And I don't want to offend anyone, but I've decided that this is my blog, and my experience, and my year to (begin to) figure out my place in this crazy world, and so I'm going to go ahead and share what I've been working through in the past few days.
Today was kind of an intense day. I started my volunteering with Windows this morning, and while I wouldn't say it was exactly enjoyable, it was a valuable experience and I am really excited about spending the next few months with them. I spent my morning reading the story of the War of Independence from the other side, and learned some really terrible things. Remember how I said that Tel Aviv began as a sand dune? False. Tel Aviv began as a sand dune sprinkled with seven different Arab villages, which the Jewish settlers deliberately destroyed in the name of creating a Jewish city. We have MASSACRED these people, much in the same way that the colonists in North America murdered and displaced the Native Americans. Even today, Palestinians living in the West Bank live in such conditions that you wouldn't believe. They are largely impoverished, forced to observe a curfew, and are subject to random search and interrogation by the Israeli police. I am deeply ashamed of what my people have done (and are still doing) here.
Now, don't get me wrong, I love Israel very much. I love the land I now call my home, and I love the people I call my own, and I believe, way deep down, that this is the place we should be. I do believe that this land should belong to the Jewish people. But I believe in a two state solution. I believe that we should not be in the West Bank. That's their land, not ours. We've taken enough from them.
After I finished reading this series of articles, the morning lightened up a little, as I packed up donations of clothing and toys to send to Ramallah. Sending donations is not any sort of grand systematic change, but it's a start, and it feels good to be part of the movement.
This afternoon, our whole group took a field trip to the Israel museum at the Yitzhak Rabin Center. This week marks the 15th anniversary of his assassination, and our staff felt it was important for us to understand his legacy. The material the museum covers is twofold; a spiraling downward ramp details the life of Prime Minister Rabin, while a series of exhibit rooms off of the main corridor illustrate the history of the State of Israel.
Here are the SparkNotes on Yitzhak Rabin, in case you're not familiar with him. Rabin was born in 1922 in Jerusalem to two Eastern European immigrants. He grew up a secular, educated Israeli who was passionate about irrigation engineering but joined the Palmach at age 19 in order to defend his homeland. Eventually he became the IDF chief of staff, and was largely responsible for the success of Israel's preemptive strike on Egypt during the Six Day War. After retiring from the IDF, he became the Israeli Ambassador to the United States, then the Minister of Labor under Golda Meir. He served briefly as Prime Minister following Golda Meir's resignation (and was responsible for the success of Operation Entebbe), but resigned after only a few years. In Rabin's second term as Prime Minister (beginning in 1992), he worked tirelessly to create peace between Israel and the PLO, and played a leading role in the signing of the Oslo Accords (for which he received a Nobel Peace Prize). On November 4th, 1995 (the 11th of Cheshvan on the Hebrew Calendar), Rabin was assassinated in Tel Aviv, following his "Yes to Peace, No to Violence" speech. His assassin was Yigal Amir, a radical right-wing Orthodox Jewish Israeli who opposed the signing of the Oslo Accords because it gave land previously conquered by the Israelis back to the Palestinians. Rabin was murdered by one of his own people because he was fighting for peace.
This makes me SICK. These crazy right-wing Israelis, though they may be part of the tribe, make me SICK. Rabin was assassinated 15 years ago, but this kind of behavior continues to this day. In 2004, following the disengagement from Gaza, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon received threats on his life from the very same groups who supported the assassination of Rabin. These people, these JEWS, care so much about keeping every square centimeter of land that they are literally willing to MURDER their OWN politicians! And yet, just a month ago, four Israeli citizens were murdered simply for residing in a settlement in the West Bank, and (while it is obviously a tragedy) this is regarded as something like martyrdom! And now, right now, what is the Israeli government doing? Building more settlements on land that should not belong to us, further hindering the possibility of any sort of peace treaty, and, furthermore, disrespecting the life and the memory of Prime Minister Rabin.
It makes me sick. I am a Zionist and a firm believer in the State of Israel, but I do believe that there is a wrong way of going about things, and I believe that Benyamin Netanyahu and the Likud party is doing it the wrong way. How much longer will we have to wait until we can unite as a people to really make change here? Obviously, it takes cooperation from both sides, but it begins with us, and this... this is no way to begin.
Living in Israel makes me care so much more about all of this. I mean, in the States I read Ha'aretz daily, but living here just amps up all the feelings I've always had about Israel as a state, and furthermore, I feel that as long as I live here, I have an obligation to be a part of the solution. I can't fix the Arab-Israeli conflict, but just in the same way that it was my great-grandfather's job to cultivate the land here, it's my job to throw myself into society, it's my job to be educated, and it's my job to be a part of making the change that needs to happen here. It's a lot to swallow.
Shavua Tov!
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