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Sep

12

Finally, NYT profiles Palestinain-Israeli Arab-Israeli Jew stories of hope


I do feel badly that I have been so consumed by the return home, the start of school, my paid writing and the presidential elections that I’ve not taken the time and care necessary to write about the amazing people and places I visited and learned about in Israel.

One such experience revolves around the area not far from Jenin, a West Bank city profiled here in today’s New York Times (I apologize for the long excerpt but it is so perfect – this is a mirror of what I heard about from the Mayor of the Israeli Arab town West Barta’a, which is within the Israeli border but is split by the Green Line, though not the security fence, from its almost literal twin, East Barta which is in the West Bank – this Wikipedia entry does a passable job explaining the situation):

Gilboa, the Israeli region that abuts Jenin, is an unusual and unusually well-suited neighbor. Small and rural with 30,000 people, it is 40 percent Arab and 60 percent Jewish and the inhabitants have worked assiduously to create their own kind of model — of Arab-Jewish coexistence in Israel.

An example was on display last month when high school students in Gilboa took part in what may be the only one of its kind in the world — the finals for the Bible-Koran contest. Twelve teams, each made up of one Jew and one Arab, were asked questions in both Hebrew and Arabic about the holy books. A mixed team of Jewish and Muslim teachers acted as judges. An Israeli Arab was the master of ceremonies.

Isaac Herzog, Israel’s minister of social welfare, was on hand and told the audience that Gilboa was a model for Israel, that every Israeli Jew should learn the Koran, that equality of opportunity should be the norm.

The head of the Gilboa regional council, Daniel Atar, is a Jew and his deputy, Eid Salem, is an Arab. Together they have built a warm relationship with the Palestinian governor of the Jenin area, Qadoura Moussa. The three meet frequently to formulate plans for economic cooperation in agriculture and commerce. Together, they have visited the French-German border area and Switzerland, seeking models of coexistence.

“There are two kinds of peace,” Mr. Atar said one recent afternoon in his office with Mr. Salem at his side. “There is the one on a piece of paper that doesn’t stand up to any test and there is the one built from the bottom up. That is the one we are hoping to build. It is increasingly clear that if Israeli Jews cannot figure out how to have good relations with Israeli Arabs, there won’t be peace beyond the borders, either. We have a choice in Israel of making peace or living in a bunker.”

One result of the discussions among the three leaders is a decision by the Israeli authorities to allow some Israeli Arabs into Jenin on a daily basis for the first time since the intifada. It has been a delicate move made with little fanfare because in principle it is illegal to allow certain Israeli citizens to do something others may not and also because movement across the boundary invites the possibility of security breaches.

It is delicate for another reason. In recent years, Israeli Jews have grown worried that among the 1.3 million Arabs who are Israeli citizens, there is a growing radicalization and identification with the Palestinian national cause and militant Islam. Increasing their contact with the West Bank could add to those concerns.

But Israeli Arabs have relatives here and want to do business here, and the Israeli authorities say they want to encourage that as a means of helping the Palestinian economy. If Israeli Arabs are permitted to do that in large numbers, that could represent an important change in their status in the eyes of Israeli Jews — from potential fifth column to bridge builder.

The program through which I got to see Barta’a is called Givat Haviva.  There should be hundreds more like it throughout the Middle East.

You want to wage war on terrorism?  The future begins and ends with programs like Givat Haviva.

Intrigued about Barta’a and what the hell I’m talking about? Read this superb article by Lydia Aisenberg,which includes photos from places I visited in Barta’a and places I saw. After spending three or four hours with her, I knew that ff I’d never come back to the U.S. in 1985, I know now where I would have ended up and what I would have ended up doing.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:29 am September 12th, 2008 in Culture, Foreign Affairs, Israel, Jewish, leadership, Media, Politics, Predictions, Writing 

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