June 26, 2002
Interview: Nimrod Hass (on the plane to Tel Aviv).

Linda: Tell me a little about yourself?

Nimrod: My name is Nimrod; I'm Jewish but I'm not religious. I believe in God. I think religion is a beautiful thing if you take it in a balanced way. I celebrate the holidays my way, which is not exactly by the book. I was in the army in Israel for 3 years. I was excited to go into the army because all of my friends were in the army and in elite groups and I wanted to be part of them. Also, because I wanted to protect my country; but mostly because I wanted to know myself better and confront my fears. I didn't think I would die. I've done things like sky-diving to confront my fears. I didn't like my assignment in the army because I was assigned to protect the settlers in the Gaza Strip and I was against the settlements. I think it is ridiculous to sacrifice your life for a piece of land. I don't think we need these territories; not all of them, some of them we can keep. But it didn't matter what I though, I still had to do it.

Linda: What was your experience of the settlers?

Nimrod: They are very religious, so as a soldier and as a non religious Jew, I had a difference of opinion with them. I had no common ground to talk with them, yet I had to protect them even though it was against my principles. I wasn't there long enough to talk with them or to know them better. I didn't have any relationship with them. They never talked to me either. They never said thank you for me being there.

Linda: What was it like to be in the army?

Nimrod: I got a lot of satisfaction from it. Mostly because of the people I met. Right now they are my friends; the people that I can count on for all the rest of my life - they sacrificed their life for me and I for them.

Linda: How do you feel about the situation in Israel/Palestine? Do you think there should be a Palestinian state?

Nimrod: Yes, a democratic Palestinian state, with education, like a normal country. I wish there were peace, I know that most of the Israeli people, if not all of them, want peace. I want to believe that the Palestinians want the same. I have some hope, but we need to talk, there's no other way.

Linda: How do you feel about people like me coming into the country and doing what I'm going to be doing, the Compassionate Listening Project, as well as possibly using myself, a Jewish woman, as a human shield in Palestine?

Nimrod: I didn't know that people like you existed, that they are doing such things. I didn't know that Jewish people or other people are going into Palestine and doing this. But, we need to try anything that maybe will help. I'm tired of the terrorism and that of extremist fanatics on either side - but I don’t think the Jews have as much fanaticism as the Palestinians, I know that we don't have. I'm tired of the terrorist acts. I have told you that we, the Palestinians and Israelis, are neighbors. Right now, we need help from other neighbors throughout the world.

I think that it's our right to protect ourselves. We have lived with this terrorism a long time and we are tired. But we need to be calm. When we are calm we could talk with each other. Right now we are in a situation where we are all angry and I don't know if anyone can talk. Trying to help is good, but don't tell us what to do . . . because it's our right to defend and protect ourselves. We all want peace. We need to take a chance to have somebody else to help us. You need a lot of courage as a Jew to enter those territories and a lot of courage, as a person, to be in these situations.

Linda: Would you ever do it? Be a human shield?

Nimrod: No, I think I did enough - I risked my life enough; right now I agree with what you are doing - to listen to the Palestinian people, I agree, but I will not be a human shield for the Palestinian guys because I don't think that they need human shields, because the Israeli army is there to protect Israel, not to attack Palestinians.

Linda: But they have . . .

Nimrod: I don't think that they are attacking innocent Palestinian people; the Israeli army is trying to attack the terrorist groups. Children and women and men that are innocent will not be attacked.

Linda: But they have been . . . lots of children have died lately. What do you have to say about that? I know these are hard questions. You don't have to answer them.

Nimrod: The children and the women, they shouldn't have been in that place, because the Israeli army is going to attack and they are telling the people who live there that they are going to attack because they know they have terrorists in that place. I know the Israeli army is not killing innocent people on purpose.

Linda: How do you know that? There are so many different types of people in the army, aren’t there?

Nimrod: Because I was there and when I had a mission it was something specific; it was to get someone specific who we knew was there. When we know that innocent people were there, the mission would be cancelled. I know that for sure because I was on one mission that was cancelled because there were children and innocent people there. We need to look to the future now, more than the past. I want peace now most of all.

To be continued . . .

The views expressed above represent the writer and not necessarily those of The Disinformation Company Ltd.