Letter from the Editor
By:
Kyle Zipes
Racaz T’nua
When I was 13 I went to a private Jewish day school. It was far from my house so I had to carpool to get to and from school every day. One day I did fairly poorly on a test and I was dreading telling my parents about it. My only hope was that they would have forgotten about my test, and forget to ask me my mark.
That day my mom drove me and my carpool home from school and I sat in
the front seat, sick with terror that one of my friends in the back would ask
what I got on my test, exposing my bad mark to my mom. I tried to send them
all kinds of mental messages reminding them not to speak of the test in front
of my mom, but it didn’t work. My heart skipped a beat as Greg Grossberger asked
“Hey Kyle, what did you get on that test today?”
I froze. It was over. My fate was sealed, there was nothing left to do.
Like a man marching out to meet the firing squad, I told Greg what I got and
asked him his mark. Greg told me that he got the same mark I did, but unlike
me, he seemed to be happy with his grade.
Instead of the screaming and cursing I thought I was in for, my mom just
said “very good boys” and left it at that. I was stunned. How could my mom be
taking this so well? I began to question if I really did that poorly. However,
after having dropped off the rest of the carpool at their homes, the yelling
and punishments began. I was perplexed. How could my mother tell Greg Grossberger
that his mark was good, and then punish me for getting the same mark?
It took a while but I finally understood that my mom criticized me because
she loved me. It was okay to tell Greg the little white lie that his grade was
good because she didn’t care that he learned from his mistakes enough to hurt
him. In my case however, my mom had enough concern that I do better next time
to punish me this time. In other words, she loved me enough to criticize me.
This is the same attitude with which I look at Israel. I have heard some
say that Jews should not criticize Israel, I have heard Jews accuse other Jews
who criticize Israel of anti-Semitism. I think that is the accusers who lack
love for Israel. They are like my mom hesitant to hurt Greg, even though it
would probably be good for him in the long run.
If I think Israel is doing something wrong, I love it enough to try to
make it better. Many Jews are inwardly hesitant to point out Israel’s flaws,
or else they don’t look for them. They argue that we must appear a united front
to the rest of the world. I argue that this blind defence will cause Israel
to crumble. Only by searching for our mistakes can we solve them. In other words,
the short-term pain this criticism causes Israel will be compensated for by
the long-term solutions it can bring.
To ignore Israel’s mistakes is wrong, both morally and practically. We
must strive to ensure Israel enjoys social justice because it’s the right thing
to do and just as importantly, because it is the best way and most practical
way to bring peace.
In this issue of the b’tnua many divergent opinions on the current crisis
in Israel will be given. Hopefully some you will agree with, hopefully some
will anger you. I ask you to challenge yourselves and consider all opinions
equally, both those that are right and left wing. If you believe one to be out
and out incorrect, let us know. Write a response and send it in. Only through
challenge and dialogue can we strengthen our ideas.
Aleh V'Hagshem,
Kyle Zipes
Racaz T’nua
Habonim Dror North America
Not
a Single Kibbutznik
by:
Nechemia Meyers
One-third of the members of this country's first government
were kibbutzniks; in the new one, which came into office earlier this month,
there are none. This highlights the declining influence of Israel’s collective
settlements, the central theme of Daniel Gavron's clear-sighted new book, "The
Kibbutz: Awakening from Utopia," published by Rowman and
Littlefield. Kibbutzniks, who also held 20% of the seats in the 1949 Knesset,
were not influential because of
their numbers, for they made up
little more than 3% of the population
at the time. What elevated them in the eyes of Israeli society was, as Gavron
points out, their status as the vanguard of the nation in every sphere, economic,
cultural and military. This made them extremely self-confident, sometimes even
arrogant.
Now, the author reports: "the world's most successful commune movement is in disarray, with less than half of its 120,000 members believing that the kibbutz has a future." Gavron gives his readers not only a fascinating survey of kibbutz history, but also a close look at ten collective settlements that differ greatly from one another. On the one hand, he takes them to Hatzerim, near Beersheba, which sticks to the old egalitarian values and even requires its top executives to spend one shift a week on the production line of its extremely successful factory for the manufacture of drip irrigation equipment. On the other hand, he portrays kibbutzim like Neve Yam, near Haifa, which has virtually fallen apart, or Kfar Ruppin in the Jordan Valley, now almost completely privatized.
The general trend, in any case, is clear.
Statistics quoted by Gavron reveal
that 70% of kibbutz factories and 40% of
their agricultural branches are
now run by boards of directors, 75% of all kibbutz
members today pay for their own
electricity and 60% of kibbutz dining halls have stopped serving dinner.
However even if the kibbutzim were to close shop tomorrow morning, they
would still have an unparalleled achievement to their credit.
Almost all other communes, Gavron points out, didn't survive past the
generation of the founders, if they lasted that long. In contrast Degania, the
first kibbutz--established in 1910--is
now being run primarily by the
grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those who
created it. But their way of thinking is very different from that of
their forbearers.
Take,
for example, Chen Vardi, grandson of founding member Yosef Bussel,
who wants to bring Degania into tune with the times,
to reward hard work and punish
slackers. "I don't know what my grandfather would say if he was alive today,
but," Vardi declares, "I know what I would say to him. 'You were a
revolutionary. You changed things. Now I want to change things in my way, for
what was right in 1910 is not necessarily right in
the 21st century." At
least Chen Vardi is still trying to keep the
kibbutz idea alive. Most of his age group have left the collective settlements,
which puts into question the long-term
survival of the kibbutzim.
 |
Open Letter to Ariel Sharon
By:
Jamie Levin
April 25, 2001
Prime Minister Sharon,
I am writing to you from North America as a Chaver Tnua of Habonim Dror,
a Progressive Zionist Youth movement.
Habonim Dror has played a pivotal role in building the State of Israel
through establishing kibbutzim, sending youth on aliyah, and actively participating
in initiatives for peace and coexistence.
As the conflict in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza continues, and as the
prospects for resolution dwindle I feel compelled to write.
When you were last in America you voiced your belief that Diaspora Jewry
must have their opinions heard concerning the status of Jerusalem and the current
conflict. It is with this in mind
that I write to you now.
This most recent spate of violence has quickly escalated into an enduring
conflict. In this current situation,
Israel's overwhelming military might will not be able to prevent the state of
fear and hopelessness that both Israelis and Palestinians presently endure.
It is the responsibility of your government and the Palestinian leadership
to engage in negotiations to help both sides emerge from this impossible position.
Habonim Dror calls for an end to the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip
now! We call for a two state solution
based on UN resolution 242. We
call for an end to provocative settlement building and expansion that continues
as an affront to peace. Existing
settlements, which only inflame the violence, must be dismantled now. We in
Habonim Dror call for an end to the collective punishment of the Palestinian
people; including home demolitions, curfews, closures, and destruction of agriculture
which only have the effect of inflaming Palestinian frustration, and lead to
desperate acts. Now, more than ever, Israel must pursue a just and lasting peace
with all of its neighbors.
Aleh V'Hagshem,
Mazkir T'nua Habonim Dror North America
If you’d like to send a similar letter to Prime Minister Sharon, you
can go to www.habonimdror.org and add your name to a movement
wide letter. Or you can write your own letter, and while you’re
at it, why not send it in to the b’tnua?
Where has all the Labour Gone?
The way I see things from here in Jerusalem,
four months after making aliyah, (including one miserable month of campaigning
in vain for Barak's re-election), is that what remains of the current Labour
Party has completely abandoned its progressive vision and commitment to the
socialist-Zionist ideals upon which the party, the state, and our beloved movement
were founded. Although the process had definitely been on-going and gradual,
the final nail in the coffin, in my opinion was the self-serving move of Peres
and his cronies to enter into a national unity government with Ariel "Sabra
and Shatilla" Sharon.
During the election campaign, the Labour party demonized Sharon
as a war-monger, warning Israelis to prepare their bomb-shelters following a
Sharon election victory. Then before the official election results were even
tallied, the Labour party was already planning to jump into a coalition with
Sharon. It was then that my disillusionment with the Labour party emerged. I
spent many afternoons handing out Barak brochures to a highly hostile Jerusalem
public, not out of any great affection for Barak or his government's policies,
but out of a conviction that a Sharon government would be a disaster, for both
Israelis and Palestinians. Upon hearing the news that Peres and co. would be
joining the coalition, I was furious. Without a unity government, Sharon would
have to cobble together an extremely unstable coalition, dominated by the right
and extreme-right parties, likely leading to general elections within a year.
Better to call a wolf a wolf, rather than let him hide in Labour party sheep's
clothes.
An unstable right-wing coalition would face
scrutiny from the international community, wary of Sharon's expansionist and
oppressive attitude towards the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.
This level of international pressure would be beneficial to the region by, hopefully,
keeping Sharon's militant tendencies under check. However, with Nobel Laureate
Peres as Foreign Minister, the Sharon government suddenly acquired a higher
level of credibility. By entering the unity government, Peres and the Labour
Party gave a kosher hechksher not just to Sharon but also his cabinet which
includes Avigor Liberman, Natan Sharansky and "Gandhi," each of whom
have atrocious attitudes towards the Palestinians and have shown great disregard
for Palestinian human rights.
The result has been that Sharon has had free
reign to impose his disastrous policies. Only three hours after Sharon was officially
sworn in as prime minister, Israeli bulldozers began tearing up roads around
Arab towns in the West Bank, creating the army ‘closure’ which has caused tremendous
undue suffering amongst Palestinians living in these towns. This kind of collective
punishment directed towards the entire population is a shameful human rights
violation exactly the kind of terrible policies that Labour politicians warned
us Likud would implement. However, now we have the Labour party sitting around
the cabinet table, approving these actions. Where is the voice of the Labour
party? All we hear is Defense Minister Ben-Eliezer justifying Sharon’s cruel
policies.
Labour should have had the humility to use Barak’s
crushing defeat at the polls as an opportunity to re-assess their policies.
The power-grab that Peres orchestrated allowed Labourites to continue the illusion
that they are a significant force in Israeli society, by virtue of their cabinet
positions. This is clearly no longer the case. Not only has the Labour Party
lost credibility in terms of the peace process, they are also failing to provide
any kind of progressive vision in terms of social policy. The most recent election
was fought, and lost, on who would be better able to handle the mess that the
peace process has become, with both sides failing to provide any social vision.
In addition to the lack of integrity involved in Labour’s haste to form a unity
government, Labour seems to have simply run out of ideas on how to address the
many complex and troubling social problems in Israel. Poverty, racism, environmental
degradation, religious coercion and the status of foreign workers are a few
of the very important problems present in Israeli society. Unfortunately, the
political leaders of the Labour party are so narrowly focused on maintaining
their shrinking power-base in the electoral system that they don’t realize how
they have abandoned their origins and become irrelevant.
As a product of the Labour-Zionist movement, I am particularly disappointed
at the failure of the Labour party to maintain its ideological commitment. I
made aliyah motivated by my socialist-Zionist ideology. I am here because I
feel that there are things terribly wrong with this country, and as a Jew I
have a responsibility to work to fix them. Israel does not live up to the vision
of Or LaGoyim. After being here for four months, my commitment to Labour-Zionism
and making Israel a better place has not been shaken. Unfortunately, I have
lost faith that the Israel Labour Party represents the Labour-Zionist ideology
to which I passionately subscribe.
Strengthen
the Palestinians, Not Arafat
from
the Wall Street Journal March 19, 2001
By
Natan Sharansky. Mr. Sharansky is Deputy Prime Minister of Israel and a
former Soviet dissident.
With
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon arriving in Washington today, the world's
attention has once again turned to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Over the
past few weeks, much of that attention has focused on the increasingly harsh
conditions under which Palestinians have lived since last September, when their
leadership responded to far-reaching peace proposals by launching a violent
campaign against the Jewish state.
For months, the government of Israel has imposed
closures on Palestinian cities and towns and placed restrictions on the movement
of people and goods in the West Bank and Gaza. These measures, widely criticized
by the international community, have helped the government fulfill its primary
obligation -- to protect and defend the lives of its citizens. Just last week,
an imminent terror attack designed to kill and injure scores of Israelis and
planned by Force 17, a group that works directly under Yasser Arafat, was thwarted
by the closure imposed on Ramallah.
Yet the fact that I believe these policies are justified does not blind
me to the hardships of hundreds of thousands of people. Unfortunately, international
concern for the plight of Palestinians, a concern also voiced at every Israeli
cabinet meeting, is not shared by the Palestinian leadership. On the contrary,
Yasser Arafat, like Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro and other dictators, sees the
suffering of his own people as an
effective way to maintain his despotic rule.
In
the seven years since the Oslo peace process began, Western and Israeli policymakers
have operated on the naive assumption that if Mr. Arafat were provided with
enough resources, both territorial and material, he would devote his energies
to improving the lives of the Palestinian people and leading them on a path
of peace and reconciliation. The need to "strengthen Arafat" became
axiomatic of diplomatic thinking, even if that meant turning a blind eye to
his authoritarianism.
This approach was seriously misguided. While the leaders of democratic states
find it in their interest to better the lot of the people to whom they are ultimately
held accountable, a dictator understands that the more dependent people become
on their ruler, the more control he will exert over them. This control is essential
for sustaining an authoritarian regime. Moreover, these regimes need to create
external enemies to consolidate their grip on power and justify the repression
of their subjects. As such, they are inherently belligerent and, if powerful
enough, inevitably threaten their neighbours.
Given such misguided thinking, it should come as no surprise that the seven
years since Oslo have seen a deepening of Palestinian hatred toward Israel.
Mr. Arafat has mobilized all the resources at his disposal, including his state-run
media, to incite and inflame Palestinian passions against Israel. While the
national conflict between our peoples would exist nevertheless, Mr. Arafat's
despotic and corrupt rule has exacerbated it to dangerous proportions and prevents
the possibility of viable compromise.
The first step toward reducing the level of tension between our peoples is for
the free world to recognize that Mr. Arafat is not the slightest bit concerned
with the well-being of his own people. Though my experiences in the Soviet Union
were enough to teach me this important lesson, I have had the privilege to witness
it first-hand since I entered Israeli political life.
He continually spurned my efforts to help the Palestinian Authority establish
an industrial park in Gaza that would have encouraged investment in Palestinian
areas, created tens of thousands of jobs, and alleviated poverty. Similarly,
he rejected a proposal to create joint ventures in the West Bank in existing
industrial zones that would have fostered co-operation between Jews and Arabs
and generously redistributed municipal tax revenues to depressed Palestinian
areas.
Hiding behind the rhetoric of resisting occupation, Mr. Arafat simply feared
the development of a Palestinian society that would not be fully under his control
and that would move toward genuine reconciliation with Israel. Instead, he prefers
to have money placed under his direct control, such as the 20% of Palestinian
value-added tax receipts that Israel continues to transfer to his private bank
account and the hundreds of millions of dollars of Western money that has been
put at his personal disposal.
For 50 years, the Palestinian people have been used as pawns by countless Arab
dictators. Whereas Israel absorbed hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees
who were driven from Arab states in the aftermath of its War of Independence,
the Arab world, with the exception of Jordan, has done nothing to improve the
lives of the Palestinian people. They have preferred instead to exploit their
suffering to exert diplomatic pressure on Israel and resist political liberalization.
The time has come for the democratic world, including the one democratic state
in the Middle East, to stop placing its faith in corrupt dictators and start
helping the Palestinian people directly. By conditioning our support on Palestinian
willingness to work toward developing an open and transparent society and not
simply throwing money at a corrupt junta, we can help the Palestinian people
create a society that will serve as an example to the entire Arab world. In
giving the Palestinian people direct control over their own futures, we will
help encourage the emergence of a state that will respect the rights of its
citizens at home and those of its neighbours abroad.
By building democratic societies on the ruins of tyranny, the Marshall Plan
helped create a prosperous and peaceful Western Europe. Now is a historic opportunity
to do something similar for the Palestinians. All that is required is that we
not think any people -- whether they are Germans, Italians, Japanese, Russians
or Arabs -- incapable of living under the freedom we all so deeply cherish.
By:
Ari Brochin
Regarding
Sharansky's Wall Street Journal piece- his primary thesis, that Arafat is simultaneously
the symbol of the Palestinian struggle against oppression and the cause of much
of the oppression of Palestinians in the territories, is indisputably true.
The human rights abuses of Arafat's regime in the territories are well documented,
and at times even exceed those of the Israeli occupation in their brutality.
Sharansky
is disingenuous, however, in his characterization of the Israeli reaction to
those abuses. A yediot aharonot expose last year documented the ways in which
the "security co-operation" of the Oslo years was used by the Israeli
security apparatus to avoid responsibility for human rights abuses. Terror suspects
were often turned over to the PA security apparatus, particularly after the
Israeli Supreme Court ruled last year that torture could no longer be used by
the Israeli Army. There, suspects were submitted not only to the "moderate
physical pressure" Tzahal has made infamous, but also to beatings and other,
less moderate physical pressures.
That expose, and work by Israeli scholars, particularly Professor Neve Gordon, has shown that the Israeli government not only encouraged abuses of the human rights of Palestinians by the PA security apparatus, but demanded it as a condition of the security co-operation of Oslo. It's likely that Sharansky is telling the truth, and the Netanyahu government did pressure Arafat to improve conditions for Palestinians when it benefited Israeli national interests. But it is disingenuous for Israel to expect that others will grant it the moral high ground because of those efforts.
Selected Political Observations
(and
maybe analysis, projecting, wishful thinking, etc.)
by:
Gershon Baskin, Ph.D.
Co-Director
It should be quite obvious to everyone that there is a complete and total
absence of any strategic thinking on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides.
It is no longer important to engage in the argument of the chicken and
the egg: Who started and why? Was it Camp David? Barak’s errors? Arafat’s mistakes?
Settlement building? Palestinian violence? The argument may be interesting but it has little consequences
to the question of how to get out of the deadlock.
In this war there are no winners and there can be no winners.
Everyone loses, this should also be clear to all.
Neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority wants to be where they are
today (politically).
Neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority has any idea how to get out
of the present deadlock.
Palestinians and Israelis are totally incapable of understanding the other
side. The gap in misunderstanding
is wider than has been since 1948. The
Palestinian narrative of the intifada and the peace process and the Israeli
narrative of the same run on parallel lines that never meet.
Palestinians will not surrender under any conditions to the Israeli military
might. Faisel el Husseini explained to me at dinner last night that even though
their suffering is great, they cannot allow Sharon to be victorious in his fight
against the Palestinian intifada. Palestinian surrender, according to Husseini,
would mean political surrender as well and as he said: “If the Palestinian people
rejected Barak’s offer of more than 90% of the West Bank and launched the intifada,
how could they accepts Sharon’s offer of 42% of the
West Bank”. Therefore, it
should be clear that the Palestinians are willing to go on for a very long time,
inflicting great suffering upon themselves, but also inflicting great suffering
on Israel as well.
The lack of trust between the sides is higher than ever since the beginning
of the peace process. The trust will be almost impossible to rebuild and certainly
will take years before it will begin to re-emerge.
The current leadership on both sides will not lead their people to peace.
Neither Sharon nor Arafat is capable today to taking the steps necessary to
establish peace. I don’t believe that either leader will lead towards peace
in the future as well.
Both the Israeli and the Palestinian people are living today without hope.
Both peoples live in a state of fear. Both peoples have lost their belief that
peace is possible. Both sides believe that the other side does not want peace
or is not willing to pay the price of peace.
The demographics of the area have not changed.
In another generation there will be equal numbers of Israelis and Palestinians
in all of Israel/Palestine. Time is not on the side of those who support peace
through a two-state solution. Political
separation of the two peoples remains the only true Hope for peace.
Israel will never achieve peace for its people if it continues to build
settlements, expropriate Palestinian lands, builds by-pass roads, and demolishes
Palestinians homes, fields and means of livelihood. Israel should begin to educate
its public that it must withdraw from settlements, not to build new ones and
expand existing others.
The Palestinian leadership will never achieve peace for its people if
it does not find a way to transform the dream of return to Israel proper into
a dream of return to the State of Palestine.
The refugee issue was and will remain the most unbridgeable of all the
issues in conflict between the sides. The Palestinian willingness to accept
22% of historic Palestine must remain at that not the West Bank, Gaza, East
Jerusalem and the right of return to Israel proper for all the refugees. The
refugees must be compensated for their losses and their suffering, but there
will not be peace with the chance of return of millions or even hundreds of
thousands of refugees to Israel proper.
This is a sad reality of this conflict.
It is very distressing that there is almost a total absence of a public
peace process. The “peace camps”
on both sides have either left town, stopped thinking, stopped talking, or moved
to the other camp (choose your own preference). This is the first period in
more than 25 years that I can recall the non-existence of a lobby for peace
in Israel and in Palestine.
We should all probably brace ourselves for more escalation, crossing of
“red-lines”, more suffering and more death. On a more personal level, I sit
in my home in West Jerusalem in the evenings and I hear the gunfire from Bethlehem.
Last night it went on for hours. For me it is not just another place.
I worked there everyday for more than three years.
I know the people there. A
woman member of our staff lives the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem. Her small
children, who come to our office everyday, have the clear signs of fear in their
eyes. If the gunfire keeps me awake
at night, I can only imagine the terror that she and her children feel being
under direct fire. My own children
are much more protected than hers, yet I have instructed my children to stop
riding on public buses, this is possible for the younger two, but my 15 year
old daughter has friends all over the city and is on several buses everyday.
We are living in a world of insanity. Violence will only meet more violence.
No one wants this to continue and no one knows how to make it end. It will end
one day, later rather than sooner I fear. I honestly believe that it is in the interest of both sides
to face up to their real responsibilities and to make those decisions necessary
for peace to emerge. It is not
an ideal peace. The fantasies that followed Oslo have long gone over the rainbow.
They were unreal and never seriously related to this region of the world.
Peace will be painful. Peace
will take many years to develop. Peace means breaking the political taboos of
yester-years and of today. There
is no real alternative for either people.
War, low intensity or higher intensity is more costly and will never
provide a solution. The basic Middle
Eastern realities will not change Israelis
and Palestinians are here to stay. Only
facing the decisions that should have been made decades ago by both peoples
will enable both Israelis and Palestinian to focus their energies on building
their lives rather than on destroying the lives of the other side.
In conclusion, it should be clear that I am not particularly hopeful, but I have also not surrendered my truths and beliefs for fear and hatred. I too find it difficult to explain the Palestinian positions to my friends and Family as does Zakaria, my partner, finds it difficult to explain the Israeli positions to his friends and family. We two remain faithful to our mission of working together in partnership to propose alternatives and to demonstrate in our own small reality that peace is possible.
Rabbis in Rantis
By: Rabbi Arik W. Ascherman
Dear
Friends and Supporters,
WE DID IT! No, I don't just mean that we succeeded in clearing a road for the
3,000 besieged residents of Rantis. We did clear the road, but it may be sealed
again by tomorrow. What we did was that we moved from protest to resistance.
We signaled to all that we will not be passive.
Rantis is a village of 3,000 souls. There are dire medical problems because
the village is totally cut off and there is no resident doctor. If you recall
the story of the woman who gave birth at a checkpoint, she was from Rantis.
There is 100% unemployment among the 500 adult males. They are also prevented
from tending to their fields. Seven university students have had to drop the
semester because they couldn't get to classes. We could not let this situation
stand, we had to take action.
If this was a one time activity than it was no more than a nice statement.
However, I believe that this was the beginning of an ongoing commitment by people
saying that even in wartime there are red lines which can't be crossed if we
are to preserve our humanity.
It was incredible. In Jerusalem we were delayed because we needed another bus.
Some 200 people from a wide spectrum of peace and human rights organizations
came together. The border patrol was waiting there to tell us that the area
was a closed military area. We ignored them. They took our tools. We continued
to work with our bare hands. They tried to arrest some of us. We laid down (still
digging). Four of us were arrested and we were told that they would be released
if we left by 1:30. We said that we wouldn't make a deal. We left at 2:15, with
our equipment and the four activists, after having cleared a passable road and
established a connection with the residents of Rantis.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Arik W. Ascherman
Executive Director
Rabbis For Human Rights
Website: http://www.rhr.israel.net
A
Habonim Response to “Rabbis in Rantis”
By:
Robin Merkel
Hi everyone,
Since news of the action in Rantis has already been sent to the list serve,
I figured I would give a short first hand report of how it went.
Kvutsat Yovel attended this protest as a group last Friday, as the main
part of our Yom Kvutsa activities this week.
It was an incredibly inspiring action, and an important re-entry for
us into direct action vis-a-vis Palestinian issues.
Basically, the action went as described above, but what isn't mentioned
was that it was covered in the Israeli media (there was a picture in the English
version of Ha'aretz -- it may be on their website), and seems to be a big step
for the Israeli peace and human rights movement.
To me, the two most wonderful things about the protest were, first of
all, that we really did fill in the trenches that had once been a paved road,
to the extent that it was possible for cars to drive across it.
It is amazing to think that the one road to this village had been dug
up with bulldozers, so that no one had a chance to drive in or out.
Unfortunately, it has since been blocked again, but at least with concrete
blocks and not trenches. Secondly, after a few hours, many of the people in
the village came out to watch the proceedings, pass around Colas, and, most
inspiring of all, the younger children helped us fill in the trenches. I think that perhaps the most important accomplishment of this
action was its affect on the children of the village, who got to see Israelis
who were opposed to the activities of the army in the territories, and who were
willing to act, with their bare hands, against that army.
Have you seen the movie Traffic? Rumour
has it that some of our chaverim from Habonim Mexico are in the
film. In the baseball scene at the end of the movie, take a close
look at the baseball players. Some say that they are wearing semels
on their baseball uniforms. What do you think?
Kvutsat yovel in the Media
(the
following is reprinted from www.jc.com)
Draining the swamps of politics as Yovel reconstitutes pioneering life
By: Eric Silver
They eat their meals together in a chadar ochel, a common dining-room.
They socialise in a mo'adon, a clubroom. They pay their earnings into a shared
bank account. Once a week, they heatedly debate collective problems in an assefah
klalit, a general meeting. They learn Torah and Talmud together, from a secular
perspective. "We create our own interpretations," one member says,
"of the Jewish year, the Jewish life cycle." They talk about values.
Socialist Zionism is alive and well, and living not on some rocky Galilee
hilltop, but in three rented flats in the Jerusalem suburb of San Simon. For
these graduates of Habonim-Dror - Brits, Americans, Canadians, and a lone Aussie
- nostalgia is what it used to be. They are members of Kvutsat Yovel, the latest
of a quietly growing network of half-a-dozen "urban kibbutzim" determined
to prove the political obituary-writers wrong. So far, Yovel is the only one
founded by immigrants.
"Why have we come to kibbutz when the kibbutz movement is running
out of steam?" asks James Grant-Rosenhead, a 26-year-old law graduate with
a wrap-around beard, whose family were kosher butchers in Leeds when my native
city still had kosher butchers. "Because the kibbutz movement is running
out of steam."
His wife, Emma (she's the Grant, he's the Rosenhead), expands on the soundbite:
"The methods the kibbutzim adopted are not working any more, but redefining
human relationships and creating an equal and just society are still values
to strive for."
Emma, 25, from North London, has a BA in sociology. They made aliyah in
1999, and married six months ago in a ceremony they compiled after researching
Jewish wedding traditions in many times and many places.
Like most of their collective, they earn their keep running programmes
for visiting Zionist youth groups. The message is frankly evangelical. Kibbutz,
they preach, is not an historical relic. It, and they, still have work to do.
The heroic pioneers, who drained swamps a century ago, remain the role models.
Only the venue has changed.
"The needs of Israel today," explains Adam Ognall, a 25-year-old
Glaswegian who read philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford, "are
not agricultural, but to do with peace-building, social justice, poverty, discrimination.
So, we've chosen to live in a city setting, chosen to work in education. As
we absorb ourselves in Israeli society, we are getting more and more involved
in the social sphere."
One of the kibbutz members volunteers for Peace Now, another in a women's
advice centre. A third is the webmaster for the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring
Group, an East Jerusalem Arab watchdog that keeps a weather eye on Yasir Arafat's
Palestinian Authority. Last month, the Yovel team joined 200 peace campaigners
refilling a trench dug by Israeli soldiers to isolate a West Bank Arab village.
"We try," says James, "to involve
ourselves in the humanitarian aspects of peace, rather than the political."
After six months of intifada, they share the widespread despair on the Israeli
left, but refuse to give up the fight. "If you're losing a game of football,"
Adam insists, "you're not going to improve your chances by walking off
the pitch." When I gently suggest that maybe one side is playing soccer
and the other rugby, they hope I'm wrong. So do I.
Kvutsat Yovel is still in its infancy. It has 11 members, four of them
Brits. They're recruiting more from Habonim-Dror and Hashomer in Britain, North
America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and from the Labour youth
movement Hanoar Ha'oved in Israel.
The 21st-century kibbutz has to be less rigid, less coercive. "I
will consult," Adam insists, "but I will decide whether to take a
particular job or draw out money for an expensive holiday. Individual autonomy
and individual personal development are the key. I don't want to tell people
what to do."
Each member has his or her own chequebook. They can draw on the joint
account whenever they like. James is confident it won't be abused. "In
such an intimate group," he says, "it's much harder to rip people
off. You have to look each other in the eye every day."
B’tnua Correction
Dear loyal B'tnua readers,
Sorry to say, I have misled you. I wrote an article in the last B'tnua
about Tampons (and why I think they're no good) and I wrote about the Keeper.
The correction is that the Keeper is NOT to be boiled. It only needs to
be rinsed between uses. Boiling will shorten the life of the Keeper significantly.
Keepers can be refunded or replaced cheerfully, but NOT if they've been boiled.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jess Silver, for whom I
have gratefulness and affection, for this correction.
Be well and happy bleeding,
Shira.
Next Year
Study in an Environment where Peace is the goal:
|
The Arava Institute
for Environmental Studies is accepting students for the 2001-2002 academic
year. At the Arava Institute you can explore the environment through interdisciplinary
studies and practical field experience, with a diverse group of international
students. |
|
In
the past our students have come from the Palestinian Authority, Israel,
Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Europe, North America, South America, and the
Far East. Together you will live on Kibbutz Ketura, a unique community
in the scenic desert of the Arava Valley near the Red Sea and its rich
coral reefs. |
The
academic program includes field study trips throughout the region that has been
making history for over 3000 years.
Come
be a part of it!
|
The
Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (AIES) |
email:
info@arava.org |
Letter to the Movement
By:
Silvio Joskowicz
Mazkir Olami (world mazkir)
Shalom.
I am writing to you on Erev Yom Hazikaron, which commemorates those who
have fallen in Israel's battles, and which continues into Independence Day.
What is it, this 53rd Anniversary of the State of Israel's official written
Declaration of Independence? Have we achieved spiritual independence?
Have we truly got reason to celebrate
such a day, in these times?
On the one hand, I say: "of course, a State for the Jewish people
is reason enough to celebrate in
and of itself". But, on the other hand, our freedom
and independence will only be complete when we cease to rule over another
people - the Palestinian people. Recently we came so very close to such
freedom, because we almost reached the end of the occupation. The
accomplishment of this fact would have brought us to a real, spiritual
independence and freedom both as a people and as a State.
As an Israeli citizen I used to hang the blame for the progression or
cessation of the agreements with the Palestinians solely on the Israeli leadership.
Indeed, right up until the Al-Alqsa intifada, I would have beenright in doing
so, but no more.
As a left-winger, there is no doubt that a deep chasm has formed within
me. I recognize the fact that we did almost everything that we could do in order
to bring about an end to the occupation, but that this does not solely depend
upon us or our leadership - there is also a Palestinian leadership. All of us
on the left were shocked as the ways of peace were turned upside down, replaced
by the ways of violence and death throughout the region -
especially during the government of Barak, who went further than any
other Prime Minister concerning
territorial concessions.
Barak, who believes in the Palestinian State's right to exist with Al
Quds as her capital, next to the State of Israel with Jerusalem as her capital,
in proposing his solutions to attain this situation, was answered with the most
violent reaction from the Palestinian side since the creation of the State.
I don't understand.
It's hard to be Israeli today, but it's much harder to be an Israeli left-winger.
The belief hasn't changed: one must strive for full independence for both
peoples. But we are unable find these solutions alone, or to be more
specific, without a way to bring the Palestinian leadership to talk with
us about solutions for the situation.
Arafat, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, will be remembered in history
as the leader who brought his people
the worst evil of all. The terrible situation that has become of the Palestinian
people - the hunger, the violence, the unemployment, the injuries and the death
has been done to them by their
leadership, although there is another way.
Also, Arafat and his friends in the Palestinian leadership have sowed
the fear that exists today amongst
citizens of the State of Israel.
Every day the number of communities in Israel hit by terror attacks
increases, every month the number of Israeli casualties increases, including
children. Palestinian snipers can see clearly the citizens that are the
targets of their deadly bullets.
It is a clear fact that these attacks are carried out from within areas controlled by the Palestinian
Authority. These are neither occupied territories, nor are they under the control
of the State of Israel. So, this
is not a struggle between occupiers and occupied,
between strong and weak. It is a struggle towards specific goals, but
it is clear that for a peace agreement
you need two partners to share the goal,
whereas for violence, terror and separation only one side is enough,
and
that one side is not ours!
Workshop
50: Living, Learning and Loving
By:
Rodney Handelsman
We
also had a look at some of the recent experiments with socialist collectives
in this country that are active in their communities. Apart from the inspiring
examples of ravid, and eshbal, we visited kibbutz tammuz (an urban kibbutz)
and of course kibbutz yovel. Being in israel since last july, I can tell you
first hand that it has been an exciting and inspiring experience to become more
aware of the different kinds of socialist experiments happening in this little
country of war and politics. Hanging out with members of kvutsat yovel and seeing
the challenges that they face as a group and how they are negotiating the challenges
of living as an intimate habo community, while at the same time being very active
members in their community...has been a great experience for me. I think that
this movement has a lot to be proud of in its history. It also has a lot to
be proud of right now, with the kind of work and dugma being set by leaders
in our movement here in the middle east.
What has become clearer to me over the past few months, after speaking
with many atikim (veterans/old-timers) from our movement is how the fundamental
principles of justice and egalitarianism have not changed since our movement’s
inception. What is changing now is the method of hagshama. Rather than joining
or forming a traditional kibbutz to drain swamps and protect or establish borders,
new kinds of frontiers are being explored that offer members of our movement
the cognitive (and practical) alternatives of living in a socialist habo framework.
At the same time, these new methods allow our chaverim to be very much part
of and active in the greater Israeli society, working towards social justice
and conflict transformation in the middle east.
just wanted to express my excitement of the recent expansion of kvusat yovel
to include our north american contingent...this commune/kvusta is already having
a major impanct on our movement and the kibbutz movement at large...way to go!!!
b'ahava
in solidarity and peace
shalom v'salam
rod (one of two dudes facilitating workshop 50)
B’tnua is a publication of Habonim Dror North America for all chevrei t’nua in good standing.
Circulation:
1600
The
opinions expressed within do not necessarily reflect those of Habonim Dror North
America.
