Peace without dialogue?

A blog post by Adam. Warning: It's another long one, but at least this time there are pictures.

We returned to Bethlehem less than 48 hours after our first visit to the Palestinian Territories. We were back to see more, to learn more.

Our visit began with tea and coffee. Unlike the frenetic pace of Rabbi Arik from the day before, things would move slower today. Despite living on the same land, despite the Semetic roots of their languages, the cultures were different in so many ways.

After a leisurely tea (for me) and coffee (for Melissa) we set off for a tour of Bethlehem. Our tour, however, would miss every single sight in the Lonely Planet. Instead we first drove through one of Bethlehem's three refuge camps. After more than 60 years the refugee camp appeared to be just another neighborhood in the city. Zoughbi explained that refugees received some services from the UN, including education and medical care and occasional aid. Given this assistance, some refugees were actually better off materially than other poor families from Bethlehem. Still, as we would we learn later in the day, at least some refugees still yearned to return to their ancestral lands.

Entrance to one of Bethlehem's three refugee camps.

UN refugee camp office.

From here we stopped to see a fence between Palestine and Israel that had cut off Palestinian access to their olive groves (the "wall" between Israel and Palestine is generally only a "wall" around Israeli urban areas, whereas on other parts of the border it is a less imposing but still large fence).

The fence cutting off Bethlehem residents from their olive groves.

The wall protecting an Israeli highway that cuts through the Palestinian Territories.

Back in the car, Zoughbi pointed out two Israeli settlements on two sides of Bethlehem. About seven years ago Israel proposed building a wall connecting the two settlements and thus cutting off Palestinian access to large swaths of farming land.  Zoughbi and others had fought this proposal but recently lost a final court challenge. The wall was coming and the Palestinans would lose more land.  

The valley currently under Palestinian control that will be walled in to connect two  Jewish settlements.

Similar to the day before, when we met with Bedouin villagers, the situation felt hopeless. How could this situation improve, defeat, after defeat, after defeat? For now we didn't have answers, but we did have Zoughbi's sister waiting at her home to serve leftovers from Orthodox Easter (which was two days ago). The treats were amazing. I had my first Arak (not as tasty), and we left our brief but warm interlude with colored Easter eggs for the road.

We returned to the Wi'am office to have lunch and meet with Nasser, who lives in a refugee camp, and now works in the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism. A slender soft spoken person, he had spent 6 years in an Israeli prison for "throwing rocks and other things" from ages 16 to 22.  Upon his release he made a commitment to non-violence and was now teaching his four children the same. Still, his passion for a Palestinian state had not subsided.

Over hummus, fava beans, and pita, Nasser shared his dreams for his community. He wanted peace but he also felt all of the Palestinian refugees (including his family) should be able to return to their former homes.  He felt Israelis and Americans understood the challenges of daily life for Palestinians, and that given the stalled peace process and continued settlements they must not care.  After several days of listening I was ready to talk, even if I didn't know what I was talking about. I said Israelis didn't understand Palestinian's plight, but they most certainly carried the fear of suicide bombings and multiple wars. I said most Americans were busy just getting by (as were most Israelis) and that aside from those with an investment in Israel and Palestine, the conflict was not our highest priority. I'm not entirely sure if my generalizations were completely accurate, but I did feel that in our dialogue we were learning and building bridges.  

The dialogue was wonderful, but it seemed it should be happening between Israelis and Palestinians, and this didn't appear to be likely. Israelis had told us they were afraid to come into the Palestinian Territories. Israeli signs at the entrance to the Territories confirmed this sentiment, warning "If you are an Israeli do not enter this zone. You are at risk of death." Zoughbi confirmed that he couldn't guarantee an Israeli's safety in Palestine. And Palestinians, like Zoughbi, didn't seem interested in going into Israel, whereas most others didn't even have this option. Was the situation impossible? How could  peace come without dialogue between average Israelis and Palestinians? Was this what Israeli and Palestinian leaders wanted?  As with our first visit, we had a heck of a time crossing the border back into Israel and we left with far more questions than answers.