A Zionist among Palestinians

Preface

xix P R E F A C E This book relates the story of my unusual experiences as an Israeli Zionist among Palestinians, especially during the First Intifada (the Palestinian mass uprising that began in December 1987). Although it is written from a personalpointofview,Ibelievethatmystoryshedslightonaspectsofour relations with Palestinians that are unknown to most readers, including Israelis. Everything in this book is true, and the descriptions are as accurate as my perceptions and memories permit. In some cases, I’ve changed names to protect people’s privacy. I have been privileged to meet some remarkable Palestinians (and Israelis ) who have changed my life and given it new meaning. In the course of numerous dialogues, I began to view our conflict from many added dimensions. IwasbornintheBritishMandateofPalestinein1935.Myfatherhadimmigrated as a halutz (pioneer) from Ukraine in 1919. He drained swamps inHadera,defendedJewsunderJabotinskyinJerusalem,andthenstudied educationinGermany,Denmark,England,andfinallyColumbiaTeachers College, where he received his doctorate and met my mother. My mother grew up in the United States; her uncle was president of Manufacturers Bank and her father was one of the very rich (until the bank crash of 1929), but she preferred the idealism of Zionism, abandoning pampered society and moving to the physical hardships of Palestine in 1931 with my father. Both of my parents were completely convinced of the necessity for a Jewish homeland in Israel, and were committed to personally participating in xx Preface its building. From them I received the Zionist commitment that remains my strongest ideology to this day. At the same time, my parents had very liberal attitudes toward Arabs. My mother was a teacher in Haifa, with both Jewish and Arab students. Afterherretirement,shevolunteeredtoteachinArabvillagesinIsrael.My father, who founded and directed two radically new high schools, wrote in 1940 of the need for Arab-Jewish rapprochement. Nonetheless, we all believed the traditional myths that placed almost complete blame on the Arabs, while viewing the Jewish role as purer than possible. In 1939 we visited my grandfather in America. World War II broke out and we were unable to return to Palestine by ship. As the war dragged on, my father accepted the request of Justice Louis Brandeis to establish an institute that would train American Jewish lay leaders to strengthen AmericanJews’tiestotheirtraditionsandpeople.Hecontinuedthiswork evenafterthewar,untilhisdeath.ThusIgrewupintheUnitedStatesfrom the age of four through thirty, when I finally reestablished my life with my own family in Jerusalem. As this book relates, my initially chance encounters with Palestinians changedmyentireperceptionofwhoweIsraelisareandradicallychanged the direction of my life. Nonetheless, I remain first and foremost a Zionist who sees the necessity of the Jewish homeland as an unassailable issue. Clarifications ThetermZionistisusedinmanydifferentways.Formeitdenotessomeone who accepts the idea that just as Palestinians have a right to their national homeland, so too we Jews have a right to a homeland. This homeland can both protect us from persecution and support the ongoing development of the Hebrew culture and people. The term intifada refers to the popular Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation that began in December 1987. A very different uprising began in September 2000, which is usually called the “Second” (or Al-Aqsa) Intifada. Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation, which followed the 1967 war (often called the “Six-Day War”), can be divided into four periods: xxi Preface • From June 1967 until 8 December 1987, the resistance was carried out by small groups of armed fighters who were trained outside of Palestine. They staged lethal attacks, almost exclusively against civilian targets, in Israel, in the settlements, and abroad (such as airplane hijackings and the killing of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972). • From 8 December 1987 until approximately 1993, the First Intifada was a mass movement that adopted a variety of nonviolent tactics (e.g., strikes, tax refusals) as well as lower-level violence (mostly stone-throwing, but even some Molotov cocktails) within the occupied areas. The leadership was local, not from abroad, and the use of guns and explosives was banned. • From 20 August 1993, with the signing of the Oslo Accords, until September 2000 was the period of the peace process. These years saw killings of civilians by both Palestinians and Israelis who opposed the process. • From the last days of September 2000 (after the failure of the Camp David summit and after opposition leader Ariel Sharon’s tour of the Temple Mount/Haram a-Sharif), there began what some call the Second (or Al-Aqsa) Intifada, in which armed battles took place between Palestinians and...