by Ilan Solomons on Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 11:19am
The last year various progressive initiatives have been taking place in South Africa to bridge the cultural and social divide that has been the cause of conflict between the Jewish and Muslim communities. There are various tensions that exist between the two communities – but the major one today mainly revolves around the Arab-Israeli conflict and specifically the Palestinian-Israeli situation.
The first major one came when the South African Union of Jewish Students (SAUJS), decided that the time had come to engage the true representatives of Palestinian people in South Africa. No, they did not go meet with the Palestinian Solidarity Committee (PSC), SAUJS has tried in the past to engage them to very little avail they have made it very clear on numerous occasions that they would not engage with ‘the agents of the Zionist entity’ or something like that. They much prefer to put up Swastikas on university campuses or get their supporters to paint signs like ‘Death to the Jews’ than work together for the sake of peace between Israel and Palestine. Instead members of the SAUJS national and branch committees decided to set up a meeting with the Palestinian Ambassador to South Africa.
There was an initial meeting between the Ambassador and a member of the National Committee of SAUJS. The meeting between the full committee delegation of SAUJS and some members of the Jewish youth movement Bnei Akiva took place about a month later. The meeting took place erev-Pesach (or on the eve) 2010. It was cordial, frank but pleasant and enlightening. Ambassador Ali Halimeh spoke about a variety of topics including his own background, the interaction the PLO with Israel, some personal interactions with the former Israeli Ambassador Dr Alon Liel, how he was able to save the liberal young Rabbi Benny Isaacson from being sent back to South Africa from Rhodesia – as he had run foul of local Jewish community for his anti-Apartheid activities, and of course about the peace process and the current impasse!
A little while later a ground breaking event took place. The Palestinian Ambassador was invited to Bnei Akiva Bayit (house) to address the members of the movement and others on the Palestinian perspective of the situation between Israel and the Palestinians. It was generally well received obviously there were disagreements which were to be expected but overall the talk was well received and the audience felt that they had gained some important insight into the plight of the Palestinians and of the complexities of the situation from their view point.
Another important event took place in South Africa coinciding with the FIFA World Cup™, the Football for Hope Competition which brings together children from usually underprivileged backgrounds or from places where there is some type of social or political unrest. One of the teams that participated was a combined Israeli-Palestinian team which comprised of Israeli children and Palestinian children from the Occupied Palestinian territories. They called themselves the Peace Team. Their aim was to show the world that Israeli’s and Palestinians can paly and work together in peace and that peace between the two is possible. The kids honestly believed that Peace between the Jewish State of Israel and an Independent State of Palestine was possible within their life times. They all strongly supported the concept of the Two States Solution and all of them were strongly against extremism and violence committed by both Israeli Forces and Palestinian militia groupings like Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
SAUJS and other Jewish organizations like Bnei Akiva and the Jewish National Fund (JNF) went to many of the games that the Peace Team played. In addition to this they brought along Palestinian and Israeli flags to show equal support for all the members of the team, although one would expect that they would avoid putting up or carrying a Palestinian flag this was clearly not the case. SAUJS also took the team out for supper and ten pin bowling. This was fantastic because we got to spend quality time with the guys and got to know their coaching and management staff as well.
The Team’s management consisted of people from the Al Quads Foundation and the Peres Centre for Peace two societies based in Israel and Palestine, whose goal is to bridge the divide between Israeli and Palestinian society through peaceful interaction.
The Palestinian and Israeli Embassies both met with the team, the JNF not only hosted a function for them at Museum Africa which both ambassadors were present at they also hosted the team for a Friday night dinner. All showing the willingness of institutions to bridge the social divide. What was rather disappointing was that none of the so called ‘pro-Palestinian’ organizations made any effort to meet or come or support the team, the likes of the Palestinian Solidarity Committee(PSC), Wits Branch of Amnesty International, the Afro-Middle Centre(AMEC) or Open Shuhada Street (OSS), were no where to be seen which was rather unfortunate. I can not say why none of their members came, but my guess that the idea of Israeli’s and Palestinians working together is not something that they fancy, unless it involves them destroying the State of Israel! It is only a guess and I my well be wrong, in fact I hope that they say that they did not know about the Peace Team or that they would love to have come but….. Only they will have the answer to this question.
What I do know for certain that such initiatives are required to overcome the divide between the Jewish and Muslim communities world wide. I am upbeat that the process of engagement that has been undertaken in the last while will help to create or establish a platform whereby the communities can overcome their prejudices and negative stereotypes of one another, and who knows this may lead to a true lasting peace between the Jewish State of Israel and the future Arab State of Palestine!
Be’Ezrat Hashem, InshAllah, God Willing speedily in our Days! Amen
The first major one came when the South African Union of Jewish Students (SAUJS), decided that the time had come to engage the true representatives of Palestinian people in South Africa. No, they did not go meet with the Palestinian Solidarity Committee (PSC), SAUJS has tried in the past to engage them to very little avail they have made it very clear on numerous occasions that they would not engage with ‘the agents of the Zionist entity’ or something like that. They much prefer to put up Swastikas on university campuses or get their supporters to paint signs like ‘Death to the Jews’ than work together for the sake of peace between Israel and Palestine. Instead members of the SAUJS national and branch committees decided to set up a meeting with the Palestinian Ambassador to South Africa.
There was an initial meeting between the Ambassador and a member of the National Committee of SAUJS. The meeting between the full committee delegation of SAUJS and some members of the Jewish youth movement Bnei Akiva took place about a month later. The meeting took place erev-Pesach (or on the eve) 2010. It was cordial, frank but pleasant and enlightening. Ambassador Ali Halimeh spoke about a variety of topics including his own background, the interaction the PLO with Israel, some personal interactions with the former Israeli Ambassador Dr Alon Liel, how he was able to save the liberal young Rabbi Benny Isaacson from being sent back to South Africa from Rhodesia – as he had run foul of local Jewish community for his anti-Apartheid activities, and of course about the peace process and the current impasse!
A little while later a ground breaking event took place. The Palestinian Ambassador was invited to Bnei Akiva Bayit (house) to address the members of the movement and others on the Palestinian perspective of the situation between Israel and the Palestinians. It was generally well received obviously there were disagreements which were to be expected but overall the talk was well received and the audience felt that they had gained some important insight into the plight of the Palestinians and of the complexities of the situation from their view point.
Another important event took place in South Africa coinciding with the FIFA World Cup™, the Football for Hope Competition which brings together children from usually underprivileged backgrounds or from places where there is some type of social or political unrest. One of the teams that participated was a combined Israeli-Palestinian team which comprised of Israeli children and Palestinian children from the Occupied Palestinian territories. They called themselves the Peace Team. Their aim was to show the world that Israeli’s and Palestinians can paly and work together in peace and that peace between the two is possible. The kids honestly believed that Peace between the Jewish State of Israel and an Independent State of Palestine was possible within their life times. They all strongly supported the concept of the Two States Solution and all of them were strongly against extremism and violence committed by both Israeli Forces and Palestinian militia groupings like Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
SAUJS and other Jewish organizations like Bnei Akiva and the Jewish National Fund (JNF) went to many of the games that the Peace Team played. In addition to this they brought along Palestinian and Israeli flags to show equal support for all the members of the team, although one would expect that they would avoid putting up or carrying a Palestinian flag this was clearly not the case. SAUJS also took the team out for supper and ten pin bowling. This was fantastic because we got to spend quality time with the guys and got to know their coaching and management staff as well.
The Team’s management consisted of people from the Al Quads Foundation and the Peres Centre for Peace two societies based in Israel and Palestine, whose goal is to bridge the divide between Israeli and Palestinian society through peaceful interaction.
The Palestinian and Israeli Embassies both met with the team, the JNF not only hosted a function for them at Museum Africa which both ambassadors were present at they also hosted the team for a Friday night dinner. All showing the willingness of institutions to bridge the social divide. What was rather disappointing was that none of the so called ‘pro-Palestinian’ organizations made any effort to meet or come or support the team, the likes of the Palestinian Solidarity Committee(PSC), Wits Branch of Amnesty International, the Afro-Middle Centre(AMEC) or Open Shuhada Street (OSS), were no where to be seen which was rather unfortunate. I can not say why none of their members came, but my guess that the idea of Israeli’s and Palestinians working together is not something that they fancy, unless it involves them destroying the State of Israel! It is only a guess and I my well be wrong, in fact I hope that they say that they did not know about the Peace Team or that they would love to have come but….. Only they will have the answer to this question.
What I do know for certain that such initiatives are required to overcome the divide between the Jewish and Muslim communities world wide. I am upbeat that the process of engagement that has been undertaken in the last while will help to create or establish a platform whereby the communities can overcome their prejudices and negative stereotypes of one another, and who knows this may lead to a true lasting peace between the Jewish State of Israel and the future Arab State of Palestine!
Be’Ezrat Hashem, InshAllah, God Willing speedily in our Days! Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment