Bruce H. Bernstein: A “Listening Tour,” #9

It’s 6am Saturday morning here in Jaffa (Yafo in Hebrew), our last day, but I’m writing about yesterday, 11/11/11. I did not know that those numbers had special significance. Restaurants were jammed with people celebrating, and we passed many weddings in the Arab sections.

We started the day with breakfast at the Haddad Hotel in Jenin. Arab hotel breakfasts are similar to Jewish hotel breakfasts, but with fewer choices. We got our bags in the vans and met for our morning circle, reviewing the previous day and anticipating the time to come. Sadly Mohammed Nasser Eddin, Director of Seeds of Peace, Palestine, could not meet with us. He was able to get a pass from Hamas to leave Gaza, but the Israeli restriction was that he had to sleep in the West Bank, not Israel, and the logistics did not work out. Between checkpoints and the wall, travel at times can be so difficult that people decide it’s not worth it.

We toured the Haddad Tourist Village, a truly magical place that sprang up from the mind of the owner-creator: two huge theaters, swimming pools, statues of mythical figures all around, fountains, a ferris wheel, good food and coffee, and finally, a Palestinian museum. We spent about an hour at the museum, reviewing Palestinian history. It’s a subject barely taught in the schools and proved to be most interesting.

It’s amazing to realize that this resort is on the edge of the Jenin refugee camp, a camp that has been in existence since 1948. We toured the camp, a very sad, depressed, crime-ridden place. When we typically think of refugees we don’t consider that one can have that status for over 60 years. The camp continues to be administered by the UN. It is part of the ancient city of Jenin, a city that shows some signs of beginning to thrive, though nothing like the other West Bank cities of Hebron and Ramallah.

We toured Ramallah, visiting the tomb of Arafat. Arafat is buried there, but his dying wish was to lie at rest in Jerusalem. I suspect that time is a long way off, if ever. Both of our Palestinian guides spoke highly of Arafat as a peacemaker, and of his humiliation at being confined at the end of his life by the Israeli government. Daniel saw him differently, that he declined to make peace when he could have. I hope it will be possible to discuss these different perspectives in our morning circle.

During the trip it became clear that Nadir, Daniel’s Palestinian friend and driver, felt slighted that we had not arranged to visit his home in East Jerusalem and meet his family. It was very important to him. We drove from Ramallah back to East Jerusalem. Daniel had said that in another world Nadir would have been an architect or an interior decorator. His beautiful home showed it. He works as a tourist taxi driver, taking tourists all over the Region. He often brings back some object he likes from his trips, and his home is full of this “stuff.” It’s actually very beautiful, much more elegant than any of us had anticipated. But the greatest beauty resided in his wife and four children, ages 5, 11, 17, and 18. They all participated in putting out an enormous spread. In traditional fashion, Nadir sat in our circle, with his covered wife and two daughters sitting behind him. The boys helped with the serving and moved about more freely. They allowed us to take pictures of them as a family, but his lovely 17-year-old daughter requested that her photo not be posted on the Internet. This is a very well-mannered, modest family. I will never forget the pride in Nadir’s face as he introduced us to his family and showed us around the house.

It is very difficult for Arab families in East Jerusalem to get permits to build on empty land, so they build additional floors above existing structures. When Nadir was born he lived on the first floor of his current house. When he married his father built a second floor for Nadir and his wife. There are now four floors on the house. Nadir has one brother who lives above him, another who lives with his father on the first floor, and another who lives in Argentina. The fourth floor of the house is used for occasions when the entire family gets together.

We drove from East Jerusalem to Jaffa in record time because the Sabbath was approaching and there were few cars on the roads. We are staying in the Ruth Daniel Residence, established to bring diverse groups of people together, and to promote Progressive (Reform) Judaism. It’s a kind of youth hostel, but it also has some first rate rooms that we are occupying. The developers of this Residence live near the Seeds of Peace Camp in Maine and we talked with them when we were visiting.

Dinner was at “The Old Man and the Sea,” overlooking the Sea. Huge, crowded, noisy, full of both Palestinians and Arabs. We were joined by several educators, but it was difficult to talk. During the afternoon Tom had mentioned that we had not really met with anyone who was a strong conservative voice in Israel: who might support the Separation Wall and the building of settlements. It had been our intention, but plans had fallen through. This is an important voice here in the Region. For example, perhaps at a greater extreme, there is currently a bill before the Knesset entitled “Basic Law: Israel-the Nation-State of the Jewish People.” This law states that Israel’s democratic regime would be subordinate to the state’s Jewish Identity, and drops Arabic as an official language. It demonstrates an indisputable preference for the Jewish majority and, I believe, will only deepen the growing distrust that Arab citizens have for the state.

Sure enough, at dinner I got talking to the husband of one of our guests. He works in Security as an auditor for the Defense Department. He describes himself as a political conservative, supports the settlements in East Jerusalem, but not in the outlying region, and believes that the Security Wall has bought peace to the region. He pointed out that during the second intifada, when suicide bombers were present in Tel Aviv, this now crowded restaurant was practically empty. He will be sending Tom some material by email, and he’ll distribute it to the rest of us.

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.