By Tal Harris
The name Sderot is synonymous with children’s schools under rocket attacks, deafening warning alarms and the adrenaline-fuelled run for your life that follows.
Sderot is Israeli solidarity, bringing people from all over the small country to support the city’s economy by shopping and its morale by cheering up traumatized children and other residents.
Trauma must be an understatement, I thought to myself while driving to the southern town, about a mile from the Gaza border. I’d experienced my own little trauma during the 1991 Gulf War when the Iraqi regime under Saddam Hussein launched rocket attacks on Israel. Remembering the anxiety I felt just from simply hearing a motorcycle engine revving in the street. But the attacks lasted for several weeks while in Sderot it’s been seven years. I wondered if the town’s residents would ever recover from their years of trauma.
OneVoice Israel’s youth leaders are also personally confronted with the trauma the conflict leaves on children and innocent civilians in the Palestinian occupied territories. Moderate Israelis regret that this is the reality we are dragged into and have a strong yearning for a normal, secure, and humane existence. The will to live on both sides of the border is generally stronger than any trauma. Between the cracks that war leaves on people’s lives, some light manages to seep in too.
OneVoice Israel organized a town hall meeting in Sderot to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the residents. We came to talk about it all, from Israel’s security needs to the mutual compromises needed on the settlements, Jerusalem and the Palestinian refugees. The conflict is a messy cocktail; shaken, not stirred.
The deputy mayor gave us a tour of the town. He’d seen it all and yet had his eyes wide open hoping for change. He said he’d host Hamas, or any other organization, in his home in Sderot if they sought true reconciliation. He passionately spoke about the destruction brought upon the town’s 20,000 residents of old and new immigrants, noting that people’s lives fell into the routine of war. It was important speaking to someone who could explain life in Sderot beyond the headlines and show the human cost of failed politics.
Later that evening, we held our town hall meeting at Cinematheque Sderot, with roughly 100 people in attendance, including local politicians and students from the nearby Sapir College.
At the reception preceding the discussion itself, OneVoice Israel youth leaders mingled with the attendees, sharing their personal experiences and making new contacts for the movement.
I moderated the discussion and presented the results of the poll commissioned by the OneVoice Movement, showing room for compromise on all issues. While Israelis opposed the existence of a Palestinian army, both Israelis and Palestinians were surprisingly accepting of an international force that would replace the Israeli army for security purposes after signing a final status agreement.
I expected the discussion to be very emotionally charged given the town had suffered from more than 7,000 rockets, but the audience balanced their feelings with equal measures of intelligence.
The audience wanted to know if they could ever trust the Palestinians with guns, especially since they felt violations of past agreements led to a hostile Palestinian police force. The audience also protested against the failure of the elected leaders, Israeli and Palestinian, at reaching a final agreement and for having settled with a mutually violated interim agreement. Obviously, this failure led to a chronic state of distrust between Israelis and Palestinians alike. Despite reservations, the audience became convinced that the majority of Palestinians were moderates seeking a normal life and that Israel would have to make far-reaching compromises for peace.
Our guest speaker, Yoram Binur, former correspondent on Arab affairs for Israel’s Channel 2, energized the crowd. His charismatic straight talk against the ignorance that Israelis (and Palestinians) often adopt when considering the substantive issues penetrated the audience.
Speaking about Palestinian political prisoners, Binur said, “Most of them are not a security hazard and simply age and study in the Open University when in Israeli prisons”. Commenting on Jerusalem and the need to divide the city, he asked the audience, “Who wants to have 300,000 Palestinians in 26 villages that surround the Israeli capital”.
Binur’s humor and extensive experience reporting in the West Bank and Gaza lent him credibility with the audience, allowing him to engage, rather than antagonize, them.
The Sderot town hall meeting shows that while there are still significant gaps between Israelis and Palestinians on the various core issues of the conflict, there is a greater desire to live and prosper on both sides. This makes it possible to discuss everything. One simply needs to challenge the people to talk about it all, rather than leaving it solely in the hands of the elected leadership. Because we dare to do so, I’m proud to be part of OneVoice Israel.
Please help us to continue challenging Israelis and Palestinians on the conflict’s toughest issues by considering a substantial year-end gift to the OneVoice Movement.
Tal Harris started as a youth leader with the OneVoice Movement and became the coordinator of its town hall meetings in Israel. He will moderate two high-profile town hall meetings in December, one with Shaul Mofaz, former defense minister, and another with Tzipi Livni, leader of the Kadima party.