Eight months after taking part in the Bridge Builders Programme 2025, I have found myself reflecting even more deeply on the lasting impact the experience has had on the way I engage with one of the most complex issues of our time: Palestine & Israel.

At the time, the residential offered a rare space to speak not only with experts but other young people from a huge range of backgrounds, an open space, rather than one where someone has to “win” and “lose” like in traditional debates. Looking back now, what stands out most is how valuable that approach has become in the months since, particularly as media coverage, public discourse, and political conversations around the conflict have grown even more intense and polarised. At another residential and visit (external to SNS), it showed the benefits that can occur when different groups of people come together for open and honest discussions. 

One of the most significant things I look back, is the idea of “hearing it in real life”. We often see the articles that state “this happened to ___” or “___ casualties” or “brutality” and it dehumanises those individuals to just words or a statistic. I often reflect on the stories that the speakers shared (ie “hearing it in real life”) on their personal experiences, on trauma, fear, loss of their loved ones and the lasting impact it left on them. The media can sometimes dehumanise those most affected.

BBP’s emphasis on dialogue over division has continued to influence my wider work and values and reinforced for me that solidarity must be rooted in reflection, and community rather than what we often see, performative reactions shaped solely by fast-moving media cycles.

Looking back now, the best part of BBP was the other young people you meet, who are all coming together for one purpose, to learn and to improve, and to meet professionals to network with and connect, the professionals who are already out there making a change.

Eight months later, I remain convinced that in a world increasingly shaped by outrage and polarisation, the willingness to listen remains one of the most radical and necessary acts of bridge-building. Our short term goal should be just to sit down with one another and speak to each other, but our long term goal should be to discuss these allegedly complex issues like faith, religion etc because by not even bothering to sit down with one another, we only cause more division and no dialogue, and that dialogue is so essential to creating solutions, not taking sides.