Across the Divide: A Palestinian and an Israeli Father Choose Dialogue

Jaser AbuMousa was a Program Officer at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in Gaza, Palestine, until the outbreak of the current war in the Gaza Strip on 7 October 2023. During the war, he lost his wife, Heba, two children, Hmaid (18) and Abdulrahman (8), and later his mother and sister to Israeli airstrikes.

He left Gaza with his two surviving children, Abdallah and Sham, and resided in the United Arab Emirates for 13 months while seeking medical treatment. Born in Khan Younis in 1979, Jaser holds a BSc in Civil Engineering and an MSc in Project Management, specializing in risk management.

His professional experience spans infrastructure, humanitarian response, security coordination, political analysis, and international development.

In 2025 he, Abdullah and Sham arrived in the United States to start a peace fellowship at Yale University. Currently, Jaser is a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in DC and a senior policy adviser at the international peace institute in NYC. They are living in Walpole, Massachusetts. 

Before starting his appointment in July 2026 as a Visiting Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, Jonathan Dekel-Chen served as the Rabbi Edward Sandrow Chair in Soviet & East European Jewry at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research and publications have dealt with modern Jewish history, transnational philanthropy and advocacy, informal diplomacy, agrarian history and migration. Dekel-Chen has been a frequent commentator and interviewee on East European affairs and the Middle East for media outlets that include the BBC, AP, Reuters, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, Radio France, the Voice of America and many others. He has held visiting professorships at Columbia, UPenn and Rutgers.

Prof. Dekel-Chen is a member of Kibbutz Nir Oz, situated on the border with the Gaza Strip. On October 7, 2023 Hamas attacked his kibbutz, resulting in the massacre of dozens of its members, the kidnapping of many dozens more as well as the physical destruction and looting of Nir Oz. His 37 year-old son Sagui, a father of three young girls, was among the hostages taken from Nir Oz; he was released in February 2025. Dekel-Chen advocated in the US and Israel for release of the hostages. During those two years he made hundreds of media appearances and spoke at countless public events to inform the world about the plight of the hostages and to sustain pressure on the relevant governments.

Claire Shipman has had a wide-ranging career as an academic leader, journalist, author and public speaker. Most recently, she served as Acting President of Columbia University, guiding the institution through one of the most profound crises in the university’s history, bringing stability and renewed confidence at a pivotal moment for Columbia and higher education. Before stepping in as Acting President, Shipman was co-chair of the Columbia Board of Trustees. Previously, Shipman spent 30 years as an award-winning television journalist at CNN, NBC, and ABC’s Good Morning America, serving as Moscow correspondent, White House correspondent, and Senior National Correspondent and substitute anchor. She earned substantial recognition for her reporting, including several du-Pont awards, and Emmy and a Peabody. She’s the author of multiple New York Times bestselling books on women and leadership, including Womenomics, The Confidence Code, and The Power Code, with Katty Kay. She holds an MA in International Affairs from Columbia SIPA and a BA from Columbia College. She lives in New York with her wife, two dogs, and, when lucky, her grown children.