THEGOODNEIGHBOR As a Zionist soldier, civil-rights advocate, and pioneer of joint nonviolent activism between Israelis and Palestinians, Hillel Bardin has dedicated most of his adult life to the pursuit of a most elusive peace. BY TREY POPP

ILLUSTRATION BY EMILIANO PONZI

32 NOV | DEC 2014 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE NOV | DEC 2014 33 defining moment of Mazen Bank four months into the Palestinian “When our unit arrived in Jericho for The Badra’s life as a father came popular uprising. our first real taste of the intifada,” Bardin during the second year of the First Intifada. Bardin was born in Mandate Palestine recalls, “the company commander of the It was 1989, and the 31-year-old Palestinian in 1935, but spent his formative years in outgoing reserve unit taught us the ropes. was returning from Birzeit University in the United States. The eruption of World He said that we would find this to be an the West Bank, where he had recently War II in 1939, during a family trip to visit entirely different experience from any- begun teaching business administration, his maternal grandfather in America, thing we had done in the army. He said to his home in Beit Sahour, a village that prevented their return. Yet Israel’s pull that he had commanded soldiers who had abuts the eastern flank of Bethlehem. was strong for Bardin, who from his early supported the Peace Now movement, but When Badra arrived, his house was filled adulthood to the present day has consid- after they saw what was going on, they with anxious neighbors. ered himself “first and foremost a Zionist had changed their thinking 180 degrees. His five-year-old son, the middle of who sees the necessity of the Jewish home- He showed us that he kept a bottle with three children, had locked himself land as an unassailable issue.” At 30 he some gasoline in his jeep at all times, so behind a bedroom door in terror. Badra moved to Jerusalem with his wife, Anita. that if he killed a Palestinian, he could quickly learned why. For reasons no one Apart from several years pursuing higher convince the inquiry that the Palestinian would ever understand, a passing Jewish education back in the States—Bardin had thrown a Molotov cocktail. When the settler had sprung out of a car, chased came to Penn to study computer science Palestinians closed their stores for the the child down, and pinned him to the between 1967 and 1971, during which time daily strikes called by the intifada’s lead- ground to beat him. he also worked at the medical school’s ers, he demonstrated how he destroyed “The neighbors estimated that the man Institute for Environmental Medicine— the front of a poor man’s shop by driving was about 45 years old,” Badra recalls. Israel has been home ever since. his jeep through its locked front door.” “He had his wife and other people in the Bardin, a secular Jew with a pensive face Bardin’s military tour in Jericho was car. He put a gun to my son’s head, while framed by a springy beard that has faded filled with cognitive dissonance. He his foot was on my son’s body.” from brown to white, was not a run-of-the- watched European tourists visiting the Through the locked door Badra tried to mill army reservist. His unassuming site where John is said to have baptized assure his little boy that the family’s home demeanor concealed what Penn history Jesus, Arabs who largely modeled dignity was safe. He pled for nearly two hours professor Michael Zuckerman C’61, who and nonviolence by day even when before his son opened the door. After that, befriended him as a junior faculty member Molotov cocktails lit up the night, and an the young boy made a pledge that his and fellow kindergarten parent in occupying army whose behavior ranged father has never been able to forget. Philadelphia, calls an “ethical athleticism.” from willful cruelty to noble restraint. “He said, ‘Dad,’—now remember, he’s “He knows what he thinks is right and “It was hard to understand what was five years old—and he said, ‘Dad, when I what he thinks is wrong, and he thinks going on,” Bardin writes in A Zionist grow up, I want to buy a gun, and I want that right and wrong have to be con- Among Palestinians, a long-incubating to kill that person.’ nected to your life,” Zuckerman says. memoir published in 2012 by Indiana “That was a turning point in my life,” “Yet he had a remarkable gift for making University Press. “We were prepared to Badra says, 25 years later. “I was left with clear that what he did was what he did, kill children throwing Molotovs, yet were three options. One, do nothing about it: let and that no one else was expected to be casually relaxed with the population of your son live with fear and trauma and like him. I never experienced Hillel as this rebelling town. I was confused, but nightmares and God knows what. Two, self-righteous, or holier than me.” my actual contact with Palestinians was raise your son with the desire for hate and In Jerusalem, where Zuckerman recon- strangely reassuring.” revenge. Or three, try to change the situa- nected with his friend as a visiting professor The day his reserve stint ended, Bardin tion for you, your family, and your people. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in ventured into Jericho as a civilian to make “That was my choice, and it wasn’t 1977 and 1978, Bardin had an unusual sense of what was going on. Dressed in going to be an easy choice,” he continues. knack for getting along with his neighbors, running shorts, he made his way on foot “I needed to reach out to, quote-unquote, including some of the Arabs in nearby Sur to the home of a released prisoner he had my enemies.” Bahir, a village located a mile away from encountered while on guard duty in a And so it came to pass that Badra’s life his apartment in the upscale Arnona quar- detention facility. The man, whose hand became enmeshed with that of Hillel ter. Yet unremarkably for a Jew living in the was still bandaged where it had been Bardin GEE’74. Holy Land at that time, Bardin was hardly struck with a billy club, invited Bardin in. eager for the city’s Arab population to grow. They talked. Bardin was taken aback 1989, Bardin was a longtime “I had a way of thinking about things: that by “the unexpected experience of meeting IN resident of Jerusalem who had they were the enemy, and you don’t want an Arab with moderate political views.” continued to volunteer as an active them to multiply,” Bardin recalled in a recent “From the Israeli press I had understood reserve soldier in the Israeli army into interview, pausing to remark on the casual that the intifada was a new method for his early 50s, even though compulsory racism that informed that attitude. achieving the Arabs’ age-old goal of throw- military service ended at age 45. The It was an attitude that was hardening ing us into the sea,” Bardin writes. “Yet year before, he’d done a three-and-a-half around Bardin when he reported for Sa’ed was obviously one of the rare Arab week tour of duty in the occupied West military duty in the spring of 1988. moderates with whom we could really

34 NOV | DEC 2014 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE make peace … Everything he said seemed Center for Rapprochement between Peoples with those people, especially Hillel and a acceptable to me, unbelievably so.” (PCR) was founded in the West Bank; Bardin few more people … Now I have friends, Bardin warned his host not to speak helped to charter the Rapprochement people that I care about and who care about so openly; if his neighbors should over- Dialogue Center (RDC) in Israel. me. And that’s what makes a difference. I hear, surely his life would be in danger. Nearly 30 years later—even against the don’t think about them as enemies anymore. Sa’ed replied that the truth was quite the backdrop of the 2014 war in Gaza—joint I care about them and I know they care about contrary. All his neighbors favored a Israeli-Palestinian civilian activism is com- me. That’s the power of this activity: the peaceful two-state solution. monplace (see sidebar, p. 36). But at the human contact, the human touch.” “If that’s really so,” Bardin said, “what time, Bardin’s approach was unusual As the groups pivoted from dialogues to if I bring a group of my friends and neigh- enough that the Israeli Interior Ministry demonstrations aimed at shifting public bors from Jerusalem. Would you be will- blocked the RDC’s registration until the opinion, the challenge grew more daunting. ing to bring some of your neighbors Association for Civil Rights in Israel took Bardin, who describes himself as a “very together so that we can hear what people the matter to court. And even apart from shy person who has trouble being forceful,” are really thinking?” bureaucratic obstacles, the social and eco- emerged as what Badra calls “the back- The Palestinian’s immediate agreement nomic barrier between Israelis and bone, at least from the Israeli side,” of the was the first in a chain of events that would Palestinians was a high one. endeavor. “He helped even families not take Bardin’s life in a completely new—and “A lot of Israelis don’t meet Palestinians involved in the dialogues, who were at that time quite unusual—direction. on equal footing,” says Daniel Rohrlich, attacked by either soldiers or settlers. He one of several participants in Bardin’s dia- helped them find lawyers, legal advice.” ardin’s memoir is a chronicle of his efforts to foster peace and Bmutual understanding between “It’s not only that you Jews and Palestinians from that day to this. His journey was shaped by the cir- cumstances unique to the Holy Land dur- have enemies meet, but ing and after the First Intifada, but it illuminates a challenge that principled men and women have faced in many times enemies sleep together and places. How can a private citizen, with no special position or influence, pursue justice and reconciliation that his com- in the same house munity’s leaders are failing to achieve? Within a few days of his conversation with Sa’ed, Bardin returned with 10 under the same roof.” Israeli neighbors who met with about a dozen Palestinian men and women. The logue groups who reflected on the experi- “Hillel was very, very active,” recalls latter were mostly young, but included ence in recent phone interviews with the Jalal Qumsiyeh, a former teacher in Beit farmers, students, and—as Bardin would Gazette. “They meet them as subjects, or Sahour’s Palestinian community, who is discover only later, after the 1993 Oslo they meet them as employees, or they now 71. “He used to give us a lot of cre- Accords—a high-ranking member of might meet them as bosses—though that’s ative ideas, and suggest activities that Yassir Arafat’s Fatah Party in Jericho. much less frequent. We were meeting them were very successful. So he contributed “People talked freely and openly. The lack on level ground. I felt I was seeing things a lot to this part of our joint work.” of hostility was remarkable, considering from more points of view. Since the Israeli army forbade even that these people were living under our very “That enriched my experience of Israel nonviolent demonstrations in the West harsh occupation,” Bardin writes. “And it greatly,” he says, “because I was seeing Bank, and Palestinians deemed to be was remarkable for us to see how we, as what a lot of Israelis don’t get to see.” collaborating with Israel were punished Israelis, could be sitting in Palestinian The same was true for Palestinian by their own political leadership (includ- homes without concern for our security.” families who participated, many of ing by execution, as the Associated Press Further meetings in Jericho led to the whom—particularly the children—had estimated upwards of 800 were during subsequent formation of dialogue groups only interacted with Israeli soldiers and the First Intifada), creativity was imper- in other communities, including Beit Jewish settlers bearing arms. For Badra, ative. And Bardin had a particular knack Sahour, where Bardin joined forces with a who got involved in the Beit Sahour for coming up with modes of public group of (mostly Christian) Palestinians group early on, changing that dynamic expression that the army was hard- organized by a Palestinian physics profes- was a cathartic experience. pressed, at least temporarily, to stymie. sor named Ghassan Andoni. A series of “It was a venue for me to vent out, a venue The avid jogger persuaded the American semi-clandestine meetings led to the paral- for me to listen to the other side and hear magazine Runner’s World to sponsor lel establishment of two official peace- their own stories,” he remembers. “I really, “Runners for Peace.” In Bethlehem, Aideh, building organizations. The Palestinian really looked forward all the time to meeting and Jerusalem, Palestinian and Israeli

THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE NOV | DEC 2014 35 joggers ran side-by-side in T-shirts bear- of the most intriguing aspects of A Zionist “Oh yeah? Then where were their guns?” ing the magazine’s logo above the slogan Among Palestinians—telegraphed in the For Badra, it crystallized so much of what “We Want Peace between Palestine and book’s title—is Bardin’s approach to resolv- he hoped for from the Rapprochement Israel, Each Free and Secure,” printed in ing the tension between his commitments groups’ activities. Hebrew, Arabic, and English in the colors to both Zionism and the Palestinians whose “It’s not only that you have enemies meet, of the Israeli and Palestinian flags. cause he also came to embrace. but enemies sleep together in the same One of Bardin’s cleverest gambits, recount- The sleepover was a profound experi- house under the same roof. This is how you ed in the most inspiring section of his mem- ence. Veronika Cohen, an observant Jew make people feel safe, feel secure,” he says. oir, was hatched after the army prevented and longtime ally of Bardin’s, recalls the “We shared bread, we shared food, we shared Peace Now, a group co-founded by Israeli “unbelievable sight” of Israeli parents prayers—because there was a Christian writer Amos Oz in 1978, from holding joint handing their toddlers over a wall to priest, Muslim imam, and of course, rabbis. meetings with Palestinians in several vil- Palestinians before climbing over, and We all prayed on the bread together.” lages in 1989. Working with Andoni, Badra, “Palestinian teenagers rushing to help Perhaps even more remarkable was the and others, Bardin (who by this time had an elderly couple with their suitcases.” manner in which the groups prayed apart. evidence that his phone was tapped by Israeli Barda remembers the amazement with “The Palestinians had prepared a house in authorities) organized a sleepover in Beit which he watched his children play with the neighborhood, whose owners were cur- Sahour—cleverly timed to begin on a Friday their Jewish counterparts. rently in Saudi Arabia, to serve as a syna- just before sunset, the start of the Sabbath. “I couldn’t even tell my kids from their gogue for the religious Jews,” Bardin writes. “The army would try to kick us out,” kids,” he marvels. “That was, to me, the “After the religious Jews had finished their Bardin reasoned, “but they couldn’t force most wonderful activity ever.” prayers, we all walked in the beautiful olive- religious Jews to desecrate the Sabbath Later he distilled a remarkable bedtime filled valley, past the upper monastery of by riding, and Jerusalem was too far to conversation he’d had with his middle St. Saba to the Shepherds’ Field where, walk. We would achieve the goal of neu- son for Cohen, who wrote about it in an according to tradition, the shepherds saw tralizing the army, not clashing with it.” unpublished memoir. As he was being the star heralding the birth of Jesus.” Bardin was (and remains) committed to tucked into bed, Badra’s son protested There, Ran Cohen, a left-wing member of the army. He laments its transformation that he had been tricked. the Knesset who had joined the sleepover, into an occupying force—“a terrible disaster “How come the Israelis didn’t come,” he addressed the assembly. Unlike the sub- for decent people in Israel”—but felt a deep asked his father. “You said they would.” stantial majority of the demonstrations duty to protect Israel from enemy states. “What do you mean?” Badra replied. Bardin helped to orchestrate, this one suc- He also had a profound appreciation for the “You played with Israeli children the ceeded in generating press attention. The army’s role in integrating massive numbers whole evening.” failure of so many other efforts to garner of immigrants, from extraordinarily diverse “They were not Israelis.” publicity, which Bardin analyzes in his book, backgrounds, into Israel’s social fabric. One “Sure they were!” emerges as a poignant undertow in his Hopscotch and Pickles: ment of Folklore and Folklife), Kenneth S. Goldstein Gr’63, and Dan Ben-Amos propelled his studies at Penn. A Folklorist’s Path to Peace Lichman was also highly influenced by a project organized by fel- low student Mary Hufford Gr’89, who would later chair the Folklore hen Simon Lichman Gr’81 rolls his dusty Fiat along the and Folklife department. Hufford brought local folk artists in Cam- roads of Ein Rafa, a Palestinian-Israeli village six miles den, New Jersey, into that city’s Veterans Memorial Middle School Wwest of Jerusalem, his celebrity precedes him. At every to display their arts and crafts. At the end of the three-month pro- turn, small voices ring out and children mob the doors, smiling at gram, the local community came out for a festival in which Lichman their shaggy-haired teacher and friend. found a “marvelous feeling of a community discovering itself.” His destination is a cheerful school whose walls are lined with Lichman wanted to apply this model in Israel, but on a more per- bright pictures bearing Arabic script. A room of young students is manent basis, “so that it [would become] a part of the conscious- eager for this week’s lesson; they’ve come prepared with stories, ness of the community.” In 1991 he founded the Center for Creativ- games, and songs to teach one another, gathered from parents’ ity and Cultural Heritage (CCECH), based in Jerusalem. For some 23 and grandparents’ childhood memories. In a few weeks they’ll years, successive cohorts of children in paired Palestinian-Israeli share these bits of family folklore in an even wider circle, join- and Jewish-Israeli schools have met in their separate schools once ing their Jewish-Israeli counterparts to trade remnants of a rich a week, using family heritage as a currency for understanding. heritage that straddles political and linguistic boundaries. That’s In the first year, they focus on games: many children’s games are the part the children most look forward to, and what Lichman envi- universal, Lichman explains, but their details and methods vary sioned as a PhD student 30 years ago. based on the folkways of the children who play them. A jump-rope Lichman, who was born in London, came to Penn in 1978 after a variation may be called “Chinese Jump Rope” or “French Skipping,” false start studying folklore at the University of Leeds. While Leeds’ depending on which culture is considered the most foreign or approach to the discipline centered on the collection of artifacts, strange. Childhood pastimes offer much common ground; marble Lichman wanted to investigate living culture with those who knew it games were once played by Jews and Muslims in the dirt streets of well. Professors Henry Glassie Gr’69 (then-chair of the old Depart- Jerusalem in pre-state days. The second year is all about pickles.

36 NOV | DEC 2014 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE memoir, as well as in the reflections of his had paid a price for their activism. In Beit “Our Palestinian friends from the West peace-building partners. Sahour, where the First Intifada was char- Bank told us that the new authority, whose Calling the routine indifference of the acterized mainly by nonviolent civil dis- members had returned from lengthy exile, press a “frustration beyond frustration,” obedience, Jalal Qumsiyeh participated in were not used to working with Israelis, and Veronika Cohen remembers an instance a local dairy cooperative formed to reduce it would take them some time to get used at the beginning of the Second Intifada, the community’s dependence on Israeli to the idea,” he writes, referring to a still- which developed a markedly more violent commodities. He was imprisoned for three born effort to work with them immedi- character than the first, emblematized months in the Negev Desert. Badra, who ately after Oslo. “We are still waiting.” by suicide bombings. had participated in a civil-disobedience Accordingly, A Zionist Among Palestin- “In Jerusalem and Tel Aviv people were campaign to withhold income tax pay- ians is ultimately a meditation on both afraid to get on buses,” she recalls. “I called ments, was locked up as well. the rewards and the limitations of civilian a very close friend in Nablus, and I said, “I think they arrested me not because dialogue as a tool for social change. ‘If you could get a few hundred people to I didn’t pay taxes, but because they knew “During the First Intifada, a secret, unified go out on the street to demonstrate against my nonviolent activities through Palestinian leadership existed on both the terrorizing civilians, that would make a Rapprochement,” he says now. “To them, national and local levels,” Bardin reflects huge difference in Israel.’ She worked very that was something more dangerous in a final chapter that examines the internal hard, and she in fact organized a demon- than throwing a stone or owning a gun.” shortcomings and external circumstances stration of many hundreds of people, who Yet even as both men (and others) per- that limited his activism’s achievements. actually marched through the city of sisted in the dialogues and demonstra- “With the end of the intifada, there was no Nablus saying that killing civilians is not tions, their message failed to influence longer an organization respected by the the way to get our freedom. And we couldn’t the broader political tone. The 1994 mass community to push people to abandon their get the press to cover it! I think Israel tele- murder of 29 Palestinians by the Jewish lethargy and come together for large, vision actually sent a crew, and in the end Orthodox extremist Baruch Goldstein, fol- demonstrative public activities which could what they filmed was not shown. lowed by the 1995 assassination of Israeli help to achieve strategic goals. The “To this day, I think, ‘What if Israelis Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by right- Palestinians finally achieved their own would have been able to see that there were wing Israeli activist Yigal Amir, under- leadership in the Palestinian Authority, but hundreds of people in Nablus willing to take mined much of the optimism Bardin felt unfortunately they found that the exiled to the streets to say no to this terrorist activ- in the wake of the Oslo Accords. Bardin leadership returned to milk the people, to ity?’ And they did it! But the Israelis didn’t also grew frustrated with the disinclina- lord it over them, to introduce corruption hear about it. And as they didn’t hear about tion of the Palestinian National Authority, worse than what Israel had employed in its it, it’s as good as if it didn’t happen.” which was formed pursuant to the Oslo bald-faced occupation, to deny civil liberties, It may be that by 2001, the window had Accords, to amplify—or even acknowledge— and to torture their own people to death at just closed. Bardin’s Palestinian partners the efforts of groups like his. a higher rate than Israel had done.”

Lessons on the shift from nomadic lifestyles to agricultural settle- during the most difficult times is what sustains Lichman’s belief in the ments spark conversations about food preservation, which dovetails work. During the intifada, an older student at Jerusalem’s Nisui School with the rich family traditions of pickling in the Middle East. Parents was killed in a bus bombing during a week when students were sched- and grandparents are invited to a group pickling activity hosted by uled to host their partner school, the Muslim Ein-Nequba-Ein-Rafa. Not one school and attended by the pair of classes together. only did both schools’ students elect to go through with the meeting, “That’s wild,” says Lichman, laughing. “Usually one of these but graduates of the program came out to greet the visitors. people looks at the other and says, ‘You’re not doing it right!’ These “The message was clear,” Lichman says: “‘There is a separation aren’t 11-year-olds, they’re adults.” Arguments about pickles tend between the people who do this violence and us.’” to have a levity that arguments about politics do not. This may be the ultimate takeaway of the program: that the par- The thrust is that the students are learning how history is formed ticipants see one another not as enemies in the abstract, but as and transmitted. “Children are seeing through the landscape of how acquaintances or friends. “This is the kind of experience that can’t their elders grew up,” Lichman says, and then looking at their own be undone,” Lichman says. world through that lens. “They’re understanding that their parents During the fighting this spring and summer, Lichman adds, stu- and grandparents have a place in history.” dents from both schools asked CCECH staff for updates about how The third year’s topic is religion. “But it’s the experience of religion,” their counterparts were faring. Lichman is quick to say, “the joy of religion, the charm of it.” Children The program may have trouble outlasting Lichman, but this year bring in artifacts to discuss: a prayer rug someone’s grandmother he hopes to create a teacher-training program in partnership with brought back from Mecca, for example, or a prayer shawl passed down local universities, so that teachers can receive school credit for through generations of a Jewish family. Rabbis and imams host field practical work in the schools. He is also planning to create a gradu- trips to synagogues and mosques, and children are welcomed into each ate program of his own, for which he has already found several other’s religious spaces—something many never imagined was possible. interested potential graduate students. It certainly has been tested. The program survived the Second Inti- “We’ve got really good people who know what they’re doing,” fada in the early 2000s, as well as countless smaller flare-ups between Lichman says. “Let’s try them. Because war isn’t working.” Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Students’ behavior —Violet Baron

THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE NOV | DEC 2014 37 “The mood of the book as it finally either ultra-Orthodox or Arab schools, and is not just a personal memoir of that appeared is a lot more chastened than it only 38 percent are secular. Bardin is an effort. I think the book is kind of an epi- was in the version that he was trying to get occupant of liberal Zionism’s eroding shore- taph for an Israel that is no more. published years ago,” recalls Zuckerman, line. His book’s cover features a photograph “It would have been unthinkable,” who was an early reader. “A lot of water has of Jews and Palestinians marching togeth- Zuckerman added, referring to his own gone over a lot of dams.” er beneath a trilingual banner proclaiming time in Jerusalem in the late 1970s, before Badra wonders how things might have “We Want Peace,” but its title has made the rise of Jewish settlements in the occu- turned out differently if they’d had tools booksellers in both communities reluctant pied territories, “to have street scenes with like Facebook and Twitter in the late to put it on their shelves. thousands of Israelis chanting ‘Death to 1980s, at the time of the sleepover and “The truth is that things have gotten the Arabs.’ Things have so hardened, and other activities that failed to gain press worse and worse for people like me in there’s not room for the kind of individual attention. “Conditions were so perfect Israel,” he said in July. “I see the way my resistance which Hillel embodied.” for social media,” he says. “It would have friends talk now. Ten years ago, nobody The Second Intifada effectively ended the been very powerful back then, if we had would have said to me, ‘I’ve got nothing Beit Sahour dialogues, which Bardin calls tools as people have nowadays. It would more to live for in this country. I might “the most intense, successful, and long- have been, I think, a different story—and as well pick up and leave.’ And now a lot lasting dialogue that I would experience.” in a positive way.” of people say that. And a lot of people, Andoni (who did not respond to interview “I think he’s absolutely right,” Cohen when their kids are abroad, they say, ‘I requests) shifted his energy to the Interna- agrees. “I think it would have made a huge really can’t say to my kids that there’s tional Solidarity Movement, which he co- difference.” But conditions were not fated something to come back for.’ founded in 2001. It focused on utilizing to remain favorable indefinitely. “This isn’t the kind of Zionism that we international volunteers to nonviolently “These dialogues ended really in a ter- wanted,” he added. protest Israeli military operations in the rible way,” says Qumsiyeh. “In the Second “You know, it used to be that in America West Bank and Gaza. The organization was Intifada, in 2001, a lot of the people who people would talk about the silent major- nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, were involved in these activities from ity. And here also—we always pick up the and Andoni was personally nominated in the Palestinian side felt that their Israeli American expressions. And so we talked 2006, but the ISM’s success remains debat- colleagues had failed them. They were about how the people for peace really able. In the United States, it may be known disappointed because they didn’t do any- were the silent majority, but the trouble- best in connection with the death of one of thing to help the Palestinians when the makers were all loud, and they were its American volunteers, Rachel Corrie, who Israelis came and reoccupied all the expressing themselves more than we tried to block an Israel Defense Forces Palestinian West Bank in 2001. were. But I think that now we’re the armored bulldozer in Gaza in 2003. “We came to the conclusion that the silent minority. And that’s very trouble- Of course the success of Bardin’s dia- peace camp in Israel is very weak,” he con- some. Because when you figure that, in logue groups remains debatable as well. tinues. “And they are all the time becoming a democracy, that the majority of the “On the one hand,” reflects Veronika weaker and weaker. And the right in Israel people are against you, what can you say? Cohen, “you could say that nothing came is becoming stronger and stronger. And You’re in trouble.” out of it, because we certainly didn’t change also, during the First Intifada, there was Zuckerman reflected on the poignancy of the political constellation. We didn’t bring the PLO—and the PLO was ready to make Bardin’s memoir six weeks after the abduc- peace. But on the other hand, when we peace, or to find a way to make peace. But tion and murder of three Israeli youths in started, the idea of dialogue between afterwards, Hamas started to become the West Bank by a Palestinian clan with Palestinians and Israelis was really a novel stronger and stronger. So on both sides, Hamas affiliations (who, judging from idea—even a strange idea. And now I look peace camp is weakening, and other camp documents released by Israeli investigators, around, and it’s so accepted and its so wide- is becoming stronger.” may have been acting independently of spread, that I think that maybe really we For Bardin, it has been a hard decade. In Hamas’ political leadership, which neverthe- had a little something to do with seeding an August 2014 essay for the New York less praised the killings). The day after the the idea of the need to talk to each other. Review of Books, Jonathan Freeland funeral, a Palestinian teenager was burned And even if it didn’t lead to anything in our remarked that in the contemporary debate to death in Jerusalem in an apparent act of time, maybe in the next generation it will on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, “liberal vengeance. Zuckerman spoke two weeks lead to understanding.” Zionists can seem beached on a strip of land into Operation Protective Edge, at which At 78, Bardin continues to carry the that is forever shrinking” between the hawk- point Israel had attacked a reported 2,800 flame. Not long ago he joined a group called ish Zionists and nationalists on the right targets in Gaza in response to some 2,000 Combatants for Peace, which was formed and the anti-Zionists on the left. The nar- rockets launched at Israel by Hamas. by former Israeli and Palestinian soldiers rowing of public discourse reflects demo- “This is somebody with no institution- who have laid down arms and committed graphic trends unprecedented in Israel’s al position,” he said of Bardin. “This is themselves to dialogue and non-violent history. As Haaretz columnist Ari Shavit somebody who was scrambling to create action. His persistence, in the face of pro- notes in his lauded 2013 memoir My the few trifling institutions that could longed political discouragement, is per- Promised Land, some 48 percent of Israel’s embody his hopes—but this is just a pri- haps explained best by his activism’s deep school-aged children are now enrolled in vate citizen. And I think that the book and lasting personal rewards.

38 NOV | DEC 2014 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE “I consider him one of my best friends,” The Bicycle and the Olive Trees says Jalal Qumsiyeh, one of three people, By Hillel Bardin along with Bardin’s wife and military commander, to whom Bardin dedicated ericho was my first experience with the first intifada, his book. “I won’t ever forget that when but it was not my first contact with Palestinians. Like I was released from detention camp in Jmost Israelis, I avoided Arab areas, and I even had a the desert, he was waiting for me from rule that whenever I would cross the Green Line (i.e., enter early morning until midnight, until I the areas conquered from Jordan in the 1967 reached him at a crossroads in the des- “Six-Day War”) I would carry my rifle. Even ert. And he brought me back to my home Excerpt though I was part of the Israeli Left in that in his own car. I opposed Jewish settlement in the occupied “I can’t go and visit him—for a long time areas and favored returning the land someday in exchange now, because I can’t have a permit to go for peace, I didn’t know a single Arab except for two social and visit him in Jerusalem, which is less scientists whom I knew at work. than 10 minutes by car. But he sometimes One day in 1978 I came home to our apartment in comes to visit me. Although he is also Jerusalem’s Arnona neighborhood, and found that our son forbidden to come here by his own author- Ariel’s little bicycle had been stolen. Children from the ities in Israel—they don’t like Israelis to neighborhood told me that they had seen two Arab kids, come to the West Bank—sometimes he who made deliveries for the grocery store, taking the bike sneaks and comes to visit me. Just a cou- away. I went to the grocer, who said that he had fired the ple of weeks ago he came to my home. He kids a few days before, but he gave me their names and said hasn’t changed. He’s still active, still work- that they lived in the neighboring Arab village of Sur Bahir. ing with Palestinians in other places.” Sur Bahir had been part of the Jordanian West Bank from The circle widens in other ways, as well. 1948 until 1967, at which time we Israelis conquered it and In 2002, Mazen Badra, whose family annexed it to Jerusalem, thereby making it part of Israel. had grown to include a fourth child, made Sur Bahir was only a mile down the road from my house, but the wrenching decision to leave the town in the six years that I’d been living there I had never entered where had lived all his life. His house the village, nor had virtually any of my Jewish neighbors. was situated near an Israeli military I considered complaining to the police, but then for some post. During the violence of the Second unknown reason I decided to overcome my fear of the village Intifada, military crossfire riddled its and try to solve the problem directly. I left my rifle at home this walls and windows, water and electrical time, and drove into the Arab village. At a grocery store I asked systems with more than 75 bullet holes. where the mukhtar (the chosen leader of the village or of a So he poured all his fortune, and all his clan) lived. Fortunately some of the Arabs there spoke Hebrew, wife’s fortune, into the construction of and someone pointed to the home of a man who in turn direct- a new house in what he thought would ed me to Khader Dabash. I drank Arabic coffee until Khader be a safer area. They would never spend arrived and greeted me warmly. He was a tall man, warm and a single night in it. Before they could self-assured. In those pre-intifada days, the mukhtar was the move in, the sound of an explosion woke link between the Arab village and the Jewish Jerusalem munici- him in middle of the night in his old pality, so Khader seemed comfortable speaking with Jews. house. After a brief moment of confu- I told the story about the bicycle, and mentioned the sion, during which he wondered why his names of the boys who allegedly had taken it. He looked wife had left all the lights on, Badra real- pensive. “They are not Israelis, like us,” he said. “Their fam- ized that both bedrooms were on fire. ily is from Hebron. This family causes many problems. None With a Molotov cocktail, someone had of our own people would cause such problems; we have no tried to burn his family alive. difficulties with Jews.” It struck me as interesting that he “We escaped by a miracle,” he says. called the villagers “Israelis,” for although they had been After taking refuge elsewhere for sev- given Israeli resident status when we annexed their town, eral weeks, they left the Holy Land for most did not have Israeli citizenship. good. They emigrated to Saint Louis, We talked for a while, and he promised to do all that he Missouri, where his parents and brothers could. I left his home and the village lighthearted. Why had had settled years before. this village seemed so threatening? It seemed that there “We arrived in August,” he remembers. existed another very different culture just down the road “By November, I said, ‘Okay, we’ve settled from our neighborhood, and there were people living there down, and it’s time to continue with who were neither murderers nor terrorists. this.’” So he reached out to the Jewish The next day, I received a call from Khader. He had located community in Saint Louis, and started the bicycle, but it had been sold to someone in the northern all over again.◆ part of the city. Still, he said, he would get it back for me.

THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE NOV | DEC 2014 39 A day later, I was in the street in front of our house when Members of the Knesset from the Left also acted on behalf an old black taxi pulled up, the type of battered Mercedes of the Arab farmers. that only Arabs drive. I was suspicious at first, until Khader We then had a meeting with the district head of the Israel climbed out. He opened the trunk and pulled out Ariel’s bike. Lands Authority (ILA), which owned the expropriated land. The bike had already been sold, but he had managed to find it I was very surprised that Hassan Abu-Asala, an Arab, was and return it. I thanked him effusively, and he apologized for allowed to participate in the meeting, and that the Jews spoke what had happened to us. We shook hands, and he drove away. openly in front of him. The district head explained to all of Seven years went by, and then one day in 1985 I looked out us that the purpose of planting the forest was not to provide of our living room window and saw huge bulldozers build- a park, but for the state to assert its ownership over the land. ing a road through the village’s land into the valley called He told us that wherever the state is not ready to develop Wadi Zeitoun. I asked neighbors what was happening, and land, it plants cheap trees that will be uprooted at a later date they said that the Jewish National Fund was planning to when the land will be developed (he meant for Jewish use). plant a forest on that land. I knew that the JNF sometimes In other words, the Arabs would lose their agricultural lands plants forests to prevent Arabs from using the land, and and could never assert a claim to have the lands returned. suddenly I remembered Khader Dabash and the bicycle, and By January 1987 we had been able to get 121 signatures on how he had been a good neighbor to me when I had a prob- the petition. We phrased it as a letter. lem. I drove over to his house in the village. I wasn’t sure if he would remember me. As soon as he saw me, though, he To the residents of Sur Bahir: asked, “Don’t tell me another bicycle has been stolen?” We, residents of Arnona and Talpiyot, have heard that the “No,” I replied. “I wonder whether this time it’s not my Jewish National Fund is about to plant a forest on your agricul- people who are taking something from yours.” I asked tural lands that were expropriated. whether the planned forest was of any concern to him. He Our neighborhoods have enjoyed good relations for many years. told me that this subject was all that the villagers were talk- We support your right to continue to farm your lands in peace. ing about, that the JNF action would destroy the little agri- cultural land that was left to them, since Israel had expro- Most of the villagers, recognizing their lack of political priated most of their free land to build the East Talpiyot strength, sought to achieve a compromise with the munici- neighborhood for Jews. I promised that I would talk to some pality. One family, however, who were possibly more nation- of my neighbors to see what we could do to help. alistic than the rest, insisted on challenging the expropria- How does one help people who have the whole weight of tion and forestation in the Israeli courts. Since the Israeli the govern ment working against them? I really didn’t know. courts enforce laws and policies that are designed to trans- I began going from house to house to get the residents to fer Palestinian lands to Jewish control and use, the chance sign a petition to help our neighbors from Sur Bahir. In of success was extremely small. In addition, an unwritten almost every house people would not just sign, but they law has generally demonstrated that Arabs who dare to wanted explanations and asked questions, many of which I challenge the Jerusalem municipality in the courts are pun- couldn’t adequately answer. ished and made into examples. It took almost a year for the While gathering supporters for the petition, I also assembled court to reach its decision. I attended the hearing before a group of people who would use their experience to help us. three judges from the Supreme Court, where a learned Our first success was in getting Jerusalem’s popular mayor, judge stated that it was quite reasonable for the state to Teddy Kollek, to write to the minister of agriculture. He stated, “I plant a park on the farmers’ traditional lands, so that Arabs believe that certain sections of the land from the big expropria- and Jews could come together for picnics and coexistence. tion of 1970 could be returned to their former owners . . . [but if The moment that the decision was in, revenge was that is not possible, then] I request that at this stage the villag- wreaked on the village. The Jewish National Fund, protected ers be permitted to continue to work the land, which for some of by border police, rushed in and started planting pines and them is their primary income and the source of their bread.” cypresses wherever there was space, includ ing in the plant- I next tried a long shot. Knesset Member Ehud Olmert of the ed wheat fields that had previously been set aside for the Likud Party (who in eight years would replace Teddy as mayor, farmers. More than sixty young olive trees that had been and in 2006 would become prime minister) lived in neighbor- planted by the villagers were uprooted by the JNF. ing Talpiyot. His right-wing party was unlikely to support help- That night I stayed awake in bed thinking of the villag- ing the Arabs, but in Israel personal contacts are frequently ers’ helplessness, and our inability to aid them. But then more important than ideology. I called him and mentioned that I remembered a discussion we’d had with a member of his daughter Michal was in the same class as my son Noam, Kibbutz Ramat Rachel, which lies between Sur Bahir and and that we had played together on the parents’ soccer team my neighborhood of Arnona. The kibbutzniks had favored in which Ehud had scored the only two goals against the kids. planting the forest so that the villagers could be kept at a Olmert came through with a lovely letter to the Jewish National distance from the kibbutz lands, as the kibbutz claimed Fund (which was carrying out the plantings), saying, “The that Arabs sometimes grazed sheep and goats in the fruit planting of a forest specifically there, even if its environmental orchards or stole from the kibbutz. But one kibbutznik had advantages are many, is liable to severely deprive the residents mentioned that the Jewish National Fund was also creat- and to cause damage that can be avoided.” ing a wooded strip around the kibbutz, planting olive trees

40 NOV | DEC 2014 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE ILLUSTRATION BY EMILIANO PONZI THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE NOV | DEC 2014 41 that members of the kibbutz could pick for themselves. The But at the appointed time, at 3pm on 10 February 1987, hun- thought hit me: Why not replace the pines and cypresses dreds of people began arriving and of course filling the road. with olives for the Arab farmers as well? It took until 4 o’clock for Mayor Kollek to decide whether it The next morning, I presented the idea to my Arab and Jewish was politically better to appear or to stay away. By police esti- colleagues, and they all accepted it. In order to sell the idea, mates, we had 700 demonstrators, half Jewish and half Arab, we brought in Mayor Teddy Kollek’s adviser on East Jerusalem and the atmosphere was excellent, so he came and spoke, and Arabs, who was well connected with people from the JNF and the my rented sound equipment worked just fine. Two deputy may- Israel Lands Authority. He immediately accepted our invitation ors also joined our cause. The New York Times quoted Yehudah to help, saying that it was folly to destroy the villagers’ farms, Litani: “‘I’ve never seen anything quite like this,’ [he said] as and the government’s course of action could only worsen rela- he watched the crowds mix, smile, and exchange greetings. He tions. The mayor and the head of the JNF agreed to our compromise, on the condition that the Arabs themselves would not plant any of the olives since Joint Arab-Jewish activity was the trees must belong to the State of Israel. However, the head of the ILA, virtually unheard of in Jerusalem; which legally owns expropriated land, refused to go along with us, claiming that the court had accepted the plant- this demonstration would ing of the forest, and he would not go against the court. I decided to call in more Israelis from probably be the fi rst of its kind. the neighborhood to form a commit- tee to organize the struggle for the compromise. About twenty said such an unusual mingling might happen occasionally in a neighbors came to the meeting. I handed out a fact sheet rural area, but never here in the Jerusalem metropolis.” that I had prepared, which included the words of the Tenth As part of the demonstration, Khader’s daughter Sana and Commandment: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house … my daughter Daphna, both ten years old, together planted his field … and all that he has.” I explained the history of the an olive sapling in a bucket of soil, to symbolize our ability affair (which had also been discussed frequently in the press) to cooperate even while the authorities forbade planting in and then threw the meeting open for discussion. After about the earth. an hour, one of the participants said that a meeting should The demonstration was a great success. Jews and Arabs never run more than an hour, and he recommended that we set mingled together and chatted, as had never happened before. up a committee to organize the struggle and then get back to People who participated in the “Meeting of Neighbors” were us. A committee of three was approved by acclamation, where- enthusiastic, and the event was written up in the Israeli press upon everyone left. I was stunned that after all the work I had and internationally. The demonstration’s success, and JNF’s devoted to this issue, no one had thought to include me on concern for its own image in the face of criticism and sugges- the committee, and I suddenly realized how much one’s ego is tions that contributors consider other charities, led to the involved in what seems like pure devotion to a cause. acceptance of our proposed compromise after three months. However, there was no need to be upset. As happens often However, it was clear that those in power were very ambivalent in volunteer organizations, none of the three committee about giving in to the Arabs in Wadi Zeitoun, since this change members really had the time to become involved, so after a of policy impinged on the traditional Zionist strategy of trans- few days of waiting I let them resign and took on the leader- ferring ownership and control of land from Arab to Jew. For ship again. This time, we added several key neighbors to our example, the JNF planters grumbled as they planted the first group. One was Dr. Veronika Cohen, the dean of students at 20 or 30 olive trees according to the agreement, and refused to the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance. Totally dedicated pull out the pine saplings they had previously planted in the to coexistence, peace, and human rights, Veronika was an same place. Consequently, both types of trees were crowded Orthodox Jewish woman who would become the leading together in unnatural proximity. practitioner of grassroots Jewish-Arab dialogue, and would Despite the promises we had received, I remained anx- be my colleague in many adventures with Palestinians. ious as to whether the rest of the olive trees would really be We decided to organize a joint demonstration to press for planted. But as the winter planting season approached, our the olive tree compromise. Now, joint Arab-Jewish activity committee came back to life. We suggested organizing a joint of any kind was virtually unheard of in Jerusalem; this dem- planting with Jewish and Arab children on Tu B’shvat (the onstration would probably be the first of its kind. Jewish Arbor Day), an idea that was attractive to the munici- I had never been involved in organizing a demonstration. We pality, which wanted good public relations. But then the JNF invited Mayor Kollek to speak, so I rented a reasonable sound changed the agreement, and decided it would spread out the system. While I was very good at getting myself to work hard, olive plantings over three years, planting only at the bottom I was not so good at pressing others to help me. Everyone was of the wadi (the valley, which the ILA didn’t really care about) either working or studying, so I had to set things up by myself. in the first year and determining that olives would only be

42 NOV | DEC 2014 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE planted in those places where the pines and cypresses did not planting but, influenced by the intifada, stole into the wadi grow well. I was sure that this was a plan to keep the slopes, and pulled up all the Jewish pine and olive trees that the where Israel was considering building in the future, free of JNF had planted, and left the wadi bare of trees where the olive trees. By delaying the planting, they could diminish Arabs’ wheat and barley were growing. the public pressure. Who knew if we’d ever be able to regain Years later, the villagers converted part of the wheat fields our strength? (To the JNF’s chagrin, its pines never took root, into a soccer field, and from my window I could see the although the cypresses on the slope struggled along bravely.) young people playing ball, with neither help nor hindrance The First Intifada erupted in Gaza on December 8, 1987. from our municipality. Israelis believed that Jerusalem would not be affected by the uprising, since we did not consider the annexed East What were the lessons of Sur Bahir? First and foremost, I Jerusalem to be occupied territory. But within weeks, realized how much potential power lies in cooperative action Palestinians in East Jerusalem began demonstrating in large by Arab and Jew. Interestingly, although the vast majority of numbers, shocking us unbelieving Israelis. Our committee’s my Jewish neighbors probably favored taking as much Arab suggestion for a joint tree-planting event took on increased land as possible, not a single voice was heard opposing our importance as a symbol of coexistence even as the intifada campaign (with the exception of the JNF and ILA). The press (whose full dimensions were still unfathomed by us) threat- also supported us unanimously. By working within the Israeli ened Jewish-Arab relations in the “united” city. I remember consensus that Jerusalem is united for the good of all its resi- walking around Wadi Zeitoun with Philip, the former adviser dents, we silenced the opposition. Israelis want to be decent. to the mayor for East Jerusalem. The morning papers had Israelis don’t want to view themselves as oppressors. While described a large stone-throwing demonstration in Jerusalem. most Israelis would probably have preferred to have the JNF Philip told me that his most important achievement as the quietly take over the valley, nonetheless when we worked mayor’s adviser had been getting 45,000 Arabs to abandon together as good neighbors—nonviolently and within the law, Jerusalem. Otherwise, he suggested, think how many Arabs for the right of poor farmers to eke out their bread, and not would be there to clash with our security forces! I agreed with frontally challenging Israel’s right of expropriation—it was him, thinking how lucky we were to be rid of them. It was only hard to fight us in the public eye. We gave Israelis a chance to later that I began to think of the significance of his statement. feel proud of our institutions’ defeat. He had worked as a municipal employee with the goal of mak- But there were more lessons to be learned. Conditions in Sur ing life so difficult for Arab residents that they would decide to Bahir were nearly ideal. The neighborhoods of Talpiyot and leave. What kind of municipality works to discourage its resi- Arnona have a very high proportion of liberal Jews from the dents from living in their own communities? intellectual and established elite. We have many immigrants Returning to the problem of the JNF’s refusal to plant the from the West who believe in giving the underdog a chance. whole area with olive trees in the winter of 1988, I decided The area is one of the few in which many religious Jews view to confront this issue one more time. I talked with Khader, their Judaism as requiring moral commitment. We were fortu- and we both signed a letter to Mayor Teddy Kollek, making nate to have a group of well-respected citizens who dedicated the joint Arab-Jewish Arbor Day dependent on the carrying themselves to the struggle, and the village had Khader and out of the original agreement to plant the whole area with Hassan, who led their side with wisdom and determination. olives over a single winter. I was excited by this proposal And we had the good for tune to have my prior relation with and wanted to go over it with Teddy right away. So I took the Khader, which gave us the impetus to get started. letter and waited outside his office, beginning at 5am. I was But I learned how hard it is to fight the authorities, how sure that Teddy would view our offer as a welcome present powerful they are. We struggled for such a long time to in these tough intifada days. When he arrived, with several achieve almost nothing. Our High Court judges preferred assistants, I stepped up and asked if he could spare a few to roll their eyes heavenward and participate in the system minutes. His aides were outraged: “How can you wait like that legally oppresses the Palestinians. The JNF and the this to ambush the mayor?” He had me sit in the reception ILA, supported by the enormous power of the government room while he read the letter. He then consulted with his and police, were deterred for a moment by a freakish conflu- assistants, and in the end he shouted at me that he couldn’t ence of forces, which would be hard to recreate. Today, when do any more than what he’d already done, and that was that. I look back at that struggle, I realize that the villagers were A week later I got a written reply to my letter from the also abandoned by their own Palestinian people, whose head of the Municipal Beautification Department, telling elites did nothing to help them in their plight. me that all I knew how to do was to shout and scream with- But the seed of joint Palestinian-Israeli community action was out making any contribution to understanding between planted in my mind, and would affect my life for years to come. Jews and Arabs. The JNF then planted a thousand tiny olive saplings in the bottom of the wadi, where the villagers Postscript, 2010: I see from my living room window that liked to plant wheat. On Tu B’shvat, Jewish schoolchildren Israeli contractors are beginning to build Jewish high-rise came from the Talpiyot school, guarded by border police apartment houses in the bottom of Wadi Zeitoun, east of and private guards carrying Uzi submachine guns, and the Green Line in East Jerusalem.◆ planted cypress trees in the old no-man’s land in front of the Excerpt of A Zionist Among Palestinians provided by Indiana University minefield. The Arab children did not participate in that tree Press/Bloomington, IN.

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