It always comes down to suicide attacks. I was shocked to hear people tell me to my face that they were in favor of them! This was during Operation Defensive Shield or maybe later, in March 2004, at the peak of the second intifada. I understand the complexity. There is a reason a person will say this - it's because of social pressure. Some people came to the conference before telling or not intending to tell their community they were going to meet with Israelis. I know I should appreciate that they came.
Michal Eskenazi
5
Suicide Bombing
Can you give an example of this?
I will give you three. I was challenged by the matter of "why don't they understand that we want to talk to them? Why don't they understand that we want to make peace with them?" I'm exaggerating, but it always comes down to suicide attacks. I was shocked to hear people tell me to my face that they were in favor of them! This was during Operation Defensive Shield or maybe later, in March 2004, at the peak of the second intifada . I understand the complexity. There is a reason a person will say this - it's because of social pressure. Some people came to the conference before telling or not intending to tell their community they were going to meet with Israelis. I know I should appreciate that they came. Second is the matter of anger. When you meet, people need to unload all their prejudices; everybody unleashes slogans and only afterwards can you begin to talk; this is a process. This was my first time. People come, let everything out and then they begin to talk matters over. After people had unpacked everything, I couldn't understand why they [the Palestinians] were still so angry. I mean, we were there and we had come to talk, so why was it so important to get all this out? Though I knew and understood, it struck me suddenly that I was seeing, before me, people who pass through checkpoints every day, people for whom the checkpoints are now the core issue for debate or even of the whole conflict because it's their daily routine. These people, who endure this reality daily, were explaining it to me and I needed to make the connection—them going through this and not just figures in articles. Third, and I recall this strongly because I also encountered it after, is the differences between perceptions of the meeting. Perhaps it is linked to their background and daily life, but they [Palestinians] come and very much want to make an immediate change. We hold our dialogue sessions yet nothing changes, as though for the Palestinians we Israelis are the representatives of the State of Israel and we are responsible for changing the situation. I would like to instigate change but right now I can't...I am also just a civilian, I do have the power allotted to citizens but it isn't the same power the state has, not yet. Towards the end of the conference, after having undergone a very significant process together and many discussions, something happened in Gaza and eleven Palestinians were killed. The Palestinians refused to speak to us. We tried to explain that we were there and that we hadn't done anything, but their perspective was that "you live in Israel, you served in the IDF , the guys serve in reserves, and we have nothing to say to you." This was after we had the joint process. I grasped the asymmetry in coming to these discussions, in terms of how people perceive them.