Rutie Atsmon
9
Media
What kind of relations are there between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians from the Territories?
I think that for many of the Jews living in Israel, the Territories are very far away, even if it's only a five minute ride or half an hour away. You can live in Tel Aviv for all your life and never visit the Territories. Most Israeli Jews don't visit the Territories if they don't have family in settlements, and most secular Jewish Israelis don't have relatives in settlements; if you don't do reserves duty or army duty there then you don't go to the Territories. You may cross the Green Line on the way from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem if you take Highway 443 but you don't notice what lies behind the hills or the very picturesque villages on the mountainside; you say, "Oh what a beautiful view" but you don't see the people living there. This is true for most Israelis. If you live in Jerusalem, there is East Jerusalem but even then you can ignore it. Usually the only time people don't ignore the Territories is when there is a suicide bombing; then it gets your attention. People don't see the wall; people don't see the checkpoints, people hear about those things but they have no idea what they mean to the lives of the Palestinians. Israelis can ignore the Territories and you really have to step out of your way to get interested in Palestinians as individuals or as a people or in what's really happening in the Territories. But for Palestinians living daily under occupation, the need or curiosity to meet the enemy or occupier, or the need to find a solution is stronger. Israelis can go on for a long time, I mean you go on with your life, a basically normal life, and of course Palestinians need a solution now. So if they feel that part of the solution is to talk to Israelis, then they want to take an active step and do it. Often when we go to schools in Israel and offer kids to meet Palestinians they say, why? What would I gain from meeting a Palestinian? Why would I want to meet a Palestinian? What would I have to tell him? What would I have to hear from him? For the Palestinian kids it's often the case that they really want to meet Israeli kids because they want to tell them about what's happening. They cleverly understand that the Israelis don't really know what's going on and they want to tell them. The Palestinian kids are sometimes under the illusion that if they tell Israelis what is happening it will create a change, maybe even an immediate change; they will suffer less, the Occupation will change or end. It can be very disappointing: the Palestinians can speak for hours on end and tell so many stories and the Israelis hear and even express sympathy and understanding but the next day the Palestinians go home and nothing has changed. That's hard. We try to show them that even if it doesn't take effect now, everything we do, every person that meets someone from the other side, every person that hears more stories and knows more about the other, it all has a long term effect. It takes time but there is an impact. Unfortunately, until there is a real change, people suffer. This is the frustrating side of our work, because we all would want it to end now and have peace tomorrow morning.