Days 2 and 3
We took a long bus ride around East Jeruselum with a tour guide from Ir Amin, a political and educational organization which advocates for a stable and egalitarian city. Our guy was an Israeli Jew who had been in the Police force in Jeruselum, a solid balanced kind of guy who had warmth and humor. He spoke about the complicated situation in Jeruselum as we drove around the outskirts, stopping at view spots. Its open, dry country with rolling hills so you can see into the distance and we could look out at settlements, villages, the security wall and the towns in the west bank. Etan great explained the history and the various zones and their status. There are Israeli neighborhoods built on annexed land- land annexed through a legal process by the Israeli government since 1967. There are the boundaries of the green line from 1948 when East Jeruselum was the boundary with Jordanian occupied toerritiories. There is the land encompassed by the barrier (the security wall, the Apartheid wall, the envelope) which was built to encircle Israeli developed areas and to protect them, and which divides Palestinian built up areas from each other making travel and life for Palestinians a difficulty. There are the Israeli settlements protected by the Israeli army and built in the Israeli occupied territory of the West Bank. We drove through Palestinian villages and past the newer Israeli settlements. So many things became evident, such as the terrible economic disparity between the two cultures, the Arabs have no services like garbage, water, schools although they pay taxes to the municipality and are residents of Jeruselum,. The language of the conflict is subtle and important, how you name a thing reveals your attitudes and can be inflammatory and accusatory or can minimize and deny. Land and security are the issues. Our driver had a keen awareness of the needs and deprivation of the Arabs living in Israel but had a certainty that Israelis were entitled to build and occupy the land. His historical rendition represented a blindfolded view as he could not recognize that Arabs had been forced to leave their homes, which were later permanently occupied by Jewish refugees in the 1948 Was of Independence, but insisted that it was sort of a voluntary exodus.
We visited with Naomi Baum, PhD of the Trauma Center. She works a lot with victims of violence and had insights into Israeli physcology. She is appreciative of mandatory military service and sees a strong Israel as essential for the security and safety of Jews world wide.
Our evening listening session was with Dr. Al Qleibo, a cultural anthropologist. He is a loving, charming, and engaging, highly accoplished man. He spends a lot of time in the Palestinian villages of the West Bank, preserving history and stories of a fading culture. The shift from a land based peasant economy to a wage earning blue collar economy is irrevocably impacting the culture of the people. He spoke very lovingly of the simplicity of the people and how they just wanted to live their lives. He was obviously very wounded by the tragedy of the Israeli occupation and had a grim passion when he spoke about the need for the Israelis to apologize. The bomb really dropped when he talked about Jews and revealed a deep seated hatred and made sweeping generalizations. Our group, a good third Jewish, had to hold his pain and anguish as he spoke words which touched deep wounds and old fears in some people. The amazing thing about the process of Compassionate Listening is the transformation that was facilitated as we gave him the grace to vent, allowed him the space to deepen into his feelings, and really listened to him without argument or defensiveness. He softened and began to recognize the potential for some goodness.
I am in love with our group. They are accomplished, articulate, aware people with big hearts and generous spirits. We have had so much work to do since listening to Ali, recognizing our own triggers and unpacking the process of being triggered. One of our group is a woman who has lived in the states her whole life but whose father is a Palestinian refugee. She is such a blessing to us. She reminds us of the pain of her people, of the dispossessed and the unrecognized. And she does so with tears, self awareness, and great love. We are all becoming more and more aware of the sensitivities brought out by the conflict, the deep seated fears of the Jews, the pain of loss, the human tendency to avoid the other and diminish all pain but our own, the difficulty of accepting blame and our own shadow side. It is fascinating and compelling work. Our speakers don’t want to leave us. They recognize within us an audience who is willing to follow them to the depths of their dilemma and to offer appreciation for their brilliant core of humanity despite the ravages of the conflict.
A visit to the Holocaust museum deepened our understanding of the pain and fear which is so much a part of Jewish awareness. It was not that long ago. How did it happen? What is the nature of humanity that this occurred? What tremendous potential for cruelty lies within us? What work can we to do to eradicate the seeds of hatred and separation.
We met with Esther Golan in her home, a survivor of the Holocaust (via Kindertransport). Her story was so moving, she and her siblings escaped but her parents perished. She is ever grateful for Israel and the refuge that it provided.
Our evening session last night was a breath of fresh air. Leah Lublin lives in an Israeli settlement and she has the courage to host an interfaith and intercultural dialogue group in her home, inviting Palestinians to meet with her. She was filled with love and joy and spoke of her spirituality and closeness to God. She told us of her jouney from an Orthodox Jewish upbringing to a rightwing activism to a reform Jewish outlook and a comlete transformation. She now, unlike her niegbors, delights in contact with the Plastinians, would love to see a dissolution of borders, has no fear about granting the right Of Return, would love to see mixed neighborhoods and lots of social interaction across cultural boundaries. She has overwhelmed any fear with her great love and to be in her presence was to be in hopefulness. She has a blog: http://www.mepeace.org/profile/leahlublin
Peace,
Maria