Using collective dialogues and AI to find common ground between Israeli and Palestinian peacebuilders

Andrew Konya; Luke Thorburn; Wasim Almasri; Oded Adomi Leshem; Ariel Procaccia; Lisa Schirch; Michiel Bakker

doi:10.1145/3715275.3732022

Using collective dialogues and AI to find common ground between Israeli and Palestinian peacebuilders

Andrew Konya^*
, Luke Thorburn
, Wasim Almasri
, Oded Adomi Leshem
, Ariel Procaccia
, Lisa Schirch
, Michiel Bakker

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Psychology

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

A growing body of work has shown that AI-Assisted methods-leveraging large language models, social choice methods, and collective dialogues-can help navigate polarization and surface common ground in controlled lab settings. But what can these approaches contribute in real-world contexts? We present a case study applying these techniques to find common ground between Israeli and Palestinian peacebuilders in the period following October 7th, 2023. From April to July 2024 an iterative deliberative process combining LLMs, bridging-based ranking, and collective dialogues was conducted in partnership with the Alliance for Middle East Peace. Around 138 civil society peacebuilders participated including Israeli Jews, Palestinian citizens of Israel, and Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza. The process resulted in a set of collective statements, including demands to world leaders, with at least 84% agreement from participants on each side. In this paper, we document the process, results, challenges, and important open questions.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	ACMF AccT 2025 - Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability,and Transparency
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages	312-333
Number of pages	22
ISBN (Electronic)	9798400714825
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3715275.3732022
State	Published - 23 Jun 2025
Event	8th Annual ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, FAccT 2025 - Athens, Greece Duration: 23 Jun 2025 → 26 Jun 2025

Publication series

Name	ACMF AccT 2025 - Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability,and Transparency

Conference

Conference	8th Annual ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, FAccT 2025
Country/Territory	Greece
City	Athens
Period	23/06/25 → 26/06/25

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

Keywords

Bridging
Bridging-Based Ranking
Collective Dialogue
Collective Response System
Conflict
Peace

Access to Document

10.1145/3715275.3732022

Cite this

Konya, A., Thorburn, L., Almasri, W., Leshem, O. A., Procaccia, A., Schirch, L., & Bakker, M. (2025). Using collective dialogues and AI to find common ground between Israeli and Palestinian peacebuilders. In ACMF AccT 2025 - Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability,and Transparency (pp. 312-333). (ACMF AccT 2025 - Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability,and Transparency). Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1145/3715275.3732022

Konya, Andrew ; Thorburn, Luke ; Almasri, Wasim et al. / Using collective dialogues and AI to find common ground between Israeli and Palestinian peacebuilders. ACMF AccT 2025 - Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability,and Transparency. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, 2025. pp. 312-333 (ACMF AccT 2025 - Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability,and Transparency).

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Konya, A, Thorburn, L, Almasri, W, Leshem, OA, Procaccia, A, Schirch, L & Bakker, M 2025, Using collective dialogues and AI to find common ground between Israeli and Palestinian peacebuilders. in ACMF AccT 2025 - Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability,and Transparency. ACMF AccT 2025 - Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability,and Transparency, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, pp. 312-333, 8th Annual ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, FAccT 2025, Athens, Greece, 23/06/25. https://doi.org/10.1145/3715275.3732022

Using collective dialogues and AI to find common ground between Israeli and Palestinian peacebuilders. / Konya, Andrew; Thorburn, Luke; Almasri, Wasim et al.
ACMF AccT 2025 - Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability,and Transparency. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, 2025. p. 312-333 (ACMF AccT 2025 - Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability,and Transparency).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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ER -

Konya A, Thorburn L, Almasri W, Leshem OA, Procaccia A, Schirch L et al. Using collective dialogues and AI to find common ground between Israeli and Palestinian peacebuilders. In ACMF AccT 2025 - Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability,and Transparency. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. 2025. p. 312-333. (ACMF AccT 2025 - Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability,and Transparency). doi: 10.1145/3715275.3732022

Using collective dialogues and AI to find common ground between Israeli and Palestinian peacebuilders

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

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Cite this