Perspectives

Wednesday night and Thursday night we heard speakers on the Palestinian and Israeli perspectives (respectively) of the religious-cultural conflict.

The contrasts were obvious. Xavier, the Palestinian Liberation Organization representative, arrived in a suit, with a powerpoint presentation prepared, a published communications document to leave with us and offered facts and statistics to support the claim of abuse of power, subjugation and occupation on the part of the Israelis. We nodded in agreement, shook our heads in disbelief and shuffled in our chairs in discomfort and anger and the injustice and the difficulty of bridging peace when physical barriers continue to be built.

Yakir, the Israeli representative who volunteers for Kids4Peace, teaches at Hebrew University and continues to work in the special "body parts retrieval" forces for the Israeli military, arrived in sneakers, well-worn jeans and a motorcycle jacket, and admitted he forgot the information packets in his office. He opened by asking each of us what kinds of questions we have so he could build his talk based on them.

And we didn't hold back. We asked about the Holocaust, about the "security" wall, about the military presence and training, about the threat of terrorism, about the blatant oppression and appearance of aparteid, and about the possibility of peace and the existence of hope.

He was humble, honest, forthcoming and his main point was very giving: we need to stop pointing our fingers and saying we act the way we do in response to what 'they' do, and instead, turn the finger on ourselves to ask what we're doing that makes 'them' have such a reaction. He acknoweledged the use of the Holocaust by some Jews as a crutch on which to defend their actions, and stated his generation (he looked to be in his mid-30s) are sick of hearing about it/talking aobut/and dealing with the fallout of the trauma of it. *That said, in no way did he advocate forgetting or disprespecting the horror of the event*. He described (but did not condone) the rationale of the settlements. He also spoke of the future and why he works with Kids4Peace to help educate and expose both Israeli and Palestinian children to the reality, so that the future generations see each other as human and as those vulnerable to pain, so they can work to forge peace.

During Q&A, I thanked him for his candidacy and humility in the face of some tough questions and I vocalized how I was pointing my finger at myself: That I had come into the presentation with obvious bias. I took the political tour of Jerusalem led by a Palestinian and we heard the Palestinian perspective the night before. It is impossible to ignore or disagree with. We can witness the effects and touch the reality of the oppression of the wall. I figured there was no way I was going to sympathetic to his cause. I was wrong.

In reflecting over dinner tonight about the difference of Xavier and Yakir, we figured their clothing and presentation styles were intentional. Xavier, coming from the lets say, disadvantaged side of the conflict, "dressed the part" to meet us as equals. Yakir, dressed down, to humble himself, to be 'one of the people' and show his humanity--an important contrast to the military and police uniforms we often immediately identify with the Israelis.

Both Xavier and Yakir offered some great insights into the conflict from how they see it--opening our eyes, our minds and our hearts. They gave us something to reflect on and something to take away/home.