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Written on: 16. 09. 2011 [19:51]
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d.pruiksma
Dick Pruiksma
FORUM ADMINISTRATOR
registered since: 17.08.2010
Posts: 10
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Claude Lhuissier Noël (August- September 2011)
Posted by ICCJ office
Once, during a training session, Father Patrick Desbois asked:"What verse of the Bible is the basis of your involvement in interfaith dialogue?" I had never thought about that question before, but the answer came, immediate and obvious:"Go to the other side." (Matthew 8:18, Mark 4:35, Luke 8:22) this bank, the eastern one, was out of the Jewish world. The 'other side' may be far (other country, other religion) or very close (the other one, my neighbor); to reach the 'other side' I have to pass through my prejudices: that is more difficult than flying away.
In the world, many people are forbidden physically to go to any other side, and often raised, trained against all the unknown 'other ones'. In so doing, politicians can say anything without contradiction; everything becomes credible.
Since I retired in 2007, I have gone many times to the Middle East. Jewish Israelis are requested not to go to the West Bank, and it's difficult for Palestinians to get a permit to cross the fence. Even in Israel, Jews and Arabs (I was told more than 90% of them) don't meet one another: they don't live in the same streets, don't go to the same schools, the same shops…. From crib to grave they don't belong to the same side. As a foreigner, an 'international' as they say, I'm allowed to go everywhere and to meet everyone.
Fortunately, I can……so, I must.
And now, each time, I go to both sides. On both sides I have met very similar people, and I have experienced very similar feelings: hospitality, kindness, smiles, but also seriousness, fear, anxiety for the future; and this year this (for me, frightening) deep silence about the close future (the UN in September). I try to tell how each side how the 'other side' looks. Some conversations are amazing:
To a Palestinian: - "Israelis are afraid of you." Answer: - "Impossible. Why? They have won all the wars, they have a big army, money, USA's help…."
To a Jew: -"Palestinians are afraid of you." Answer: -"Impossible. Why? We are just a small people with Arab countries all around. They just want to throw us into the sea."
Another Palestinian: - "They can't believe it. It's an old story. If we get our independence, we'll give citizenship to anyone – even a settler – who accepts the state's law. They know that."
No, they don't know!
How could they know? As some Palestinians see only settlers and soldiers on duty, how could they know how nice, sensitive and clever Jews can be? As the others are told, by TV and newspapers, only about terrorism, how could they know that Palestinian parents gave the heart and the kidneys of their dying daughter to save Israeli Jewish children? Ordinary and mere things are just incredible. I have to say, to explain again and again.
Do they believe me? They know I'm fair and frank. I express no judgment, no personal point of view but only my experience, just facts. And they know- on both sides- I don't belong to any side; or better: I belong to both sides. I try to speak Hebrew and I have started learning Arabic. This uncomfortable and isolated position may be a strange luck, a great opportunity. I don't choose, I can't choose, I don't want to choose. I refuse to take one side. So they continue to confide in me.
What's my action, facing the ocean of politicians' and news medias' influence? Just a drop….. my drop.
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