Roads to Reconciliation in the Middle East
Palestinian and Israeli peace activists Zoughbi Zoughbi (left) and Judith Green (below) spoke at UMass Amherst on November 9, 1998 about their experiences trying to build bridges across "enemy" lines. The was the second of two programs sponsored by the Office of Jewish Affairs, the Karuna Center for Peacebuilding, and Friends of Bosnia, exploring "Roads to Reconciliation: Peacebuilding in the Former Yugoslavia and the Middle East."
(For information about the companion program, click here.)
Palestinian, Israeli activists build bridges across “enemy” lines
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By Melody Wilensky
The Jewish Advocate
November 20, 1998
We are coming on different roads, with different scenery, but perhaps to the same end point, said Judith Green, an Israeli participant in “Roads to Reconciliation: Peacebuilding in the Middle East,” a symposium held at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on November 9, 1998.
Green along with several other speakers were in the United States as Brandeis University International Fellows in Co-existence. They joined four other activists from each of the major ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia [Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian], plus a leader of the Sarajevo Jewish community, in a series of local talks about their experiences crossing ethnic boundaries to create dialogue and build community across “enemy” lines.
Green, who emigrated from the U.S. to Israel in 1973, is one of the founders of the Rapprochement Dialogue Center in Jerusalem, which fosters dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians. The other participant in the Middle East panel was Palestinian Zoughbi Zoughbi, director of the Wi’am Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center in Bethlehem.
Zoughbi, who participates in workshops through the Jerusalem Arbitration Center, said his work focuses on what he calls “the arms of dialogue rather than the dialogue of arms” and on building relationships that promote “warm” peace between the two cultures.
“Two million Palestinians are besieged and the media will not talk about state violence nor about peace groups looking at social transformation. There are mistaken, distorted images of Palestinians. Either we are terrorists or fundamentalists,” he said.
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Green framed her comments within a “typical day in the life of an Israeli peace activist.” She described the difficulties and ambiguities of maneuvering between territories and cultures. Poorly maintained roads and “many different varieties of [political, emotional, and physical] roadblocks” make travel uncertain and difficult.
For example, there was an “immediate feeling of distress” the day after the Wye Plantation agreement was reached, as another bombing occurred and she was forced to cancel a “Play for Peace” workshop, which teaches play and interdependence among kids from different cultures.
Later in her day, Green coordinated the taping of a Palestinian television program styled like an American town meeting to discuss issues of housing, health, city taxes and ways of “getting around the [political] situation.” The constant threat of bulldozers demolishing housing settlements built without the proper permits-“which are almost impossible to get,” she said-are important to discuss, as it affects the daily lives of the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem.
Green cautioned students “not to trust people to come to the bargaining table with good will,” adding, “there are ethical dilemmas and misunderstandings and people are stubborn...” She criticized Israeli students for protesting a recent tuition hike [while ignoring the more enduring problems surrounding the Palestinian/Israeli conflict].
In an apparent effort to diffuse the holy fervor that surrounds Jerusalem, Green said, “Most of Jerusalem isn’t particularly holy. Most of it is a city like Boston or San Francisco. This is the real Jerusalem; this is the earthly Jerusalem,” she said.
When asked by an audience member if he had “a blank check from God” what would it be for, Zoughbi gave a comprehensive wish list that included [human rights for the Palestinian and Israeli] people, land [for a Palestinian state], water, and the creation of a “different chemistry to bring justice,” he said. “In addition to these 99 things, I can list 99 others,” he added.
Zoughbi said he is bothered by “$4 million that goes to settlements instead of [hospitals]. Money shouldn’t go for enslavement of other nations. We don’t have oil, we have olive oil,” he said. “Politics and ethics need to co-exist.”
Green said she would like to see “a change of heart in the Israeli people, a change of consciousness that is not forced because of terrorism and violence, economics and security, or pushing from the U.S.”
She said she feels “pretty much ignored by the Israeli government,” but also that “change can’t be imposed from the top. If people at home haven’t accepted it, [peace] won’t happen.”
Reprinted with permission of The Jewish Advocate. All rights reserved.
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