Israel Insights is a series of short anecdotes and observations that we have personally experienced while living in Israel.
*****
July, 2016: Palestinian gunmen killed four and wounded sixteen Israelis in a terror attack at Tel Aviv’s Sarona shopping market.
Israeli authorities, expecting further violence, closed access to the West Bank and Gaza Strip for several days, and set up additional checkpoints. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat implemented similar security measures in and around Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Some months later I attended a lecture by Mayor Barkat at which he relayed the following, little known story:
Local Palestinian community leaders asked the mayor to remove the added security measures, explaining that they created a hardship for their residents. Barkat agreed under one condition: that the leaders would control their communities and personally ensure that no violence would happen as a result.
The mayor and the community leaders were true to their word: the security came down, Palestinians went about their lives, and Israelis remained safe.
I wanted to write an official HonestReporting article about these events, so I contacted the Mayor’s office to ask for specifics: names of the communities involved, perhaps even an interview with the community leaders.
What happened next was simply startling:
By refusing to kill Israelis, those local Palestinian leaders had risked their lives at the hands of other, less pragmatic, Palestinians. The mayor’s office explained that even today those leaders remain anonymous: for their own safety and at their own request. Yet their brave decision speaks for itself: it carries within it the seeds of hope for co-existence in a conflict-torn land, and proof that such a future is possible.
I don’t know any Israeli parent who dreams of sending their child to man a checkpoint or guard a wall, nor any Israeli who actually wants to see them built. Under the right circumstances they can be taken down, safely. We’ve seen it happen, we know it can work.
Related reading: The Truth About the Security Barrier
Yet so entrenched is the priority of violence in Palestinian society, that true Palestinian moderates may work only in secret, and only at great personal risk. Imagine that: they risk their lives for refusing to kill others. It seems paradoxical to Western thinking, but it’s all too true. And that is precisely why this important and inspirational story remains so hidden.
To me, this describes much of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a nutshell: Israel wants to take down barriers, but only Palestinians have the power to make it safely possible.
The path to peace, to safety and to co-existence is in front of us, and many Israelis and Palestinians wish to walk that path. We can only hope that someday it will become safe for our Palestinian friends and neighbors to do so.
Featured image: CC0 Pixabay;
