Reflections on Palestine-- Your thoughts?

While teaching in Israel this summer, I spent several days in the West Bank (the Hebron area) visiting with current and former students. I was there on the day Israel released 240 prisoners from its jails. There was great celebrations, much gunfire shooting in the air, many parties with fabulous sweets. Among the Palestinians with whom I spoke, Israel gets little credit for this prisoner release, becauae they say there are still 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails. Many of these are undoubtedly imprisoned for acts of terror, but I have heard stories from many Palestinians that they were arrested and imprisoned for such relatively innocuous acts such as non-violently demonstrating against the Israeli occupation while they were college students in the West Bank.

It takes about 3 hours to get from Jerusalem to Hebron, what with switching cars to Palestinian taxis, and negotiating the Israeli checkpoints. If one were to drive straight, it might take 45 minutes. My students live in Hebron and work in East Jerusalem. To get to my class in Tel Aviv, it takes them almost 5 hours. They often spend the night in Jerusalem (Al Kuds) to avoid the lengthy transportation process.

Perhaps because I held the esteemed position of being a professor, perhaps because I came with an open heart, perhaps because I was genuinely curious, I was welcomed into the homes and businesses of every Palestinian I met. Their hospitality was astounding-- people who have very little material wealth offered me the luxury of a meat meal (something they eat only once a month) and endless glasses of hot tea (sweetened with Palestinian honey). They sent me back to Tel Aviv with bags of sweet cucumbers, and quarts of local olive oil (decanted from a 250 gallon tank in the garage). It struck me that this level of generosity is a cultural trait I have often experienced among Israelis as well. One of the many things they have in common.

Of course I had many political discussions with West Bank Palestinians, as I have had with hundreds of Israelis over the years. My overwhelming conclusion? Despite the widespread anger at Israel for the humilation suffered at military checkpoints and the expansion of Israeli settlements on "Palestinian" land, which they see as a cause of much of their impoverishment, the vast majority of Palestinians with whom I spoke long for a "normal life"-- one in which they are able to obtain employment and improve their economic status, one in which their children have expanded educational opportunities, one in which they are able to travel freely within their own country. This if the mirror image of the longings of the vast majority of Israelis.

More reflections to follow, but I invite your responses to these initiatial thoughts.