A few weeks ago, I went out for beers with some folks after Ulpan: Max, the Welshman, who started dating an Israeli in suddenly found himself in Jerusalem, Elana, who is a returned Palestinian refugee, and her boyfriend, a date farmer from near Jericho who also was part of the Palestinian diaspora until the time of Yasser Arafat.
Max and I could have spent all night listening to what they had to say and asking questions. The fact that we were drinking wine and beer should tell you something about where the Palestinians sit in the religious strata. As for Max, beer is of course one of the main food groups in Wales. Part of our conversation revolved around where you can and can't get booze in the West Bank. The answer: If you find the Christians, you can find the booze.
Both Elana and her boyfriend are well educated, relatively affluent, and have roshim gadolim. This means big heads in Hebrew, and is an expression that actually means that they think grandly and deeply, rather than being egotistical. And by date farmer- I think minor date magnate might be closer to the truth.
There are four things that were impressed upon me from our conversation that have really stuck with me. I relay them to you here:
1) They are worried about the increasing religiousness in both the Palestinian and Israeli populations. (No news there. My secular Israeli friends complain bitterly about the same thing.)
2) The thing they were most concerned about was how four decades of isolation and oppression had really closed the minds of the local population. No fresh ideas are flowing in and people are not thinking beyond their own little world. I was told an anecdote of someone their 20's from Ramalla never having seen Nabulus, which is the next biggest Palestinian city and is only 45 km away. They were concerned that the education system, at its best, gets the basics of the three R's done, but there is no analytical thinking or deeper thought nurtured. And now that it has been like that for a couple generations...
3) Elana said she was so angry when she returned from England to Palestine (i.e. the West Bank) a couple of years ago. Like many, her family's story isn't a nice one and she has grown up hearing it. She said it took her a long time just to be able to function, communicate and be around average Israelis without being angry.
4) You can be a date farmer and still love dates. I think I may change vocation.
12 years ago
2 comments:
"They are worried about the increasing religiousness in both the Palestinian and Israeli populations. (No news there. My secular Israeli friends complain bitterly about the same thing.)"
I must comment that there is a fundamental difference in the religiousness; did you hear about the camp of the UN that was recently burned by Hamas? The assessments are it happened because boys and girls were about to be in the camp together. These acts of violence are frigntening. The Palestinians have burned a UN camp that is supposed to help the Palestinians children and families…
And speaking of the Arab Christians, look at the Christians that are situated in Gaza, and are under the Palestinian law. They cannot practice their religion in public, women cannot walk in the streets with pants but are forced to wear traditional Muslim outfits… This is another act of violence that should concern you. For an example look at the BBC article at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4514822.stm
Anonymous,
Thanks for your comments.
Next time I go for beer, I will pass your comments along and see what they say. I think they will say "Yup. It is bad, destructive, counter-productive and it sucks."
However, there is a disturbing increasing religiousness in the Jewish sector too that I would have been remiss not to mention. Google up Mea Shearim and you will find some pretty scary oppressive culture in some sects of Judaism. Yes, there are even segregated buses.
I don't want to say that the scariness is on equal footing, here. But think what these secular Palestinians, the secular Jews I work with and myself are afraid of is that any fundamentalist movement, be it Christian, Jewish or Muslim, who gets "God on their side" can start to justify to themselves all sorts of nasty acts.
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