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Lital Shemesh is a 29-year-old successful, female, Israeli journalist
who recently participated in a seminar with other young Israelis and Arabs in
hopes of igniting optimism for peace. She returned from the seminar
disappointed and disillusioned.
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| Lital Shemesh as Editor of Israeli's largest youth magazine |
She is a rising star in the Israeli media who openly expresses
her political aspirations to reach the Knesset. She worked as Editor-in-Chief for the
Yedioth Youth Magazines, reported for the Israel Broadcasting Authority and the
Hot CableTV News channel, and is CEO and Founder of a web-based girls magazine “Pinkish
– Everything that Girls Love.”
In her first video blog in English two years ago, she says, “I
really want… a peaceful quiet country to live in, and I really want peace to
come.”
"I really want peace to come" - 1:09 minute mark.
But her conclusions from the peace seminar reflect a strong trend in Israeli
society: Israelis are realizing that the negotiations with the Arabs are
destined to fail from the outset, so why waste the time? As is apparent from
the February election results, further talks with the Arabs simply no longer
interest many people. It is an issue that has been sidelined and tabled to “maybe
the next generation.”
Her summary (below) of her experience at the peace seminar will
help readers better understand Israeli society of 2013. A must read. Her report
appeared this past Thursday (May 2, 2013) on the Walla news site:
Peace? From the Palestinian Standpoint, There is a Past,
No Future
by Lital Shemesh
by Lital Shemesh
I participated in the Dialogue for Peace Project for young
Israelis and Palestinians who are politically involved in various frameworks. The
project’s objective was to identify tomorrow’s leaders and bring them closer today,
with the aim of bringing peace at some future time.
The project involved meetings every few weeks and a concluding
seminar in Turkey.
On the third day of the seminar after we had become acquainted,
had removed barriers, and split helpings of rachat Lukum [a halva-like
almond Arab delicacy] as though there was never a partition wall between us, we
began to touch upon many subjects which were painful for both sides. The Palestinians
spoke of roadblocks and the IDF soldiers in the territories, while the Israeli
side spoke of constant fear, murderous terrorist attacks, and rockets from
Gaza.
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The Israeli side, which included representatives from right
and left, tried to understand the Palestinians’ vision of the end of the strife–
“Let’s talk business.” The Israelis delved to understand how we can end the age-old,
painful conflict. What red lines are they willing to be flexible on? What
resolution will satisfy their aspirations? Where do they envision the future borders
of the Palestinian State which they so crave?
We were shocked to discover that not a single one of them
spoke of a Palestinian State, or to be more precise, of a two-state solution.
They spoke of one state – their state. They spoke of ruling
Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Akko, Haifa, and the pain of the Nakba [lit. the tragedy – the
establishment of the State of Israel]. There was no future for them. Only the
past. “There is no legitimacy for Jews to live next to us” – this was their
main message. “Firs t, let them pay for what they perpetrated.”
In the course of a dialogue which escalated to shouts, the
Palestinians asked us not to refer to suicide bombers as “terrorists” because
they don’t consider them so. “So how do you call someone who dons a vest and
blows himself up in a Tel Aviv shopping mall with the stated purpose of killing
innocent civilians,” I asked one of the participants.
“I have a 4-year-old at home,” answered Samach from Abu Dis
(near Jerusalem). “If G-d forbid something should happen to him, I will go and
burn an entire Israeli city, if I can.” All the other Palestinian participants
nodded their heads in agreement to his harsh words.
“Three weeks ago, we gave birth to a son,” answered Amichai,
a religious, Jewish student from Jerusalem. “If G-d forbid something should
happen to him, I would find no comfort whatsoever in deaths of more people.”
Israelis from the full gamut of political parties
participated in the seminar: Likud, Labor, Kadima, Meretz, and Hadash (combined
Jewish/Arab socialist party). All of them reached the understanding that the
beautiful scenarios of Israeli-Palestinian peace that they had formulated for
themselves simply don’t correspond with reality. It’s just that most Israelis
don’t have the opportunity to sit and really converse with Palestinians, to
hear what they really think.
Our feed of information
comes from Abu Mazen’s declarations to the international press, which he consistently
contradicts when he is interviewed by Al Jazeera, where he paints a completely
different picture.
I arrived at the seminar
with high hopes, and I return home with difficult feelings and despair.
Something about the narrative of the two sides is different from the core. How
can we return to the negotiating table when the Israeli side speaks of two
states and the Palestinian side speaks of liberating Palestine from the Jordan River
to the Mediterranean Sea? How can peace ever take root in a platform which
grants legitimacy to terrorism?
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