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In early 2022, long before the current war in Gaza erupted, a series of grassroots meetings between Jewish/Israeli and Arab/Palestinian students at the University of Texas at Austin led to the creation of ATIDNA International.

The name came from the fusion of the Hebrew word for “future,” atid, with the Arabic suffix for “our,” na, to mean “our future.”

Recent protests by students demanding that academic institutions sever financial ties with Israel and companies linked to the Israeli siege on Gaza have spread to dozens of campuses across the country.

Elijah Kahlenberg, a Jewish American student, is founder and president of ATIDNA, and Jadd Hashem, a Palestinian American student, is vice president.

“The way we break this cycle is understanding the other,” said Kahlenberg. “When you begin to understand the other, you understand that your aspirations, your identity, your culture, none of it conflicts.”

Hashem said peaceful, respectful engagement is the key to that understanding.

“Many Israelis have never spoken to a Palestinian and vice versa. When that happens, you can’t help but become tribal about your people. And I have felt that as I talked to more Jewish and Israeli students, I became more aware not just of their identity, but also of my own identity, frankly, because of how similar we are,” Hashem said.

The two students spoke with WTOP National Security Correspondent J.J. Green about their efforts to find common ground between the two sides — watch the video for the complete interview.