The activists of Taayush, although small in number, represent a more hopeful alternative. They accompany Palestinian farmers every week as they graze their sheep, protecting their right to their land. They are a Jewish-Palestinian partnership, Israelis and Palestinians striving together to end the Israeli occupation and to achieve full civil equality through daily non-violent direct-action. Their mission and their actions embody a vision where Jews and Palestinians share the land as equals. The activists are clear that they only come when the Palestinians invite and only respond to requests from the Palestinians for assistance.
Before we came to the illegal settlement we had spent time some three hours in three different locations with Palestinian shepherds. Our group accompanied Fad'l Mahamra and his family. The interaction between the Taayush members and Fadl, his wife, Mahamra and their children was very moving. We all interacted with his kids and they graciously made us tea. Despite the obvious disparity between us in power and privilege, there was a beauty and peacefulness as we spent time with them and their flock of sheep on the hill opposite the settlement of Carmel.
When we arrived, the army warned Fad'l that he could not graze his sheep on the other side of the hill closer to the settlement, even though it is his land. It was his choice not to challenge this injustice that day. Had he chosen to do so, we would have readily supported him. As a result of our presence Fad'l was able to graze his sheep on land that he would be unable to access without us. This protects his claim to the land and also enables him to sustain his livelihood.
Back to the illegal outpost: In the screaming matches between the activists and settlers, I notice the use of religious sources by the secular activists. One of them quotes "and you shall love the stranger" another quotes the prophet Amos. Beneath the surface in Israel there is a civil war brewing between two different visions of Judaism and Jewish identity. Although I am a rabbi, I identify completely with these secular Israelis and reject the religious vision of the settlers.
As we leave the outpost and walk through the Palestinian village, Shuki, young Israeli man who I met on the bus, says to me, "I read about this kind of behavior by settlers, but I never quite believed it. Seeing it with one's own eyes is so different." He impresses me as a very mild and gentle man, yet he was enraged by the encounter with the settlers. It shook him to his core. The fact that the settlers wore masks infuriated him.
And I have also been changed by what I have just seen with my own eyes. I have seen the frightening possibility of yet another generation or more of this cycle of violence and I have also seen another more hopeful possibility in the courageous and inspiring commitment of the Israeli activists. Whether Israel will turn from the cycle of violence and begin to consider what it means to live with Palestinians as opposed to imposing our will on them, will determine whether that young settler and his infant and the Palestinian young people in the village will inherit a life of war, suffering and bloodshed or the possibility of a life of security enriched by the interaction between two sacred cultures and peoples that live on this land.
The activists of Taayush give me some hope that this may be possible but as one of them said to me, I doubt it will happen in my lifetime. I hope he is wrong. Keyn Yehi Ratzon/InshAllah/May it be God's (and our) will!
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