Israel–Palestine: Our Updated Visitor Guidelines

2026-03-03T12:01:38.000Z · Tamera

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. March 3 2026 Aligning Our Visitor Policy with Our Values and Capacity Dear friends, As violence continues to escalate in the wider region of the Fertile Crescent, most recently with the attack on Iran, we hold all those affected in our hearts. In times like these, clarity about where we stand becomes even more important. As we are approaching the beginning of the next guest season, starting in April 2026, we want to use this newsletter to inform you about our new visitor policy , published in December 2025, so that you can prepare yourselves and reflect on this issue before coming to Tamera as guests. A few months ago, several members of our community initiated a process to update our visitor policy in the context of the genocide in Gaza . Given the magnitude of the violence being perpetrated; the fact that Western governments and economies are actively supporting the genocide and the occupation; the significant number of Israeli (ex-)soldiers who visit Tamera; and the fact that we have Palestinian visitors and community members; we felt called to implement further policies that aim to cut ties of complicity and create a safer space for Palestinians. During this process, we consulted external allies and held multiple rounds of internal conversations, attempting to find a shared stance that we could publish as Tamera. In an issue that brings up so much polarisation, and in a community of more than 110 adults, this required us to navigate with nuance and moral clarity. Finally, in a General Assembly on 12 December 2025, we reached an agreement and published the new guidelines. In summary, here are the new guidelines: We welcome people of all nationalities. Applications to our education programs are evaluated based on how applicants position themselves — not based on nationality. Our public spaces are not a place to justify, deny or defend genocide, occupation or apartheid. At the same time, we reject antisemitism in all forms. Israeli (ex-)soldiers and people working in institutions complicit in the occupation are welcome in our education programs if they are willing to commit to nonviolence and step out of those roles in the future. In some programmes, where the team is prepared to consciously hold this issue, people without this commitment may still apply. This will be clearly communicated in advance on the programme page, so everyone can decide whether to take part. We will not host speakers who defend genocide or settler colonialism. In our spaces of dialogue, we prioritise Palestinian voices, recognising the extreme imbalance of power and loss in this situation. How is this compatible with Tamera's values? As Tamera, we're committed to understanding and transforming the patterns of collective trauma underlying different forms of oppression. We're also committed to a path of grace towards victims and perpetrators — a path that orients to everyone's humanity, no matter what they've done or where they come from. But grace does not mean that we avoid challenging or confronting someone's actions, or that we refrain from calling for accountability. Although we would love to be a place that welcomes everyone and supports them in transforming their lives towards peace, our capacity is limited. If we welcome people who openly justify violence or remain actively complicit — without addressing these issues, or without us being able to accompany them — we risk becoming passive in the face of harm. By setting clear criteria aligned with our values and our capacity, we seek to hold our field consciously and responsibly. We're aware that this policy does not address other forms of complicity with violence and oppression — and that this may appear inconsistent. However, the dynamics surrounding Israel–Palestine have created a degree of political and relational intensity that we cannot responsibly hold without clearer criteria. We hope that by sharing our position and guidelines, we can offer clarity and create a safer space in which healing and transformation become possible. In solidarity, Rui Braga in the name of the Tamera community In line with the EU data protection regulations, you can style="color:#4989F4;text-decoration:none;">here. Tamera Peace Research & Education Center Monte do Cerro, 7630-392 Rel quias, Portugal www.tamera.org | Contact Us | Privacy Policy