Today was yet another intense and packed day. I led a yoga class that went really well. Our first stop today was Efrat, which is in the Occupied Territories (Area captured by Israel in 1967 but not annexed) although many people who live there don’t consider themselves as settlers. Many of them did not move there for ideological reasons but for economic reasons and because of government incentives at the time. Many of the teachers from Pardes, the yeshivah (religious seminary) where I spent time in Jerusalem, live there. Ardie Geldman was our guide. He spoke to us from a synagogue in Efrat. Later he told us that he specialises in giving tours to hostile overseas groups, usually from the US, who have spent 10 days looking at the Palestinian narrative and then (in his words) ‘want to pat them on the back for going to listen to a “settler” ‘, a term which Ardie himself does not identify with. He spoke about his life journey and moving after personal losses of his parents to Israel and the Zionist longing that was fulfilled when he looked around on an Egged bus, and so many of the people were Jewish and there as such diversity among them. He wanted to be part of the Jewish people and ‘come back to my people’s land given to us by God’. Part of his argument as to why he didn’t agree with the term ‘Occupied Territories’ was because although he can establish an undisputed clearly established Jewish civilization in the land, he can’t recognise the Palestinian connection to the land. He cited the Jerusalem Post from yesterday that reported on the Palestinian Authority ‘study’ (their quotation marks) that found that the Kotel (Wailing Wall) was not part of the Temple Mount. Jews had returned to an area that was not a state whereas although they had been absent, Jews had established Jewish dominion many years before. He quoted Michael Oren’s ‘Power, Faith and Fantasy’ and gave some Orientalist descriptions of travellers to the Ottoman Empire finding nothing but ‘a backwater of thistles and dust’. As one student acknowledged, it had echoes of ‘Terra Nullius’. After the talk and a drive around Efrat, we met in the park with the whole group to discuss what the students thought about the presentation. Interestingly the student response to Ardie was almost more challenging for me than his talk itself. To hear students hyper-criticism of him ( I also didn’t sympathise with his position) was challenging for me. It brought up something about the responsibility of creating this trip and bringing people here and presenting them with access points to the dual narratives and also to the complexity of the layers of experience, not wanting to reinforce stereotypes, being heartbroken if people would use this as a hook for some latent antisemitism. Lucky for me I was able to swap some time (that means we listen to each other and can have expression of emotions) with my co-leader and I was able to laugh and cry for 4 minutes which helped things a lot.
Our next stop was Hebron, Areas A (H1 under Palestinian Authority) and B (H2 under Palestinian Civil Administration and Israeli Military Control). Hebron is considered to be the biggest ‘hotspot’ that is on our itinerary. There has been much tension in Hebron, much of it surrounding the 400 Jewish people who live in a large Palestinian city, with at least the protection of 2000 Israeli military. After my experiences yesterday I wasn’t up for going in the Abrahimi Mosque or the Ma’arat Hamachpela. Apparently both of the sacred sites for Jews and Muslims open out on to the one shared holy of holies which is the tomb. Mark Baker commented that inside this wound that is the deep divisions in Hebron is also the healing. It is a messianic vision to imagine Jews and Muslims being able to pray together at this site- to open it up as the headquarters of interfaith engagement and cooperation for the greater good. At the moment Jews are not allowed inside the mosque and Muslims not allowed in the Jewish side.
The turning point that the title of this blog refers to is a common pattern I have noticed in the peacebuilders we have encountered who can mark the moment when they moved to the perspective of non-violence. Nayef Hashlamoun, President of the Alwatan Centre http://www.alwatan.org/part1/peace.html shared some of his journey with me over lunch. Basically he was at a Fatah training, shooting a tree and his officer mentioned something about imagining it was an animal or people and needing to get the aim right (if I understood him correctly). And he said that he was so uncomfortable with that thought that he couldn’t continue in the training. He told his officer that he couldn’t do it anymore and then he just left and from then started pursuing work in non-violence. I was also really excited to hear how he has a 10 dunam (10, 000 sq.m) organic farm that has olives, pomegranates, kiwi fruit and a lot more. Unfortunately though water is a big problem. According to him Israel uses most of the water and sometimes it is really hard for him to get the water he needs for his farm. Control of water and access to water is an important part of conceiving interim plans and long term resolution.
The final stop for the day was at Deheishe Refugee camp, in the Bethlehem precinct. We met with Mazen, who is also Project Officer for the Parents Circle- Bereaved Families Forum http://www.theparentscircle.com/ . It is an amazing organisation that brings Jews and Palestinians together who have lost a family member in the crisis to talk about peacebuilding . They have a unique credibility because they have paid the highest price possible. The most striking thing about Deheishe was the graffiti of photos of youth outside many houses, remembering usually young boys who have died in the struggle. Mazen talked about losing his father as a consequence of Israeli army shooting on his way back from Jerusalem to the camp and how because of the curfew he was prevented by the Israeli army from going to the hospital once he found out that his father has passed away. He said ‘this is what we mean by occupation, all we have to do is follow orders to save ourselves’. He waited till morning. After the passing of his father, he was still left with the hatred, and the fears. He didn’t believe in revenge. When he started going to the Parents Circle- Family Forum meetings he thought about Israeli Jews, ‘what do you know about pain, I’ve suffered more’, but that has changed for him. He said that some people think that cooperating with Israelis, even in this venture is normalisation as if you agree with the whole story and with the occupation but he said it is not about forgetting or agreeing but that this work will transform the nature of agreement in the future. Another important point that came up was the significance of the Arab States abandonment of the Palestinian refugees and also the maintenance of their status so they could be used as a scapegoat for further targeting Israel.
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