On June 9, a pair of Palestinian terrorists carrying homemade semi-automatic weapons opened fire on Israelis at the Sarona shopping center in Tel Aviv, killing four and injuring 16. Three days later a terrorist who had pledged allegiance to ISIS opened fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 and injuring an additional 53.
When I talk to my friends and look at social media, I hear two cries coming out of America:
The first cry is “It has nothing to do with Islam!” while the other cry is “It has everything to do with Islam!”
Implicit in these cries is the fear that America might lose its way, and return to the days when we locked Japanese Americans in internment camps, and also the fear that America might be overwhelmed by a malicious and faceless global force that we are failing and refusing to face.
Before I moved to Israel, I had never experienced the high degree of normal, real-world interaction with Arabs and Muslims that I do today. Not only do Arabs make up 20 percent of Israel’s citizens, but Jewish-Arab interaction is a regular part of life in Israel. Arabs (including Palestinians) are now among my neighbors, friends and professional colleagues.
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Earlier this month, I got to share this aspect of life with the HonestReporting Mission to Israel. Though we usually focus on media, we set aside a full day to experience the reality behind the headlines.
Ihab Zeidan, a wisecracking and thoughtful Druze Arab guide with an infectious enthusiasm for history, introduced us to the places, communities and varied history of Israel’s Arab communities. We then had lunch in the Bedouin village of Khalawid, at the family home of Ishmael Khaldi, Israel’s first Bedouin Arab diplomat.
Dressed in jeans and a button down shirt, Ishmael (we call him “Ish”) served strong Bedouin coffee and sweet tea alongside his mother, who was dressed in a brightly colored traditional head covering. The 25 Mission participants were welcomed into the family home where, in between shouting at his rambunctious little cousins in rapid Arabic to stop making noise (the children mostly laughed at the angst they caused him), Ish told us of his family’s remarkable journey.
The Khaldi family used to live in traditional Bedouin structures but eventually built a beautiful, modern home in their growing community. As we passed by a goat pen down the block from the town’s new mosque (still under construction), Ish told us of how his community has succeeded in integrating its agricultural roots with modern Israeli life, as opportunities open up for the younger generation to pursue higher education, national service and military service in the IDF.
Indeed, Ish was proud of his own IDF service and the dedication of Bedouin soldiers, many of whom use their incredible knowledge of the land to operate as expert trackers, defending their fellow Israeli citizens from various threats on the country’s borders.
We learned about the village’s growth and integral place in the Galilee region of northern Israel, the challenges and successes of the Bedouin community, and about his family’s dedication to the State of Israel. (Ishmael said, “My ancestors were involved with the early Zionists, and that’s why my grandmother speaks Yiddish.”)
We ended that day at an Arab-Druze restaurant that is (davka!) entirely kosher. The food was out of this world!
Over the following days we spoke with Arab studies expert Dr. Modechai Kedar, respected Palestinian journalist Khaled Abu Toameh, and Palestinian peace activist (and former prisoner of Israel) Sulaiman Khatib.
We spent time at the Ziv Hospital where Jewish and Arab doctors treat victims from Syria’s civil war, as well as Israelis of all religions and backgrounds. Dr. Ron Katz told us that the hospital staff often gives toys and clothes to the Syrian children they treat, but they must cut off any “Made in Israel” labels, or else the children might be killed upon their return to Syria. Our group felt touched, proud, angry and sad, all at the same time. That is the very nature of life in Israel.
America, like Israel, has become a target of Islamist terror attacks. The violence we both face has clear religious motivations. And yet, in Israel we live a life that is inseparably integrated with our Muslim and Arab neighbors and fellow citizens. Which brought me to ask myself: did our Mission participants take something back with them that might be relevant to coping with the Western World’s new reality?
Israel does not have all the answers, and neither do I. But we’ve been grappling with the questions for a long time. Somewhere between “religion has nothing to do with it” and “religion has everything to do with it” lies the nuanced reality in which we all must learn to live.
For more information about HonestReporting missions click here.
