A Zionist among Palestinians

15 Bethlehem, Wadi Fukin, Nahalin, and Husan

149 Bethlehem, Wadi Fukin, Nahalin, and Husan In the initial years of the First Intifada, we had many dialogue groups working in parallel, more than the reader would have patience to follow. In Ramallah, a large and important Palestinian city north of Jerusalem, we organized two dialogue groups. The more politically oriented group had all the potential to take off, with an excellent group of people from each nation, yet it quickly ground to a halt for reasons that we could never comprehend. The second took a more personal shape and was active for many years under the leadership (on the Israeli side) of Professor Yoram Bilu,withthecloselyknitgroupmeetingalternatelyinhomesinJerusalem and Ramallah. w The leader of the Jabel Mukabber group, Jamil Salhut, introduced us to the journalist Mohammed Manasra, who wrote for the communist paper, and his wife, Najah, who taught psychiatric nursing. They lived in Bethlehem behind the Civil Administration headquarters. Mohammed organized a number of dialogues, including several for high school students, which met in the neutral location of the Tantur Ecumenical Institute on the border between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Our Danny Orstav, who felt strongly that the most important contacts were between youths, was very active in these meetings. Mohammed also arranged several meetings with young people in Bethlehem who had been badly wounded by Israeli soldiers, yet who maintained a friendly optimism and welcomed the chance to meet, without rancor, with Israelis. Once we met at Mohammed and Najah’s house to plan a dialogue. There were several Palestinian teenagers there who would be coming, with their friends, to Jerusalem to meet young Israelis. We made all the plans: I would come on the day of the dialogue, accompany them on the 150 A zionist among palestinians Bethlehem-Jerusalem bus, and bring them to the Israeli home. Since I would be coming alone to this meeting place deep inside a Palestinian neighborhood (and from the stones on the street and the graffiti on the walls, we could see that there was a lot of intifada-related activity there), I asked whether the young people could speak to the youths who threw stones and tell them not to throw stones when I would be coming. They answeredthattherewasnothingtoworryabout.ButIwasstillconcerned, andaskedthemtotakeituponthemselvestotalkwiththestone-throwers. “You don’t have to worry; it will be all right,” they reassured me. “But why can’t you talk to those youths, to be sure?” I pressed. “No one will throw stones at you. You see,we are the youths who throw the stones in this neighborhood, and we will be waiting to welcome you.” w Najah had grown up in the Dehaisheh refugee camp, and had a wide circle of friends from the area. One day she told us that she had spoken to some of them about the dialogues, and they would like Israelis to meet with them. These Palestinians lived in a tiny village of 125 souls called Wadi Fukin. This village lay just on the West Bank side of the Green Line. After the war in 1948, a special arrangement had been made to allow the villagers to cross over into Israel to work their fields, returning in the evening to their homes in the West Bank village. We organized a group of Israelis and drove out to Wadi Fukin with Najah and several other Palestinians. The entire village attended this dialogue , which was held in the courtyard of one of the homes. The dialogue took the form of questions and answers, with translation, and was thus somewhat cumbersome, but the warmth from both sides and the special quality of meeting with an entire community made it unforgettable. At one point, our hosts entertained us with a parade of children, their facesmaskedwithkufiyes,carryingPalestinianflagsandsignsinArabic.It lookedexactlyliketheanti-Israeliparadesthatappearedfromtimetotime ontelevision,exceptthatthechildrenwerenotcarryinghatchets.Because of the warm atmosphere, we Israelis were not upset by this parade, but I was extremely glad that there was no press with us, for had this picture appearedonIsraelitelevision ,ourfellowIsraeliswouldhavebeenconvinced that we had joined the forces working to throw the Jews into the sea. 151 Bethlehem, Wadi Fukin, Nahalin, and Husan w On 13 April 1989, I received a phone call from the lawyer Avraham Gal. One of his clients, Nicola Kanawati, a wealthy owner of tourist stores in Bethlehem, had just told him of a terrible massacre in the village of Nahalin, between Husan and Wadi Fukin. Could Veronika and I join Avraham to investigate what had happened? I contacted Veronika, and...