Report Two: The Formidable Energy of Heart and Mind

Wednesday August 3, 2005

Though we would have doubted that it was possible the previous night, our next day’s experience proved as rewarding as our first.

Tel Aviv

Our first meeting was with Windows, a joint project of “three sectors” – Israeli Jews, Palestinian citizens of Israel (those Palestinians who remained put during the 1948 war), and Palestinian Christians and Muslims from the Occupied Territories. In their work, Windows focuses on youth and the media. They bring together young people from all three sectors to establish communication through facilitated workshops. The young people then work together to produce an attractive, full-color magazine that is distributed in all three communities. Ten thousand copies of the most recent issue were printed.

The group also has community “friendship centers” in Tel Aviv and Tulkarem, with additional centers planned near Nablus and Jenin. Windows makes presentations to schools to describe their work and to recruit young people to participate in their program. Windows believes that through their efforts with youth aged 12-16, they will influence families and eventually entire communities to engender greater respect among the three sectors and a commitment to work for mutual respect and coexistence.

We next met with Dr. Naomi Chazan, a leader for several decades of movements for human and civil rights, feminist causes and peace. A former professor who  specialized in South African Studies, Chazan represented the left-wing Meretz Party for 11 years in the Israeli Knesset (parliament), including a term as Deputy Speaker of the Knesset.

Her outline of what is happening in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a tour de force. The range and depth of issues she incorporated into her analysis was impressive, if not intimidating. The focus of her presentation was the dilemma of those who have advocated “end the Occupation” and are now confronted with Sharon’s Gaza Disengagement Plan. She pointed out that Sharon’s plan is unilateral, based on two assertions.  First, there is no Palestinian partner with which Israel can negotiate and, second, there is nothing to talk about, since, in his view, the Palestinians just want to destroy Israel. Sharon’s plan makes no pretense of actually resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is “conflict management,” not “conflict resolution.”  Chazan and many others in the Israeli peace camp realize that the exclusive focus on Gaza is distracting from, and indirectly justifying, additional Israeli settlement in the West Bank, a development that prejudices the future possibility of a viable Palestinian state.

Chazan’s analysis is too thoughtful and complex to be covered in this short summary. Her views are ably presented in her regular column in the Jerusalem Post, including the recently published ”The Sharon Doctrine” and “Coordination of Chaos.”

While quoting a Jewish saying that prophesy is for children and fools, and pointing out that she is no child, Chazan was willing to give her prognosis for the short term. She thinks that during September and October, one of two major directions will be established for the coming months. This is a crucial period because of looming elections in the Palestinian and the Israeli communities, and major religious observances for both Jews (Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur) and Muslims (Ramadan). Either Sharon will continue – and be allowed to continue – his unilateralist approach to managing the conflict, OR, the international community, especially the United States, will force him to enter negotiations that will result in creation of a viable Palestinian state along the lines of the Road Map, the Geneva Accords and the international consensus for solving the problem.

Chazan described option #1, continued unilateral action, along lines very similar to those detailed to us by Uri Avnery the day before. Sharon wants to establish unilaterally what Chazan calls a “Palestinian State with Provisional Borders” (PSPB). On the ground, the borders will largely follow the direction of “the Wall,” meaning Israel will permit Palestinian governance of less than 50% of the West Bank. She also predicted the United States will accept Sharon’s PSPB under the cover of the Road Map. The Palestinians will then face a dilemma not unlike that currently faced by the Israeli peace camp. Will they accept this drastically compromised mini-state or hold out for a viable Palestinian state while not having the power to bring it about? Her guess is Palestinian moderates currently controlling the Palestinian Authority will be forced to accept the PSPB though it falls far short of a viable Palestinian state.

The only possible alternative would be sufficient international pressure, especially from the United States, to push for a resolution to the conflict by establishing a viable Palestinian State. While the PSPB does not preclude a negotiated settlement that creates a viable state, it postpones that possible resolution for the foreseeable future. Ironically, Sharon’s moves are undercutting the possibility of a viable state precisely at the time when there is an unprecedented consensus, including the U.S. administration and the majority of the Israeli public, in favor of a Two-State Solution.

Chazan made it abundantly clear she considers the reinvigorated discussion of the Single-State solution on the Israeli left and among Palestinians and their advocates abroad, to be an expression of frustration. A Two-State Solution may be a step toward an eventual political resolution resembling a single secular democratic state. But discussion now is wasting time on something that is not a serious option. Whatever government represents Israel at negotiations in the future, she is confident it will be a right-wing government that will reject any movement toward a Single State.

Chazan ended on a more positive note, observing that, for all of its shortcomings, Israeli disengagement from Gaza establishes an important precedent for the next necessary stage, Israeli disengagement from the West Bank. The success of the Gaza Disengagement, therefore, is critical. She urged us to support the United States’ recent efforts to pressure Israel to support a geographical link between Gaza and the West Bank, and to provide sufficient development assistance and security coordination to make the disengagement work.

Jerusalem

Following our meeting with Naomi Chazan, we traveled by bus to Jerusalem, with our guide Rimon pointing out highlights along the way. We had lunch at the “Peaceland Bazaar” on Nablus Road near our hotel, and then checked in to the Pilgrim’s Guest House at the St. George’s Cathedral in East Jerusalem. This guesthouse and beautiful garden area are adjacent to the Anglican Cathedral —only a short walk north of the Old City’s Damascus Gate.

After freshening up, we visited the Mount of Olives, where Rimon gave us an overview of the geography and history of Jerusalem. The bright sunlight shining off the Dome of the Rock in the Temple Mount/Haram al Shariff area of the Old City is a sight not soon forgotten. Rimon gestured as he spoke, with his hands repeatedly topping each other to reinforce the image of history, ideology and belief being layered one over the other, creating today’s incredibly complex entanglement. From our vantage point, we could see the huge gray separation wall snaking its way through the neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, far from the pre-1967 border of Israel. We could also make out various construction sites, grading of the hillsides and buildings going up, associated with the continued establishment and expansion of Israeli settlements throughout East Jerusalem. The strategy behind such changes is a subject to which we’d devote the next day.

For today, we contented ourselves with a visit to the Western Wall. King Herod originally built a large retaining wall to extend the surface area of the Second Jewish Temple. Buildings in the Old City nestle up against the retaining wall along most of its northern and western surfaces. The eastern and southern walls are incorporated in the walls surrounding the Old City. The Western Wall is an exposed section of that retaining wall facing west. Before the 1948 war, Jews entered a narrow alley to pray at the “Wailing Wall.” When Jordan retained control of the Old City after the war, Israelis were not able to visit the Western Wall at all. After Israel conquered Arab East Jerusalem during the 1967 War and regained control of the wall, Israeli authorities bulldozed a large section of housing facing the wall. An expansive open area now enables people to approach the wall directly. The plaza area is used for many functions, including religious gatherings and military ceremonies, as well as enabling crowds of people to easily access the wall. Delegates approached the sections of the wall reserved for women or men to offer their personal prayers or observe the wall and those praying there.

We all looked forward to returning to the Old City and spending more time there. For this afternoon, we returned to St. George’s guesthouse to meet with Rami Elhanan. Rami is a member of the Parents Circle, an organization of 500 Israeli and Palestinian families who have “paid the highest price” – they have lost members of their families to the violence of the ongoing conflict (www.theparentscircle.com/).

We were riveted by Rami’s account of his personal journey. He fought in the 1973 war in a tank division and was horrified when several close friends were killed. He detached himself from politics and “lived in a bubble,” growing his family and developing a successful graphics design business. His bubble burst, however, when a suicide bomber killed his 14-year-old daughter Smadar and several others at a pedestrian mall in West Jerusalem.

Elhanan explained the transformation he and his wife Nurit Peled experienced after choosing to dedicate their time and energy to helping end the causes of conflict. “We lost our daughter but not our minds,” he explained. The Parents Circle is composed of family members who have chosen the path of peace rather than hatred and revenge. In that spirit, they have launched a number of amazing initiatives: a telephone hotline enabling half a million Jews and Palestinians to speak to one another, for many callers for the first time; summer camps for children of bereaved families; more than 2,000 presentations to Israeli and Palestinian high schools last year; a project in which Israelis give blood to the Palestinian victims of Israeli violence and Palestinians donate blood to Jewish victims of Palestinian violence; and a dramatic vigil in which they placed more than a thousand coffins draped with Israeli and Palestinian flags in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv and at the United Nations in New York. Each coffin represented a person killed since September 2001. 

Our time with Rami was marked by periods of silence, as delegation members took in his words and powerful message. Rami and others from the Parents Circle have spoken in the United States as guests of returned delegates from the Interfaith Peace-Builders Program. While they support an end to the occupation of Palestinian West Bank and Gaza, the Parents circle is addressing the even deeper problems of intercommunal distance and pain. They do so by bringing families together, sharing their losses with one another, and transforming loss, grief, anger and will for revenge into building a basis for mutual respect and coexistence. Rami said their task is especially difficult in the United States: “There are very militant people there who are so willing to sacrifice our kids.” “What we have is the power of pain,” he reflected. “Pain has the power of a nuclear bomb ... With this same energy we can create cracks in this big wall dividing us. Our blood is the same blood.”

That evening we began our group debriefing by watching a television special about the Parents Circle’s summer camp for children. The children of bereaved families are able to communicate and build a bond of human friendship. We discussed our impressions of the day’s activities. Some of us are acutely aware of their lack of historical background about the conflict. Some are overwhelmed by the amount of “religion” impacting people’s lives, often in a very negative way. Together we agreed we had been exposed to the most powerfully positive powers of the human head, as symbolized by Naomi Chazan’s presentation, and heart, embodied in Rami Elhanan. We were deeply impressed by both of them and the others whom we have met.

In fact, both heart and mind are fused in the formidable energy and the passionate commitment that Rami and Naomi bring to their work on behalf of the well being of Israelis and Palestinians. Delegate David Werlin, a union organizer from Santa Cruz, put it this way: “I see Rami and Naomi being strategic, intelligent and effective in their work; each in their own way.” Community activist Sara Todd from Louisville commented, “Hearing Rami floored me. He has chosen the ultimate way to be human, living what humanity means, and what I strive for. If I went home today, I would be a totally changed person.”

Report submitted by Scott Kennedy for the delegation

Correction: several readers have pointed out an error in Report One concerning Anne Frank’s cause of death. She actually died of typhus while at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.  We apologize for the error.