The New Israel Fund thanks the organizers of Creating Change Conference for reversing course and reinstating the event sponsored by A Wider Bridge and featuring the activists from Jerusalem Open House.

In acknowledging its error, the conference organizers bravely wrote that their venue will always be a safe space for inclusion and dialogue for people with often widely different views. We couldn’t agree more that everyone who cares about the contentious issues of Israel and Palestine gains by listening and engaging rather than shunning and shutting out. We hope that the JOH activists find an interested, respectful and thoughtful audience for their own experiences fighting bigotry and exclusion in Israel.