Hub Tel Aviv: “The Athens square brought back to life”
Text by Imke Musterd
The winds of change that are blowing in the Middle East are not leaving Israel unaffected. The Hub Tel Aviv community is taking an active part in shaping the movement. Members started a process that encouraged the protest movement to shift onto the trail of dialogue: in 40 cities all over Israel, 10.000 people assembled around 1000 tables discussing where their society should go and what they can do to bring it about.
Here’s a story on how The Hub’s vision and practices can make a difference. A real-life tale on the importance of hosting, the power of co-creation and the need for new leadership.
As Danny Gal, founder of Hub Tel Aviv, puts it: “In Israel the crowd is out in the street at last, after years of deep sleep. The protest is not against anything (cost of living etc.) as reported by the news. The protest is FOR something: for solidarity, connection, freedom. I believe it is the same in every country the protest exists. This is a new era in which more and more people understand that we are connected much beyond what Facebook can offer.
I believe we are watching a new kind of democracy being shaped. The democracy in which the focus and emphasis is on the basic right of everyone to be free not only to voice his/her concern but also to initiate and lead the moves needed for a better world. This is exactly in line with our little movement at the Hub and I am proud to be part of it”.
Incubation
No story without context, no impact without the right timing: different developments coming together at a crossroads to generate a real shift. In this case, on the one hand people who are connected through the Art of Hosting, The Hub and related networks who know how to create a place where people are hosted in a safe way. On the other, a wider context that moves people to act – to take risks and follow their guts. And some defining moments in which people discover their own strength and take their destiny in their own hands.
This Summer, Daphne, a 24 year old student, gets kicked out of her apartment by her landlord and finds herself in the street. Angry, she puts up a tent in the main boulevard of Tel Aviv and takes residence there, right between the luxury shops. She posts her intentions on Facebook. People start visiting her. Hundreds of people, growing into thousands and overflowing into protests by ten thousand people and eventually reaching half a million. The atmosphere is respectful. There is no violence, people are listening to each other, sharing their pains and concerns.
At the Hub, members wonder what to do, how to relate to the movement. They decide to do what they are good at: setting up 4 round tables in the main boulevard inviting people to join for hosted conversation. Raising 3 questions: Who are you and what is touching you in this protest movement? What changes would you like to see as a rseult of this movement? What are the actions that you would be willing to take responsibility for in order to change the situation? For 3 weeks, every evening the tables are filling up. People are completely taken in and excited by the process, by the possibility to sit and listen and share their concerns with strangers. One evening, the discussion is devoted to the process: ‘How should we design the process from now on to move from a protest to a sustainable change?” The general feeling was: set up more circles! One idea being to create a main event and set up 1000 tables in the main square of Tel Aviv.
The Athens square brought back to life
Danny Gal immediately recognizes the potential of such an event and decides that the Hub will take leadership here. Documents are written, a team is formed, partners and media involved. The concept: a 1000 tables across the country, hosted by experienced facilitators, a laptop at each table to capture highlights at each table that are transmitted to a central editorial team and reflecting them back to the tables realtime. Making the nation-wide field tangible at each table: we are not alone but part of a huge exchange taking place all around us.
To realize it, a wide range of people and partners are involved. Mails are sent out to associations of organization developers, coaches, mediators to recruit professional hosts for the tables, familiar with group processes. Who knows how to have people open up and have a real conversation, to foster trust? As it turns out, people love to take part, they jump on the occasion offered. One of the keys of the success. Another one is to involve a professional producer to organize the main event: receiving 500 people in the city center is no small task, providing a space and a structure in which people feel in capable hands even more so. It is a professional operation. People lend their heads, hands and hearts.
Members from the Hub step forward to co-organise the main event in Tel Aviv. Outside of Tel Aviv the organization is left entirely to local leaders: 2 weeks before the event a mail is sent to recruit site leaders and coordinators. Again, massive response. 40 more cities and villages participate. A Hub coordinator ‘coordinates the coordinators’, providing them with site requirements, instructions on how to set up the rest, etc.
On Saturday September 10, 8 pm, the stage is set. 50 tables in the Tel Aviv main square, a big stage, sound system, projectors and screens, and people flooding in.
In Danny’s own words, the day after: “Amazing experience of collective wisdom and a call for wake up and social action and innovation. I am still full of adrenaline and can’t fully grasp. It was amazing to hear the productive silence of 5000 people in Tel Aviv discussing the future of our country. We could not believe when we saw how many people said YES to our invitation to be part the co-creation of the future of a democratic and just Israel. For many people it was a first experience in such a dialogue and it was an eye opener. The social technologies from the World Cafe, Open Space, Circle practice and others was now the platform to enable this miracle”.
Into the future
As we speak, follow-up initiatives are being started and platforms set up to support ongoing engagement and co-creation. Raw materials are offered in an open source manner so that anyone can access it and take it further. An online initiative market is opened up where people can connect in a more specific context. Thoughts are shared on Twitter and Facebook. Further circles are being set up in city neighbourhoods. Where will this lead to? Just wait and see.
What is certain is that this event does not stand alone. Rising out of the Middle East protest movements, elsewhere this vibe is being picked up as well. Art of Hosting practitioner Maria Bakari interviewed Danny Gal (providing in large part the information for this post) to spread the story. She lives in Greece and investigates how this process may translate to the Greek situation. Anis from Hub Brussels tells us about a similar initiative in Belgium to discuss the political future of Belgium. Hub Oaxaca in Mexico too. In the UK I hear about Deep Democracy processes being set up in response to the recent riots. And so on. When the time is there, let’s make sure we are ready in Holland too!
References
- The whole interview by Maria Bakari with Danny Gal, offering a lot of practical information on how the event developed, how it was set up, main success factors, hints and tips: http://soundcloud.com/bakari-1-1/rec-dannygal-14-sep-2011-09-03
- Direct impressions, pictures and highlights from the table discussions on the Daily Kos blog: http://goo.gl/ohkcf
- Facebook group We Dare to Care engaging coaches and facilitators to develop constructive responses to the UK riots:http://www.facebook.com/groups/200914716605833/
- Link to the Belgian initiative: http://www.g1000.org