I know a liberal Jewish man who recently did inquiry with a conservative Jewish woman in a Diamond Approach context about Israel and Palestine. They had done it in person before, but at this point, they were doing it over e-mail. One of the last things she said before the communication broke down was that Palestinians should be exterminated. Because of the format, it wasn’t clear if she was inquiring, or attempting to persuade him of her point of view, but it was likely the latter. As communication broke down, the school expected him to do a “clearing” with her to appologize for breaking the trust of the inquiry partnership and making her feel judged. There is a lot that I don’t know, but the one thing I did extract from this was that had she said that sentence in an inquiry context, the expectation would have been that she would want to be curious about her sentiment and further inquire into her hatred of Palestians. Hate isn’t the final word with the Work- there is lots of explore underneath what feels like such a concrete floor, and as a Diamond Approach student, she would have known that. I think that is a pretty radical gift- to hold space for someone who is willing to inquire into their hatred, but sincerity matters. A person has to be willing to sift through the ugliness.
This is another reason why the taking the Diamond Approach seriously right now is a bit of a stretch. I love what they teach and how they teach it- they do have a ton of my respect for a lot of things, but the teachers (and often Hameed himself) seem under-informed and ill-prepared to deal with a lot of political, racial and cultural issues. My hope is they can open their ears to hear what their students are communicating back to them.