The hope of a handshake

This conversation lays the ground for the reading of Vered Lev Kenaan’s article, whose starting point is the now famous photograph of Yocheved Lifshiftz shaking hands with her Hamas captor. Rachel Bowlby asks Lev Kenaan about what led her to write the piece and about its relation to her own situation living in Israel, and working at the University of Haifa. The interview also explores the suggestion, within the article, that a horizon of future reconciliation has to emerge from the place of a woman. The themes discussed here are developed in greater depth in Lev Kenaan’s accompanying research article, ‘Hospitality in times of war’.