together and find things, like music and beauty, in things that are hard,” Levy said.

Junior Anna Arcila, an organizer for the event, echoed this sentiment and said it was important to create spaces for open dialogue.

“I think that if we didn’t have these conversations, there’s no growth within us,” Arcila said. “I feel like there are a lot of similarities between us that we don’t hear enough.”

Weiner reminded the audience that despite the conflicts, there is an underlying strength in acknowledging and working through differences.

“There’s this element of friction, of fighting and understanding that we’re not equal in the room. Our society works in such a way, and these languages are in a struggle, in war,” Weiner said. “We fight about everything. But we also laugh a lot and dance a lot.”