Bruce H. Bernstein: A “Listening Tour,” #7

Time is flying by. We are still staying at Kibbutz Ginosar, overlooking the Sea of Galilee. There has been so much going on, rushing from place to place, that we have not had time to process/integrate the experience. That totality, coupled with the diversity, and as Daniel would say, the multiplicity of voices that make up the Region, made us decide to just sit and talk before embarking on the day. We considered again the challenge of simultaneously containing both empathy and criticism.

Tamer, our Palestinian Israeli driver and guide, asked if we could alter our plans some in order to visit his village. We readily agreed. I think we have all come to see him as a very special young man. He wants us to see more clearly a part of the Palestinian experience in Israel, to show us the remnants of some of the 500 Palestinian villages that have been leveled. Trees are planted where villages are razed, so it’s difficult for the typical tourist to know that they ever existed. There is a certain irony in this for me. I had a close friend, a Holocaust survivor, who put a lot of energy into supporting the construction of a large diorama here in Israel, showing the former Jewish settlements, including the place of his birth, that existed in Poland and were wiped out by the Nazis. It was very important to him that these towns not be forgotten.

Tom talked about the visit to the Holocaust Museum, and how it was too much to take in the horror. Others echoed this sentiment. We discussed the importance of visiting the Yad Vashem to understand the sense of danger that some Israelis lived with and that continues to plague them. Daniel reminded us that the last scene you see as you exit the Museum is a photo of Ben Gurion signing that document that created the State of Israel, with Hatikva, the national anthem of Israel, playing in the background.

Hanny talked about Great Britain and its role in the development of the State of Israel. Daniel went on to talk about the history of Zionism, the role of Theodore Herzl, and the significance for Herzl of the Dreyfus Affair. Herzl had concluded that if a Jew could be so unfairly persecuted in a seemingly liberal country like France, Jews were not safe anywhere in the world and had to create their own homeland.

Finally, Daniel announced that we are hoping to meet up with Mohammed, the Head of Seeds of Peace (SOP) in Gaza. He is awaiting a permit. Mohammed told Daniel that SOP is under attack in Gaza. SOP is very careful not to take political positions. It promotes dialog between different sides, finding peaceful solutions to conflict, as opposed to taking sides in a conflict. According to Hamas, this leads to “normalization” of the Occupation, and that is unacceptable. On the other extreme we have “price tag,” a terrorist group of radical settlers that threatens to bomb the Jerusalem office of Peace Now. This is the 16th anniversary of the shooting of Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish settler, and “price tag” threatens those working for peace with the same fate.

We left our Kibbutz to meet Nurit, a Sabra (born in Israel of German parents), in her Jewish village of Me’Ilya, and from there we went to the National Park of Beit She’arim. Nurit introduced us to her friend, who grew up in the area and would show us around.

In 1953, someone digging for water discovered a cave that turned out to be the burying place of Rabbi Judah HaNasi (Judah the Prince), the most prominent 2nd Century rabbi under whose authority the Mishnah was redacted and edited. Over the centuries, erosion and several earthquakes in the area covered his tomb. Archaeologists have uncovered about thirty caves in the area, in addition to the burial place of Judah HaNasi, his wife, and children. We explored several of these caves. Sadly, we only had a few hours. This is a place I could return to for many more.

We then met with Eldad Levy, director of Seeds of Peace in Israel, his new and pregnant wife, Christine Kasis, and the director of the center, located in an integrated Haifa community in which Israeli Arab Christians and Muslims, and Israeli Jews live together in harmony. The center works to develop activities that can bring these groups together. Because the education system is segregated, young Arabs and Jews tend to grow up in separate bubbles. The center tries to penetrate the bubbles by developing activities that the two can enjoy together. It also has classes where Jews can learn Arabic and Arabs can study Hebrew.

We went on to a brief visit of the Bahai Temple and walked its beautiful gardens as night approached. From there we went to a lookout over the harbor of Haifa at a site where Napoleon abandoned his sick and wounded troops. They could see him sail off from their hospital.

Dinner was at Deganya, the first kibbutz founded in Israel in 1910. We were shown around by the granddaughter of the founding couple (although according to the socialist belief at the time, couples were not supposed to marry). The founders were ten men and two women, in “a cooperative community without exploiters or exploited — a commune.” Our guide’s grandparents did marry and their first child was born in 1912.

Deganya was built on an outlet of the Jordan. They started by growing five varieties of grain, thus the name, Deganya. They adopted many of the ideas of Karl Marx, believing that only through cooperation would it be possible to realize their dream. They are not ideologues, and if one aspect of communist philosophy did not work, they modified it. It was helpful to listen to their economic approach in the company of two Tuck Business school graduates, Tom and Wally. Tom pointed out, and they agreed, that this socialist model can only operate on a small scale where people care about one another and share a common ideal.

Kibbutzniks pay about 50 percent of their income in taxes; Wally pointed out that they had a progressive tax structure within their socialist system. Deganya currently consists of many hundreds of acres that comprise a factory and a variety of farms, including for poultry. During the War of Independence, the kibbutz stood against the Syrians, fighting their tanks with molotov cocktails. Their lives have not been easy, and they have faced many problems, but the kibbutzniks have managed to maintain a social vision as a way of life, working the land and permanently settling it.

We left around 10 pm, tired and ready to retire.

Bruce H. Bernstein is a 75-year-old psychologist/psychoanalyst in private practice and on the faculty of the NYU Postdoctoral Program. He has had a long-time interest in the peaceful resolution of conflict, and in recent years made connections among his Dartmouth Class of 1957, Seeds of Peace, and the Dickey Center for International Understanding. The class now sponsors two interns who spend a summer at the Seeds of Peace camp in Maine, followed by a term in Israel/Palestine.