I just finished one of the most moving books I’ve read recently: The Way to The Spring: Life and Death in Palestine, by Ben Ehrenreich.
I almost missed it. I’ve read a lot on Israel-Palestine and thought I was reaching the point of diminishing returns. But The Way to the Spring is unique. Ehrenreich spent several years on the ground in the West Bank. Although he went as a writer, he became enmeshed in the lives of Palestinians. So much so that the book reads as if he’s writing about family members. In no way was that contrived. I felt a little bit of this in The General’s Son, by Miko Peled, but not nearly as much.
The bottom line is that more than any other book I’ve read on Israel-Palestine, The Way to the Spring allows you to see the Israeli occupation through Palestinian eyes.
Sort of like if a few of your close friends were Palestinian.
Which brings me to the point of this post.
I once was giving a talk on Israel-Palestine when someone from the audience launched into a diatribe about what pieces of garbage Palestinians were. I responded with a simple question: How many Palestinians do you know? Silence.
I wonder: How many pro-Israel zealots out there also would respond to that question in silence?
I’ve had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of perhaps a dozen or so Palestinian-Americans over the years. I don’t know them well enough to consider any of them close friends, but easily well enough to confirm the assessment I apply to any ethnic group: “They’re just people.”
Which I hope inoculates me against ever again condoning or in any way accepting or tolerating, as I did for too many years, the atrocity that is Israel’s occupation of Palestine. One can’t simultaneously accept oppression and feel the humanity of the oppressed. If you feel the humanity of Palestinians, you can’t accept the collective punishment, the torture, the beatings, the theft of land and water, the atrocities committed by Israeli settlers that go unpunished, or the periodic bombing of densely populated areas into oblivion, characterized so inhumanely and so barbarically by Israelis as “mowing the lawn.”
Israel’s supporters in Washington don’t want Americans to feel Palestinian humanity. When Bernie Sanders confronted Hillary Clinton with this at a debate, her response, cleverly scripted, was to dehumanize Hamas, then conflate Palestinians generally with Hamas.
But on this front Hillary’s sleight of hand doesn’t hold a candle to a stunt from Barbara Boxer (yeah, that’s right, the one Democrat loyalists refer to fawningly as “B-Box”) two years ago. At the time, a 15 year-old Palestinian American, Tariq Abu Khdeir, who had been brutalized for no reason by Israeli police while visiting family in the West Bank, was on a speaking tour and being filmed by C-Span. His story was compelling. A viewer would feel his humanity instantly. So, “B-Box,” concerned about the adverse impact this might have on American opinion on Israel, went to the well of an empty Senate, knowing that C-Span was duty bound to cut to her aimless babbling, and away from the young Palestinian.
I’ll get blowback on this post to be sure. At least one commenter will light his or her hair on fire and scream “What about Hamas!!!” That’s understandable. Whether justified or not (I’d say no), dehumanizing Hamas is relatively easy, as compared to dehumanizing everyday Palestinians. If Hamas is dehumanized in a loud enough voice, it trickles down to Palestinians writ large. Which allows a pro-Israel zealot to avoid reckoning with Palestinian humanity. Essentially, the blowback is a defense mechanism and nothing more.
But that’s okay. Because maybe I’ll reach one reader who wants to follow the path I’ve taken over the past decade.
If so, here’s my recommendation: If you’re not in the position to befriend a Palestinian-American, read The Way to the Spring. It’s the next best thing. You’ll come away with the feeling that Ehrenreich’s friends are your friends. You’ll feel their pain. And you’ll see Israel-Palestine through different eyes. Sane eyes. Human eyes.
Bob, you can always consider me to be a close friend. I appreciate your acceptance to the truth and unwillingness to turn a blind eye as most politicians have done.
I invite anyone who does not know a Palestinian American to friend me on Facebook @ Rafat Abdel, ask me any questions that have left you wondering about the conflict or how life Is in the West Bank.
People fighting over a crappy piece of dirt based on who’s Sky Daddy is the best.
Religion: causing pain and suffering for 5000 years.
Well, if you were expelled from that “crappy piece of dirt” that was once your homeland, you might have reason to fight.
I live on a crappy piece of dirt like everyone else in Tucson, but I surely would not want someone to take it away from me and send my ass packing to a refugee camp with a few belongings like some scene from Grapes of Wrath.
http://imeu.org/article/quick-facts-the-palestinian-nakba
I agree. My statement may have been vague, sorry.
And this is not a religious conflict. It is essentially about land and water.
And oil and gas, more recently.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/jul/09/israel-war-gaza-palestine-natural-gas-energy-crisis
I keep thinking that sooner or later there will be a generation of Americans that refuses to support unconditional US support for Israel. And that might happen, but not as long as the old guard keeps their stranglehold on the Democratic Party. This is actually one of the main reasons I have opposed the nomination of Hillary Clinton.
Hillary just loves the children. She blathers all over the planet about how she just loves the children. Why, Miss Hillary has spent her life just loving children and working for them and blah blah blah.
Now, just wait for the next time Nett’n-Yahoo decides to “mow the lawn.” We will see whether or not Hillary loves Palestinian children. The median age in Gaza is 18, so there are a lot of children there.
But I will reserve judgement. I will wait and see. Maybe I will be surprised.
If you pull the transcripts of what I think was the last of the Sanders-Clinton debates and of Clinton’s speech to AIPAC, you may get the sense that she sees Palestinians as a little bit less than Israelis. At least I got that sense. She’s not alone on that front. Romney gave a speech in which he explained how superior the Israeli culture was to the Palestinian culture. Which is why they can so easily look the other way when Palestinian children get slaughtered. For Sanders to go where he did in that debate was huge for a DC pol. He’s still way to the right of you and me, but compared to Clinton he’s a breath of fresh air.
Religion has also been giving people hope and fulfillment for 5,000 years, as well.
This summer I had the great fortune of attending a forum sponsored by a Santa Fe group called Creativity for Peace. Every summer the group brings together young Palestinian and Israeli women to spend several weeks together in dialogue. It was illuminating to hear their stories, while hoping that this kind of experience might lead to better relations over time. Several of the Israeli’s were struggling with their upcoming military service duty.
Here’s a link to the group:
http://creativityforpeace.com/
Thanks for that link. We don’t hear our leaders use the word Peace enough anymore.
There are other groups like this. They do wonderful work. I’m just not sure they can have a meaningful impact. Better than nothing, though.
I usually don’t respond on this subject, Bob, because we see it very differently. I did want to point out, though, that most people “are just people” until you push their hot button issues.