Yoav Duman Challenges The Arab-Israeli Conflict

By: Valentin Dreher
Staff Writer

Yoav Duman spent the first 30 years of his life in Israel, where he was born and raised in the middle of the never-ending      Arab-Israeli conflict.

The dispute between Jewish Israel and its Muslim neighbors has been simmering since the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. Duman came to the U.S. about 12 years ago with the goal to educate students about this issue in his Political Sciences class “The Arab-Israeli Conflict” taking place this winter quarter. It is from 11 a.m. to 11:50 a.m., Monday through Thursday.

“Most classes taught at Green River are very general and not focused on one topic,” Duman said. “This class is unique. It allows students to examine one particular case and then draw conclusions that also apply to other conflicts around the world.” Duman taught this class for 12 years at the University of Washington and brought it to Green River in 2018.

Duman thinks it is necessary for U.S. students to learn about the conflict because of the deep involvement their country has within it, paid for by taxpayers’ money.

“Most people are not educated about what is going on in the Middle East,” Duman said. “Instead, they rely on the information provided by their echo chambers.”

This can be especially dangerous in such conflict that is mostly a competition of narratives. The class will also touch several religious topics that Duman believes many students will be passionate about.

Duman personally had numerous points of contact with the conflict. “I served in the Israeli military and also lost a cousin in the conflict,” he said. However, he was quick to point out that he does not have a biased view of the issue.

“I do not adopt the Israeli narrative and [I] have friends on both sides of the conflict,” Duman said. “I have been active in the peace movement for decades and always promote dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians. That’s why I also spent some time in the majorly Palestinian West Bank.”

His objective for the class is to question the stories of all the groups involved. “Anybody who has a strong position on the issue will see their ideology challenged by my class,” Duman said.

Brent Matoba, a student at Green River, took the class the last time Duman taught it. He felt it was valuable to him to learn about what he calls “a massive 100-year humanitarian crisis.” What he liked most about the class was that it was not mainly focused on facts and statistics, but emphasized the human element.

“It was all about empathizing with the participants of an event and then analyzing the thought process behind the actions they took,” Matoba said.

Matoba said that Duman’s personal experiences with the issue were helpful to him and his classmates. “He could give a first hand account of the issues discussed in class,” Matoba said.

Matoba also said the class helped him realize that nothing in the world should be thought of as black and white. “At the beginning of a class, we’d go over some horrific event, and I’d be convinced the people involved were monsters,” he said. “By the end, we’d covered their justifications, and I found myself almost agreeing with the aggressors [of the event].”

Matoba also accounted for the fact that it is easy to get a good grade in Duman’s class if one shows up and tries to participate. He brought up different extra-credit opportunities and the instructor’s helpfulness when questions or concerns came up.

Duman pointed out that no previous knowledge is needed as he aims to make the class accessible to all students. It fulfills a social sciences requirement and is part of the Global Studies program at Green River College.

After all, Duman does not believe that the dispute can be resolved soon. “It is almost impossible to draw borders between Israeli and Palestinian territory. There are many elements involved in this conflict, including religion, ideology, and the support of outside groups,” Duman said.

The complexity of the conflict is one reason why he thinks students will not regret taking his class and learning more about why it is so far from being resolved.