Assi and the late Abu Saffi, playing. Just people . . .
Today I spent time with Eyal and Assi, visiting a number of Palestinian friends in the villages in Masafar Yata, in preparation for an event that is being prepared for Shavuot, an event where Israelis will have the opportunity to meet, get to know and hear from the local Palestinian residents about life in the area.
I came away with a simple conclusion, even more than before: They are just people. Human beings. They live their lives, as do the rest of the people in the world, except, maybe, for a surprising degree of tolerance that enables them not to react violently to violence. (Also, their names are a little different - Aziz, Muhammad, Salim... and their skin is a little darker. But is that really such a big deal?). Just people, not violent, not fundamentalists, not dangerous. Plain folks. Just different enough to make a big story out of it, create a conflict out of it and imagine fantasies about 'them'.
In one of the meetings, I asked one of the friends with whom we met, "But really, I want to know, aren't there Palestinians in this village who also act violently and want to harm Israelis?" Because it really doesn't make sense. And he answered, "No. If you check, you will see that since 7/10, and even before, there have been no cases of violence here, not even throwing stones at settlers.'' When he said that, I remembered a conversation I had with someone from one of the neighboring (Jewish) settlements, a member of the village emergency squad. I asked him if there had been any acts of Palestinian violence since 10/7. He said, no, none at all.
After 7.10 there was a lot of talk in Israel about a second Operation Guardian of the Walls (a confrontation between Israel and Gaza in May, 2021, which also spilled over into the West Bank). This did not happen. They were afraid of a flare-up in Jerusalem. It did not happen. There was no real flare-up in the West Bank, either. A few weeks ago, I met with Hadassah Froman, the widow of Rabbi Menachem Froman (a founding member of Gush Emunim, and chief rabbi of Tekoa in the West Bank, who promoted interfaith dialogue between Jews, Christians and Muslims). I was surprised myself by how much she thinks we should stop giving way to our fears, which make us feel defensive, and attack.
So maybe it is possible to rely more and more on direct encounters with reality and not on what we hear around us? In the last few months, I have spent a lot of time in Masaper Yata, meeting people, getting to know them, sleeping the night there, sitting around, seeing the desert, drinking tea. To see these people just living their lives. Really, nothing special. Only they aren’t allowed to just get on with their lives. They are under constant pressure, subjected to individual and institutional violence. And this just has to stop. Then they can really live a normal life, without violence. Nothing special about that. They might even get used to it.
The more I stay in Masaper Yata, find myself in the “(Occupied) Territories", hear Arabic, see the land, experience daily life, the more I feel relaxed in the face of all these stories. I really feel like I am recovering from trauma, the trauma of fearing Palestinians.
So now, we need simply to stop what prevents this life from being normal, stop the individual and institutional violence.
Come to Masaper Yata, meet ordinary people.
(tr. Yonathan (Jon) Anson, anon@bgu.ac.il)
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