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Words that Open and Close Hearts

Words shape the world we live in. They create order to how we see, and they are where most human communication begins. In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, words are rarely descriptive. They carry histories, memories, identities, moral judgments, and experiences of triumph and suffering. The same word can conjure entirely different realities for different communities.

“Words that Open and Close Hearts,” Within Your Gates’ first essay project, is an attempt to address the unique role that language plays within our local context. We asked contributors to examine the words they use: the worlds those words create, and the assumptions they conceal. Together, the essays trace both the language that closes people off from one another and the language that creates space for curiosity, recognition, and empathy. “Words that Open and Close Hearts” is an experiment in ethical language: can people become more conscientious communicators, and can words themselves serve as a way back to mutual respect and human dignity?

Main door of the Holy Sepulchre

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Article

The Role of Language in Conflict and Reconciliation: A Historical Context

Maayan Armelin

Conflict and Resolution | Language | Memory and Narrative

Fall 2026 · Words that Open and Close Hearts

From Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to Cambodia, the Balkans, Bangladesh, and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, language often shapes how conflicts begin and how they are ultimately resolved. Maayan Armelin traces this process through the combined lenses of history and social psychology, arguing that language constructs group identities, reinforces social hierarchies, and on occasions legitimizes exclusion, dehumanization, and violence towards other groups. At the same time, historical experience demonstrates how language can also foster empathy and reconciliation when it encourages self-reflection and mutual recognition. Delivering a sustainable peace between different groups requires rejecting polarizing rhetoric in favor of narratives that open hearts.
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Article

Silence

Clemens Sedmak

Faith and Theology | Human Dignity | Language

Fall 2026 · Words that Open and Close Hearts

Silence, Clemens Sedmak writes, is a paradoxical form of language that can both open and close the human heart. Drawing on a range of theological and philosophical sources, Sedmak demonstrates that silence is not merely the absence of speech but a meaningful practice that can express reverence, invite dialogue, resist injustice, or bear witness to realities that exceed what language is capable of describing. By differentiating between silence rooted in wisdom and silence born of ignorance or indifference, Sedmak explores the moral and spiritual significance of knowing when to remain silent and when to speak. Correctly understood, Sedmak concludes, silence creates the conditions for truth and compassion, reconciliation and hope.
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Article

But

Gabriel Schwake

Conflict and Resolution | Human Dignity | Language

Fall 2026 · Words that Open and Close Hearts

Drawing on contemporary examples from the Israeli–Palestinian conflict alongside insights from philosophy and critical theory, Gabriel Schwake explores the rhetorical power of the word but and its ability to shape moral reasoning and public discourse. He contends that but often works less as a marker of complexity and more as a device that suspends moral responsibility and reinforces ideological certainty. By exposing how seemingly sympathetic qualifications can become implicit justifications for violence or indifference, Schwake challenges readers to confront moral contradiction rather than eschew it.
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English

Article

This Land is Ours: Revisited

Sari Nusseibeh

Conflict and Resolution | Identity | Language | Memory and Narrative

Fall 2026 · Words that Open and Close Hearts

Drawing on the philosophy of language and personal experience, Professor Sari Nusseibeh argues that language does more than simply describe the world: it shapes collective identities, narratives, and the realities through which conflict is understood. While political discourse often entrenches opposing worldviews, Nusseibeh finds in language a creative capacity to imagine alternative futures that can possibly transcend existing divisions. Reconciliation, Nusseibeh presents, depends less on finding the right words than on cultivating the moral imagination and shared vision to transform public discourse into a true vehicle for peace.
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