GREENFIELD — The Karuna Center for Peacebuilding hosted a virtual discussion on Wednesday during which activists reflected on the state of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and shared ideas for community building and future peace efforts.

Karuna Center Executive Director Polly Byers introduced the panelists, which included Combatants for Peace co-founder Sulaiman Khatib, Combatants for Peace member Iris Gur, and Healing Across the Divides founder and Executive Director Norbert Goldfield. The event saw attendees from overseas in France and the Netherlands, and Gur spoke from Amsterdam while Khatib was in Jerusalem in the West Bank.

Khatib, who is Palestinian, said he feels “totally connected” to the struggle from his Palestinian heritage and experience of being imprisoned in different Israeli jails for 10 years for attacking an Israeli soldier at the age of 14.

Now, Khatib’s goal as an activist is to commit to non-violence. He has participated in hunger strikes that he feels guided him toward a path of non-violent protest, with a goal of bringing Israelis and Palestinians together to create dialogue around liberation and community.

“This transformation was a long journey for me,” he said.

Gur has been a teacher and principal in Israeli public schools and shared her experience growing up in Israel in a Zionist household. She recalls having never met a Palestinian until she traveled out of the country as an adult.

“You can live your whole life in Israel without knowing Palestinians, knowing about occupation,” Gur said.

The catalyst for her interest in becoming a peace activist came from the imprisonment of her 17-year-old daughter for being a “conscious objector” to joining the Israel Defense Forces. Gur recalled how she began to question what she knew about Israel.

“I joined Combatants for Peace because I understand the only way to change something is to work together,” Gur said. “The people across the fence are people — they are the same as us.”

Goldfield, the third panelist, created Healing Across the Divides in 2004. The organization is dedicated to providing health care and grants to community groups in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. He spoke from his perspective as an American who spent time in the West Bank working in hospitals as a clinician and researcher.

Goldfield mentioned that Healing Across the Divides has encountered challenges bringing groups from Israel and Palestine together, and the situation has deteriorated since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

“We will not give up,” he said. “The situation has deteriorated, but we will not give up.”

The war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, has killed more than 38,600 people, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war has created a humanitarian catastrophe in the coastal Palestinian territory, displaced most of its 2.3 million population and triggered widespread hunger.

Hamas’ October attack killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and militants took about 250 hostage. About 120 remain in captivity, with about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.

After the mention of Oct. 7, Byers asked each panelist to share their perspective on how the situation has changed for their organizations since the attack. In Gur’s opinion, peace activists working within Israel and Palestine have been changed by that event, with some asking to take a step back to process.

Additionally, both Gur and Khatib have connections to individuals who were directly impacted by the hostilities. Gur has worked with an individual who is being held hostage by Hamas, and Khatib noted that a member of Combatants for Peace is a doctor working in Gaza. Khatib also expressed that he is “touched” by the protests from students and the awareness of the situation in Israel and Palestine in the nine months since Oct. 7.

“I feel excited for the awareness and the awakening,” Khatib said. “It’s about something bigger when it comes to the students. … This conflict is a mirror for the global system.”

In Goldfield’s perspective, he feels the work toward peace and communication will come from both Israelis and Palestinians on the ground.

In an interview after the forum, Byers noted that in putting together this discussion, the addition of a local voice like Goldfield’s was important due to his work overseas and for his connection to western Massachusetts.

“It was a great combination to have somebody who is an example of a local organization,” Byers said. “I think it’s just powerful to hear directly from people involved in doing this work on the ground.”

Sarah Pirtle, director of the Discovery Center for Peacebuilding and one of the event’s attendees, highlighted a comment made by Khatib that stuck with her.

“Sulaiman said it’s easy to speak of dialogue in comfortable times. I think that was such a positive vision,” Pirtle said. “We want to stick with dialogue. We want to stick with compassion even though these are no longer comfortable times. For me, it’s part of the crux of what was emphasized today.”

Information from the Association Press was used in this report.