Day 18 - Lehava - Tali
To finish our three days of Israeli Advocacy, this morning we heard from a Palestinian Christian who lives in the West Bank called Dana who spoke to us about her situation and opinions on her current lifestyle. She presented to us the realities of her every day life, having little rights as a women, spending 2 hours to commute to her work as an engineer in Jerusalem and the intense checking she has to go through in order to get to her work.
By hearing from her we were able to acknowledge, become informed and exposed to a perspective we are often sheltered from. Her story allowed us to sympathise and feel empathy for her, providing us with yet another opinion that we needed to take into consideration. It was very important for us to hear what she had to say, to aid us when formulating our own opinions on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, certain opinions being way too controversial to mention.
Next we went into the Judea and Samaria, where we were to learn about the Jewish settlements. This was very topical as we had just heard about Palestinians lifestyles in the West Bank, which was juxtaposed by the controversy surrounding Jewish settlement within the area. We watched an emotional movie about the pioneers who founded Gush Etzion, a kibbutz built by Holocaust survivors. We saw how the strength and determination of the people who lived here fought till their end, being beaten by the Arabic forces only a day before the declaration of Israel’s independence in 1948. We saw the bunker where a grenade was thrown and felt sensitively moved by their heroism and simultaneously proud to be standing in this place, fulfilling the dream of these people who fought so hard and risked everything for this land.
To debrief our incredible guide Amir said, “To be a Jew is to remember the past and look to the future.” This really resonated with me as I realised that the decisions and opinions of Jewish people are a reflection of our versatile history, filled with the despairs of the Holocaust and now modern anti-semitism, opposed to the establishment of a Jewish state that provides refuge for flourishing Jewish life.
This new age of Jewish history, being one of many controversies amongst victories was encompassed as we sang Hatikvah at the “The Lone Tree”. The Lonely Oak was a symbol of the kibbutz’s past as a constant reminder for the people who used to inhabit the area until they rebuilt Gush Etzion in 1967. To me this tree represents the age old dream of the Jewish People’s return to our homeland and to be united.
I think that the last three days of Israeli Advocacy were possibly the most essential, challenging and informative days of IST so far. We were able to consider problems that the entire world is grappling with, being an extremely important skill for us as young adult Jews.
After the day, everyone was excited as we returned to Tzoba Kibbutz where we are staying with Netzach for our last night before the free weekend. We were fortunate enough to hear the hilarious Rav Gav who spoke to us about making choices. His speech really brought together all that we had learnt the last few days, saying that we need to remember that “Jews Choose”. In order to make the right choices, we must be informed on all of our options. This directly relates to the multiple perspectives and opinions on Palestinian conflict we had learnt about, emphasising the importance of forming our own views and making our own unique judgements, by questioning what we hear and not allowing our society to dictate for us.
Tali Wunsh - 5.12.2019
