{"id":35480,"date":"2020-09-25T03:44:13","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T10:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=35480"},"modified":"2020-10-08T13:09:59","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T20:09:59","slug":"seeking-to-understand-views","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2020\/09\/25\/seeking-to-understand-views\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeking to understand views"},"content":{"rendered":"

Descending into Jericho through \u201cthe Grand Canyon of the Middle East.\u201d (photo by Kevin Keystone)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In this three-part series, the author recounts some of his experiences on <\/em>Masar Ibrahim Al-Khalil, the Path of Abraham the Friend, in the West Bank, which he visited in 2019. The articles have been adapted from a few of the letters he wrote home to family. The events and people described are real but, for reasons of privacy, the names are fictitious. To read Part 1, click here<\/a>; for Part 3, click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tuesday was, by far, the hardest day of the trail. We climbed and descended two mountains: 1,500 feet up, 1,400 feet down; 1,000 feet up, 1,200 feet down. It\u2019s 10 feet to a storey, so divide by 10 and think of them as flights of stairs, except that they\u2019re rocky paths strewn with slippery rubble and spiky brambles.<\/p>\n

Shrubs aside, Monday and Tuesday were thorny for other reasons. Our guide, Ismail, seemed very friendly. Jolly, with a wide smile and open face, he spoke English well and with a quirky British accent. He was nearly 40, married, had one young child and another on the way. He\u2019s been a hiker and guide for a long time: trained at university, he is an expert in local fauna, flora and history. When a member of our group fell and cut his arm, Ismail was right there with bandages and fracture assessments. There was no question: he was a professional.<\/p>\n

Ismail, though, had a satirical sense of humour, which, given the political landscape, was risky. He explained the settlers\u2019 justification for occupying land in the West Bank. \u201cThey say that God gave it to them,\u201d he said. The relevant verse from the Torah bubbled up in my memory. \u201cGo forth from the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation,\u201d goes Genesis 17. I knew it because I had chanted it for my bar mitzvah.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf God gave it to them, what did God give to us? Nothing?\u201d Ismail said. He was smiling, but wasn\u2019t joking. \u201cIf they get this, we\u2019ll take Spain. We don\u2019t need to do archeological digs \u2013 our mosques are still there to prove it.\u201d I chuckled along with the group, appreciating the irony. But I stood back, polishing my sunglasses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say they are special,\u201d he continued, \u201cthat they are \u2018the chosen ones,\u2019 but what does that mean? That they are made of gold and jewels, while the rest of us are mud?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I will take you to be my people,\u201d God says to Abram, also Genesis 17. \u201cAnd I will make my covenant with you and your descendants and through all the generations.\u201d This idea of \u201cchosenness\u201d has been interpreted, reinterpreted and, at times, even rejected in our history: Reconstructionist Jews, for example, changed the relevant lines of the Aleinu prayer. Thinking of ourselves that way certainly hasn\u2019t done us any favours. But, still, Ismail\u2019s comments stung a little.<\/p>\n

Writing this, I suppose his humour was a bit like my dad\u2019s: irreverent and occasionally tasteless. I had never been offended by my dad\u2019s jokes; his topics were largely inconsequential to me. Here, with so much at stake, it was hard to not feel Ismail\u2019s satire more deeply. I wanted to tell him I was offended, but part of me resisted.<\/p>\n

Sue, on the other hand, had no problem speaking up. That evening, we gathered around to discuss plans for the next day. \u201cTomorrow,\u201d Ismail said, laying out a map, \u201cwill be the hardest day on the trail. There are three options: we can either hike the whole day; stop halfway and take a car; or stop near the end and take a car.\u201d We all agreed we\u2019d hike the whole day. Sue sat back against the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you OK?\u201d he asked her. \u201cYou looked scared.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not,\u201d Sue replied. \u201cI\u2019m fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you sure?\u201d he insisted. Sue was in her 70s: it seemed like he was singling her out because she was older, and possibly because she was female. \u201cI am sorry if I scared you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve walked a thousand miles before,\u201d she cut in. \u201cI\u2019m not scared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eve laughed and said to Ismail, \u201cSue\u2019s fine. It\u2019s the two of us,\u201d referring to her husband Oliver, herself, and their combined lack of hiking experience, \u201cthat you should be worried about.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the route was settled, Sue pulled Ismail aside. She pointed out to him the ageism and sexism implied in his doubting of her abilities. She was brisk; he was deeply apologetic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fine,\u201d she said, when he didn\u2019t stop apologizing. \u201cYou apologized. It\u2019s over. Howard and I fight, we apologize, it\u2019s done.\u201d After another round of reassurances and with parting words to the group, Ismail left for the night. I congratulated Sue on standing up for herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019m an old lady,\u201d she laughed. \u201cI don\u2019t have an issue speaking my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d I said, smiling. \u201cHoward said you don\u2019t take shit from anybody.\u201d She laughed again. \u201cBut, still,\u201d I said, \u201cgood for you for saying something.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you, Kevin,\u201d she said, looking at me. Even with her fortitude, I wondered if it had cost her to say something. Maybe, in some ways, it always does. \u201cI appreciate it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
A rest break, at 3 a.m., hiking to catch sunrise over the Dead Sea. (photo by Kevin Keystone)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

The next day, I found myself quietly pleased at Ismail\u2019s dressing down from Sue. Somehow it felt vindicating; even if I couldn\u2019t find the words to speak my mind, at least someone else did.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore we start,\u201d he said, \u201cI need to show you something.\u201d<\/p>\n

He turned his smartphone to us and pressed play. The footage was of a road tunnel with an exit at the far end and a truck askew, blocking the way. There was shouting and then a hand flicking angrily towards a young man, yelling at him to walk. He did, with his back to the camera, one hand raised in surrender, the other halfway, awkwardly carrying a backpack. He couldn\u2019t have been older than me. He kept walking, slowly, towards the truck and the tunnel exit. Just before he reached the truck, a shot fired. He cried out and sank to the ground.<\/p>\n

Israeli Channel 13 News leaked the video \u2013 of an Israel Border Police officer shooting a Palestinian in the back with a rubber bullet, along with text messages sent by the shooter\u2019s fellow officer, who had bragged about the shooting to his girlfriend. \u201cI\u2019m a pro, don\u2019t you think?\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

This act of violence earned the shooter a removal from the police force. She was sent back to the Israeli army to finish her compulsory service. A year after the footage was discovered, the police internal investigations unit still hadn\u2019t pressed charges. The apparent impunity is shocking. Compared to this, my grievances seemed trivial.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you ever take Israelis on this hike,\u201d someone asked Ismail.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, we don\u2019t. We can\u2019t, it\u2019s too risky,\u201d he said. \u201cIf something were to happen, if one of them gets hurt, we would all be in big trouble. Their government would say it is our fault, and we would have many, many problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are Jewish that come on the Masar,\u201d he said. I wasn\u2019t sure if he avoided looking at me. \u201cWe know; we don\u2019t ask. But we will not take Israeli; we can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the day wore on, I worked up my nerve to talk to him. I rehearsed my opener and hiked up beside him.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, what are your plans for after the hike,\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t talk about anything important, but it felt important to talk. I had time after the hike and didn\u2019t have plans. I asked his advice on where I should go. I also asked him what I should say at the border if stopped.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust talk about the Abraham Path, how we\u2019re all children of Abraham, peace, these kinds of things,\u201d he said. \u201cThey like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you believe it?\u201d I asked him.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d he said. I tried to hide my disappointment. \u201cYou know,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt isn\u2019t the Jewish, it\u2019s the Zionists. They are crazy, they think they are super-human. Every time the people are coming together, they want to separate, to make them apart. As long as this is the case,\u201d he said, \u201cI don\u2019t think there will be peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

At lunch, I lay down to rest, settling in the shade of an olive tree. In the breeze, the leaves revealed twin shades of green, one on each side: rich, verdant forest green and pale, suede sage. There were no olives on this tree: likely, they had been recently picked. The absence they left made way for a cottony, afternoon light to filter through. As I nodded in and out of sleep, I caught glimpses of the sky. It was blue and clear.<\/p>\n

Zionists come in many varieties, but I knew the ones Ismail was referring to. The imprecision of his language didn\u2019t change the point. Yitzhak Rabin wasn\u2019t assassinated by a Palestinian; he was assassinated by a Jew. A fanatical religious Zionist, a fervent supporter of the settlements and a deep-seated opponent of the peace process. Ismail didn\u2019t have a problem with Jews, he had a problem with fanatics. That, I could get behind. I felt the same way.<\/p>\n

Kevin Keystone <\/strong>is a Toronto-based freelance writer, editor and researcher. When not hiking long-distance trails, he can be found reading, spending time with friends and family, or with his beloved partner, Aaron. His writing has been published in the<\/em> Literary Review of Canada, the<\/em> Jewish Independent and<\/em> Good Old Boat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Descending into Jericho through \u201cthe Grand Canyon of the Middle East.\u201d (photo by Kevin Keystone) In this three-part series, the author recounts some of his experiences on Masar Ibrahim Al-Khalil, the Path of Abraham the Friend, in the West Bank, which he visited in 2019. The articles have been adapted from a few of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4329],"tags":[3076,4224,4330,1673,19774,2085,19773,2721,3597,19772,19775],"class_list":["post-35480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","tag-education","tag-hike","tag-israel","tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict","tag-masar-ibrahim-al-khalil","tag-palestine","tag-path-of-abraham-the-friend","tag-peace","tag-politics","tag-separation-wall","tag-siraj-centre"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}