Identity
Yana Knopova
Coalition of Women For Peace
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ I am part of the Russian community. I think it's a matter of definition. What is the Russian community? It's not one single thing! The dominant voice is a terrible one: homophobic, chauvinist, racist. I believe another Russian community exists, I believe there are different people that simply aren't heard because they haven't got enough money to publicize their opinions. Maybe they just have better jobs so they're not the Russian media journalists who get paid only 2,500 shekels a month. It's either/or. That's why I feel a bond to my special group. In the group of Russian women I'm very much a Russian, just as I'm Jewish but not part of the mainstream. I have never been part of the mainstream and it doesn't concern me much.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Melisse Lewine-Boskovich
Peace Child Israel
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ Now, I always have to say immediately that in a perfect world I don't believe there should be any states. In a perfect world there would be no borders; there wouldn't be territory. The human race has not evolved that way yet. There is still a need for groups, affiliation with groups, allegiances, and it seems, territory. And until we get rid of the need for religion, there's nothing to talk about. Until we evolve-human beings, all of us-beyond the need for religion, which is still a very inherent need for people, I don't think there's any possibility. So, I believe the world would be a better place if there were no states, but until that day comes I still feel-it's absurd to say that this is a safe place considering how miserable everything is here- that Jews have their right to a place of their own just like the Palestinians do.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Yana Knopova
Coalition of Women For Peace
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ Nowadays I think we're witnessing a revival of the Arab Jewish identity among what is termed Mizrachi people. I think that they have the key to true peace, a kind of peace that is right for the Middle East, a peace that will be achieved by Arab Jews and Christian and Muslim Arabs. It's an inter-Arab issue and the state here will be an Arab one with minorities: a large Jewish minority, and large Christian Palestinian minority, a Muslim minority, a Bedouin minority, Druze, but it will be an Arab state. With all due respect we won't be able to hold on to this, and I don't even know if there is anyone who truly believes that in a hundred years' time there will still be a European presence in the Middle East. It goes against the course of history.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Wafa Srour
The School for Peace
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ My sense of belonging has been strengthened [since moving to Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam]. Some people think that living among Israeli Jews would have an effect on my identity as a Palestinian. It is true that it has, but the effect has been to make my identity stronger. For example, sometimes people ask me what my daughters' names are, and they are surprised when they hear that their names are Rasha and Ahlam. They imagine that, because I live with Jews, my children's names would not be Arabic.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Kitty O. Cohen
Folklore of the Other: The Institute for the Study of Religion and Communities in Israel
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ This is another great difficulty in peaceful relations, if you want to have real dialogue and real peace, it is very important to be confident enough to stand there and say, I am Jewish, I am Israeli, and you are Muslim or you are Christian or Orthodox or Catholic, or Armenian, Palestinian. It is very important to establish where we come from and not say, “I am an Israeli woman who wants peace so I am willing to give up my narrative. I have no narrative” as if I had no story, no language, no culture. As if I were an alien come from another world, here to the Middle East, which is holy Muslim territory and I have nothing, no roots here. This is not conducive to peace. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
Wafa Srour
The School for Peace
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ When people ask me why I bring students to meet each other, I tell them that in my own experience participating in such encounters has strengthened my sense of identity. Palestinian students grow up hearing that Israeli students are stronger, better, and smarter than they are. When they meet Israeli students, however, they discover that they are not as they are portrayed in books and so on. When I came face-to-face with real Israelis, it caused me to reflect upon myself.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Yafit Gamila Biso
The Olive Tree
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ When I arrived in Israel the first business I opened was a large sewing factory in Tel-Aviv. I had almost twenty workers from Gaza. I got on very well with them. There was a period when I even had a partner from Gaza. Look, I'm a daughter of the Arab culture. I'm Israeli and Jewish, and I don't know whether I'm proud of it or not in view of the operative policies. I'm sometimes ashamed of being Israeli when I see that an Israeli killed a little girl, whose only fault was that she went to school that morning. That's what brought me to all these activities.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Helmi Kittani
Center for Jewish-Arab Economic Development
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ We thought that through the joint [economic] ventures of Jews and Israeli Arabs with the Palestinian Authority there was an opportunity for Israeli Arabs to integrate into the Israeli economy and into the mainstream. Ultimately Israeli Arabs and Palestinians are the same people, and thus it is possible for them to coordinate a joint deal. […] It was part of our belief that a long-term peace cannot be sustained if Palestinians live in poverty while Israelis are rich. It cannot exist, it is just impossible.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Shwanesh Maniov
Seeds of Peace, Children of Abraham
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ When I was at Seeds of Peace facilitating, I had an important experience while we watched a movie about what happened in South Africa. I'm sitting there during the film saying to myself, "Wow, how can they call the blacks 'terrorists' on the news?" (They showed parts of news broadcasts.) "How can they call them terrorists? They wanted their freedom, they want to live on their lands, why should they be called terrorists?" Suddenly I was against this strong government, in this case it was white, and it didn't seem right. And then we watched Jenin, Jenin half an hour later, and suddenly I was on the powerful side, the Israeli side, trampling the other. And I call people 'terrorists.' Suddenly I was experiencing thoughts like, "What right do I have coming to Israel, immigrating to Israel, living in Tel Aviv without any fear?" I wasn't born here; my parents weren't born in Israel! What right do I have? Who gave it to me? I never thought about these things before! I never questioned my right to the land. But watching the film about South Africa raised moral questions inside me.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Helmi Kittani
Center for Jewish-Arab Economic Development
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ [As an Arab Israeli] I share the Palestinian culture, since I belong politically and culturally to the Palestinian community. However, I also have the Israeli culture because I am part of the State of Israel and it's important for me to build it. I can serve as the natural bridge between the Jewish society in Israel and Palestinian society in Palestine. I can serve as the bridge that can really help foster economic cooperation and also foster peace on the political level. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
Dr. Khuloud Dajani
People's Campaign for Peace and Democracy
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ We [Palestinians] suffer on the international, regional, national and individual levels. We all suffer; we suffer at the borders, we suffer in claiming our identity, which is our right. There is fear, suffering, loss, torment, martyrdom, death, disabilities, a certain weakness, and the stripping not of one’s weapons but of the basic elements that provide security and stability. All these elements have created great challenges for the Palestinians. They have dealt with this challenge since childhood, and it has created exceptional people. This challenge has given their lives a different meaning than all the other people in the world.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Adi Dagan
Coalition of Women for Peace, Machsom Watch
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ Unfortunately, what preserves the state's character is the conflict; it is the conflict that enables people to use excuses and become entrenched in a collective identity that would be likely to melt away and diverge in a state of peace. Currently there isn't much of a collective identity; there are specific groups and sectors - Russian speakers, Arab citizens, Mizrachis, Ashkenazis - but the sense of besiegement and risk is something that unites these people. At the checkpoints you can see a soldier who just arrived from the Ukraine; he isn't even Jewish and barely speaks a word of Hebrew yet he is yelling 'don't pass' at a Palestinian. This is a form of socialization that keeps people together here. I think that once the conflict is resolved we will have to face all the internal conflicts, and that includes such intense conflicts that who knows what will happen.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Ester Golan
Interfaith Encounter Association
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ According to what [Father Emile] Shoufani says, if you want to know the other person, you have to know all of the other person, and if you want to know the Jew, my identity has several components, as everybody's identity has several components, and my components are: Zionism, Judaism, Israel and the Shoah [Holocaust]. So if you want to know me, you have to know also me and the Shoah, not just me and Israel, not just me and Judaism, not just me and Zionism, but me and Shoah, Israel, Judaism and Zionism [...] So [Shoufani] considered it something that had by-passed the Palestinians, that they had not experienced. But living with so many people who were directly impacted by it, and because it has become part of Judaism at large, he had to know it. That is what made him decide that Auschwitz stands for something which is not Jewish, it's inter-religious, it's inter-national, it's inter-disciplinary; it represents something which humanity did, humanity in its darkest and most dreadful situation. [If] he wanted to just get to know Judaism, he could have come to synagogues, but that wasn't the point because that he has [access to] here. [The point was] to encounter that extra element that encompasses my identity and every other Jew as well. And I think that is exactly what happened.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Abigail Jacobson
Hands of Peace
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ The Palestinian citizens of Israel are a sub-group; in certain ways - in theory - they are wedged in between. They are part of the Israeli collective, at least in terms of their citizenship, and of course for part of the participants they belong to the Palestinian collective. We usually try, to the best of our ability, to select kids who express the range that exists but sometimes we are taken by surprise by the different shades in this group. We really try to bring people who are capable of expressing this unique voice. This means we try not to bring kids whose identity is Palestinian without a single question mark, or kids who perceive themselves as only Palestinians and erase their Israeli identity completely. This happens sometimes, but ideally these aren't the kids we want to reach out to. We want to reach out to kids who can express the complexity of their identity as clearly as possible, and also the profound difficulties they encounter as Palestinian citizens of Israel, their different experience of history, their sensitivity to being a refugee and suffering, being compared to Palestinians, and stereotyping.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Shwanesh Maniov
Seeds of Peace, Children of Abraham
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ Now I live in Tel-Aviv and I'm completely Israeli, totally, I have nothing to do with Ethiopian culture. But when I visit my parents then I'm Ethiopian! I stand when my father enters, bring him water, everything. And when I visited a family in [the Palestinian Israeli town] Shfaram suddenly I realized I was acting as though I was in my parents' home. It's a feeling I never felt before.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Shwanesh Maniov
Seeds of Peace, Children of Abraham
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ The minute I got here [to Israel] I was given a new name; I was named Shoshana. I don't know exactly why, but they changed my name. I enlisted in the army and for some reason in the army they switch your name back. It's very strange. Already in twelfth grade I was asking myself who I was - was I less Israeli, or less Ethiopian. You don't know where you belong; you have the color thing, the Jewish aspect, and the Israeli part. So even before the army I had thought about these things and I had changed my name back from Shoshana to Shwanesh.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Ariel Huler
Seeds of Peace
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ Palestinians living in Israel are really caught in the middle. Everybody at camp knows these kids have the hardest time at camp. But I think camp also strengthens their sense of identity, of being what they are.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Khulood Badawi
Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), Ta'ayush, Coalition of Women for Peace, Bat Shalom
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ One of the most important lessons I learned is that my personal identity is more important than my national identity, and that one should never divide his personal identity under any circumstances. I should always preserve my personal identity despite the situation and the conflict. Israeli violence and the negative treatment we are exposed to often threaten to erase our personal identities. We sometimes become harsh and empty towards ourselves, not only towards the Israelis. I am careful in this respect because I have my humanity inside of me. This humanity consists of values and principles that should be given top priority. This strengthens my identity and my sense of belonging to my people.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Orly Noy
All For Peace Radio
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ It's sad for me because I think that it's not just by coincidence that it turned out this way, that Eastern Jews turn out to be more right wing than the others. It's because the system somehow gave them the idea that you're suspicious-being Arab yourself-and if you want to belong to the Israeli collective, you have to really reject the Arabs, put a very long wall between you and them, because you look like them and you speak their language, and if you start to like them a little bit, then maybe you start to belong to them much more than you belong to us, so they try to be much more Israeli than the Israelis, whatever the word Israeli means. Very systematically the Israeli system drove them to this side of the political map. Very consciously, I think, it was something… I don't blame them. I think it was a logical decision to make: if you want to live your life as an Israeli, you better do what they expect you to do and be what they expect you to be. I think the problem begins with the system.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Yafit Gamila Biso
The Olive Tree
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ To this day I'm in touch with boys for whom I was the first Israeli they could even understand and speak to. I spoke to them in their language and explained things to them. At first they were under the impression that I was Arab, so I stood up to them. I said, "No, I'm not Arab, I'm Jewish-Israeli. I do speak Arabic, it makes both my life and yours easier, but I'm Jewish-Israeli. There's nothing you can do, you can't make me an Arab. You must accept me as an Israeli Jew. Then I'll be with you all the way then. If you continue insisting that I'm Arab, I'm not here."” [Source in Complete Interview]
Ariel Huler
Seeds of Peace
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ There were also some interesting dynamics between Israelis and Palestinian-Israelis [at the Seeds of Peace Camp]. When you learn more about the conflict you come to understand [that the term Arab-Israelis is not really accurate]. […] This is a name that Israelis prefer to describe these people. But if we refer to this definition as describing their conflict of identity, it's not between their Arab identity and their Israeli identity; it's between their Palestinian identity and their Israeli identity. It's not accurate to describe them as Arab-Israelis. Sometimes right at the beginning when a Palestinian-Israeli, or a Palestinian living in Israel, or however they describe themselves, describes himself this way, this already creates some problems for the Israelis, if they have no experience with this group, or haven't gotten deeper into their understanding of the conflict[…] ” [Source in Complete Interview]
Wafa Srour
The School for Peace
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ The question of how to design a bi-national, bilingual school requires more thought, and it is something that we can continue to work on. We need first to attend to the issue of a bi-national school, and then perhaps to the issue of an interfaith school. Here in the Waha, we asked for a bi-national school that does not deal at all with religion. We wanted to put the religious issue aside. The Jewish residents objected, however, because for them religion is part of their national identity. In the end, what we have here seems to be a typical Jewish school, with some Arabs added in. If we want a genuinely Arab-Jewish school, on the other hand, we must create it from scratch. It must be Arab-Jewish from its very foundations and basic principles.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Shwanesh Maniov
Seeds of Peace, Children of Abraham
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ After the army I traveled a bit in the States and lived in New York for a little while. It influenced me because I was exposed to new things again. I was in the States with a million black people, not just black Jews [ultra-Orthodox Jews], but blacks like me, only not Jewish. I disappeared. For people who saw me on the street, I wasn't a Jew. It was very important for me that I be seen as a Jew. It's something I never dealt with in Israel because here everyone knew I was an Ethiopian Jew. It wasn't such a question of, wow, what am I - more Jewish, because I feel Jewish, or more black because everyone sees me as black? It had a big impact on me.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Ihsan Turkiyyeh
Arab-Hebrew Theatre in Jaffa
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ One time they [Palestinian students] said to one of the Israeli actors, "Go home, go home, go back to Romania, what are you doing here, you are making peace? What peace are you selling us, go to Romania!" I came and I said to them that I should intervene. I said, "Okay, he was born here, but it's not his fault that he was born here." I felt the same when I was raised in Lebanon, I was very attached to the place where I was raised, although my parents came from another country. So sometimes I feel like I am in the same situation, you know, a little bit. There is what you call a very small moment where I felt I was in the same situation as the Israelis whose parents are from different places in the world, that they are like me when I was in Lebanon, with my mother and father being Palestinian.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Yafit Gamila Biso
The Olive Tree
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ I was born in Damascus. My neighbors were Palestinians, Muslims, Christians, Druze, and the majority were Jewish, but it varied. Most of my friends were Palestinians from the two largest refugee camps there, al-Yarmukh and al-Palestine. In Syria there are schools for Jews up to junior high school. After junior high, whoever continues studying goes to government schools. So I went to high school with Palestinian and Syrian girls - girls like me. I never thought about it, except during religion class, when we were told, "You're Jewish, get out." There were only two of us Jewish girls at that high school. Christian girls went to Christianity classes and Muslim girls went to Islam classes and we Jews sat outside. When I got married and began working, I had Palestinian partners; I worked alongside them in many fields, in sales, fashion, marketing - in every field - and they became my friends.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Itamar Shapira
Combatants for Peace
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ When an Israeli talks to Palestinians he can talk about his side and show his perspective, that he, the Israeli, was also once a fighter, “like you”, that’s what he will tell the people he’s talking to. If I talk to Israelis or at an Israeli school, I will be addressing children who want to be heroes and serve in elite units. Maybe our speaker served in an elite unit and can say, “I’m not sure that you will be such a hero there. ” A kid can listen to him, or to me because I’m not his mother… I’m allegedly a macho male that represents the consensus. This enables us to tap into the feeling of “I want to be just like him”. This is a person that a kid can listen to. Because the Israeli and Palestinian speakers come together, kids will also be able to listen to the enemy, see him -- see this dangerous and horrible person that is usually crucified by Israeli society.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Ester Golan
Interfaith Encounter Association
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ I feel very, very deeply, consciously Jewish-- Zionist Jewish. A combination of Zionism and Judaism, which is different from the Haredim, who have no Zionist feelings. I certainly believe in having to defend my being Jewish. That's why I was in the army, my children were in the army, my grandchildren are in the army. Because I have a right to live, and I defend that right to live.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Nasser Laham
Maan News, Bethlehem Television
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ Once I thought about translating something connected to what the Germans, the Nazis, did to the Jews. I thought about this two years ago, and I said to my friends here, “What's the harm in this? Let the Palestinians know that Jews suffered too and that Hitler committed many crimes against them." My friends said to me, “Do you know what you’re saying?! That this won't happen?" It won’t happen here, God willing. I thought about my people, I am proud of who they are, I am proud to be an Arab Muslim, proud to be Palestinian. I am proud of being a refugee, of living in a refugee camp in Deheishe, but I support peace.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Michal Zak
The School for Peace
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ The evolving approach [to facilitated dialogue addresses Arab-Jewish relations as group relations and not as individual dynamics. That's because the conflict is between groups and not individuals, because the collective identities are so important. The former approach tries to negate that, tries to say, let it lie, leave being Jews or Arabs out of it, let's just be human beings in here. And we say, no. Bring it with you. It's true we're all human beings! Fine, but bring everything in and we'll deal with it. Bring the other parts because they produce conflict, it's not just between us on the level of being human beings, but rather a very politicized approach. It addresses the reality in terms of power relations and the asymmetrical nature of reality, so it resembles reality and doesn't try to contradict reality; that's why we can learn about reality from it. It can serve as a lab that reflects contemporary reality. As an educator I can accept this approach, because you might as well do pottery workshops otherwise.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Itamar Shapira
Combatants for Peace
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ There is a certain imbalance in the meetings; at first it seemed the Israelis came with a more apologetic approach -- allegedly -- because the Palestinians in our organization are still in the middle of a struggle, not a violent one, but nevertheless a struggle. That evened out gradually when we understood that it is also important for us to emphasize our own national identity as Israelis. These aren’t two societies seeking a solution with “no countries – no opposition” as its slogan. We emphasize each side’s national identity; coming from this recognition of national identity we want to end the occupation and the violence.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Shlomo Zagman
Realistic Religious Zionism, Mosaica
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ The war [Lebanon war July 2006] created a problem. Suddenly war broke out and in the Jewish group people felt united and a sense of shared fate though we know that [Palestinian Arab Citizens of Israel] also were hurt by the war – missiles were fired at the Galilee killing Arabs too. You would assume that the [Israeli] Arabs would then be on your side and regard Nasrallah and Hezbollah as enemies, while what you hear is that this isn't true, and [your perspective] shouldn't take that for granted, it isn't necessarily a logical inference. Then [Jewish] people say, 'If you identify with my enemy, how can I talk to you?' [...] It makes people desperate and they feel dialogue doesn't contribute much and is therefore unnecessary – a waste of energy and emotions.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Shlomo Zagman
Realistic Religious Zionism, Mosaica
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ I grew up outside the Green Line of 1967, though settlement in Gush Etzion began before the State of Israel was established. Lands were legally purchased there, they were barren then and agriculturally-orientated settlements were founded on them. In 1948 Gush Etzion fell and since 1967 the rallying cry of the regional council has been “Your children will return to their own land.” People grow up there with that heritage of clutching to the land, of returning to the settlements, to the lands, to a land that is ours. There’s a path nearby called “Trail of the Patriarchs”, it's the path that Abraham took from Be’er Sheva to Mount Moriah - you are taught to have a religious bond to living there. When you get older it links to having political awareness and naturally to the National Religious Party and the right-wing parties who regard the return to Zion as a historical process of the return of a people to its land. Despite the problem the Arab population living there poses, [this population] is perceived as an obstacle that needs to be faced, but in no way does it suggest that this process – or this "right" - must be relinquished.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Wafa Srour
The School for Peace
Portrait »
Interview Highlights »
“ I cannot put my daughter in the school here [at Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam], where her Jewish teacher does not even know Arabic. It is not enough to have a Jewish teacher reading from an Arabic book. This confuses the children. There should be a Jewish teacher and an Arab teacher, or at least a Jewish teacher who speaks Arabic. Otherwise, attending this school would be at the expense of our language and our nationality, something which is totally unacceptable for me.” [Source in Complete Interview]
