FŁWK: Wall and gate. Human Rights in a Violent World | Meeting

Can the law be an effective tool for protecting people where violence becomes an everyday occurrence? What can a lawyer do when the state whose legal system he represents is at the same time a party to the conflict? And where do the limits of the possibilities of law run in the face of violence and violations of the rights of the civilian population?

The guest of the meeting will be Michael Sfard, an Israeli lawyer specializing in international and humanitarian law and one of the most prominent human rights defenders in Israel. Sfard has represented Israeli humanitarian and human rights organizations for years, and has appeared before the Israeli Supreme Court in cases involving the construction of a separation wall, land confiscation and violations of the rights of civilians. He is the author of The Wall and the Gate: Israel, Palestine, and the Legal Battle for Human Rights, which focuses on the legal struggle for human rights in Israel and Palestine.

Sfard will connect with an online audience. On site at the Center for Dialogue, the conversation will be led by Dr. Dominika Blachnicka-Ciacek, a sociologist who deals with, among others, the Palestinian diaspora, and Marek Matusiak, coordinator of the “Israel and the Gulf” project at the Center for Eastern Studies.

After the meeting and a short break, we will invite the audience to an open conversation in a circle. It will be a space to share thoughts and emotions generated by the conversation, but also to listen to the experiences and perspectives of others. The facilitators of the New Community Foundation will take care of the course of the meeting and the atmosphere based on solidarity and recognition of diversity.

Saturday 17 October 2026 at 6:00pm

Duration of the whole: about 3 hours. Admission is free, registration is required

The meeting and the open conversation in the circle are two parts of the event. There are separate entries for each of them - when applying, you must indicate whether you want to participate in one part or in both. Number of seats: 30. Determines the order of applications. If after the first part there are free places left, it will be possible to join the conversation in a circle.

The meeting will take place in a hybrid format: Michael Sfard will attend it online, the presenter and the audience will be present in the Dialogue Center.

Who?

Michael Sfard is an Israeli lawyer who was born in Jerusalem in 1972 and specializes in international and humanitarian law. He has advised numerous Israeli humanitarian and human rights organizations. He is the grandson of writer Janina Bauman and sociologist Zygmunt Bauman. He is the author of “The Wall and the Gate: Israel, Palestine, and the Legal Battle for Human Rights.”

Dominika Blachnicka-Ciacek — sociologist, visual researcher and assistant professor at the Department of Social Anthropology, Ethnic and Migration Studies, University of Warsaw. It explores the affective dimensions of mobility, the lives of refugee and migrant communities, with a particular focus on the Palestinian diaspora, and the relations of diasporas with their countries of origin.

Marek Matusiak — coordinator of the project “Israel and the Gulf” at the Center for Eastern Studies. Graduate of sociology at the University of Warsaw and law in the field of human rights at İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi. He worked in Polish diplomatic posts in Tbilisi and Istanbul. He publishes, among others, in “Tygodnik Powszechny” and “Kulturze Liberalna”.

The New Community Foundation — an organization operating since 2020 to alleviate divisions and strengthen community in Poland. She leads Community Dialogues, Good Conversation Trainings and Local Conversation Courses.

For whom?

The meeting is addressed primarily to people interested in human rights, international and humanitarian law, the socio-political situation of Israel and Palestine and the possibilities of protecting the civilian population.

Because of the topic of the meeting, it is important to be ready to talk about difficult issues and cause strong emotions. This is especially true of the second part of the event — an open conversation in a circle, which will be based on mutual listening and respect for the diversity of experiences and views.

Why is it worth it?

Talks about Israel and Palestine very easily turn into a dispute about which side to take. The meeting with Michael Sfard offers a different perspective — it allows us to ask what happens to the universal idea of human rights when confronted with concrete political realities, violence and power imbalances.

Sfard's professional biography makes this question particularly interesting. As an Israeli lawyer, he uses the institutions of his own state to act in cases involving, among others, the separation wall, confiscation of land and the rights of civilians. In this perspective, the law turns out to be both part of the existing order and a potential tool for challenging it. So the meeting allows us to ask not only whether the law works, but also where its effectiveness ends — and what remains when legal protection mechanisms prove insufficient.

This is an important conversation also in the context of the Łódź Festival of Many Cultures. If multiculturalism is to mean more than the coexistence of different traditions, it must also involve the question of the conditions of this coexistence — equality, security, individual rights and the opportunity to speak. A conversation about human rights is therefore also a conversation about the principles on which community is possible.

Therefore, the event does not end with the statements of experts. The open circle shifts the burden from knowledge to the practice of talking in a space where one can remain in dialogue despite the difference in experiences, evaluations and emotions.