Mixed fruit salad in the Holy Land
It is the 16th September 2008; it is a warm day and not much of a breeze. We have an early appointment with an Israeli woman activist, Gila Svirsky. She is well known for demonstrations with the peace movement, Women in Black, which takes place on Fridays in the afternoon in the centre of West Jerusalem.
Her apartment is in West Jerusalem, we have never been to her place before, so we start our walk a little earlier. We finally find it but we are now too early and a decision is made that we hang around outside, just to be respectful and not inconvenience her plans. She comes out after some few minutes and warmly welcomes us to her home.
She starts the long journey of her story of coming to Israel as a child and growing up, serving in the Israeli army, getting married and having children. She describes herself as an Israeli Zionist but is quick to say she is not Orthodox. She is also the founder of Coalition for Peace, and has recently been elected the chairperson of B'Tselem. In describing a Zionist she says, Zionism is not about getting land and kicking out the people found in that land, but it is about being concerned for the soul of the nation.
Raising her two daughters in this country proved challenging: she tried to give the girls a better knowledge about the state of Israel and the Occupied Palestinians, introducing the girls to Palestinians as other human beings like them, and the girls getting friends in the Palestinian territory. This led her eldest daughter to serve a much shorter period in the army, because she never kept quiet about her Palestinian friends and she refused to serve in the occupied territories.
At the end of our meeting, she gives the following message to fellow Israelis: "If you were really and truly concerned for the soul of Israel, the soul of the nation and had a true Zionist vision, be true to the nation and End the Occupation."
Then off to the B'Tselem offices we went after that powerful woman. We were again warmly welcomed and given a brief history of the organisation, they proudly tell us of their recently started project, giving video cameras to the victims of human rights violations to record footage of what happens when they are attacked by settlers and when soldiers come to take over their houses. B’Tselem proudly presented the facts of the effectiveness of that project: how soldiers and settlers have backed down from their harassment when the victims start filming.
According to us we have got enough to dish up this salad, but little do we know. On our way home on the bus ride, my cell phone rings. We are to hurry to Shuafat refugee camp, there is a demolition of a one room extension in the house. We get off at the blue bus station and we hurry to the green bus station to catch the next bus to the camp. We are calling for directions and wishing for the fastest ride. Finally we get there, Eish! It was all done demolished and a couple of trees uprooted, and still a threat of further uprooting of other trees.
Now tell me what you say to the family in this situation. They are looking at you with a blank stare, all is doomed for them. All I could say was I am so sorry for this, I wish there was something better I could do to stop this. One of the family members said, you are doing a great job by being here, now go back to your home country, tell them the truth of what you have seen, not what you heard of but what you see now.
Now let us all eat this fruit salad from the Holy Land.
