Reclaiming our Shared Humanity. Countering Polarisation, Dehumanisation, and Radicalisation driven by the Middle East Conflict
Foreword by Senén Florensa, executive president of the IEMed
The Euro-Mediterranean Civil Society Conference “Reclaiming Our Shared Humanity. Countering Polarisation, Dehumanisation, and Radicalisation driven by the Middle East Conflict” took place in Barcelona in October 2024, at a moment of profound regional and global upheaval. Organised by the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed) with the support of the European Union’s External Action Service, the conference brought together close to 200 civil society actors, policymakers, and experts from 33 countries across the Euro-Mediterranean region.
This publication captures the outcomes and reflections of that critical gathering, which offered not only a space for dialogue, but also a renewed call to action in the face of mounting division and dehumanisation. For many decades, the Middle East conflict has been a catalyst for waves of radicalisation, cycles of violence, and deeply entrenched narratives of intercommunal hatred. Yet the ongoing escalation since late 2023 has pushed polarisation to unprecedented levels.
The rapid diffusion of conflict imagery and rhetoric, amplified by algorithmic social media environments, has fostered the emergence of digital echo chambers that increasingly shape how communities perceive reality. Individuals are exposed to filtered, emotionally charged content that reinforces their prior beliefs, intensifies identity-based grievances, and fosters radically divergent interpretations of unfolding events. What results is not merely a disagreement over facts, but a fragmentation of reality itself — where different communities, whether Jewish, Muslim, Arab or otherwise, operate within incompatible worldviews. This phenomenon has had particularly destabilising effects across the Euro-Mediterranean region, where the conflict’s reverberations are deeply felt. From heightened community tensions to rising antisemitism and the dehumanisation of Palestinians — including broader expressions of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hatred — the consequences are severe and far-reaching. These manifestations of intolerance are often addressed in isolation, if at all, reinforcing their separateness and inadvertently entrenching the very divisions they produce. The growing inability to see the dignity of the “other” — whether that “other” is religious, ethnic, political or ideological — threatens the fundamental values of coexistence, human rights, and democratic pluralism.
In this context, the role of civil society is not only necessary — it is indispensable. Civil society organisations are uniquely placed to confront the fragmentation of narratives and help rebuild shared spaces for dialogue. By advocating for marginalised voices, monitoring human rights abuses, countering hate speech, and fostering intercommunal trust, civil society actors offer practical and principled tools to address the root causes of conflict and exclusion. Their work is critical not only in mitigating the immediate effects of polarisation, but in sustaining longer-term processes of peacebuilding, justice, and social cohesion. The conference reaffirmed that addressing polarisation cannot be separated from addressing the conflict dynamics that fuels it. While a sustainable resolution to the Middle East conflict remains an essential political goal, civil society must act in the meantime to contain the damage being done across societies.
The urgency lies in resisting the spread of extremist narratives, rejecting zero-sum logic, and promoting inclusive, solution-oriented frameworks rooted in shared values and mutual recognition. This is especially true across the Euro-Mediterranean region, where internal cohesion is increasingly threatened by external tensions. To that end, the conference sought to achieve several key objectives: to convene civil society actors for inclusive and fact-based exchanges on the crisis of polarisation; to highlight the dangers of treating antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred as disconnected phenomena; to expose the mechanisms of information manipulation that fuel echo chambers and radicalisation; and to develop cooperative strategies to promote alternative narratives based on dignity, empathy, and coexistence. Particular attention was given to the transformative potential of women and youth.
Their voices, often marginalised in traditional peace and security dialogues, are vital to building sustainable and inclusive narratives. Women, in particular, are central to community-based peacebuilding processes, while young people represent both those most affected by radicalisation and those best positioned to imagine and implement a new social contract grounded in justice and equity. Gender-sensitive and intergenerational approaches must therefore be embedded in any serious peacebuilding strategy. Importantly, the conference also drew on the rich historical legacy of the Mediterranean as both a site of conflict and a cradle of coexistence.
The exhibition inaugurated a few months earlier at the Salón del Tinell in Barcelona — featuring the photographic archive of Bonaventura Ubach — offered a poignant reminder of the region’s plural heritage. His early twentieth-century images of Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Egypt document a time when diverse religious and ethnic communities coexisted in complex, yet deeply rooted ways. This memory challenges today’s narratives of inescapable antagonism and instead affirms the possibility — and historical reality — of shared life across difference. The Euro-Mediterranean framework remains uniquely positioned to uphold this vision.
Born from the 1995 Barcelona Declaration, it has long served as a platform for dialogue, cooperation, and mutual understanding across the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean. As we approach the 30th anniversary of that landmark declaration in 2025, the stakes could not be higher. This conference, and the reflections captured in these pages, are a contribution to that ongoing mission — to reclaim the promise of a common Mediterranean space grounded in peace, development, and human dignity. This publication, therefore, is more than a record of proceedings.
It is an appeal to those committed to preserving the social fabric of diverse societies, to those who believe in dialogue over division, and to those who understand that reclaiming our shared humanity is not a rhetorical gesture, but a strategic necessity. It invites us to reflect on the conditions that allow polarisation to thrive — and to commit ourselves to the hard, but essential, work of rebuilding inclusive narratives, democratic resilience, and mutual trust across the Euro-Mediterranean space. In so doing, we reaffirm a simple yet powerful truth: that respect for the dignity of every human being is the cornerstone of any lasting peace project.
