Monday Morning in Haifa

I am sitting on my balcony in a hotel at the top of MT Carmel overlooking the port of Haifa. It is a spectacular view of the elbow of the Mediterranean. The weather is warm but not hot. This is the third to last day of a trip that has been an intense experience in every way.

I have a number of posts yet unfinished and unsent. I am going to try my best to take a couple of hours before I close my eyes tonight to catch up and post the rest on facebook and then, I think, on the blog as well....

Today we are going to a Druze village and on a visit to the nearby Bahai gardens. Tonight we have dinner with the local Hands of Peace kids and their families.

It is scheduled to be a much lighter day after one packed program after another. Yesterday morning we went on a political tour of Jerusalem--with maps in hand and expert guides who explained to us the current politics of polarization in the city of Jerusalem. We visited with a Palestinian citizen of the City of David/Zalwan and observed and heard about the living conditions that he and his family experience. Two of his sons are in different prisons; his eleven year old son has been arrested 8 times--for alleged throwing stones--taken from his house in the middle of the night.

It was very interesting, then, to go to lunch at the Petra Restaurant and hear from an orthodox rabbi (from Brookline, Ma!) in his mid to late 30's who told us of the benevolent democracy with education and health care and great freedom of speech that is Israel. It was such a different narrative, given what we had seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears, only hours earlier.

Thankfully the presentation after-lunch concluded with Asiz on behalf of the Circle of Bereaved Families and the work they do to encourage and demonstrate that violence is not an answer and retaliation solves nothing. From the rabbi's perspective, and in that narrative, SECURITY trumps everything. In Asiz's narrative, compassion and relationship building is the only way. Asiz mentioned that he has been told that Gandhi and his way have little appeal to the Israeli government. The wall, the check points, the omnipresence of fingers-on-the-trigger IDF is juxtaposed to the work of Asiz and other peace-making and reconciliation advocates who have gone so far as to donate blood, Jew to Palestinian and Palestinian to Jew. In response to someone who asked how an individual could do such a thing, the response was--it is better to give blood to give life than to spill it on the ground.
Alas--it is only with such courage can hope be sustained and peace not eluded forever.