***had a beer and arabic salad this afternoon and jotted down some thoughts after the last two days, bethlehem/hebron and yad vashem holocaust museum (picture post below). i figured some of you might be interested, if not i always love a practice in narcisism :) ***
yad vashem was very intense and i honestly think i enjoyed dc's museum more. it could be that going the day after bethlehem colored the very subliminal zionism of the exhibition (especially the last section) but regardless i felt very affronted by many of the displays. it wasn't the acutal content, obviously this is not my first exposure and i would never question the horror of the holocaust, but it was how it was presented.
there's no real solid explanation and no explicit examples i can offer, but i felt an odd sense of being on the defensive. the holocaust was horrible, a tragedy, but all of it seemed to be implicit/explicit justification for the jewish state of israel. international opinion ignored hitler, so did politics, so did the pope, so now you owe us.
and i just kept thinking about yesterday when the guy in the dheisheh refugee camp kept saying, yes the holocaust was horrible and the jews deserve justice, but NOT to begin their own underground holocaust here (by expelling/continued treatment of palestinians). because the state of palestinians is a type of extermination...a type of violence that is so hard to combat - the constant, structural, 'necessary for security' barriers to movement, work and life. (the right to return for palestinians is not necessarily taking back any concrete land but the basic right to move around their native country, most specifically in and out of jerusalem, which they are not allowed to even visit).
the palestinians we met all seemed to be against the results of the second intifada (2000ish) and the resulting palestinian authority's actions that have limited what little freedoms they had. they also were clearly anti-extremism on any side (specifically hamas) but said that that election was completely reactionary. Without the oppression and continual overt violence paired with the election of super conservative israeli governments, the palestinian 'government' wouldn't be in near the state it is. its just so complicated. but so clearly unjust.
the tears and horror of the boy at the checkpoint yesterday kept interlaying with the gaunt, fearful faces of the children in the holocaust ghettos - most under the gun of german forces of occupation. as we were leaving hebron through the three checkpoints, a little boy no more than twelve was bawling with his little brother in front of an israeli soldier. an older palestinian man had already stopped and our guide told us to keep walking and once outside he explained what he had overheard. the little boy had visited his doctor to pick up his orthopedic shoes because he has bad knees and was walking back home. when going through the checkpoint the soldier accused him of stealing the shoes and took them away. the boy was repeating 'i need them, we can't afford them, i can't walk good' and the soldier was just staring nonchalantly off. samer, our guide, explained that often the soldiers are bored and will do things like this, especially to young boys. eventually he will give the shoes back, especially because the older man had stopped to help, and because he has no right to search and seizure not being a police officer (their only sancitoned role is to stop on grounds of violent threat).
it seems that everything i'm exposed to keeps reinforcing the feeling of two seperate, divided nations somehow coexisting and, on the israeli side, ignoring the other (its a little harder to ignore your oppressor). the scale of the holocaust is horriffic and the absence of international pressure humiliating but i am again pushed to the question of scale. how does massacre justify violence against another people for exactly the same crime for which you yourself were killed - religion and ethnicity? its deeply troublesome that i can sit in this cafe that appears no different than back bay, boston and know that the truth is that i'm occupying a land that is not mine. with the billions of us tax dollars here i'm constantly reminded of what i'm paying for (ok, lets be honest, my earnings wouldn't buy a toilet seat for the israeli govt, but still). the us military gun straps, the ex-vietnam AKs, and for what? that's what i really don't know - a strategic, westernized ally in the region? is that really all?
we provide an entire country for white jews but would never think to pour the same resources into, say, rwanda or darfur to protect their slaughtered ethnic minorities. i admit that i'm still woefuly underinformed about this situation but my gut cannot excuse the injustice. when samer the guide yesterday described the slaughter of palestinians trapped inside the church of the nativity for months in spring 2005, i just am lost for an explanation. a sniper on the roof of jesus' famed manger picking off anyone who dared enter the courtyard to get the food and medicine clandestinely passed from the outside...
what we are willing to do to each other...maybe i was just raised right, but i literally cannot imagine behaving to intentionally harm another. to, for no reason buy my own 'superiority', torture another. to blame an innocent for my own suffering; to excuse acts of sensless thuggery with the entitlement of false martyrdom; to honestly believe that my god is my own and loves only me and my actions so that whatever i do is not only mine but god's will - how does one become so arrogant and blind?
samer made an incredible point about changing parenting as the only way to change the future. to not allow children to dehumanize their neighbor. the basic lesson that we are all human and that all abrahamic religions call for the recognition of the divine in each living thing, not to be ignored no matter their actions.
i used to default to a 'two state' solution view but after being here what is needed is true peace - a shared country for all. the insistence of israel on a 'pure jewish state' automatically excludes all arab muslims from not only the political process but the country itself (not to mention intermarriage and secular marriage are still illegal in israel). but no 'pure' system is the answer - equality and amnesty are the only way the region will ever recover and even hope for sustainable development and peace. because this situation has been on a razor's edge for too long. and its no way to live.
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Sounds like your tour was exceptional. I really appreciated reading your reflections. The story of the boy's shoes is really powerful.
ReplyDeleteI can see how your experience would be affected by which side you delve into first . . . it's hard not to weigh tragedy. One thing I really appreciated about the Yad Vashem museum was the attention made to the culture that survived in the ghettos and the movements of resistance both inside and outside of ghettos and concentration camps. I think there are a lot of obvious reasons for this emphasis. On the cynical side, it's an effort to instill in Israelis a belief that violence is a necessary, justifiable, heroic part of their history. It helps to militarize the many youth that stream through that museum in tour groups. From a more positive perspective, it is a necessary means by which a people choose which part of their history to carry with them into the present and future. I seems to me that it would be important for Israelis to shift the emphasis from oppression and helplessness to strength, hope, and perseverance. I guess I'm in a really optimistic mood, but I would like to think that the incredibly determined and strong nature of Israelis (a really impressive characteristic and you can't deny what a developed country they've created in such a short time, even if they did have a lot of help) will eventually transform Israel into a country that is not only at the forefront of technology, but also the forefront of human rights, forgiveness, and cultural collaboration. Israel is only a couple generations old, and I would like to think that the intelligence, strength, and determination the young people have inherited from their parents and grandparents will lead them to preserve what is good about their country and purge what is oppressive. I guess that's what I hope for all countries.
And I guess I'm having a glass half full kind of day.