More Good Chats

Let me describe the scene:  I'm hot, I'm sweaty, my nose is stuffed because of seasonal allergies, but I'm in a very good mood.  I'm sitting in the offices of Sadaka-Reut on an available computer, and beyond the computer room is the sound of twenty-seven happy and excitable ninth graders all hammering away in Arabic.  The facilitators, Hassan, Rani, and Mariam, are trying to gather the students enough so that they'll sit in one of the main rooms of Sadaka's office and have a discussion over what they have done / how they feel of what they have done so far.  This is the last youth group meeting before Passover break, which lasts for three weeks.


Yesterday I interviewed Hana, which is my Second Official Interview.  With Hana, I realized that I my questions were limited - that I had better interviews if I asked one really general question and just let the subject talk.  I asked Hana if she could explain to me the Palestinian narrative beginning in 1948.  She did, gladly, and we had a really good interview.


One of the most fascinating things that she said which I think is very true and very important is what she referred to as "the Biggest Armed Robbery in Human History".  During the war of 1948 when Palestinians fled or were kicked out of their homes, after Israel was declared an independent state, Israel closed its' borders and declared that anything the Palestinians had left behind was now Israel's rightful property.  That meant that all the houses, cars, gardens, streets, facilities - everything now belonged to Israel.  This is how Israel gained so many assets so quickly.  For such a young country, it became very powerful very fast.  When Israel's government brought over Jews from foreign countries, there are stories of how the Jews came into this housing that the government had for them and saw a table laid out for dinner.  To the Jews, it was like a welcoming to their homeland.  To the Palestinians, it was the table laid for the dinner they never got to have.


After Hana's interview, I took the train to Pardes Hana, where I attended Miriam's son's birthday party (he's turning five and very smug about it).  I got to the party just as people were leaving, and while Inbar, Miriam's son, was in the bath, Miriam and I lounged on their porch and talked about what we hated about people and the world (it seems to be our favorite subject).  I started talking about racism (it's going to be my next article for Sadaka-Reut), and then we talked about the difference in racism here and in the States.  Miriam said something I also think is very true.  She said, "The only difference between Israel and the States is that Israel is upfront and honest about its' racism.  It's not hidden under the surface.  The PC wave never hit us like it did the U.S.  Racism still exists in the States, people just push it under the rug."


I thought about that when I went back to my mom's friend house.  The PC wave has certainly made it taboo to be upfront about racism but it has in no way obliterated the problem entirely.  In some ways, I think underhanded racism is almost more dangerous than the perfectly obvious and blatant bigoted statements you hear here.  And maybe it's not so much that there's more racism in Israel than there is in the U.S., but that people talk about it more. There's more of an open dialogue.  Besides my PoliRad class, I'd never really been in a constructive environment where racism was discussed and studied.  I think it's different in Graham, where we are a very open community, and even though we're not THE MOST diverse population, we still have many people from many backgrounds and there's a huge zero tolerance to discrimination.  In bigger schools, though, with bigger populations of so called 'minorities', I think there's more hushed up racism.  I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but as usual, I think I'm right.  You know me.  I'm always right.  ALWAYS.


The students have gone (I took a break from writing this blog post to take pictures of them, but it didn't really work, because I got caught in a BARBED WIRE TREE [also known as a bush with no leaves and ALL THE PRICKLES as in WHY IS IT INSIDE?] and caused the entire group to watch me try to untangle myself which may or may not have derailed the group discussion just a tad, so as soon as I was free I took a few quick pictures before running red-cheeked back to my computer), and it's almost time for me to go.  This weekend I'm not going anywhere, I'm just staying put in Ramat Gan, which will be nice that I'm not running around.  On Monday night me and my uncles are going to see West Side Story (IN HEBREW!) at a theater school near their house.  I'll spend the week doing more Sadaka-Reut stuff, and then comes practically two weeks of break for Passover.  I'm not entirely sure of my plans, but the majority of my Israeli interviews will take place over break when I'm with friends and family.  I should be spending a couple days in Jerusalem in order to interview my Uncle Ruvein, the famous activist/Marxist/Last of the Mohicans Kind of Guy and to visit more people.  After break's over, I have basically a week left before I leave back for home.  Four more weeks sounds both really long and really short, especially when I break it down.  One work, two nothings, another work...it's hard to believe that I have already been here for six weeks.  This is now officially the longest time I have been away from home (Germany was five weeks).  I miss everyone, but my time is being used for some really cool stuff, and I'm grateful that I have this opportunity to surround myself by fascinating people and learn about a subject in which I was otherwise not very well versed.