The relationship between Arabs and Jews in Israel has been strained by failed peace agreements, suicide bombings, and the construction of a separation wall, which have fostered fear and anger on both sides.
Since Israel became a state in 1948, the road to peaceful coexistence has been, as most people in the region describe it, complicated. Somewhere in the midst of the conflict, however, are two communities -- one Arab and one Jewish -- that for years have shared a well, harvested crops together, and attended each others weddings and funerals.
Kibbutz Mezer, a collective Jewish community, and the Arab village Meiser, are located less than a half-mile from each other and from the "green line" border with the West Bank. Their relationship began in the early '50s when Kibbutz Mezer was established. Unable to find a viable water source of their own, the new kibbutz relied on the generosity of its Arab neighbors, who allowed them to share their own small well. In gratitude, Kibbutz Mezer shared with Meiser tips for navigating the new Israeli bureaucracy.
Both communities say that, in time, respect and even friendships grew. Not even the murder of a family at the kibbutz by a Palestinian extremist on November 10, 2002 could dismantle the peaceful relationship the two communities share.
This is the tale of Mezer and Meiser, communities that have lived side by side for over 55 years, offering a model of what peaceful coexistence in the region might look like.
Watch and listen to members of both communities describe how they got to know each other and how their relationship was tested.
WATCH:
Mezer-Meiser Coexistence from Rosalina Nieves on Vimeo.
Donna Baranski-Walker: Rebuilding a Future in Palestine: It Starts With You
This is the real face of Israel, a so-called democracy.
Is that why Palestinians were driven from their homes by the Israeli army? Why Arab villages were destroyed?
Yosef Weitz was a Polish Jew who settled in Palestine in 1908. Weitz was the prime mover behind the first and second Transfer Committees (1937-48), and between 1932 and 1948 he was the powerful director of the Jewish National Fund's Land Settlement Department. The UN GA proposed partition plan, and the coming hostilities, provided Weitz the opportunity to set in motion long-nurtured plans of "transferring" (Ethnic Cleaning) the Palestinian people out of their homes, farms, and businesses. His diary (contained in five volumes located in the Zionist Archives in Jerusalem was started from 1932 and continued until his death in 1970) is replete with injunctions not to "miss the opportunities" offered by the 1948 war. The diary documents a great deal of incriminating confessions and evidence of many WAR CRIMES, looting, and atrocities perpetrated by "Jewish state's" army.
http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Famous-Zionist-Quotes/Story644.html
(I'm sure you will ridicule the site, but can you ridicule the diaries written by a leading Israeli?)
Oh, and by the way, you don't call the IDF, any more than YOU call the American army. Just like everywhere else in the world you just call the local police.
Stories like Mezer and Meiser are inspiring and can serve as models for relations between Jews and Arabs; but it's just as important to publicize and confront the bigotry and injustice, and threats Arabs face and help them in their struggle for full rights and true equality in their homeland.
Try looking at land purchasing laws in Israel for Jews and for Arabs, and then try to tell me they are equal.
Try comparing the approval percentages for building permits between Jews and Arabs in Israel and try telling me they are equal.
Try looking at educational resources available for a Jewish school compared to an Arab school in Israel, and then try telling me about equality.
The lies Israel attempts to foist onto the world have been shown for what they are, lies.
Also, one is a village and one is a kibbutz. If an Arab from the village wants to apply to join the kibbutz, they can. And BTW, I lived in Tel Aviv, and there were many Arabs from villages who moved there to go to University and for work.
If there informal discrimination against Arabs in Israel. Sure. It will take peace and trust and the passage of time for that to disappear. Don't be so critical. Slavery ended 150 years ago, and there is still systemic discrimination against blacks in the US, and particularly in certain areas of the US.
Is there work to do? Yes. But no one is denying that there's still a way to go.
This was not an attack by a lone "extremist" or even by what the saner elements of the Left have always been willing to condemn -- Hamas or Islamic Jihad, but rather an attack carried out by President Abbas' own movement, Fatah under orders by Arafat. Why is this glaring omission so important?
Remeber, Kibbutz Metzer is located within Israel proper west of the "green line" and is affiliated to the Kibbutz Artzi federation, part of the Israeli far political Left. They are people who routinely march and demonstrate on behalf of an independent Palestinian state. The kibbutz was very well known for it's position and was targeted simply because they were Jews. It raises questions that remains pertinent today - specifically will the Palestinians acknowledge Israel as a Jewish State?
Without such recognition it's a very small step on the part of some to legitimize future attacks against Israel and conversely erases the distinction Israelis make between 'bad' and 'good' Palestinian movements. While there is polarization in Israeli domestic politics, an acceptance of a negotiated two-State solution will be enforceable even upon the extremist in the settler movement. However, with the current unity pact between the PA and Hamas and without recognition of Israel as a Jewish State, the racist ideological basis held by some Palestinians remains making future attacks of this sort plausible.
Please list those peoples of whom Israel demands that they "recognise Israel as a Jewish State" as a condition of talking to them.
I anxiously await your erudite response - or better yet, a simple list.