Diversified we Grow



Peter Mousaferiadis gave a brilliant keynote ‘Diversified We Grow: Unlocking Diversity in the Age of AI’ delivered at Big Data & AI World, London, March 2024


The human poulation explosion!!

Population 1m -  1b - 2b - 3b - 4b - 5b - 8b

Years         100k- 10k 123 - 33- 14 - 13 -  35


From  1927 to  2022 we have gone from 2billion to 8 billion people 


In less than 100 years we’ve quadrupled.


Are we at the top of a bell curve? 


Where to now?

Growth through Culture - what is culture ?

The human has grown through being part of tribes and a common culture !


Culture is a mighty force, a fire that can warm and protect but can also burn and destroy. 


UNESCO identifies culture as:

  1. a driver of sustainable development;
  2. an eradicator of poverty;
  3. key to quality education, and;
  4. key to building socially cohesive and peaceful communities.

Culture is also a significant enabler of innovation. 


After all, innovation thrives on the diversification of ideas. What better way to foster innovation than by bringing together the diverse perspectives of different cultures?

So, what is culture?

Well, the term is extremely slippery, and its definition depends on what context and what type of culture we are referring to.

Simply put, culture is the ways in which a particular group of people live. Culture includes shared knowledge, values, customs, physical objects and social norms.

It provides the frames, the contexts, the lenses, through which we all see the world.


Different Cultures create conflicts and conflict costs 




What is at stake? According to the Global Peace Index in 2022 alone we spent US$17.5 trillion dealing with conflict. According to UNESCO, about 75% of the world’s conflicts have an ethno-linguistic and religious cultural dimension. 


The big cost is lives, livelihoods and human happiness.

Inclusiveness


How do we make sure everyone who wants to be included is, and no one is left behind? How do we give visibility to everyone?


Globalisation has made it a more-than-human challenge to understand ‘the other’. Do we  need the aid of technology to do this ?


Connectivity Internet Social Media and AI 

Today, with the near ubiquity of the internet we are finding ourselves in a super-diverse world where time and space have been compressed. 


More than 65% of the world’s population has internet access and Meta (formerly known as Facebook) launched in 2004 (as The Facebook) now has more than 3 billion active users – nearly 56% of all internet users.


ChatGPT attracted a million users in just 5 days after going public on 30 November 2022. It now has more than 180 million users.


And Yet Peace has been on a steady decline since.



Migration and conflict 

Humanity can be defined by an ongoing flux of migration and conflict. Peter’s  grandparents were banished 101 years ago from the Ottoman Empire, from the area today known as Türkiye, and his parents migrated to Australia in the ’50s for a better life. 


Who among us cannot be defined by a journey?

Ai and diversity 


AI is a logical extension of human adaptability and sharing and quest for speed and knowledge. 


Can it solve the challenges of globalisation: the intercultural misunderstandings and exclusions that are costing us so much in terms of human happiness and dollars? 


Or will it, unchecked, exacerbate current conflicts and inequities?

The ability to understand and relate to the other is now more important than ever.


Human identity is complex because humans are multifaceted. As with a Rubik’s cube, it is not a successful outcome if I ‘solve’ one aspect of identity and leave the rest in disorder. 


Our challenges require a holistic approach. 


We need to factor in all attributes, not only gender, disability or racialised attributes but simultaneously all relevant identity markers if we’re to avoid the pushback and myriad unintended consequences of doing this work selectively. Gender, for example, is important but it is no more important than other human attributes when considering who gets left out or treated as lesser.


Data on its own is meaningless. It needs to be sorted into categories (datasets) to enable us to identify meaningful information.


We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know


How do you measure diversity - Diversity Atlas


What we can measure we can manage 



Looking Under the Covers at Meta - they don’t have a handle on measuring culture 


I looked under the covers at Meta.

This is a paper they published titled ‘A diverse, large benchmark for measuring fairness and robustness in audio/vision/speech models’.

In this paper they write, ‘The seven race groups used are White, Black, Indian, East Indian, Southeast Asian, Middle East, and Latino, and the dataset is reasonably balanced across these groups. However, race is seen as a social construct and its use in categorization exercises may be problematic.’

Say no more!

We need nuanced data that goes beyond appearance and nation states and broad geographic boundaries to define one’s culture and consider other areas of identity.

What would someone from a Kurdish background in Türkiye have in common with a Cantonese person from Southern China? A lot, but there is great dissimilarity, too. How can AI account for these nuances?

If we’re categorised into broad groups, AI will persist in making decisions under the assumption that we all begin from the same social and cultural standpoint.


How do we ensure that AI assists us on a healthy path towards greater understanding, compassion and joy and not more conflict, polarisation and misery?


Confluence is the lifeblood of culture and AI is a powerful expression of confluence.

If the development of AI is in the tight grip of a powerful few who can attract the necessary funding, IT IS LIKELY we will see stagnation in parts of the AI field. This could manifest as increased conflict and polarisation, accompanied by a collective sense of hopelessness, inertia, and a feeling of history repeating itself.

The alternative is learning from our past.


Diversity in the Age of AI: The future lies in the past


Diversify to grow 


Cultural diversity is as important to sustaining humanity as biodiversity is for sustaining the environment. Great depths of human knowledge are encoded in each specific culture. We need to cherish these diverse expressions of humanity.

If AI is our collective future then we need more AI platforms, made by more people, reflecting the diversity of our world.


How Do We Mindfully Benefit from AI?


AI is rapidly creating breakthroughs, as in the medical field with AlphaFold, developed by Google’s DeepMind, which almost every pharmaceutical industry is now using.

In terms of DEI, AI has improved accessibility for people with disabilities through speech recognition, text-to-speech and visual recognition. AI is also helpful for bridging communication gaps between different language speakers. 


ChatGPT 4, for instance, can communicate in more than 50 languages. Thanks to AI, barriers are tumbling down that may have once prevented employers from using someone’s skills.

I often use the new chatbots to help me communicate my ideas. They are like new members of staff. 


Each of the language models, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Pi, for instance, have different strengths, weaknesses and capacities, because they’ve each been shaped by different data inputs – just like real people but a lot better read, faster and may I add ever so slightly prone to hallucinating. AI chatbots can assist but can’t replace real humans because AI cannot reproduce the emotional depth, personal experiences and unique perspectives that humans bring to their work.

No company today can afford to think AI will compensate for a representatively diverse workforce or that AI is somehow free of bias and erasures. All the big AI developers in the Anglosphere have been criticised for bias, sometimes from within their own organisations. Even though the most recent iteration of ChatGPT has the capacity to communicate in 50 languages, it still excludes thousands of other languages representing value-based systems from across the globe. This is not a holistic system.

Female-founded AI startups currently receive only 2% of funding deals in the UK and US. Ada Lovelace was arguably the first ever computer programmer. Is this field less equitable for women than it was nearly 200 years ago? Who else is missing out on funding deals? Their absence as developers deprives the AI field of much-needed diversity and creates a lot of questions in my mind.

There’s never been a more important time to advocate for genuine representation in the technology industry. An equitable allocation of funding would lead to a more vibrant, less biased and more human future for AI.

If we have diversity in tech, we have healthy tech.

My final word is a call to work together, tread carefully and recognise the importance of every voice moving forward with AI.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

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Peter Mousaferiadis

Peter Mousaferiadis has had an extensive career working in the cultural & creative industries. He has had a career as a conductor, creative director and producer and is considered a thought leader in culture as a driver of progress, social cohesion, and innovation. In 2002, he founded the internationally recognised organisation Cultural Infusion, which builds global harmony through intercultural action within education, ICT & the arts. Peter is a winner of numerous international awards and in 2021 was a winner of the Global Business and Interfaith Peace Award. His flagship product Diversity Atlas, a data-driven tool for measuring and understanding diversity in organizations is now being used by organisations throughout the world.


Tracking diversity equity and inclusion


Diversity Atlas and the Global Database of Humanity

Diversity Atlas is underpinned by the Global Database of Humanity, which comprises more than 42,000 human attributes, including every known language and dialect, secular and non-secular tradition, ethnic group and country of birth, gender, age, sexual orientation, sex at birth, position level, position type and many other dimensions, which can shed light on the correlation between experience and identity like never before.

Importantly, Diversity Atlas avoids lazy, outdated racial categories to allow people to gain a clear view of where inequities are playing out in any given context – which may or may not be along ethnic, religious and/or appearance lines. In other words, we don’t group people into broad, unnuanced categories like ‘African’, ‘Asian’, ‘White’ or ‘Black’.

Crude and broad categories of one kind or another were once necessary for people in leadership roles because they had to rely on humans to count groups of people and sort them into categories with assigned meanings. Now that we have machines to do this work there is no excuse for them not to take a nuanced approach.

The granular insights from Diversity Atlas help organisations identify stakeholders, shape Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) strategies and inform business goals by effectively leveraging the skills and knowledge of their people. It sheds light on organisational identity by answering the question who are we? Our work relies on AI working in combination with data scientists and cultural experts to process the vast amounts of intersectional data our analytics tool generates.

AI can assist with identifying patterns, however it cannot replace the humans whose job it is to understand the information a particular organisation needs. This work requires the experience of living as a human in the real world and the sort of intuition, compassion, creativity and critical thinking that comes from that. Even Pi.AI told me that.

The Clean Technology Innovation Commercial Readiness Stream


 A NSW programme Providing  grants between $250,000 and $5 million 


These grants support projects that advance low emissions technologies towards commercial viability, driving innovation in clean technology for a sustainable future.


Background and Objectives 

The Clean Technology Innovation Commercial Readiness Stream is part of the NSW government’s Net Zero Plan, with a goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050 and building the state’s reputation as a clean technology powerhouse.


They plan to do this by 

  • fostering an innovation ecosystem encouraging clean technology innovations.
  • reducing industrial emissions and  carbon footprint 
  • positioning NSW as a leader in clean technology development and adoption encouraging cleantech companies to come to NSW 


Eligible Entities

  • Entities incorporated under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)
  • Research organisations applying through commercialisation departments
  • Commonwealth, state, or territory-owned corporations
  • Local government councils
  • International NGOs aiming to establish an Australian entity for clean technology commercialisation


Eligible Expenditure

The eligible expenditure for the Clean Technology Innovation are:

  • Technology development and prototyping
  • Construction of testing infrastructure
  • Product verification and compliance testing
  • Demonstration and deployment of technologies in real-world settings

 

To be eligible for the  Clean Technology Innovation

You need to 

  1. Demonstrate that your project aligns with the grant’s objectives and the Net Zero Plan.
  2. Provide a comprehensive overview of your technology and its potential impact on reducing emissions.
  3. Detail previous funding and investments to illustrate your project’s financial viability.
  4. Highlight your team’s expertise and commitment to clean technology innovation.
  5. Showcase existing traction and a clear plan for commercialisation and market entry.
  6. Outline how the grant will support your project’s development and address specific challenges.
  7. Submit a detailed application by the deadline, ensuring all eligibility criteria are met.

Timing

The closing date for the Clean Technology Innovation is on 5 April 2024.


More Information


https://www.energy.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/2024-02/NSW-202402-CTI-commercial-readiness-funding-guidelines.pdf

The power of Acknowledgement, Recognition and Gratitude



My friend, Cecilia Henderson , posted this piece in 2022 , and I have host come across it …

Here are some insites 

💥We live in a great nation with great achievements and advances 


💥Have we  committed historic crimes? 

Yes


💥Have we sorted out racial justice? 

No, of course not. 


💥Are we struggling with severe problems in this age of crisis? 

Absolutely


💥👍🏼💥👍🏼However, we need to acknowledge the progress, the great strides forward, the sacrifices made by so many - often at severe personal cost


💥By not acknowledging the good - we commit the most grievous crime not merely against the  pioneers of our western civilisation but against ourselves. 


💥Are we living through a period of great historical amnesia, blind to the preciousness of our cultural inheritance?


💥The 18th-century historian Edward Gibbon warned: without faith, civilisations die.

@MatthewSyed


⁉️Is faith  in western civilisation wilting? 


🎶The great Joni Mitchell sang: "You don't know what vou've got till it's gone."


👨🏼‍🏫One of the things we can do - a great gem from the legendary Chazan  Brett Kaye -

 

“Before criticising someone or something - acknowledge something great or good about it or them!!!”

Here’s to 2024




As I travel to my first day of work  on 2 January 2024,and reading new years message from my friend Guido Von Nispen and Herman Gyr from our I4J community,  I find  myself engulfed in an emotion of gratitude to be alive at this pivotal time in human history , surrounded by a cocoon of support of friends and family , in my adopted  country (Australia) that prides itself on being friendly, culturally diverse and relatively harmonious!  


(I know that’s really a long sentence!!) 


2023 was a year of significant change and challenges - and where there are challenges and problems  - for those savvy enough to overcome those challenges and solve those problems - come opportunities! 


My resolution for 2024 

  • Stay positive and surround myself with positive people who I know like and trust. 
  • Help people become the best version of themselves and in turn become the best version of myself through connection , collaboration and contribution - and help build on the amazing community that we have .
  • Radiate positive vibes!! 
  • Strive to energise rather than exhaust ( such a fine line to navigate!!) (I tend to exhaust…
  • Build rather than Battle 
  • Continue to Build on the solid foundation that has been laid 
  • Be grateful for the ability to choose - and with this important gift - choose wisely !! 
  • And of course lose 5kg!! 


Here's to a positive and  joyous 2024 filled with life, laughter and love ! 

Big year for Songtradr looking to become a unicorn in 2024!



2023 was a big year for SONGTRADR the music licensing platform founded by the musical genius   PAUL WILTSHIRE (in Picture )


Songtradr raised $109 million in 2023  at a valuation of $879 million.

Investors included  

  • Epic Games — the same company that sold the D2C music sales platform Bandcamp to Songtradr last month 
  • WiseTech’s Richard White
  • Perennial and 
  • Argo.


Investors in Songtradr include the 

  • St Baker family office, 
  • Regal Funds Management, and 
  • Aware Super.



What it does 


Songtradr is like a B2B version of Spotify, says Paul - with songwriters and producers earning fees whenever a Songtradr client licenses their music. 


Songtradr aims to be an all-in-one music licensing platform for corporates, small businesses, and content creators. Its subscribers can select songs from the Songtradr marketplace or browse from playlists, including ones inspired by popular films and TV shows.


Wiltshire has previously described the platform as a B2B version of Spotify

From the Desk of Ivan Kaye Dec 2023


It’s been a year of consolidation - and ready to build and grow from a solid foundation!


Looking forward to our journey towards 2030!!


Here’s a snapshot 


“We help entrepreneurs and business’s grow by connecting them to people and money”


I still like the mantra of 


“We help you create your generational legacy” - this is what drives me :)


BSI Learning 





We have gone through an intensive planning and consolidation process , and the team is looking forward to rapid Growth on all fronts - as well as providing a good return to its shareholder !


We welcome Craig Saphin and Tony Surtees to  our board  - with a view to capitalise the business and go for serious growth! 


The BSI Learning Institute - lead by Kala and supported by Dylan and the Scott’s’ and Kat looking after CSnSW so well!! They have maintained their core clients and have some solid plans with the our transnational business 


BSI Digital  learning led by Simon and supported by Jess , Sam, Naomi and the team - continues to provide a solid base keeping up to date with innovation in the e learning space and adding massive value to their clients 


BSI People - continues to add value to its clients with Rob and Walter - and chaired by our very own Mick! 



BSI Finance and Ark Group 






I am super excited about the plans for BSI Finance and Ark who have just moved to amazing offices at Level 1 343 George Street .

  • Ark Total Wealth providing solid financial planning to its clients with Chris, Brandon , Blair and Sara !
  • Ark Accounting - lots has happened with our fearless leader - Ahad and his boss (Sharmean) creating beautiful baby Zoya . We congratulate Ryan - being made partner - and  Kelly, Ishmam, Umma, Saaid and Henry with the support of our offshore team. And of course our mentors Lewis and Brent - for providing the back office, support and accounting infrastructure to our clients! 
  • And BSI Finance - our mortgage and lending business - being managed by …. Yours truly. Am having much fun 🤩 being client focussed and helping to grow the business !! if anybody needs a mortgage , loan or money - call me :) 




Our Investments 


We still have investments in Martian Logic and Retriever - which seems to be going from strength to strength , and Referron and BBG which is being used as part of our group marketing strategy! 


I still believe that Referron is the sleeping Unicorn :) 


To our Shareholders and Stakeholders 


As always - Mick and I thank you for  your unwavering support , and look forward to great returns on all fronts - both monetary and non - monetary.





             Here’s to 2024 

Leapfrog Investments $500m pledge at Windsor Castle


In July, Andy Kuper  made a $500m pledge at Windsor Castle on behalf of LeapFrog Investments to back companies that provide green tools and technologies for emerging consumers. 
 
Today, to kick off #COP28, he  shared the news of a $100m investment from Temasek and significant support anticipated from European Investment Bank (EIB) for their Climate Strategy. 
 
This is swift and early support. It reveals to other signal long-term investors how to tackle climate change – and be rewarded for it.
 
They will focus on investments in four sectors: energy, transport, built environment as well as food and agriculture. 

Says Andy
“We will build on our distinctive expertise in scaling consumer companies in growth markets. We will ensure tens of millions of people get the cleaner and cheaper products they need, opening up green paths to prosperity.”
 
More here: https://lnkd.in/gQjPngwp
 
#COP28UAE #climatechange #impactinvesting EIB Global | BEI Monde Benoit Valentin Markus Berndt 

Do you support peace ? Answer and share



Every life is precious 

Every Jew has a write to exist in the state of Israel 
Every Palestinian has the right to live in the state of Palestine 

Each State needs to respect their neighbours and recognise each others right to exist .

Hope fully in my lifetime!!

Being at one with nature


The lost world of the Kalahari

“In The Lost World of the Kalahari, Laurens van der Post writes about living among the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert and describes how shocked they were that he couldn’t hear the stars. 

At first they thought he must be joking or lying. When they realized he really couldn’t hear the stars, they concluded he must be very ill and expressed great sorrow. For the Bushmen knew anyone who can’t hear nature must have the gravest sickness of all.

For nearly all of the time humans have been on the planet, regular conversations across the species border were an everyday natural part of life.

Sadly, this seems like a strange invitation in our world today; most people have difficulty initiating such a conversation. Perhaps this is because we’ve been taught from a very young age to perceive nature as separate, a life-less object, a commodity. This mistaken perception seems to be at the foundation of our cultural ills.

Humanity’s ability to perceive the sentience of Earth is critical to our survival and to all life on earth.

Longing to be in conversation with nature can catalyze us. And perhaps the natural world longs for this relationship with us too...”
~ Rebecca Wildbear, the Animas Valley Institute

(Thx to Mike kawitzky via Paul Mirbach :) )

The Israeli Palestinian Conflict - easy to describe - but terms so hard to solve :(





This  popped in my feed from 11/11/2011. a great explanation of the  Israel/Palestinian conflict. It is easy to describe the problem  - but so hard to solve!
One side does not accept the right for the other to exist! 
And yet in the history of the world , 
this land has always been a place where Jews have lived

From the river to the sea, Palestine and Israel will be free




“From the river to the sea, Palestine and Israel will be free - we all deserve peace, respect, freedom safety and opportunity for our children .”  


This is one of the  darkest hours we have experienced in our lifetimes.


Israelis and Palestinians and indeed our species who believe in a shared equal society are grieving, are being violently attacked by the warmongers on both sides, and we are rejected by our international allies for not turning our backs against each other. 


The narrative of using  “YES, AND” instead of  “YES, NO”   Or “YES, BUT” is desperately needed !!


YES, their  past is ridden with injustice, with villains and with victims,
AND YES, their present is bleeding,
AND YES, their future will depend on whether they bend the arc of the universe towards justice, or away from it.


  • YES, the Hamas attack against civilians in Israel is an indefensible crime against humanity,  AND nothing can justify the indiscriminate bombing of civilians in Gaza.
  • YES, the occupation cannot be ignored as the context for this violence,AND Israel has the right and the duty to defend its citizens.
  • YES, IDF bombing cause un-proportional damage leaving Palestinian defenseless against it, AND Hamas continuously shells Israeli cities and holds hundreds of civilians hostage which is unacceptable and must be stopped!
  • YES, Hamas cannot be trusted for cease fire negotiations, AND a cease fire may be the only way to stop the indiscriminate killings and release the hostages.
  • YES, Palestinians will be forever traumatized by this war, AND Israelis will be forever traumatized by this war
  • YES, trust between Israelis and Palestinians is at an all time low,AND diplomacy and trust are required to achieve conflict resolution, security and justice.


YES, from the river to the sea, Palestine and Israel  will be free. where they  can they share a homeland based on common desire  of peace, respect, freedom and safety and opportunity for their children ” 


Let them be a light to the nations 

Your Empathy is Killing Us


Michael and Amalia with their father (left) and Habiba (right)


They shot dad, they shot mom and they shot Avigail” said Michael (9) to his uncle on the phone. On October 7th, when Hamas terrorists invaded their home in Kfar Aza, Michael and his 6 year old sister Amalia were hiding in the closet. Their dad carried their 3 year old sister, Avigail, and run out of the house, when the terrorists murdered him. For 14 hours Michael and Amalia were closed in the safe room together with the body of their dead mother. Little Avigail managed to release herself from her father’s dead hands and was found by neighbors, only to be kidnapped along with them into Gaza.

Habiba (8) had big hopes for the future. She grew up learning about the international convention of children rights, including the right to education and the right to health. When the airstrikes on Gaza started, Habiba couldn’t stop trembling in fear. On the morning of October 14th she finally appeared more composed. At the sound of explosions she consoled her mother, saying, “Don’t be afraid”. She picked her colors and began drawing the TV as it was reporting the news about the war. An hour later an Israeli missile struck the family home, injuring everyone inside and ending Habiba’s short life.

It shouldn’t be hard to empathize with the pain of the Israeli victims, or the pain of the Palestinian ones. 

But paradoxically, it seems almost impossible to empathize with both sides at the same time. Why is that?

This question, apparently is not exclusive to this conflict. In a study focusing on stories of starving children, participants showed a distinct drop in empathy when asked to assist two identified victims as opposed to just one. 

Psychologist Paul Bloom argues that empathy is indeed a treacherous path, likening it to a spotlight that illuminates one individual, leaving others in the dark.

 According to Bloom, we are more likely to direct the spotlight of empathy toward those we perceive as more similar to us. This tendency plays a significant role in both parent-child bonding and the ugliest forms of racism. The light we shine on those we identify with and consider more deserving of our care casts a shadow on the suffering of others.

Moreover, cognitive empathy is a form of intelligence that even psychopathic murderers possess. The Hamas terrorist who streamed the killing of an elderly woman on Facebook Live did it exactly because he cognitively empathized with the pain it would cause her family, who indeed found out about her death by witnessing her recorded execution.

In his book “Against Empathy” Bloom goes further to argue that empathy should not serve as a moral compass. Instead he advocates for compassion which goes beyond feeling another’s pain; and involves a deep sense of concern and a genuine desire to alleviate suffering.

Lost Souls


Ten days after the Hamas attack, philosopher Slavoj Zizek delivered a powerful address at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Zizek not only condemned Hamas unequivocally but went further to justify Israel’s right to retaliate. 

Despite some protests from the audience, he dedicated most of his address to exploring the background of the occupation and the Israeli government’s ongoing systematic oppression of the Palestinian people. 

Without siding with either Hamas or the Israeli government, Zizek managed to present a crucial analysis of the current situation and its history. He went on to argue:

“The moment you accept that this is not possible, to fight for both sides at the same time, you lost your soul.”
Slavoj Zizek’s statement on Israel, Hamas & Palestine at the Frankfurt Book fair, 17/10/2023 (quote in 00:15:00)

While I sympathize with the message, I’m afraid that most Israelis and Palestinians will find it very difficult to simultaneously advocate for both sides right now. Tortured souls are not necessarily lost, but they are overflowing with stress, fear and grief.


Can anyone really expect us, Israelis or Palestinians, to shine a wide ray of empathy while we’re still in the dark, under attack, burying our dead, unable to know if our loved ones are dead or alive, and fearing our own children will be next?

With so much pain, how should the international community respond?

  • Does “standing with Israel” and removing Hamas from power justify the destruction of Gaza and the thousands of casualties in this unprecedented humanitarian crisis? 
  • Is that truly a means to ensure a secure future for Israelis? 
And 
  • does “solidarity with Palestine” necessitate turning a blind eye, downplaying, or sometimes even justifying Hamas’s crimes against humanity? 
  • How does endorsing bloodthirsty nihilists contribute to the broader Palestinian cause?

3 common responses


It might have been magnitude of the attack, the brutality, and the graphic documentation of violence, or perhaps the sheer intensity of human tragedy, but there is no denying that the world did not turn a blind eye to this war. 

  • Leaders condemned, 
  • protests filled the streets, 
  • funding and military support was provided, 
  • and social-media flame wars erupted.

The responses have mostly been either of three types:

1. YES / NO


To judge by social media, the world is divided to good and evil. 

No nuances, no context, no gray areas.Thus, to truly eradicate evil one must make a clear cut and choose a side: you’re either with the victim or you’re with the perpetrator.

Sadly, this blanket refusal to acknowledge complexity is intensified by the algorithmically induced cycles of engagement / enragement.

 The more extreme your position, the more tweetable or instagramable it becomes, and the more likely it is to be shared and go viral. 

And conversely, the more nuanced and devoid of catchy slogans your stated position is, the more it gets suppressed by the algorithm.

  • Does likening Hamas to ISIS imply it should be eliminated “by any means necessary”?
  • Does drawing parallels between the Jewish victims of Hamas and those of the Nazis in the Holocaust justify the “Dresdening” of Gaza
  • Moreover, how can we anticipate genuine concern for Israeli lives without demonstrating sincere concern for Palestinian lives?
And what compelled the respected artists who signed the open letter advocating for a ceasefire in Gaza to overlook Hamas’s rampage of slaughter and rape? 

Did they believe that acknowledging these horrific crimes could somehow justify the destruction of Gaza? 

How would a plea for the release, or at least an acknowledgment of, the hundreds of Israeli civilians held hostage in Gaza, including many children, detract from their commitment to the Palestinian cause?

2. YES, BUT…


Yes, the world is indeed complex and cruel, there are innocent victims on the other side, BUT…
  • but they voted for these leaders and continuously support them
  • …but they educate their children to hate and kill
  • …but they constantly lie to the international community
  • …but they get enough support from the super-powers backing them
  • …but they systematically missed every opportunities to sign a peace agreement
  • …but they actively sabotage any peaceful solution to the conflict
  • …but they call for annexation and genocide, and are actively pursuing it

This line of reasoning is compelling and can be used, to a certain degree, against any sides in this conflict. 

It paints a grim picture of the world that destines us, as my father often says, to forever live by the sword. 

Both sides are corrupted by the conflict, and both sides suffer; 

however, any acknowledgment of the other side’s pain is accompanied by a significant “BUT…”. 

Though it doesn’t fully see the world as one-sided, it unmistakably demands one-sided actions.

If “YES / NO” is a clear binary division, “YES, BUT” presents a range of arguments that ultimately leans towards justifying one side. 

In many cases, it still results in the same one-sided call to action and seldom provides a sincere account that considers compassionate concern for the other side.

3. OH DEAR…


Choosing a side to empathize with and to fight for provides an engaging reaffirmation of one’s own morality. Fighting the good fight and protecting the good victims from the evil perpetrators is indeed a noble thing to do. But what if the lines between good and evil are not so easily drawn? The biggest danger in acknowledging complexity is resignation. And indeed we know too well, that as the war goes on, the media attention fades away, and the public, no longer motivated to fight the good fight, (especially when it isn’t purely good) moves on to find other things to care for.

Documentary film maker Adam Curtis described this phenomenon as “Oh Dearism”, in a short opinion video clip he claims that:

“Political conflicts around the world, from Darfur to Gaza, are now portrayed to us as simple illustrations of the mindless cruelty of the human race, about which nothing can be done, and to which the only response is: 

Oh dear.”
Oh Dearism / Adam Curtis (2009): “it’s like living in the mind of a depressed hippy”


A few weeks in, we’re already beginning to see this happen. The newspapers front pages move on to cover other things, and the self-righteous slogans and tweets feel repetitive and futile. 

If this horrible war will end with another “OH DEAR”, we will be bound to repeat it again and again. We will forever “live by the sword” until we’re left to fight with sticks and stones.

Bonus Round: YES, AND…


Complexity is indeed hard and acknowledging it is generally unrewarding, but I want to suggest it is not impossible, and that it is indeed essential.

A fourth potential response to the war is to replace any “YES, BUT” with a “YES, AND…” Although they may sound similar, they do not negate or justify each other, nor do they compete on an imaginary unified scale of righteousness. Instead, they coexist as truthful statements, serving as adjacent factors to be addressed both separately and simultaneously.

  • YES, the Hamas attack against civilians in Israel is an indefensible crime against humanity,  AND nothing can justify the indiscriminate bombing of civilians in Gaza.
  • YES, the occupation cannot be ignored as the context for this violence,AND Israel has the right and the duty to defend its citizens.
  • YES, IDF bombing cause un-proportional damage leaving Palestinian defenseless against it, AND Hamas continuously shells Israeli cities and holds hundreds of civilians hostage.
  • YES, Hamas cannot be trusted for cease fire negotiations, AND a cease fire may be the only way to stop the indiscriminate killings and release the hostages.
  • YES, Palestinians will be forever traumatized by this war, AND Israelis will be forever traumatized by this war
  • YES, trust between Israelis and Palestinians is at an all time low,AND diplomacy and trust are required to achieve conflict resolution, security and justice.

Many of us may not find the emotional energy to contain a “YES, AND” approach, especially not now. But we must uplift those who can. We need “YES, AND” leaders, and indeed we should demand “YES, AND” policies. If anything, we should at least think twice before demanding everyone aligns neatly to our one-sided lowest common denominator.

Pro-Palestinian protestors have been chanting: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Since the 1960s, this phrase has been associated with calls to dismantle the Jewish state. Specifically, Hamas employs the phrase in advocating for ethnic cleansing and the genocide of Jews in favor of an exclusive fundamentalist Muslim state extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

  • YES, Israel’s founding addressed a prolonged historical injustice, AND Israel’s founding caused another grave historical injustice.
For ten months before the war, we Israelis have been protesting against our government’s attempt to change the rules of the democratic game and overhaul the judicial system. 

Many of us in the Anti-Occupation Block insisted on highlighting the connection between the anti-democratic turn within Israel and the ongoing anti-democratic occupation of the West Bank and the blockade on Gaza. 

We see Palestinian freedom not as a danger but indeed as an essential condition to Israeli democracy. 

And hence, one of our most prominent chants was:

 “From the river to the sea, we all deserve democracy” (rough translation, it rhymes better in Hebrew).
This is our darkest hour, for me, my children, my loved ones. We, Israelis and Palestinians who believe in a shared equal society are grieving, we are violently attacked by the warmongers on both sides, and we are rejected by our international allies for not turning our backs against each other. 

We need your help, not through short-sighted one-sided empathy, but through sincere, stubborn and hopeful compassion. 

Progressive politics is rightfully demanding to think beyond binaries. And while this non-binary “YES, AND” may be harder and more tasking, it is urgently required:

YES, our past is ridden with injustice, with villains and with victims,

AND YES, our present is bleeding,

AND YES, our future will depend on whether we bend the arc of the universe towards justice, or away from it.

So let me suggest we start here:

YES, from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, AND so would Israel.


A Land for All — Two States, One Homeland 

This is our ”YES, AND” proposition for ending the conflict. A Palestinian/Israeli political movement calling for an end to the occupation by establishing a Palestinian/Israeli confederation that shares the homeland from the river, to the sea. (I am proud to be a member of the council of this movement)

Here’s the Least Bad Option for Gaza After the War Ends
Dahlia Scheindlin, A Land for All board member, in an eye-opening article:

“The moral force and the historic role of the international community — if the term is to have any meaning — depends on that community proving it can help build a better path for the future.”

She Polled Gazans on Oct. 6. Here’s What She Found.
On the eve of the Oct. 7 attacks, Amaney Jamal asked Gazans what they thought about Hamas, their economic circumstances and their hopes for long-term peace.

‘We Need Peace’: Israelis Who Survived or Lost Loved Ones in Hamas Attack Speak Out Against War
Many examples of “YES, AND” from those who payed the highest price and refuse to give up on the hope.

“YES, AND” improv
“YES, AND”
 is a known improvisation technique to build on top of each other’s storytelling. It could be a good exercise for thinking beyond the politics of division.

I want to thank Jacques Servin, Maya Van-Leemput, Steve Lambert, Julian Oliver and especially Uri Zer-Aviv for providing sensitive and crucial feedback on the drafts towards this post.

My daughter Yaara & me at the “A Land For All” booth with a sign: “From the River to the Sea, Equality for All”