Three and a half days in Israel can only give you a glimpse of the Israel’s point of view (as if there would be only one). What I understood form our several meetings and interviews: Of course all of the Israelis we spoke to want peace with their neighbours. However it seems to be impossible for people to unite in one movement standing up for achieving peace and remove the roadblocks.
Topics we discussed
- students of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be’er Sheva
- family and friends of Anne Berkeley, who is responsible for Marketing at the University,
- Lirun, a friend of Ali Dahmash, living in Tel-Aviv,
- Dafna, a friend of Lirun, who traveled with us in and around Jerusalem,
- students of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
- people in the streets of the Old City of Jerusalem,
- Yotam, a friend of a friend of mine in Tel Aviv,
- Noam, a friend of Ulrike in Tel Aviv,
- Yuval, a friend of Noam and Ulrike in Haifa.
Campus of The Hebrew University in Jerusalem
Whom did we speak to
Certain topics came up repeatedly in our discussions. I think these are the most important ones:
- Most people are tired of the conflict and more and more seem to just “switch channels”: They have resigned and opted to ignore the conflict by focusing on different things.
- Many of them don’t trust their own government to be able to solve the conflict.
- The actively involved parties in Israel seem to be divided and often arguing about the right way on how to proceed.
- That’s why some of our contacts asked for 3rd party involvement to speed up the process, such as the EU or the US.
- Some suggested, that US should immediately stop their financial support for Israel because this will increase the need for a peaceful solution: Israel’s political behaviour often seems to be based upon their status of a super military power. Which reminds me of tactics of the Cold War.
- Education, transparency and empathy are key to drive change. Today’s situation is different: Not knowing the neighbour plus biased second hand information scare people and create fear. Unfortunately it got rather difficult to keep company with Palestinian people in real life due to limited travel and information.
- Military service is often influencing young people in a bad way. People told us about the negative impacts they’ve experienced in daily life with people, who just came back from the army. They often show a lack of respect for other people, a general impatience and a growing level of violence.
Based upon what I’ve heart I am still hopeful, that Israelis will find peaceful ways for a change. For instance, some of them arrange camps over a weekend, where Israelis and Palestinians meet and spend time together – some participants became friends for life this way. These movements foster empathy.
We’ve heart people, who were self-critical – knowing they need to do more than just to speak. And finally, we saw not only at the Universities in Be’er Sheva and Jerusalem, that students with very different backgrounds live and learn together without having any apparent problems.
Wailing Wall in Jerusalem
My take away from Israel
Israelis we spoke to all want peace with Palestinians. However, it seems to be difficult to unite and go into the streets demanding a serious peace process. But people also know they can’t just wait for politicians to solve the issue.
Still: if the roof is burning, you shouldn’t go to sleep in your house, even if you are tired. I really wonder what is needed for the majority to wake up joining activists in their initiatives to achieve permanent peace for the middle east.
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