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compassionate listening project (mideast 2002): day 6 by Linda Wolf (YouthActivism@aol.com) - July 07, 2002 |
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| The woman who was asking most of the questions was so excited to hear me tell them what I'm doing. She was anxious to tell me that her daughter had worked for Seeds of Peace for 2 years and was now just leaving for the US to do more peace work. She spoke perfect English and we had such a great conversation that she would translate to the other women about how they also wanted peace and how difficult it is to stand for peace in their community because so many people are so main stream and are just afraid of the Palestinians. She said, "About peace, there are 3 problems; Bush, Arafat and Sharon!" We had a good chuckle and then she told me that one of the women hairdressers, who stood up really proudly while she was telling me this, has a man who works with her sister down the street in the Falafel Shop who lives in Jenin and because of what's happening can't get to work everyday due to the checkpoint closures, yet her sister sends him his paycheck each week anyway and has been doing this for three months. She asked me if I wanted to meet him. I said yes. But right before they were going to take me down the street, they introduced me to a young woman, who was having her eyebrows plucked, and told me she is a soldier in the IDF who works at the checkpoint in Gaza. I told them that I'd just been there. The young woman, who also speaks English, then began to talk with me in front of all these older women about how she didn't believe it was possible for the Israelis and Palestinians to live together. She said the now famous statement, "You can't trust them." I had to find out what she meant, especially after knowing she'd just heard the women telling me about how much they are like family with the worker from Jenin. I finally got it out of her that what she meant was that, You never can know who is the one who is angry and will kill you, therefore you can't trust any of them." So, I asked her, "So, do you think it's possible for people to come together between the two cultures as people and have peace, but you don't think it in general?" She said, "Yes, I have a good friend who is 1/2 Palestinian and 1/2 Israeli, and she and I both don't know how to have peace between the whole groups." The older women and I spoke openly about how so many of the young Israelis just don't have the idealism that we have. Maybe it's because they have not had children yet. I tried to get a photo of the soldier, but she said she couldn't be photographed because she is in the secret service. I've been so hot here. The weather is unbelievable. It's so hot in the night no one needs sheets. I read an email from the ISM folks, who I think I'll join up with in a few days, about the Americans being held in Ramallah, I think. In it the person said that the Americans were held in horrible conditions; "without water; in the hot sun; and at night in the cold." I had to cringe, because here this is going out to the whole world and it's just an exaggeration. It's so hot here we don’t need sheets at night. I had the same experience when I read the Jerusalem Times article today about the shooting in LA, and for the first 8 paragraphs they're referring to the killer as a terrorist, but in paragraph 10, they have a statement from the Bush Administration saying that there is no way yet to confirm that the shooter is a terrorist but they’re looking into it. These are just two of the many examples of mixed messages people get about this conflict . . . whoever is talking, whoever is writing articles, whoever is the spokesperson can interpret and represent any situation in any way they want to shape it from whatever filter they have. You have to be really careful in the way you interpret what you hear in the media or what anyone says, from either side. We need to hear all of the viewpoints we can, as many as we can, and remember that they are all just viewpoints and not necessarily factual. I heard this same thing from a French journalist the other day when I said that we're trying to learn the truth about what has happened and he said, there is no truth, there are only events and everyone has a different perspective of them. With that I'll end here, as we've just arrived at the Kibbutz. I love you both, I'll write again soon. Kiss Bryn and grandma BB. xxx mommie To be continued . . . The views expressed above represent the writer and not necessarily those of The Disinformation Company Ltd. |
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