Dark Hope : Working for Peace in Israel and Palestine
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dark hope Working for Peace in Israel and Palestine DAVID SHULMAN Dark Hope Dark Hope Working for Peace in Israel and Palestine david shulman The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London david shulman The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 is the Renee´ Lang The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London Professor of Humanistic C 2007 by The University of Chicago Studies in the Department All rights reserved. Published 2007 of Comparative Religion at Printed in the United States of America the Hebrew University of 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 1 2 3 4 5 Jerusalem. He is the author isbn-13: 978-0-226-75574-8 (cloth) or coauthor of many isbn-10: 0-226-75574-6 (cloth) books, including The Hungry God: Hindu Tales of Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Filicide and Devotion, also Shulman, David. published by the Press. Dark Hope: working for peace in Israel and Palestine / Originally published as David Shulman. Taayush:ë Journal d’un p. cm. combat pour la paix, Israel¨ “Originally published as Taëayush: Journal d’un combat Palestine 2002–2005, pour la paix, Israel¨ Palestine 2002–2005”—CIP datasheet. C Editions du Seuil, 2006, isbn-13: 978-0-226-75574-8 (cloth: alk. paper) Collection La Librairie du isbn-10: 0-226-75574-6 (cloth: alk. paper) XXIe siecle,` sous la 1. Arab-Israeli conflict—1993—Peace. 2. Peace direction de Maurice movements—Israel. 3.Taëayush (Organization)— Olender. Political activity. 4. Palestinian Arabs—Government policy—Israel. I. Title. ds119.76.s783 2007 956.9405 4—dc22 2006035630 ∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1992. For Yigal, Leena, and all the Taayushotë and Taayushimë and in memory of Abbie Ziffren, who would have been with us, and of Samir Dari, shot by the border police in Isawiyya, November 9, 2005 Hell is realizing that one did not help when one could have. «james mawdsley, The Heart Must Break » Contents Acknowledgments ix 1 Introduction 1 2 Jinba, Twaneh, the South Hebron Hills 12 3 Jerusalem: Isawiyya, Mount Scopus, ëAnata, Silwan 64 4 Samaria: Salfit, Yanun, Banu Hassan 102 5 Saying No 118 6 The Wall: Maskha, Abu Dis, Ar-Ram, Bilëin 144 7 Epilogue 208 Postscript 213 Glossary 221 Select Dramatis Personae 225 Acknowledgments I thank Nita Shechet, Adina Hoffman, Peter Cole, Richie Cohen, Shlomit Cohen, Edly Dollar, Gabriel Levin, Yigal Bronner, Charles Malamoud, and Maurice Olender: who brought this book into being. 1 Introduction I am an Israeli. I live in Jerusalem. I have a story, not yet finished, to tell. Hence these notes that, however one-sided they may be, speak of my own small slice of the reality in Israel and the occupied ter- ritories in the unhappy years 2002–2006. Throughout this period I did as many others did: I went to demonstrations; wrote letters to the minister of defense and the chief prosecutor of the army and the prime minister; went on convoys bringing food and med- ical supplies to Palestinian villages; was beaten up by settlers— the usual protocol for those active in the Israeli peace camp. I also read newspapers, taught my classes at the university, went to In- dia, listened to music. Life went on as it always does, even in the midst of worsening disaster. Like the rest of us, I was given a choice, or rather many re- curring moments in which choice was possible. I was privileged to serve in the ranks of Taëayush, Arab-Jewish Partnership, an organization of volunteers set up in the early days of the so-called Al-Aqsa Intifada, in October 2000. As its name implies, Taëayush (Arabic for “Living together,” “Partnership”) is a mixed group of Palestinians and Israelis dedicated to the pursuit of peace, to ending the occupation, and to civic equality within Israel proper. Volunteers come from all walks of life and from every corner of 2 Chapter One Israel’s reality. Most are younger than I (and no doubt more ef- fective). I do not use the word “privilege” lightly; in my eyes, these people tend to be extraordinary. They have emerged, as if from nowhere, out of the terror and cruelty of life in Israel-Palestine during these years. They embody a certain sober hope. Some are mentioned repeatedly by name in the reports that follow. Many people, it seems, are not aware that an active Israeli peace movement exists. Even in Israel, Taëayush and other orga- nizations impinge upon the lives of relatively few Israelis; even those who have heard the names tend to know rather little about what we do. Some Israelis, naturally, hate us. In their eyes, we are aiding and abetting the enemy. The public media sometimes con- tributes to this distorted vision by creating artificial symmetries: the violent settlers on the extreme right are deliberately paired, especially on the TV news channels, with the so-called extremists of the left. This creates a pleasant sense of balance and positions reporters and editors somewhere safe and comfortable, in the very heart of what they like to describe as “the consensus.” In fact, nothing could be more misleading. Most Israeli peace activists— I speak from long experience—are moderate, sensible people who abhor violence of any kind. Perhaps they are extreme in their gentle moderation. They have nothing whatsoever in com- mon with the fanatics among the settlers and the politicians who support them. Make no mistake: Israel, like any society, has violent, socio- pathic elements. What is unusual about the last four decades in Israel is that many destructive individuals have found a haven, complete with ideological legitimation, within the settlement enterprise. Here, in places like Chavat Maon, Itamar, Tapuach, and Hebron, they have, in effect, unfettered freedom to terrorize the local Palestinian population; to attack, shoot, injure, some- times kill—all in the name of the alleged sanctity of the land and of the Jews’ exclusive right to it. There is a mystery, a historical conundrum, embedded in the fact that Israel, once a home to utopian idealists and humanists, should have engendered and given free rein to a murderous, also Introduction 3 ultimately suicidal, messianism. Did our deepest values, the hu- mane heart of the Jewish tradition, always contain with them these seeds of self-righteous terror? Do these two modes inevi- tably intersect? If I look deeply into myself, I can identify—side by side with hope, faith, and a certain embryonic capacity for empathy—the same dark forces that are active among the most predatory of the settlers. I, too, am capable of hate and of polar- izing the world. Perhaps the balance, individual or collective, is always precarious. Here is a reason to act. In the absence of other recourse, Taëayush and many like- minded organizations—Gush Shalom, Bat Shalom, Machsom Watch, HaMoked, B’Tselem, the Rabbis for Human Rights, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Yesh Gvul, and many others—have tried to step into the gap, to both protect innocent Palestinian populations and keep the hope of peace alive in the Israeli public arena. This book aims at showing some- thing of the Israeli peace movement in action, on the basis of one individual’s very limited experience, in the hope of reaching out both to other Israelis and to wider circles within the international community. It is not a history of the search for peace in Israel- Palestine nor a systematic description of our work during the Al- Aqsa Intifada. Someday, I am sure, a historian will tell the larger story. That is not my task. I want to give you some sense of what it feels like to be a part of this struggle and of why we do it. I hope my grandchildren will be proud of me. More important, I hope and believe that we can still effect a real change. ›››‹‹‹ I suppose I should tell you something, at least, of my idiosyncratic history and my politics; perhaps I can string together a story about my slow and rather reluctant move toward political involvement. It was not really part of my makeup. I write poetry, teach Sanskrit at university, read texts in various other exotic languages; in general, I need large open spaces and plentiful time to think. I’m a slow reader. I have a family—my wife, Eileen, three grown sons, and two grandsons. Political work takes time (ask Eileen). 4 Chapter One It also tends to force one into open conflict with a recalcitrant, opaque, and ambiguous reality that, at best, as Rilke said, “coolly disdains to destroy us.” Politics, in short, is not my metier.´ So for many years I, like many of my colleagues, went into a kind of internal exile, be- coming more and more alienated from wider Israeli society. The rise of the Israeli right, from 1977 on, shocked me, infuriated me, and undermined my faith in the world I lived in. A raucous, viciously self-righteous tone came to dominate public life; Men- achem Begin was its first prophet or, better, demagogue. His ac- tions followed his words—in this sense, Begin was an honest man. The results, in my view, were catastrophic; I watched in horror as Israel rapidly transformed itself into a paranoid, smug, and rather violent ghetto. But let me go back to the beginning. I was not born here. Like my parents before me, I was born in the tranquil flatlands of Iowa, a land of cornfields and the vast, open sky.