The grand finale: your New Year's resolutions

Last day of the year. My blog has come to an end. After my emotional outpouring yesterday, I want to leave you with practical ideas of what you can do next. So how about it folks? Are you ready to make a resolution tonight to do at least one thing in 2010? Take your pick.

1. Educational Tours. On your next visit to Israel, set aside half a day to accompany an Israeli organisation on a tour to learn about different aspects of the conflict.

For tours of East Jerusalem - Ir Amim

For tours of Hebron and the South Hebron hills - Breaking the Silence

To meet Palestinian families in the West Bank - The Villages Group

2. Tell your friends. Let the voices of peace grow louder. The next time you speak to friends or family about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the next time you hear someone say that there is no hope for peace, tell them about all the different peace initiatives between Israelis and Palestinians. Tell them about the people who do believe in peace and who are trying to make it happen.

A list of peace organisations can be found here (scroll down to the bottom) and here. Take 10 minutes to look through. Try to remember two organisations and spread the word!

3. Stay informed. Choose one new source of information to find out what is happening on the ground. Choose a credible source, and be daring, pick one from the other side of your political leaning. You can subscribe to information bulletins or e-newsletters.

For the lefties out there try:

The Council for Peace and Security

Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center

For the righties out there try:

B'Tselem

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel

4. Make a donation. If you already give money to Israel, think about allocating 5-10 percent of that amount to peace initiatives. If you do not give any money to Israel think about supporting one peace initiative this year. Personally, I like the following organisations:

If you want to support human rights:

B'Tselem (The information center on human rights in the Occupied Territories)

Hamoked (Providing legal defence for individuals)

Gisha (Working on freedom of movement)

If you want to help improve people's health:

Physicians for Human Rights - Israel

Peres Center for Peace

If you want to support peace dialogues between Israelis and Palestinians:

The Peoples Peace Fund (bringing together Palestinians and Israelis wounded in the conflict)

The Other Voice (bringing together people from Gaza and Sderot)

The Parents Circle (bringing together parents who have lost children in the conflict)

If you are interesting in art, music and culture:

The Villages Group (they just started a music center in two Palestinian villages)

If you are interested in environmental initiatives:

Comet-ME (Israelis installing solar panels and wind turbines in Bedouin villages in the Southern Hebron hills)

If you are interested in sport:

Peres Center for Peace

That's it. I'm done. Now do your own homework.

So here we are. Sixty one days later. Can you believe it? It is time to say good bye and to thank you for sharing this journey with me. I have cherished it dearly, and you have all made it worthwhile.

The End.

No more days to go.

Unspoken heroes

Every Shabbat a group of Israeli and Palestinian doctors and nurses join forces to provide healthcare to Palestinians living in the occupied territories. They work as volunteers. I accompanied them on one of their mobile clinics to a rural village just outside Qalqilyah.

The Israeli organisation, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, has 1150 members, over half of whom provide healthcare to people in need. They have an active program in Israel as well, assisting Jews, Arabs, migrants and asylum seekers, who are unable to access adequate health care. The Palestinian organisation, Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS), is the largest primary health care provider in the West Bank and Gaza, and has a network of over 40, 000 volunteers.

The Israeli doctors and nurses only treat patients for illnesses that cannot be treated in the occupied Palestinian territories. In this way, their humanitarian efforts do not undermine the Palestinian health care system. This is the kind of aid I like. They want to help people in need, without undermining their ability to help themselves, and without preventing them from developing their own healthcare system. Alongside their humanitarian work, they push for changes to government policies and practices that undermine access to healthcare.

On my mini-bus were two Jewish Israeli nurses, one originally from Egypt and the other one born in Palestine before the creation of the State of Israel, who had studied nursing at the American University in Beirut, Lebanon. The nurses spoke Arabic and acted as translators for the doctors. The two doctors were also Jewish Israelis, one orthopedic surgeon originally from Brazil, and an endocronologist originally from the United Kingdom. I watched each doctor consult forty patients each throughout the day.

These people are the unspoken heroes of this conflict. Every weekend, they choose to push aside politics and ideology to help people in need. Simple acts that change lives, and in some cases, save lives. What greater gift could you give to someone else?

Initiatives like these are the building blocks for peace. I hope they continue to grow and flourish.

47 days to go...

Why do I do this?

Today I accompanied an Israeli human rights activist to a meeting with a group of eighteen-year old Jewish Aussies and South Africans who are here on a one-year program to learn about Israel. They asked some important questions. I have reproduced the questions below, to tell you how I would answer them.

1. Are you only here to defend Palestinians human rights? Why do you ignore human rights violations from the other side?

I am concerned for all human beings. I am concerned about human rights violations wherever they take place. But I choose to work on issues where I think I can make a difference and where I feel responsible. As a white South African, I felt responsible for the policies and practices of the white South African government during the apartheid era, but I was too young to act. As an Australian, I feel responsible for the situation of indigenous people, and I acted. As a Jew, I feel responsible for what Jews are doing in the occupied Palestinian territories, and I want to act.

2. There is already so much criticism about Israel outside the country. Why are you trying to create so many more problems for Israel? Are you not damaging Israel more than helping it? Are there not more productive things to do to make Israel a better place?

I do not want Israel, or any country for the matter, to develop into a society where citizens and their elected leaders are not accountable for their acts. The rule of law is a basic building block for any democratic country. I think it is essential that laws exist and are applied to everyone. The Israeli government harms Israel, its citizens and the Palestinians under its control, when it violates the rule of law. Is that the kind of country we are dreaming for? Does that help the Jewish people?

3. Are you a Zionist? How do you justify causing so much pain to fellow Jews by saying things against us?

I do not know what it means today to be a Zionist. Zionism was a movement that started in the late 19th century to establish a homeland for the Jewish people in the land of Israel. The Zionists succeeded. Israel exists. Do we really need to keep defining ourselves this way?

I do not consider myself as being against the Jewish people. I do not consider myself against any people. But I think it is important to ask questions. And I think it is important to speak out when someone does the wrong thing. I think it is even more important when it comes to the policies and practices of a State. Is not this the essence of justice?

51 days to go...

The power of film

Three years ago, one of the organisations I work with, B’Tselem, started using video cameras as a tool for their human rights work in the Palestinian territories. After years of hearing and witnessing acts of violence by Israeli soldiers and settlers against Palestinians, they decided it was time to get evidence on camera.

B’Tselem has distributed more than 150 cameras to Palestinian families living in places where tensions are high, for example, near Israeli settlements.

The footage is chilling. In one particularly serious incident, four masked settlers with clubs were filmed attacking three members of the Nawai’ah family, who were grazing their flock on private Palestinian land south of the Israeli settlement of Susiya, near Hebron.



As a result of the video, a criminal investigation was opened and a case was filed in the Israeli High Court. The case was subsequently closed on grounds that the offenders were unknown. Nevertheless, there are many other instances where footage has been used to open military and police investigations that may have not otherwise been possible. Today, the Israeli authorities regularly request copies of videos from B’Tselem to assist their investigations. The films have become an important step towards greater accountability of Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

The distribution of video cameras to Palestinians has also had an important impact on their lives. First and foremost, the presence of video cameras acts as an important deterrent to violence: people are less likely to commit crimes when cameras are around. Second, it has become an important non-violent tool for Palestinians. Third, it has played an important role in empowering women and children, who are the main beneficiaries of the project. And finally, it has harnessed creativity and interest in filmmaking.

I think this is a groundbreaking initiative. For the first time, we can see with our own eyes what is happening on the ground. Let’s face it, we have all become so distrustful about what people say and write about what is happening in the region. It seems almost impossible to separate the facts from the politics, and the politics from the emotions. With these films, we are given firsthand evidence. And if this helps to lessen the violence, well then all the better!

So what do you think? How do you react to this kind of raw footage?

52 days to go…

p.s. For those still having trouble with the comments try using “anonymous” in the profile section.

To question or not to question?

Today I started work. I am working with three Israeli organisations: B’Tselem, Hamoked and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel. They are not the most popular crowd in Israel because they ask tough questions about Israel’s policies and practices in the Palestinian territories (and towards Arab Israelis). And if they find that Israel is violating its own laws, or international laws that Israel has signed up to, they take action. One Israeli friend of mine told me: “I do not like what they say, but they act as my conscience.”

There is a strong Jewish tradition that encourages us to ask questions. The tradition shapes teaching at yeshivas and is celebrated in Jewish festivals, like the four questions asked during Pesach. I have vivid memories as a child of being encouraged to ask questions, never blindly accepting what someone told me, and always striving for more information.

When it came to Israel and the Palestinians however, I was not encouraged to ask questions. I was encouraged to support Israel. To some extent I understand why. But, it runs counter to my belief that questions get us closer to the truth, and that truth can lead to justice; a key ingredient of shalom.

I am really glad to be here in Israel surrounded by people who are asking questions and taking action. You will hear more about their work in the coming days, but for now, I will let you judge for yourselves and ask your own questions.

Tomorrow, a tour into the heart of the conflict: Jerusalem.

59 days to go…