peace – Page 2

Working with “the enemy”

In the Gaza Youth Committee campaign We Live Together, We Die Together, young Gazans hold, in a show of solidarity with Israelis, photographs of Israeli children who were killed on Oct. 7, 2023. (photo from Rami Aman)

“People must understand that the people of Gaza are not victims and they are not superheroes. We are human beings, a group of people like any other society. We love life and hate death, we love singing and we hate violence. We are not terrorists. Parents pay to educate their sons and daughters in medicine, engineering, pharmacy, art, business, English and other languages. Gaza is not Hamas, and Hamas is not Gaza – Hamas is part of the Muslim Brotherhood,” Palestinian journalist Rami Aman, founder of the Gaza Youth Committee, told the Independent in a recent interview.

JI readers may have seen on social media one of the latest Gaza Youth Committee (GYC) campaigns, called We Live Together, We Die Together. Its images feature young Gazans holding, in a show of solidarity with Israelis, photographs of Israeli children who were killed on Oct. 7, 2023. The Gazans stand amid buildings and neighbourhoods destroyed in the Israel-Hamas war. The Independent was connected with Aman by Vancouver Friends of Standing Together.

“As the months of war passed, many voices increased within Israeli society opposing the killing of Gaza’s children, expressing solidarity with their families, and calling for an end to the war,” he explained about the social media campaign. “In Gaza, we saw tens of thousands of Israeli demonstrators carrying pictures of child victims in the Gaza war. Therefore, despite the killing, hunger, siege and shortages in Gaza, it was important for us to prove that, in Gaza, there are Palestinians who object to the killing of any child, and to show their solidarity with all the child victims who have fallen in the war, Israeli or Palestinian.

“We have lost a large number of Muslim, Christian and Jewish children because of this war between Hamas and the Israeli army,” he said. “This campaign emerged from Gaza to emphasize the people’s rejection of the war and the killing of children, and the need to release the Israeli hostages, end the war and provide medical treatment for the children of Gaza.”

photo - Palestinian journalist Rami Aman, founder of the Gaza Youth Committee — Palestinian journalist Rami Aman, founder of the Gaza Youth Committee, speaking at an event. One of his goals is to hold meetings between Palestinians and Israelis to help them respect one another and determine their own fate. *(photo from Rami Aman)*

Aman started the GYC after the first Israel-Hamas war, which he described as “a turning point” in his life.

“I began thinking about trying to do something two months after the end of the war in 2009. I decided to look for a place to establish an FM radio station in Gaza that would emphasize the voice of the peaceful people of Gaza,” said Aman, who has a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communication engineering. “At the beginning of August 2009, I received my first request from Hamas security. They interrogated me for long hours, and I was subjected to repeated assaults by Hamas members in the following days. They warned me against broadcasting any radio station or publishing any media content about Gaza without their permission.”

Realizing that Hamas wanted no other voice from Gaza than their own, Aman said, “At the beginning of 2010, I decided to form an independent youth group whose goal was to spread awareness internally and to strengthen our relations externally. Our first meeting included 30 young men and women from Gaza, and we agreed on the need to form an independent youth body that would advocate for Palestinian reconciliation and spread the voice of peace from Gaza to the entire world.”

The Gaza Youth Committee currently has more than 300 members inside and outside Gaza, said Aman, “and we are still trying to reach our goals.”

“We are all working to convey the true image of the people of Gaza and to build genuine partnerships with Israelis to help Palestinians and Israelis understand and respect each other,” he said.

Over the past 15 years of activities and meetings, Aman said he has learned a lot, “including how to influence public opinion within Gaza and how to build pressure and advocacy campaigns.

“Over these years,” he said, “I’ve realized the importance of inviting enemies to dialogue, instead of fighting, and trying to shape a different image of the other. These years have helped me differentiate between the Palestinian who wants to build their society for the better and the Palestinian who seeks to achieve their own interests from the Israelis or Palestinians at the expense of others.

“After many different activities between the Gaza Youth Committee and several Israeli movements and organizations, we have built many bridges and created a lot of connections and relations.”

GYC initiatives have included the release of 200 doves from Gaza with messages of peace, Skype calls between Gazans and Americans, and Gazans and Israelis, and a cycling marathon along the border in which both Israelis and Gazans participated.

This work has not been without risk. Aman has been arrested and tortured by Hamas more than once for his peace initiatives with Israelis, as have people with whom he has worked. After a GYC Zoom call in April 2020, he was arrested, Hamas apparently being alerted by the social media post of journalist Hind Khoudary, who was consulting for Amnesty International at the time.

According to a 2020 Jerusalem Post article, “she did not tag Hamas officials in her Facebook posts against Rami Aman to get him arrested but as a protest against normalization activities.

“‘I want all the normalization activities he is doing with Israel from Gaza to stop immediately because any joint activities, cooperation or dialogue with Israelis is unacceptable, even engaging with Israeli ‘peace activists,’” she said in an interview with the Post.

To secure his release, Aman was told he’d have to divorce his then-wife, the daughter of a Hamas official, who was also among those arrested. He eventually signed the papers in August of that year. His wife had already been released at that point, but Aman remained in prison, despite what he’d been told. He was prosecuted in September 2020 for “weakening revolutionary spirit,” and ultimately convicted. After international pressure, he was released in late October, with a suspended sentence, according to a 2021 article in the Times of Israel.

His former wife traveled with a Hamas escort to Cairo while Hamas released Aman from prison one day later. The couple kept in touch after Aman’s release from prison and subsequent move to Cairo in 2021, but have drifted apart for various reasons. Intending to return to Gaza in late 2023, the war caused Aman to change his plans.

“When I first started working for Gaza from abroad, I felt strong and free, and I regained my energy,” he said. “With the outbreak of the war, I began to feel stuck. I couldn’t call on people to demonstrate to end the war while I was on Facebook. People in Gaza trusted me because I was always the first to demonstrate against Hamas, from 2011 until before I left Gaza. If I were in Gaza, I would certainly demonstrate, even for an hour every day, to end the war. Then I would call on people to demonstrate while I was on the street.”

While he would prefer to be in Gaza, Aman said technology has helped GYC’s activism greatly, even before he had to leave his homeland.

“From 2007 until now, Israel has consistently imposed blockades on the residents of the Gaza Strip,” he explained, “while Hamas remained unaffected by any crises and received hundreds of millions of dollars with the help of the Qataris and [Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu, in addition to Hamas’s control over travel through the Rafah crossing.

“The real blockade was imposed on us in the Gaza Youth Committee and the majority of Palestinians, so we used Skype and Zoom to communicate with our friends and partners outside Gaza, the most famous of which was the Skype with Your Enemy initiative in 2014.

“We also organized hundreds of meetings that helped introduce me to the world and led several organizations to extend invitations to visit them abroad. I traveled to India because of these meetings, which led to me meeting with the Dalai Lama. A few months ago, I was in Europe to speak about Gaza in several European cities.

“Most of the news coming from media outlets and news agencies will not present the truth to anyone, and it is better to communicate directly with the people in Gaza,” said Aman. “Israel has not provided us with permits to enter the West Bank and Jerusalem. Since 2010, the Israeli authorities have only granted me a 12-hour permit to attend a workshop in 2014 and permits to transit to Jordan when traveling from Gaza. For me and others, these applications have resulted in the building of a large number of personal friendships that continue to this day because they have been created between people, both Palestinians and Israelis.”

Aman has strong criticisms of the media in general, and Al Jazeera in particular, as well as UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East).

“No Palestinian in Gaza watches Al Jazeera. No Palestinian in Gaza trusts in UNRWA. No Palestinian in Gaza trusts in all of these media,” Aman told UN Watch in an interview earlier this month.

In this atmosphere, the GYC continues its efforts.

“We at the Gaza Youth Committee work to strengthen the capacities of Palestinian youth, develop their skills and create a Palestinian movement from Gaza, the West Bank and the diaspora that expresses the aspirations of the independent Palestinian people,” said Aman. “At the Gaza Youth Committee, we always strive to hold meetings between Palestinians in Gaza and Israelis, helping them respect each other and determine their own fate by implementing joint initiatives and conveying their voices to the Americans and Europeans.

“Before the war,” he said, “we always tried to organize demonstrations to demand that Hamas hold elections, resolve the unemployment and electricity crises, and step back from governing Gaza. Even now, during the war, we are working to direct the people of Gaza to demand an end to the war.”

Aman contends that most Gazans want peace, despite polls that indicate the opposite.

“I don’t believe that much in polls,” he said, “but I understand Palestinian and Israeli public opinion. The two societies have been at war for years and have seen nothing but bloodshed and destruction, and wars only create enemies. Trust was lost before Oct. 7 and the distrust increased after the war.

“I have always believed in the importance of talking to enemies and engaging in dialogue instead of fighting. This is what I do through Zoom and Skype meetings. If there is one Palestinian and one Israeli who believe in a peaceful solution, then there is hope. We need courageous decision-makers who can lead their societies toward peace, not lead them toward fighting, hostage-taking and spreading hatred.”

Given his years of organizing video conferences, Aman said, “I have considerable experience, gained from speaking with thousands of Palestinians and thousands of Israelis. Their beliefs and opinions differ, but the common humanity that unites them always remains. They don’t know each other because of the media, and I believe in what I do and in every person’s right to life and safety, regardless of their religious or political beliefs.”

Working with “the enemy” has become Aman’s life mission. This, despite having been imprisoned and tortured by Hamas, having had loved ones killed or taken away from him by both Israeli forces and Hamas, and his neighbourhood in Gaza being destroyed by Israeli bombs.

“It’s true that, as a person, I suffer every day from this news and all the memories,” he admitted. “In addition to what Hamas did to me, it was horrific and psychologically and physically painful. However, there are people around me from whom I get this energy, and I always feel that I must be their partner in promoting dialogue and respect between Palestinians and Israelis.

“With every loss of a person, I always feel that they are advising me to continue my path and take care of their children,” he said. “Therefore, in my activities, I always aim to help families and individuals I know well, and I don’t want them to feel that I am far away from them. That is why I do my best to make their voices heard and that is from where my sense of responsibility for this matter comes.”

Aman is certain there are partners for peace on both sides.

“I consider myself a partner to any Israeli who seeks peace and an end to the war,” he said. “I know that there are Israelis who consider themselves peace partners with the Palestinians. I know Palestinians and Israelis who have lost their children and parents and still believe in peace, so that no more victims fall.”

He stressed the need to stand together.

“Our voices must unite to stop the war, free the Israeli hostages, protect the Palestinians in Gaza and help them rebuild their society,” he said. “We must find 50 Palestinian and Israeli leaders who will work to bring Palestinians and Israelis together.”

As Aman responded to the Independent’s questions, he said Israel Defence Forces tanks were “stationed hundreds of metres away from where my family and friends are. But I always know,” he said, “that life exists and so does death. Anyone can be the next hope and anyone can be the next victim.”

Oslo not a failure: Aharoni

Dina Wachtel of Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University, and Ido Aharoni, a former top Israeli diplomat who now teaches at various universities. (photo by Pat Johnson)

Zionism is as popular now as it has ever been on North American campuses, according to a former top Israeli diplomat who now teaches at multiple American universities.

The bad news, he added, is that Zionism was never a hit on North American campuses.

“Zionism was never popular in academia,” said Ido Aharoni, speaking with the Independent during a trip to Vancouver as a guest of Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University. “In fact, I would argue that … we’ve never had so many Zionists in North America as we have today.”

Protests on campuses and reports of professors inculcating anti-Israel ideas are disturbing, he said, but it’s not new.

“The people that are at the front of the effort, that spearhead the effort, are different,” he said, arguing that the vanguard now is comprised of foreign students and descendants of immigrants from societies where antisemitism is endemic. “But it’s the same thing, the same messaging that was designed by the Soviet Union.”

Aharoni is a 25-year veteran of Israel’s foreign service, a public diplomacy specialist, and founder of the Brand Israel program, which, since 2002, has sought to reposition Israel in the public mind globally. He served in the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles in the 1990s and was consul general of Israel in New York and the Tri-State Area from 2010 to 2016.

Since retiring from government in 2016, Aharoni has lectured and spoken at academic institutions including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Wharton and Berkeley on topics such as Israel’s foreign relations, mass media, the information revolution, public marketing, and nation branding. He has served as a professor of business at Touro University, as a professor of international relations at New York University and is the Murray Galinson Professor of International Relations at University of California in San Diego and San Diego State University’s business school.

In addition to teaching and lecturing, Aharoni provides advice to international companies to access Israeli innovation. He also helps businesses and agencies communicate with governments. His third focus is strategy and planning, particularly helping clients tell their story.

Aharoni contests widely held assumptions, including that Israel is unpopular in Western countries. Opinion polls say large majorities of respondents side with the Jewish state, he said. That does not necessarily translate, however, into family vacations in Israel or investments in Israeli enterprises. Changing that mindset could include convincing non-Israelis to consider differently the challenges the country faces.

“Think of terrorism the same way you think of crime in any major urban centre in North America,” he said. “If you only focus on attempts to carry out criminal acts, or the number of criminal acts carried out, then the picture can be very scary.”

If all anyone heard about Vancouver was crime statistics, he said, they might be reluctant to visit or invest. “That’s what happened in Israel,” said Aharoni. “We communicated our problems to the world. At one point, it became the only thing we communicated to the world. As a result, the world doesn’t see us beyond those problems.”

It’s hard to alter a narrative once it is set, he said. And yet, he added, Israel is no more dangerous a place to visit – and far more stable a place to invest – than many other spots in the world.

“You know how many inflammations of violence we have right now in the world taking place?” he asked. “People are talking about Israelis and Palestinians as if it’s the only conflict in the world and I think there’s something wrong about that.”

Early in his career, Aharoni was involved in the beginnings of the Oslo Peace Process. He was the policy assistant to Uri Savir, director-general of the Israeli foreign ministry under then-foreign minister Shimon Peres. “I was part of a very small group of people that knew about the secret negotiations and my job was mostly to prepare him for meetings,” he said.

Aharoni rejects the narrative that the entire process is a story of failure. What did fail was the assumption by Israelis and the broader diplomatic world that Yasser Arafat would confront the extremists on his side, get Hamas in hand, end incitement against Israelis and prepare his people to live in peaceful coexistence.

The Palestinians faced their Altalena moment, he said, citing a pivotal incident in the earliest Israeli history, when the prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, ordered the nascent Israel Defence Forces to attack the Irgun ship Altalena, effectively ensuring there would be a single, unified military force in the country.

“If you ask me, this was the biggest mistake: the assumption that Arafat was of that calibre. But the truth is that Arafat was no Ben-Gurion,” said Aharoni. “Arafat was not of that calibre. He was in it way over his head. He didn’t have the skill or the character – nor the desire. To have the desire, you have to have some knowledge of history, you have to have some depth. He had none of that. He was in love with the position of a rebel, of a revolutionary. He thought he was Che Guevara and that was his historical reference. If you ask me, that was the biggest failure.

“Other than that,” he argued, “Oslo was a big success.”

Before Oslo, he noted, Israel did not recognize the existence of the Palestinians and vice versa. The recognition and direct contact between the two sides, for whatever shortcomings that dialogue has had, allows Israel to coordinate anti-terror efforts with the Palestinian Authority.

“A lot of people don’t know that,” he said, “but the Palestinian Authority, which is the creation of the Oslo Accords … they have been very instrumental helping Israelis curb terrorism coming out of the West Bank.”

Oct. 7, 2023, or “10/7,” changed everything, he said.

“Before 10/7, there was this expectation on the part of Israelis that, somehow, we will be able to introduce peace in its full conceptual meaning.… I think, after 10/7, it’s very difficult for people to imagine that kind of peace.”

The best hope now, probably, is what Aharoni calls “a livable arrangement,” which would protect Israel’s security needs and deliver maximal Palestinian civil self-rule, while limiting the Palestinians’ military capabilities. Eliminating the antisemitism and genocidal incitement in the Palestinian and broader Arab education systems is another priority, he added.

Aharoni forcefully rejects the idea that support for Israel has become a partisan wedge issue in the United States, noting that a vote on an Israeli aid package passed the US Congress after 10/7 with 366 in favour, 58 against and seven abstentions.

“It’s true that we pay a lot of attention to the fringes,” he said, citing vocally anti-Israel representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who, he said, “represent a very marginalized and very narrow agenda.”

Aharoni was in Vancouver to meet with local supporters of Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University. CFHU will host a public event next month, in which the mayor of Jerusalem, Moshe Lion, will be in conversation with Rabbi Jonathan Infeld. The event, titled Diversity as Strength During Challenging Times, takes place June 9, at 7:30 p.m. Register at cfhu.org/moshe-lion.

Pondering peace post-Oct. 7

Commemorations of individuals murdered at the Nova festival. (photo by Pat Johnson)

Since I returned home to Vancouver from Israel a few weeks ago, it has taken me time to write about my reflections. There’s the usual getting over jetlag, catching up with work, dealing with the odds and ends that pile up after a five-week absence. I have also experienced a degree of avoidance. In some ways, there is so much to say I don’t know where to begin. In other ways, what can I possibly say that hasn’t been said before?

Unlike Israelis, I have had the luxury of putting my head in the sand, to some extent, in the days since I returned to my ridiculously quiet suburban home. My experiences – including a visit to the Gaza Envelope, Kibbutz Re’im and the Nova festival site, and conversations with scores of Israelis – have been percolating. In recent days, I have been immersed in video testimonies and other reports from survivors of the Oct. 7 attacks.

One of the reasons I have avoided writing so far, I think, is that the parallel I feel compelled to make is one that I hate to invoke. I intentionally avoid making comparisons with the Holocaust, as almost any contrast cheapens the sanctity of that event’s memory. It also is unavoidably an exaggeration – nothing can compare to the Holocaust. And so, we should not be in the business of raising false equivalencies.

But not everyone subscribes to my hesitancy. More than one Israeli I spoke to referred to Kibbutz Be’eri as “Auschwitz.”

Although I was guided around the sites of the Oct. 7 atrocities by a senior Israeli military official, we were denied entry to Be’eri, which came as a relief. I didn’t want to make the choice not to go in, but I was glad that decision was made for me.

I had to ask myself – as other people asked me – why I was compelled to visit these places in the first place? I had not, for example, taken the opportunity to watch the footage that screened in Vancouver last year of the most terrible carnage from Oct. 7. I believed that I knew enough of what happened that I did not need to be exposed to the images so graphically. (There are people, on the other hand, who I think should be forced to watch such footage.)

I could say no to the video but, in Israel, I felt an obligation to bear witness in what small way I could by visiting the Nova festival site and other locations, including Highway 232. My guide, who was among the first on the scene during the morning of Oct. 7, provided (as you can imagine) a jarring play-by-play of what he witnessed, saw, heard and smelled that day.

As I watch documentaries and continue to read about the events, and hear from eyewitnesses, including those who defended their kibbutzim, and military personnel who were among the first on the scene, it is almost impossible for the mind not to go to historical parallels.

I hear stories of people pretending to be dead for hours while murderous attackers surrounded them. Testimony recounts the nonchalant murder of the elderly, babies, anyone and everyone the terrorists could kill – as well as the collaboration of “ordinary” civilians.

The ripping apart of families. Parents shielding their children from gunshots. Families huddling as they are engulfed in flames. Survivors’ stories of screams still ringing in their ears. Jews recalling what they were sure were the last moments of their life. Acts of brutality that defy human imagination. Sadistic jubilation while perpetrating acts that make most people recoil. Residents of a village reconnoitring after the catastrophe to determine who remains alive.

The parallels are, to me at least, unavoidable.

There is, of course, a quantitative chasm between this modern horror and that of the Shoah. It is this difference that also makes comparisons so incredibly problematic. But it is the qualitative experiences, the grotesque similarities between Nazi atrocities and those of Hamas, that force the mind to go in that direction.

While visiting Jerusalem, I stumbled upon a pathway that begins at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial museum and research centre, and winds through the military cemeteries in which the casualties of Israel’s successive defensive wars and endless terror attacks are buried, as are most of the country’s prime ministers, presidents and other leading figures. The pathway ends at the tomb of Theodor Herzl, the man most credited with making real the dream of a Jewish state, and adjacent to the museum that tells his life story.

The message here is that, from the moral abyss of the Holocaust to the sustaining of national self-determination as envisioned by Herzl, the path has had an unimaginable human cost.

The promise of the state of Israel, in Herzl’s mind, was that a people who were no longer stateless would not be subject to the predations of their brutalizing neighbours. Like so much else Herzl envisioned – he imagined that Jews would be welcomed for the positive contributions they bring to the region – a state has not ushered in the lasting peace for which he had hoped.

photo - An empty Shabbat table set for missing loved ones at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv — An empty Shabbat table set for missing loved ones at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. *(photo by Pat Johnson)*

We have known this since the moment Israel’s independence was declared and the new country was immediately invaded by the massed armies of its neighbouring countries. The Arab states unanimously rejected coexistence and soon Jews from across the Middle East and North Africa were expelled or otherwise forced to flee, most finding a home in the new Jewish state. The Arabs who were not within Israel’s border at the time of the 1949 ceasefire – and their generations of descendants – have been held as stateless people ever since in one of history’s most cynical acts.

What is still able to shock, even in a world where we have become inured to inhumanity, is that there are people who experience joy at Jewish death and thrill at the opportunity to torture, terrorize and kill Jews. A state has not removed that possibility from the world.

If there was one single objective for the existence of a Jewish state, this was it: the basic security of the Jewish person. On Oct. 7, that promise was broken.

While many Israelis told me that Oct. 7 demonstrated that coexistence with Palestinians is impossible, other people told me that it merely made them redouble their commitment to building a future of peace and coexistence. If I went back to those who said Oct. 7 taught us to work harder for peace with Palestinians, would they see a cognitive dissonance in my position as I do with theirs?

If the existence of a Jewish state cannot prevent the most basic thing it was created to realize, is the entire enterprise a failure?

A Jewish state does not guarantee, obviously, that Jews will not still and again experience the atrocities that have befallen them historically. It is, nevertheless, the best defence, however imperfect.

The Israelis who told me they must work harder for peace believe that, when our ideal falls short, rather than give up, we have to do more to attain it. For them, that means doubling down on peace activism. I admire their idealism.

For me, any realistic plan for peace is worthy of consideration. But I will also double down and say that the answer to a Jewish state that fails to live up to its core mission of keeping Jewish people from reliving the horrors of the past is also not to give up – but to continue building a Jewish state that is impermeable, unparalleled in strength and impervious to the genocidal assaults of its neighbours.

Reflecting on the thousands I saw buried along the pathway between Yad Vashem and Herzl’s tomb, I believe that, until Israel’s neighbours are incapable of the sorts of atrocities we have seen, Israelis must work for peace, on the one hand, while assuming their neighbours won’t change, on the other.

Security through peace

Noa in conversation with Rabbi Dan Moskovitz at Temple Sholom Oct. 30. (screenshot)

Israeli singer/songwriter and peace activist Achinoam Nini (Noa) was in British Columbia recently to do a Vipassana meditation. While here, she stopped at Temple Sholom Oct. 30 for a conversation with Rabbi Dan Moskovitz (which is on YouTube) and at Congregation Emanu-El Nov. 4 for a talk with Rabbi Harry Brechner.

Noa was born in Israel in 1969. She’s the fifth generation of her family in Israel, their presence dating back to the mid-1800s. They immigrated from Yemen.

“They came because they were persecuted at the time and they came to the only place they knew, that their heart drew them to, and that was Jerusalem and the Kinneret,” she said. “That was the two places. They walked across the desert and took boats and were smuggled by Bedouins. It’s a very dramatic story, how the family made it to the Holy Land.”

Noa’s father got a scholarship to study at the University of Rochester, so she spent the first couple of years of her life in Rochester, NY.

“When I went into first grade, my family moved to the Bronx, NY. My dad was now doing his PhD in Columbia University. And my parents decided to send my brother and I to yeshivah…. I was the only dark-skinned kid in the school, the only Israeli kid in the school, the only family that didn’t live in something that looked like a mansion.

“My way of dealing was in two ways,” said Noa. “First, fortunately, I was a gifted student, so I had a scholarship to school that helped my parents…. And music. I started writing songs at a very young age…. I was interested in physics and mathematics, I loved history. I wanted to go to Harvard and do a PhD in physics and history, but that didn’t happen, obviously. Music … chose me.”

At age 17, on a summer vacation in Israel, Noa met a soldier on leave.

“I went back home,” she said. “I told my parents, I’m making aliyah. I said, you raised me to be a Zionist. We love Israel. I want to live in Israel.”

To this day, Noa is married to that man (Asher Barak, now a medical specialist and entrepreneur), and they have three children, two of whom are in the Israel Defence Forces, one in service, the other in the reserves.

Noa did her army service in a military entertainment unit, then started her music career. While at the Rimon School of Music, she met Gil Dor, who was one of her teachers. “He’s an extraordinary and amazing, brilliant musician and we’ve been working together now for 34 years,” said Noa.

They caught the attention of guitarist Pat Metheny, who produced Noa’s first album and brought it to David Geffen, who then signed Noa at Geffen Records.

“I started performing abroad and foreign journalists started asking me my opinion about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and I’m like, I’m an artist, I don’t speak about things like that, don’t ask me questions like that.”

But she didn’t feel good about not responding. “And so, I started learning more and reading more and I became more and more depressed,” she said. “And then came Yitzchak Rabin and he started talking about peace. And I was like, yes, this is great!”

A believer in the Oslo Accords, Noa was the only leading Israeli musician to agree to perform at the peace rally where Rabin was murdered.

“I saw Rabin and I hugged him … and I walked down the stairs. Ten minutes later, he walked down the stairs and was killed…. I remember the rush and the cry and everybody running, and panic, and myself running and pushing to see what had happened,” Noa shared. “It was a trauma. I haven’t recovered, absolutely not. I haven’t recovered – and neither has Israel.”

At that moment, said Noa, “I said, OK, well, if this guy just paid with his life for our future, the future of Israel, the future of my children, then I, too, can do something. And then, maybe, I’ll pay a price and that’ll be OK because it’s the right thing to do. And that’s when I started becoming an activist for peace.”

There were two other life-changing events for Noa in the 1990s. She was invited to sing at the Vatican for Pope John Paul II and she was asked to write the lyrics and sing the theme song of the film Life is Beautiful (La Vita e Bella), which won an Oscar.

Among her many achievements, Noa represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009. She did so with Palestinian-Israeli singer/songwriter Mira Awad. “I wrote a song called ‘There Must Be Another Way,’ and we sang it in English, Hebrew and Arabic,” said Noa. “It made a lot of waves around the world and I have to say that, until today, it is taught in schools around the world.”

She related a story about that experience.

“Mira, her mother is from Bulgaria and her father is Palestinian. She’s quite fair-skinned, with green eyes. My family is from Yemen…. I’m an Arabic Jew. And so, when we sat in front of media, I remember there was one day where they had BBC Iran, they had Al Jazeera, they had all kinds of media…. All the Arab media immediately came up to me in Arabic and to her in English, [assuming] she’s the Jew. And so, I told them, you see, that is the role of art – our role is to shake you up a little. You think you understand everything. Maybe you don’t. Maybe there’s another way of looking at it…. You can’t think that you understand everything about everything. No, it’s not black and white. And that’s, of course, very relevant to where we are today.”

That said, there has been progress towards peace, she contended.

“There’s a huge polemic about whether there should be or there shouldn’t be a Palestinian state,” she admitted, “but there is a conversation being had about it…. In the past, it was not even talked about at all. It was underground.”

She also pointed to the many organizations that work with and/or are staffed by Arabs and Jews. Noa is on the boards of the Arava Institute and the Umm el-Fahem Museum of Art, for example. She’s also involved with the Parents Circle – Families Forum.

“The world in general is not a great place for people who believe in peace right now,” she acknowledged. “I think that we are under attack by forces, if you like, forces of darkness from everywhere. But, like I always say, that’s not reason enough not to continue raising the voice…. I believe in peace. I don’t see any other way to live. Has the peace camp changed? It has transformed in many ways.”

She gave the example of a WhatsApp group called Voices of Solidarity. She said a lot of young people are doing things – “it’s either art, it’s underground theatre, it’s alternative music.” She mentioned the organization Standing Together.

“Yitzhak Rabin, when he started talking to [Yasser] Arafat, the terrorist, everyone was like, what, no way, forget it. Seventy-five percent of the Israeli public were against any kind of interaction with Palestinians but then he came [along] with his charisma and his leadership and his integrity and his honesty and his track record, and he started saying, we’re going to be doing this and this is the right thing and this is for Israel’s future, for our children, we’ve made enough wars…. And then, it was like a month later, the entire public opinion, it shifted towards being positive about the chances for peace.”

That could happen again. A change in circumstances, a particular leader’s personality, the right timing, she said.

For Noa, Israel is in a worse situation now than immediately after Oct. 7.

“The hostage situation … is a nightmare beyond words. I go every week, sometimes I go twice a week, three times a week, to stand with them [the families and others calling for the hostages to be brought home]…. They’re desperate. I don’t know how they are still sane…. And the fact that that their children are still there [in Gaza], that they haven’t been brought back, that not everything has been done to bring them back, is not anything that Israel will ever recover from.”

She is appalled that the government is still in power.

“Not only did they not resign,” she said, “they then turned around to blame everybody that saved Israel, including Brothers and Sisters in Arms, including all the organizations that volunteered, [and] to blame the hostage families for daring to want their children back…. It’s beyond words.”

She advised diaspora Jews to distance themselves from the government: “separate the Israeli government from the Israeli people, it’s not the same thing,” she said.

“If you are going to look at a lot of consistent polls, you’ll see that people – even people that voted for the present government – feel betrayed by what the government has eventually done. They don’t understand how the government is not taking responsibility. They don’t understand how the dictatorship coup keeps moving forward when we’re in such a stressful situation. They don’t understand how our relationship with the entire world has come to a complete collapse under the auspices of this government. The Israeli government right now is the enemy of the Israeli people. And you can say that…. We support the Israeli people, we support the country of Israel, but we do not support the government of Israel.”

She warned of the dangers extremists pose in any country, and asked people to “strengthen the moderates in civil society in any way you can.”

She added, “Throughout history, countries have fallen into terrible situations of leadership. Italy, my favourite country in the world after Israel, became a fascist country at some point, with Mussolini, and there was Franco [in Spain] and there were other people, other countries that came into [similar] situations. Does that delegitimize the country? No. It means that a certain combination of events led to the fact that a country was now held hostage by leadership that did not work in her benefit. That is what is happening right now to Israel, and we have to work through it together with the help of our friends, and you are our friends.”

Noa doesn’t just fault the Israeli government. “In my opinion,” she said, “everybody in the region is to blame for the horrible situation we’re in. Nobody made the efforts. The leadership did not make efforts to make peace, not Israeli leadership, definitely not Palestinian leadership.”

She believes Israel had to defend itself after Oct. 7.

“What were we supposed to do? Sit around [twiddling our thumbs] while our kids were being massacred and our women were being raped? Yes, Israel needed to go in. The war was legitimate. But – it was legitimate to the extent that there was a plan. There needs to be a plan. Say, we have to fight, but now, let’s see, we’ve attacked, we’ve retaliated, we’ve done this, we’ve shown that, we’re there for our people. But we have to bring the hostages back…. Second, we have to see, who are our allies? We’re a small country, we’re nine million people – whoa, we want to attack the entire world? No. Who are our allies? Who are our friends? How can we start progressing towards a solution to this? Not endless warfare. Who are the people that want to talk to us? The UAE, the Saudis, the Americans, the Europeans, let’s reach out to them. This is what the Israeli government should have done immediately.”

While acknowledging that Israel needs a strong army, Noa said, “at the same time, parallel institutions need to come in and do their job, the diplomatic job, to reach out to our friends … and make sure that Israel is secure. Our security will come with peace, only with peace, and we have to look at this as an opportunity to make peace. And are there partners? There are.”

She said, “As a woman who lives in Israel, loves Israel and sends her kids to the army…. We need to be able to look forward to a time when we will not be sending our children to the army. Is it possible? Yes.”

המשבר הגדול של מדינת נתניהו יגיע עוד יגיע

לאחרונה דיבר עם חבר מישראל דוד שטויר, כאשר בגילו המתקדם (שבעים פלוס) כבר חווה הכל במדינה. אני הכרתי את דוד בחודשים הראשונים שלי בתהליך התאקלמות בוונקובר, אליה עברתי בחודש פברואר 2005

דוד חזר וציין בפני שאני הייתי “נביא” שראה לאן פני ישראל מועדות והוא עד היום מצטער שלא עזב כמוני את המדינה בה גדלנו, למען עתיד טוב יותר לו ולילדיו. לאור המשבר הקשה בישראל ילדיו של דוד כבר הספיקו לעזוב את ישראל. ולכן שאלתי אותו מה עוד “מחזיק” אותו בישראל? הוא ענה לי כי בתו הצעירה שהשתחחרה לאחרונה ההצבא, נקראה לשירות מילואים דחוף בן מספר חודשים בחיל האוויר. לאחר שתשחרר הבת מהמילואים היא קרוב לוודאי תעבור ללמוד בחו”ל. אז גם הוא יעזוב סוף סוף את ישראל

דוד אומר כי כבר למעלה מחמישים אלף ישראלים עזבו לאחרונה את ישראל. לדבריו מספר העוזבים צפוי אף לגדול לאור המשבר הגדול שישראל נמצאת בו, והוא צפוי להחריף. תשמע רוני הוא אמר לי נחרצות: ישראל היום נשלטת על ידי משפחת פשע הלוא היא משפחת נתניהו. הם עושים מה שהם רוצים, ובעלי התפקידים לצדו של נתניהו הם נוכלים וחסרי כישורים. נתניהו יצר פילוג בעם שאי אפשר לתקנו כך שאי אפשר לגשר בין “הביסיסטים” למתנגדיו של נתניהו

כשאמרתי לדוד כי הכיצד יכול ראש ממשלת ישראל להחזיק בן כלומניק בפלורידה (יאיר נתניהו) שאפילו לא עובד, והמדינה מממנת את שירותי הביטחון שלו שעולים הון ובתקופת מלחמה? דוד קטע את דברי בחריפות: רוני זה כסף קטן לעומת מיליארדי השקלים שנשדדים מקופת המדינה על ידי נתניהו וחבורתו, בין היתר לטובת החרדים שאפילו לא משרתים בצבא.ווהוא (נתניהו) עוד טס מטוס מפואר שעלה מיליארד שקל

לאחר השיחה עם דוד ישבתי וחשבתי לעצמי על ישראל ועתידה ובמחשבותי הצטיירה תמונה עגומה מאוד. אלו שחושבים שבקרוב יפרוץ תהליך שלום חדש בין ישראל למדינות ערב ובעיקר עם סעודיה, חיים בחלום. סעודיה הודיעה כבר מפורשות! שכל תהליך שלום עימה חייבה לכלול פתרון גם לפלסטינים – והוא הקמה מדינה עצמאית עבורם. הימים שישראל תעשה הסכמי שלום בדמות הסכמי אברהם, ללא פתרון הבעייה הפלסטינית עברו מן העולם

יש בישראל כיום שמהללים את נתניהו כביכול על הצלחותיו מול החמאס והחיזבאללה, בזמן שהם שכחו את הכשלונותיו הרבים, שהביאו למחדלי השבעה באוטובר. וכן ויתור על החטופים כדי שיוכל להמשיך ולשבת על כיסא המלך. מבחינתי זה כמו להגיד שלגודלה מאיר היו הצלחות רבות במלחמת יום כיפור מול המצרים והסורים, תוך התעלמות מאחריותה למחדל הנוראי של התקפות הפתע של צבאות האויב על ישראל

בכל מדינה מתוקנת ראש ממשלה היה מתפטר מיד לאחר מחדלי השבעה באוקטובר, ונעלם מהציבור לעולמים, אך כמובן עומד למשפט העם במסגרת ועדה חקירה ממלכתית. אך את נתניהו הנוכל נורמות ויושר אינן תכונות המאפיינות אותו למרות שהוא דורש זאת מאחרים

נתניהו אחראי להעברת מיליארדי דולרים לחמאס מקטאר, והוא אחראי לפגיעה קשה ברשות הפלסטינית. נתניהו חיזק אפוא את הקיצונים בפלסטינים (חמאס) והחליש את המתונים יותר (הרשות). נתניהו אחראי גם על עיבוי והוספת ההתנחלויות בשטחים הכבושים שרק מרחיקים את ישראל מפתרון הסכסוך הממושך עם עולם הערבי והשגת שלום

בתקופת שלטונו הארוכה בת שבעה עשרה השנים של נתניהו, ישראל נחלשה מבפנים בצורה משמעותית. המדינה הפכה למושחתת, יותר דתית משיחית, יותר קפיטליסטית והרבה פחות הומנית

?מדוע אינני חוזר לגור בישראל

אני גר בוונקובר כבר למעלה מתשעה עשרה וחצי שנים ואין לי שום תוכניות לחזור לישראל. הסיבות לכך רבות וברורות מבחינתי. ובעיקר: אינני מוכן לחזור אחורה למציאות כה מורכבת וקשה שכפי שליוותה אותי במרבית חיי בישראל

במלחמת ששת הימים הייתי בן שמונה ואני זוכר כיצד אימי הגיעה לבית הספר כדי לקחת אותי למקלט של סבא הסמוך לביתנו במרכז ירושלים

מייד לאחר המלחמה הסביר הפרופסור ישעיהו ליבוביץ’ כי כיבוש השטחים בעקבות המלחמה יהיה אסון מבחינת ישראל, ישחית את המדינה ואף יסכן את עתידה. אז עדיין לא הבנתי על מה הוא מדבר. אך כשאשר התבגרתי קלטתי עד כמה דבריו של פרופסור ליבוביץ’ היו ונשארו נכונים עד עצם היום הזה

במלחמת יום כיפור עת הייתי בן ארבע עשרה ההורים היו כרגיל בנסיעה בחו”ל. אחי ואני נשארנו בבית כאשר נשמענו להוראות להפעיל האפלה בשעות הערב. לאחר מספר ימים ההורים הצליחו למצוא טיסה ולחזור מארה”ב לישראל

במלחמת לבנון הראשונה נקראתי לצאת למילואים בלבנון. הייתי בסך הכל פקיד בפלוגת הנדסה, איך כיוון שהם נאלצו לצאת לשטח בלבנון גם אני הצטרפתי אליהם. אנו שרתנו באזור ציר מזבושה תחת אחריותו של המגד בני ברבש. אחרי כחודש מילואים השתחררתי הביתה

לאחר המלחמה נסעתי לטיול מהנה באירופה ומאז ננטע אצלי לראשונה הרצון לעבור ולגור בחו”ל. פשוט לממש חלום ולגור באחת ממדינות המערב

בין לבין חיינו בישראל פיגועים רבים שלצערי הפכו לשגרת חיים. מי שחי בישראל מכיר מלחמות, פיגועים והרבה הרבה ימים לא שקטים. כך היה וכך יהיה

בראשית שנות השמונים התחלתי להבין סוף סוף שאחזקת השטחים הכבושים לא מאפשרת לפלסטינים להקים מדינה עצמאית משלהם. ובמקביל מסכנת את ביטחונה של ישראל. כבר אז ראיתי שישראל מחולקת לשני מחנות ברורים: תומכי השלום והחזרת השטחים ותומכי החלום של ארץ ישראל השלמה שהאמינו שזה דווקא יגביר את הביטחון במדינה. אני כאמור נימנתי על מחנה השלום שלאורך השנים הלך והתכווץ לצערי. לעומתו מחנה של המתנחלים ותומכיהם הלך וגדל. אז התחלתי להרגיש פחות ופחות שייך לישראל

במלחמת המפרץ הראשונה כבר גרתי בתל אביב. לא אשכח לעולם את הלילה הנורא ההוא ביום חמישי בסביבות שתיים לפנות בוקר. צפיתי אז בחדשות בטלוויזיה שתיארו את מהלכי ארה”ב בעיראק ואז נשמעה הסיסמה “נחש צפע” ולאחריה הופעלה אזעקה. אז הופיעה השקופית “בשל התקפת טילים על ישראל הופעלה אזעקת אמת”. ואכן נפל טיל מעיראק בשכונת התקווה, שבקו אווירי קרובה הייתה לביתי במרכז תל אביב. שמעתי היטב את הדי הפיצוץ ונכנסתי ממש לחרדה נוראית. אז אמרתי לעצמי כי הכתובת היא על הקיר ויום אחד יגיעו הטילים האמיתיים מאיראן שהכוונה לטילים אטומיים. הבנתי אז שעלי לעזוב את ישראל ולצערי רק לאחר ארבעה עשרה שנים עשיתי זאת

תוך מספר דקות יצאת את ביתי ונסעתי בטירוף לביתו של חבר כדי שלא להיות לבד. למחרת החבר עזב את תל אביב ונסע למשפחו באילת. ואז החלטתי לנסוע לבית הורי בירושלים, ששם שההיתי בכל תקופת המלחמה. בכל פעם שנשמעה “האזעקה” ממש נכנסתי לחרדה בחרדה ושהייתי עם הורי בחדר האטום

לאחר רצח ראש הממשלה יצחק רבין באמצע שנות התשעים הרגשתי עוד יותר כמה אני לא יכול להשתייך עוד לישראל. אז גם החל לככב בנימין נתניהו האחראי לגל ההסתה נגד רבין. הפכתי לזר בה ועדיף להיות זר בחו”ל. לאחר עשר שנים עזבתי לוונקובר

Comedy can unite and heal

Comedian Erik Angel performs his one-man standup show, Speaking Falafel, at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver on Nov. 14. (photo from Erik Angel)

“This year, I discovered even more how comedy is an important tool to bring people together, for release and relief, and I won’t be exaggerating if I say that comedy saved me this year,” Erik Angel told the Independent in an interview in advance of his solo performance Nov. 14, 8 p.m., at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. He’ll also be taking part in a show for students at the University of British Columbia while he’s here.

“This is perhaps the saddest time in my life, with a lot of pain, sorrow and worry, and going on stage night after night and making people laugh, helps me clear my mind and move on,” said Angel of the year since Oct. 7, 2023. “On stage, I deal with my reality today, with antisemitism, but I do it in an entertaining way. They say that comedy is tragedy plus time and I call my performance a humanitarian respite for the soul.”

Angel, who lives in New York, has opened for headliners like Maz Jobrani and Zarna Garg. He’s been part of several comedy festivals and has performed in more than a dozen countries to date. This will be his first time in Vancouver.

Born and raised in Israel, Angel moved to the United States for love, he said, after meeting his bashert at, of all places, the Jewish community centre in Krakow, Poland, in 2015.

“I went to Krakow for a long weekend and all my life changed completely,” he said.

Angel has worked in several creative fields. As a singer-songwriter, he released three albums in Israel. He studied drama and worked as an actor for five years. He did some standup comedy in Hebrew at open mics in Israel almost a decade ago, but said he quickly switched to doing routines in English, even while still in Israel.

“Since summer 2016,” he said, “I’ve been doing comedy in English, almost on a daily basis.”

The show that Angel is bringing to the Vancouver JCC next week is the product of a lot of work.

“Speaking Falafel is an hour of comedy that I worked on for seven long years of comedy spots, day after day, and I am very proud of it. It’s a very funny show about my journey since I went on this long weekend in Krakow and met the love of my life. I share the difficulties of becoming a new immigrant, newly married in my 40s, the differences between Israeli culture and other cultures in the world, how to be now ‘the Jew’ everywhere, to live 24/7 with a second language. I tell stories, I speak with the audience, and I even sing a little bit.”

The Nov. 14 show is a bonus for Vancouverites, as Angel’s main purpose for coming to the city is the UBC show, which is the start of a winter tour for Comedy for Peace.

Angel established Comedy for Peace five years ago.

“I grew up in Israel with two million Muslims. I never met one – not in school, not in my basketball team,” he said. “I started to meet Muslims when I started to travel the world. The meetings were always friendly, and I wanted to do something artistic together. When I moved to New York, I became part of the New York comedy scene. I produced the first show, that was a huge success, and since then we have had shows in more than 50 cities in the US and Canada.

“Comedy for Peace is not a political event,” he stressed. “It’s about different communities who sit together under one roof and have fun. Simple as it sounds, we want to show people how easy it is to collaborate, laugh, learn about each other and discover how much we are more alike than different. Today, we also have a version with Christian comedians that will travel with the West Coast tour. Nov. 9, Comedy for Peace will be part of the New York Comedy Festival for the second time.

“After Oct. 7, a few shows were canceled (and a few not) and very fast we decided that, for us now, it’s more important than ever and this is why we keep going,” added Angel. “There are comedians, mostly Muslim or Christian Arabs, that cut me off and don’t want to be a part of it – it’s painful because I didn’t change – but most of the comedians are still on board. And our goal now is to bring our message everywhere possible, and [I] will never give up and will always believe most of us, the people, just want to live together peacefully.”

Performing alongside Angel at UBC will be Liz Glazer, Gibran Saleem and Paul Schissler.

“From my experience, people that come to support the show support the idea and are not coming to protest or say something against it and I hope it will be the same this time,” said Angel when asked if he was concerned about the protests and vandalism that have taken place at UBC and other universities. “We are a non-political peace show, so it’s crazy for me to think that things will go differently. Until today, the only problem we have had to deal with was people calling/writing or trying to shame online our Muslim/Christian Arab comedians or asking them not to do it anymore. Most of them just want to do it more since then. But still, we have the reality, there are many haters out there and everything can happen. We have a Q&A session at the end and we are open to speaking with reasonable people that will come with an open heart and ask questions they want to speak about or to understand more. This is part of our mission, to be there together on stage.”

To watch some clips of Angel’s performances from around the world, visit his YouTube channel, youtube.com/@erikangelcomedy9702, or his Instagram page, instagram.com/erikangelcomedy/?hl=en. For tickets to Speaking Falafel, go to eventbrite.com.

Resolving Gaza dilemma

Israel needs to adopt a long-term objective in its response to Hamas’s attack of Oct. 7. Israel’s immediate objective is the defeat of Hamas. The question becomes what is to happen not only to Gaza but also to the West Bank when that happens.

For Israel simply to withdraw from Gaza would lead to a resuscitation of Hamas. For Israel to stay in Gaza would revive the problems which led to its withdrawal in 2005.

The recent negotiations around a ceasefire, release of the hostages, an Arab peacekeeping force and Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state, if accepted, would keep Hamas in power. The May 31 proposal of US President Joe Biden, which would keep Hamas in power in Gaza, is a non-starter. A ceasefire was already in place on Oct. 6, before the Hamas attack of Oct. 7. For Hamas, a new ceasefire would be a rearmament pause before its next attack on Israel. The Hamas leadership has said as much.

Simply putting the Palestinian Authority nominally in charge of Gaza leads to the same dead end. In the 2006 Palestinian elections, Hamas won. There have been no elections since then. With a new election, the result would likely be the same.

For peace negotiations to reach a plausible agreement, both an ideal result in mind and a strategy to reach that result must be in place. The ideal solution is well known – two states living side by side in peace with each other. The strategy should be directed to overcoming the widespread animosity among Palestinians to the existence of Israel and the resignation of Israelis to the reality of that animosity.

To want to live side by side in peace with each other, both populations must want peace. The continued terrorism against Israel and Israelis emanating not only from Gaza but also from the West Bank, as well as the Palestinian Authority’s failure to accept one Israeli peace plan after another, has made the Palestinian Authority not a credible peace plan partner and has generated radicalism within Israel opposing peace.

Among the Israeli residents of the West Bank, there are groups who engage in terrorism against Palestinians in pursuit of the integration of the West Bank into Israel. The government of Israel has been remiss in preventing this terrorism and remedying the consequences.

Current negotiations with Arab states may give the Palestinian Authority again a peace plan offer, this time, one they may accept. The suggestion that they would or even could implement a peace plan effectively is a lot harder to credit.

Instead, those Arab states currently proposed as contributors to a possible peacekeeping force after a ceasefire should agree, along with the Palestinian Authority, on something different. They should agree to deny Hamas’s propaganda, counter Hamas’s allies, and stand against Hamas’s physical and military survival. In areas of Gaza where Hamas has been defeated, the Israel Defence Forces would withdraw, to be replaced by Arab coalition forces, led by Egypt, as governing trustees. The same coalition, led by Jordan, would advise and assist the Palestinian Authority to act consistently in the West Bank with what the coalition is doing in Gaza. The United Nations General Assembly, if the proposed Arab coalition and the Palestinian Authority took the initiative, could authorize the UN Trusteeship Council to supervise the trusteeship over Gaza.

The proposed trusteeship would step into the shoes of the Palestinian Authority, with sole control over Area A outlined in the Oslo Accord, joint control with Israel in Area B and no control over Area C. The boundaries of the West Bank trusteeship, under this arrangement, could be shifted to take into account territorial swaps proposed in various peace negotiations.

To Israel, that sort of agreement would signal commitment by the Arab coalition to the defeat of Hamas and a lasting peace. From an Arab coalition perspective, Hamas’s defeat would mean victory over a common enemy, reining in terrorism based on distortions of Islam, a form of terrorism that has plagued the Arab world. From a Palestinian perspective, such an agreement could provide security for distribution of aid and medical supplies, which, despite the abundance of deliveries, has been to date difficult and dangerous.

Eradicating the terrorist threat completely is unrealistic even in the most peaceful of states. An Arab coalition Gaza trusteeship and a West Bank advice and assistance role would remain in effect until such time as Gaza and West Bank can form a functioning state; until the terrorism threat emanating from these territories is marginalized; and until Palestinians generally are ready to accept Israelis as their neighbours.

This Arab coalition trusteeship for Gaza and advice and assistance role for the West Bank may be lengthy, lasting even a generation. The education of children in Gaza and the West Bank has motivated many Palestinians to seek death through killing or trying to kill Jews in order to become religious martyrs who have earned afterlife redemption. That education must be undone.

Peace between Israel and a Palestinian state is an ideal. Realizing that ideal requires taking steps which address directly the causes of failure of all peace efforts to date.

David Matas is an international human rights lawyer based in Winnipeg and senior honorary counsel to B’nai Brith Canada. Noemi Gal-Or is a retired professor of international relations and an international law lawyer based in Vancouver.

Not such a great divide

Co-authors Raja G. Khouri, left, and Jeffrey J. Wilkinson in a conversation at Canadian Memorial United Church and Centre for Peace June 13. (photo by Pat Johnson)

To bridge a divide between peoples, Jews and Palestinians need to listen and understand one another’s stories of trauma, according to two authors who spoke in Vancouver June 13.

“Not only do we not know each other’s narrative, we don’t want to know each other’s narrative,” said Raja G. Khouri. “We are resistant to the other’s narrative. Palestinians need to understand Jewish suffering and Jews need to understand Palestinian suffering.”

Khouri, founding president of the Canadian Arab Institute, is a Palestinian-Canadian. With Jeffrey J. Wilkinson, a Jewish American who lives in Canada, he wrote The Wall Between: What Jews and Palestinians Don’t Want to Know About Each Other.

The two men have been engaged in ongoing dialogue around trauma and other topics related to Israel and Palestine. Their book was released four days before the Oct. 7 terror attacks.

Jewish trauma from the Holocaust and Palestinian trauma from the Nakba, or the “Catastrophe” of the 1948 war, replay in various ways among the peoples today, said Wilkinson, an educator who works on issues of trauma.

“It’s not about amount of loss,” said Wilkinson. “Six million Jews died, 750,000 Palestinians [were] displaced. That impact is not about the numbers. That impact is about that loss, that something being taken from you, that feeling of anger, resistance.”

The conversation, at Canadian Memorial United Church and Centre for Peace, was sponsored by Vancouver Friends of Standing Together, in partnership with several other organizations. Standing Together describes itself as “a progressive grassroots movement mobilizing Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel against the occupation and for peace, equality and social justice.”

The authors acknowledge the chasms between the consensus Israeli and Palestinian narratives, while carefully noting that they did not claim to speak on behalf of their respective peoples.

“Zionists are saying 1967, 1967, 1967,” said Wilkinson, referring to the war that marks the beginning of what many consider “the occupation.”

“Palestinians are saying 1948, 1948, 1948. The two-state solution does nothing to address 1948,” Wilkinson said.

A two-state solution is not something either author views as a reasonable proposition, said Wilkinson – unless it is as a waystation to an alternative that neither author spelled out explicitly.

“I’m not saying it’s a bad solution and you can’t support it,” Wilkinson said of the idea of two states. “But I want you to frame it from the perspective of justice, and it does not address the injustice of Palestinians.”

While the evening – and the book – were billed as a conversation across barriers, the divide was not as big as advertised. Both authors view the existence of Israel as a problem to be solved.

“I believe that Zionism and my Judaism are not compatible,” Wilkinson said. “That does not lessen my compassion for the vast majority of my community who are somewhere on that journey but not where I am, and I embrace you as you walk through that.”

Wilkinson explicitly denounced the extremist rhetoric heard in some anti-Israel protests, such as calls to destroy Tel Aviv and telling Jews to “go back to Poland.”

Khouri said Palestinians believe that “the antisemitism label” has been misused to silence them.

“We both know that antisemitism is real and it’s dangerous,” he said. “But, to Palestinians, it is a weapon that has been used to silence criticism, or at least that’s what we believe. And it’s important to get that.”

Both men believe there is a misunderstanding around definitions of terms.

Israelis and their allies might hear the word “apartheid” and reject it.

“Lens the word from the person who is speaking,” Wilkinson advised, outlining how he views separate treatment of Palestinians as equivalent to the racist regime of 20th-century South Africa.

“Likewise with terms like genocide,” said Khouri. “We both avoided using the term for the longest time. But I can tell you there isn’t a Palestinian I know who isn’t convinced that this is absolute genocide because of the mass killing that is happening. Whether it meets the legal definition of genocide or not, it feels very much like genocide.”

The defensiveness that comes around these terms, they said, is a barrier to the peoples’ understanding of each other.

The flexibility of definitions extends to the term “intifada.”

“When you hear someone, say, we’re calling for intifada, ask them what they mean by this,” said Khouri. “Do you mean going and blowing up cafés and buses?”

Neither author offered their interpretation of the term.

The Oct. 7 attacks took place in a particular context, they said.

“If you fixate on Oct. 7 only, then you’re missing a big part of the picture,” said Khouri.

“That doesn’t mean you grieve less for the victims of Oct. 7,” Wilkinson said. “It doesn’t mean that.”

Avril Orloff, representing Vancouver Friends of Standing Together, emceed the event. Rabbi Laura Duhan Kaplan, director of inter-religious studies and professor of Jewish studies at the Vancouver School of Theology provided a land acknowledgment and contextualized the discussion in the context of Shavuot, which was ending as the event began.

Srulik, meet Handala

The ways in which the characters of Srulik, left, and Handala epitomize the historical and cultural narrative of the Israelis and Palestinians, respectively, imbue these cartoons with an impact stronger than words. (photo by Gil Zohar)

Driving east from Jerusalem on the winding Jordanian-built road that once led down from the Mount of Olives to the Dead Sea, one passes through a series of picturesque Arab suburbs and soon comes to a dead end in front of the grotesque West Bank barrier.

Called Geder ha-Hafrada (separation fence) in Hebrew and jidar al-fasl al-’unsuri (apartheid wall) in Arabic, the insurmountable (if still incomplete) eight-metre-high concrete barrier has no doubt contributed to a reduction in terrorism and car theft. However, my objection to it is more existential: like some of those in West Berlin who spray-painted their protest for freedom on the Bundesrepublik side of die Mauer even as armed GDR guards used deadly force to prevent anyone from approaching the wall’s eastern side, I believe all walls must fall.

It is a metaphor that has repeated itself from Joshua’s encircling of Jericho, to the Berlin Wall and its remaining East Side Gallery, to Garth Hewitt’s ballad “They’ve Canceled Christmas in Bethlehem,” about the stranglehold the wall has placed on both day-to-day life and religious pilgrimage in the place where Jesus, “the Prince of Peace,” was born 2,000-plus years ago.

The world today is caught between two conflicting ideologies: some democratic countries joining in unions with open borders, joint legal systems and a common currency, of which the European Union – notwithstanding its problems – is a great success. Then, there are other countries – many repressive and undemocratic – defending their borders with minefields and walls. Like John Lennon, I prefer the first vision – of a growing global union without barriers. Imagine that.

Thus, armed with the tools of the graffiti artist – an X-ACTO knife, cardboard stencil and spray paint – I recently made my way to Abu Dis with my friend Hajj Ibrahim Abu el-Hawa, my daughter Bareket and fellow artist Eva Feld to make our mark. Reasoning that a picture is worth a thousand words, we chose a symbolic image whose meaning is unequivocal.

The image we created depicts Handala raising hands with Srulik (see picture). The two iconic cartoon characters are respectively well known by Palestinians and Israelis – yet, each is equally unknown by the other. It is a symmetry of ignorance of the other’s narrative that will have to be overcome before true peace can be achieved.

Allow me to explain the mirror meanings of the twin caricatures.

Handala – an omnipresent image on T-shirts and key chains in the aswaq (plural of suq, market) of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip – was created by Naji al-’Ali in 1969. A 10-year-old child driven in 1948 from his Galilee village of ash-Shajara (14 kilometres from Tiberias) to the ‘Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in Lebanon, al-’Ali went on to become the leading political cartoonist in the Arab world.

Before being assassinated in London in 1987, he produced more than 40,000 bitingly sarcastic cartoons lampooning Arab leaders and lamenting the stateless status of his people. His autobiographical image of Handala – a barefoot, faceless, refugee youth – remains a potent symbol of the struggle of the Palestinian people for justice and self-determination.

Al-’Ali wrote: “Handala is my signature. I gave birth to this child in the [Persian] Gulf. He was born 10 years old, and he will always be 10. At that age, I left my homeland and, when he returns, Handala will still be 10, and then he will start growing up. The laws of nature do not apply to him. He is unique. Things will become normal again when the homeland returns.”

Impish Srulik – a diminutive of Yisrael (Israel) – carries an equally rich symbolism in depicting nascent Israel and, in particular, its native-born Sabras. The illustrated character was first drawn in 1956 by the cartoonist Kariel Gardosh, better known by his nom de plume, Dosh. The Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor drew Srulik for decades in the pages of the daily Maariv, until his death in 2000.

Dosh generally depicted Srulik as a young man wearing a kova tembel hat, “biblical sandals” and khaki shorts. He drew him as a pioneering Zionist and lover of the land of Israel, a dedicated farmer who in time of need dons an Israel Defence Forces uniform and goes out to defend the state of Israel, equipped with an Uzi machine gun. In contrast to the antisemitic stereotype of the weak or cunning Jew, which appeared in the Nazi weekly Der Stürmer and other European and Arab newspapers and journals, Dosh’s Srulik was a proud, strong and sympathetic Jewish character.

Shalom Rosenfeld, editor of Maariv from 1974 to 1980, wrote: “Srulik became not only a mark of recognition of [Dosh’s] amazing daily cartoons, but an entity standing on its own, as a symbol of the land of Israel – beautiful, lively, innocent … and having a little chutzpah and, naturally, also of the new Jew.”

Introducing Srulik to Palestinians and Handala to Israelis is not a bad way to begin to redress each side’s ignorance of the other’s narrative. The ways in which they epitomize the historical and cultural narrative of their own people imbue these cartoons with an impact stronger than words.

When a peace treaty is ultimately implemented between Israel and Palestine (as I’m sure it must), perhaps the image of Handala and Srulik holding hands could be adopted as a neutral symbol of coexistence and nonviolence. Their creators, Naji al-’Ali and Kariel Gardosh, both knew firsthand of persecution and exile, and the iconic figures they bequeathed us share the hope of living in freedom and peace. When peace finally arrives, new and emotionally satisfying images and symbols will need to be created to bridge the chasm between Jews and Arabs in our broken Promised Land.

Gil Zohar is a writer and tour guide in Jerusalem.