Tale of Two Narratives

This afternoon we sat in a coffee shop and lunch bistro, enjoying the afternoon sun of Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv is a very dynamic, active and sophisticated city; with modern architecture, great restaurants, an impressive art museum, and a beautiful beach. As I sat there basking in the beauty of the day and enjoying a great cup of coffee, I had another, darker though: what if someone walked into this restaurant and blew himself up? My thoughts were not entirely unfounded, as that is exactly what happened during the Second Intifada (uprising) when over 5500 Palestinians and over 1100 Israelis, as well as 64 foreigners lost their lives in the bloody conflict. I began to understand better the level of fear and paranoia that haunted Israeli society, especially when civilians, children, and high school students were killed.

Yesterday we met with Dani Tirza, the Israel Defence Forces Colonel who was the architect of "The Wall," or the Separation Barrier. He began his talk with us by discussing two different narratives; the Israeli narrative and the Palestinian. I am going to tell it at some length here because we have heard similar versions of the same narrative told by both Palestinians and Israelis. Dani began recounting the Israeli narrative by going all the way back to Abraham--that God gave the land to the Jews (From Genesis 15: 17-19: When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi[a] of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— the land of the Kenites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites".) Our story, he said is that we are the Jews; God promised this land to us, and we came back to rehabilitate this land. There were no Arabs living on this land at that time. By the end of the 19tth century, there were not many Arabs here; it was an empty land. There are different stories about how many random tribes were living here, but some say about 300,000 people." (Similarly, when we spoke with the Jewish Settler at Hebron, he told us that although there were Arabs here, they were not a people, and there certainly was no Palestine; just villages, living in tribes.)

Dani continues his narrative from the Israeli perspective: "We came to this land and invited Jews from all over the world to come and participate in the building of this land, the creation of roads and towns. We invited non-Jews & Arabs to work here and to take part in the economic productivity. However, when we were attacked by the Arab countries in 1947, we fought back. They wanted to erase Israel from the map, but we won the war and Israel was built. In 1967, the Egyptians, Syrians and Jordanians wanted to "throw Jews to the Mediterranean," but we fought back again and established a strong nation."

Dani continued: "The Palestinians have a different narrative. The Palestinians do not believe that the Jews should be a nation; that there should be no state for a religion. They will not recognize Israel as a Jewish state. So, they are hoping that Israel will simply vanish from the area. They have a phrase "suppr" which means, patience. "The Jews will go away--but we will help them go away." So, they tried to get rid of us. In 1967, Israel tried to reclaim its borders, but the Palestinians say that they are living under an illegal occupation. These are two different narratives that cannot be reconciled. They compose a belief system; and you cannot compromise your belief system."

While attending the Interfaith Peace Builders delegation, we heard a very different narrative from our Palestinian hosts. To list the details of the narrative would be too long; but here is a summary: We have always lived on this land. We have been farmers, olive tree growers, and caretakers of this land. After the British mandate ended, the Jews decided to claim this land for themselves. We welcomed them, but began to feel the encroachment of the expansion. Then, the start of the 1948 Palestinian War--or as Israel calls it, the War of Independence. As a result, the Nakbah ("catastrophe") occured, which was when during the 1948 Palestine War, an estimated 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled, and hundreds of Palestinian villages were depopulated and destroyed. The vast majority of Palestinian refugees, both those outside the 1949 armistice lines at the war's conclusion and those internally displaced, were barred by the newly declared state of Israel from returning to their homes or reclaiming their property. (just as an aside: On 23 March 2011, the Knesset approved,
by a vote of 37 in favor to 25 against, a change to the Government budget, giving the Israeli Finance Minister the discretion to reduce government funding to any non-governmental organization (NGO) that organizes Nakba commemoration events).

The Israelis won the war, and the Armistice lines were drawn. Since that time, the Israeli's continue to expand their presence, ignoring the "Green Line," and taking valuable resources such as water to provide for Jewish settlers. After the Second Intifada, the Israelis have made their lives miserable, by restricting their freedoms and access to their farm lands because of "the wall." Going to school, hospitals, or work is next to impossible. They feel that the Jews are trying to crush Palestinian culture and are doing everything in their power to slowly squeeze them out of the land, so that they eventually will just leave. As one speaker put it "Israel holds every aspect of our life hostage."

So, what's the "right narrative?" These two narratives belie a belief system that is deeply tied to history, land, tribes, loyalty, national pride, hope and of overcoming great hardships regardless of oppression. Certainly the way to peace is not through the re-telling of these narratives. Even as this story was being written in the hotel lobby, Kathleen got into an argument with a (presumably) Jewish gentleman whose narrative was "the Palestinian leaders are corrupt; they don't care about their people; Palestinians have freedom of movement;they can do whatever they want, but they don't want to live in a civilized society..." I (Kathleen) know this narrative to be false. Some of the more radical Israeli's that we spoke with have a narrative about Palestinians that is a product of the Israeli media; not based on real relationships.

At the same time, in discussing their narratives with the Palestinians, I did not hear a chorus of Palestinians speaking out against the terrorist attacks of the intifada, saying: "the killing of Jewish people is wrong; the suicide bombers were wrong; the loss of Jewish lives is a tragedy."

What I did hear said, more often than not, was "yes, but look at what the Israeli's did to us..." And then, I heard the Israeli's say, "the suicide bombers and terrorist attacks forced our hand; so what we do to Palestinians who may be terrorists is justifed. The Wall is part of National Security." What I longed to hear someone say is: the killing of each other's children, the murder of our citizens; whether Israeli soldiers or Palestinian teenagers is wrong and it can't continue. It doesn't matter how many bodies were piled up on each side of the Green Line; it doesn't matter whose blood was spilled. It matters that we stop the murder; the stereotypes, re-telling the same narrative over and over again. . Perhaps when both the Israeli and Palestinian leaders can speak as forcefully against murder, oppression and tyranny-- maybe then, we can find a way towards a lasting peace."

Location:Jerusalem