To Support PeaceBearing:
It’s 1:00 a.m. I awaken for the second time this night. Now, on a stage not far from my home, two comedians are shouting into a microphone and are trying to shake the outer peels of our sleeping lives. The first time I was woken by bursts of fireworks and shrieking voices screaming: “LIVE! BREAK OUT! Get out of your somber sadness! Memorial Day is over, Now be Happy ….”
This dramatization recurs every year, and between “Remember & Forget” the following questions arise: Who am I? Where am I? What is our task in the world? And, within this lack of empathy, I find myself thinking of all those who have lost a dear one –and what they are going through, and my heart is with them. For them there is no single annual Memorial Day; every moment, every second of their lives, they remember and pay a heavy price for all of us.
A year ago, we were all in lockdown and an unnatural quiet filled this "annoying" (independence) day. (In Hebrew, just 2 letters change the word from “independence” to “annoying”). However, …. the day was more intimate, more considerate of all people; there was less ego involved, time for inner observation and acknowledging how sorrow and happiness flow through our lives. Perhaps now there is a ground here to allow the seed of personal responsibility to sprout: What do I want to take from my own experience, and that of my ancestors, to pass on to the coming generations and what would I happily give up? What enables human beings to develop a sense of genuine humanity and what prevents us from seeing a reality of humanity and simplicity from within compassion and wisdom?
These thoughts, regarding what we have learned from this year of lockdowns and isolations, accompanied me during the past few weeks and I decided to act upon them. I initiated an invitation on that day – to be honest, my wife Eliel and I never celebrate Independence Day and not only because we prefer not to participate in the “barbecues festival”. Something at that moment is not comfortable for me. From Memorial to Forgetting – maybe it’s the weird feeling of celebrating at a time when another is in deep mourning for the loss of a loved one, or for a home that no longer exists.
I, therefore, organised a meeting between the people from the two groups which are considered on the extreme ends in the area of southern Mt. Hebron – “Settlers” and “Palestinians” – these noted in the acceptable quotation marks – as well as several other people from all over the country. We met in the afternoon in an obviously small Palestinian village immediately over the border from Meitar. This is the month of Ramadan, so that the regular rituals of tea and coffee were delayed until the sun set. Meanwhile, together, we prepared the festive meal; the women sat together and chopped vegetables for salads, cooked rice and connected with one another, with few shared words but much understanding from the heart. The men sat together chatting, while rolling balls of dates and nuts which would serve as a desert to the meal. With the setting of the sun, the Ramadan fast is broken and we all sat together to eat the festive meal. Within a short while both Independence Day and the Day of Nakba (which is actually the day of occupation) disappeared and we simply became a group of women and men finding a connection, with many children, boys and girls, playing together, drawing pictures and simply enjoying themselves.
How did I arrive at this moment?
I needed the earth of Beersheba to tremble beneath my feet in 2008 in order to wake up and understand the history created by not only those who talk and do, but also by those many, in fact the majority, who continue to be silent in the belief that there is nothing that they can do to change anything – that was when there arose in me the strong feeling that I could no longer support the keeping of heads in the sand and waiting for something to change. I began a journey that enabled me to accept what my grandparents had created here, when they founded the State; from respect for existential need but also from understanding that there is a need to change and to become clearer in what I want to bequeath here to my children. To create a place in which caring and consideration was more evident, acceptance of the other and a shared co-operative filled with a sense, not of hatred of the other, but love of all. Since then, I have been travelling to southern Mt. Hebron on a weekly basis, once or twice a week, the essence of which, when the winds of energy blow into me, I try to capture in words and to write to all of you so that you don’t fall asleep and to remind you that there is much to improve for the future of all of us. The meeting which I organised on Independence Day was such a moment in which I put vision into action in my residential are of Meitar.
Many times, I am asked whether I belong to some or other organization. My reply is that I belong to the “Organization of my Heart”. I do not belong to any formal organization but operate according to the dictation of my heart. I am certainly helped and supported by organizations such as the Interfaith Encounter Association; and the Roots Initiative, as well as several independent friends. However, I continue to operate on my own personal account and time. And to my joy, the sprouts of this can already be seen.
If your hearts have been touched by anything related to my activities, it is most certainly possible to participate in events similar to that which we organised on Independence Day, or to join me in a visit to those areas where the imprisoned people live. If you cannot join physically in a trip to these areas but believe in the way to a genuine peace, you can support the Journey to Peace from afar – I shall be happy if you spread the news of this to others, maybe join the circle, or contribute to the continuation of my activities which I am trying to bring into our lives here.
To Support PeaceBearing:
Comments