Bruce H. Bernstein: A “Listening Tour,” #8

Thursday, November 10: We decided to sleep in this morning and leave at 10am. I am naturally an early riser, had breakfast at 7am, and was sitting in the cafeteria writing at 8am. This kibbutz, Ginosar, accommodates Christians, Jews, Muslims, Druze and others, so it’s not a bad place to sit and take in the atmosphere, and the food is first rate. Breakfast includes someone making omelets to order, ten kinds of breads, a salad table with twenty kinds of vegetable type stuff, a dairy counter with everything from humus to cottage cheese to a variety of hard cheeses to six kinds of yogurt to five kinds of marmalade including some very tasty kind of carrot jam. I have not mentioned the variety of smoked fish. You get the idea. The focus today was on Christian sites. We started the morning by going through Capernaum on the northern shoreline of the Sea of Galilee. This area was one of the focal points of Christ’s teachings in Galilee. We moved on to Tabkha, visiting the Church of the Beatitudes. Here, it is thought, Christ gave his Sermon on the Mount, which began with his blessings or “beatitudes.” We were able to find a quiet spot at an overlook where Judy read the blessings to us. We then went to Mount Tabor and the Church of Jesus’ Transfiguration. We toured the ruins of the synagogue where Jesus preached and performed miracles. It has been enormously helpful to have Judy along on this trip to explain the biblical meaning of the places we visit. Carol and Tom are also able to add a lot to the Christian history and meaning. As I remember the story, Jesus was here with two of his disciples when he ascended to Heaven to talk with Moses and Elijah. This was shortly before the crucifixion. From there we went to a favorite restaurant of Tamer’s, the Sahara, in Nein. A friend of his parents won the lottery about 25 years ago and used the money to build this huge, beautiful restaurant. There we met with Nabil, an official in the Israeli Ministry of Education, Arab section. He is an author of three books, over 60 articles, and numerous translations of Arab poetry into English. He describes himself as an Israeli-Christian Arab working toward creating a culture that encompasses all parts of his identity as a human being. He said that some people describe him as a bridge between cultures. He doesn’t want to be a bridge, “people walk on bridges and I don’t want to be walked on.” He went on to talk about his identification as an Israeli citizen, living in a democracy. “I don’t want to be compared to Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza. I am a citizen and want to be compared to the Jews.” We continued our talk with Nabil around a circular table under a thatched roof overlooking Nein while served course after course of amazing food. As it was getting dark, we went to the home of Tamer’s family in a Palestinian village just on the Israeli border with the West Bank. This village was on a trade route between Jenin and Nazareth and the family was able to sell its agricultural products to passing travelers. Tamer can trace his family back to the Caliph Omar in the late Seventh, early 8th Century. Omar conquered the Christian rulers but gave his “Pledge of Assurance” to the inhabitants of Jerusalem that he would honor their religious rights and private property. Everyone in the village is related. He showed us his olive grove, gardens, and chicken coop. His father works as an insurance agent until about 3pm each day, then tends to the farming. His mother is an educator in a Palestinian school. As is the custom, when we arrived we were greeted by his extended family, including cousins, who soon disappeared. Then more food came out. We were stuffed from an incredible lunch, but we ate out of politeness, and also because it was so good. The served us homemade unfiltered olive oil with pita bread. We dipped the pita in the oil, then in their home grown spice, Zaatar. Amazing! It is the custom to serve a special bitter coffee during the Eid, and they had saved some for us, followed by regular sweetened coffee. This was on top of the usual fresh fruit, local dates and figs, dried fruit, etc., etc. It was a short drive from Tamer’s home through Checkpoint Charlie to the West Bank Haddad Hotel where we are staying. I find it to be one of the most magical places on earth. We had dinner and a most interesting discussion with three Palestinian educators who work with Seeds of Peace. Many of the Palestinians we meet don’t understand why a two-state solution is necessary. “Why can’t we work it out and have one state? Most Palestinians want to live peacefully, but not under an occupation.” We had a rather heated discussion with one of the educators. His family had a house in Jaffa that they fled in 1948 after being shot at by the IDF. They were not allowed to return. The house was given to a Jewish family from Romania by the Israeli government. He was very angry about not being able to return and get his house back. He actually went to the house and had coffee with the current occupants. It’s now Friday morning and we all are about to have breakfast and tour the grounds with the owner. . . . 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.