Let The Kids Play

Monday was an interesting day for me. I spent the day witnessing one reality and the evening listening to something else.

Let's start with the evening. Our program's weekly enrichment was a workshop with a woman from a company called Debate. She was there to give us some tools for the challenges we might face when we tell people that we chose to spend time in Israel. As you read in my last post, not everyone is so keen on Israel. There are entire movements (like BDS) opposing Israel's right to even exist. So she was there to tell us about the questions we might be asked and some of the best ways to answer these questions without having our words twisted around. The precision with which one must speak about Israel is utterly ridiculous. Dissenters will take even the most positive of things and turn it into a negative. Although I experienced it for years, the battle of rhetoric and semantics about Israel in the rest of the world never ceases to amaze me.

Now let's go back to my day. I was lucky enough to spend the day volunteering at a Mini Mondial (Mini World Cup - Mondial is what they call it) put on by The Peres Center For Peace. This tournament was part of an ongoing soccer program that brings Israeli and Palestinian children together through sports. The children go to after school soccer trainings in their cities and are taught soccer terminology in each other's languages, sportsmanship, leadership, and team work, and most importantly they are brought together to play soccer with each other. All day I watched these kids have fun just playing together. Of course not everyone got along perfectly, but it was so amazing to see the mixture of Israeli and Palestinian children getting to be what they are – kids.


So here is what is happening in America (and other places around the world): grown adults are yelling in each other's faces because they can't agree on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And here is what is happening in Israel: actual Israeli and Palestinian children are learning about each other in order to create meaningful relationships, which will hopefully lead them to grow up with more understanding of each other.

I realize neither of these situations is the reality everywhere. Not every confrontation about Israel is yelling, heated, or irrational. And in many places in Israel the Jewish and Palestinians are not getting along. I've said it before, I'll say it again, and just about everyone else will also tell you that IT IS COMPLICATED. I just really felt that the juxtaposition of these two experiences in one day gave me some perspective about things. My perspective? There is hope for some kind of peace, somewhere in the future. I saw that in these kids and I hope that we adults can get ourselves together to encourage them to work towards it, or maybe even genuinely work towards it ourselves. 

"BDS...bigotry, dishonesty, and shame" – Benjamin Netanyahu

I've said before that I like to try to keep my blog apolitical, but some recent events have forced me to use my voice in this venue. The BDS – boycotts, divestments, and sanctions – movement against Israel is accumulating a lot of steam on the Portland State Campus. I worked with many amazing students and community leaders for 2 years to squelch it's hideous fire, but alas, it is still trying to burn a hole in out community. And this is why I will continue to support the Portland State Community in any way I can while I am thousands of miles away. Today I'm asking you to help out as well.

  Please sign this petition against BDS at PSU.

The BDS movement is an extremely damaging thing to infect any community, especially a college campus. As a recent alumni of Portland State I can tell you that I have first hand experience with how hypocritical, divisive, and intimidating BDS can be. The movement claims to call for a two-state solution, and yet many of it's leaders refuse to acknowledge Israel's right to exist. They call for the boycott of Israeli institutions, and yet the found of the movement, Omar Barghouti himself, attended Tel Aviv University. While studying at PSU I was constantly facing intimidating and anti-semetic rhetoric from the pro-BDS camp. I had my posters defaced with hateful statements and lies, I had students whom I had never met in my life refuse to speak to me because they were told I was from the pro-Israel group, and I was even asked to leave an open event put on by a student group on campus based on my anti-BDS opinions.

I am now living in Israel and I can tell you first hand that this is the only democracy in the Middle East. Yes, Israel is facing it's issues – both socially and politically – as any country does, but there is no apartheid, there is not a genocide, people of all kinds of religions and nationalities live full and free lives here. In fact, I've spoken to multiple Palestinian-Israelis (those who identify as Palestinian nationally but are citizens of Israel) who would not want to live in a Palestinian state because that would mean living without many of the freedoms they have in Israel. Israel is the only place in the Middle East to treat women, homosexuals, Christians, and many other groups with equal rights and the freedom to be who they are.

Additionally, the way to peace in this situation is not isolation. Isolating Israel with economic and academic boycotts will only bring us further from peace. We need to be encouraging collaborative educational programs, business ventures, and community activities between both sides in order to help us each understand where the other one is coming from and each other's wants, needs, and hopes. Only then will we have even the sliver of a chance to achieve a peaceful two-state solution. 

I urge you to sign this anti-BDS petition. The college campus is probably one of the #1 places where we can educate each other in order to work towards a peaceful future, but BDS kills that opportunity. 

Two Days, One People

The last two days in this country have been an emotional roller coaster. This is not an unusual occurrence in my life, but this time it was for a much different, and special reason. Monday and Tuesday were Yom Hazikaron (יום הזיכרון) and Yom Haatzmaut (יום העצמאות). In Israel they celebrate the Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of terror attacks back-to-back with Independence Day. This is the most Israeli time of all Israeli times to be in Israel (what a weird sentence). I feel that so much of the Israeli ethos is captured in these two days. 

On Yom Hazikaron eve and morning the city's siren sounds for 2 minutes and the entire country stops whatever they are doing to stand together in a moment of mourning. I stood at the top of Dizengoff fountain and looked down as cars, buses, and people stopped, chills covering my body as the siren ended and we all continued to stand still because we couldn't escape what the sirens were signifying. They were there to facilitate a nation of millions of people to remember the 23,169 Israeli soldiers who have died defending Israel and the 3,728 innocent civilians who were killed in terror attacks. The sadness pours over the entire nation. No one can escape it. 

The day goes by and people do various things. Many visit graves or have memorial services for fallen soldiers in their towns or at their schools. My friends and I went to Jerusalem and I got to visit the Kotel (Western Wall) for the first time since arriving this trip. As soon as I touched the stones the tears began to pour out of my eyes. I don't think I've ever felt the need to pray so greatly and I don't think I've ever prayed so hard.  

At sundown the country makes the switch from a time of great sadness to a time of incredible celebration. When Yom Haatzmaut came I was still in Jerusalem. The streets of Ben Yehuda filled with families. People set up stands on the sides of the streets selling hotdogs, cotton candy, flags, and other patriotic toys and trinkets. Music blasted from every corner of the city. 

From a non-Israeli point of view it might seem odd or difficult to have these two days happen like this, but I've realized why it is the way it is. On memorial day we mourn. We are so deeply saddened for the lives that have been lost in the name of Israel, for the safety of it's people, or taken by those who continue to threaten to destroy us. But then we celebrate. We celebrate that we have an Israel to defend, that those who were lost were not lost in vain. We rejoice that they had something worth fighting for and that we still have this amazing nation, these amazing people, worth fighting for. 

There are days I feel so American here and there are days when I think I feel Israeli. These two days I really felt like I was a part of this place, and I hope that every person gets a chance to feel it for themselves someday.