Where is the Love

A lot has happened recently in this area that have made me think about this Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The Old City and East Jerusalem (Arab neighborhoods) are off limits to the students right now because of the Gaza situation. There have been some protests in the city so they just want to make sure we stay safe and far from danger. After living in Israel for the short time we've been here I've learned a lot about what the Israeli laws do to make things difficult for citizens. Our forum speaker Tuesday night was a Palestinian man, PhD in Sociology from UVA who specializes in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He spoke a lot about the Palestinian refugee problem how that is affecting politics today. In a short summary the problem really began in the 1948 war when arab speaking Palestinians either fled from or were removed from their homes and settled in either other surrounding countries or in the refugee camps. Over the years that number of refugees has grown from several hundred thousands...to several millions. A main point of his argument was that both Israelis and Palestinians need to remove themselves from the victimized mentality before any progress can happen. He described that he felt deeper polarization is happening as a reaction or coping mechanism from the tension that is already present. The solution that he suggested is that there needs to be a realization that this land is Holy for Christianity Islam and Judaism and that whatever is to be done should be done on the premise that people will need to learn how to live together, cohesively. It's beyond the point of imaging that some peoples can be moved somewhere and one religion/ethnicity will have complete control of the area. There are strict limitations put on who has authority to return to the state of Israel sometimes based on descent or the job that you have. There are separation walls up in so many areas and strict security checkpoints. Depending on what type of visa you have determines how difficult of a time you will have getting into Israel or Jerusalem.

For me the most evident examples of this has been in the Jerusalem branch that we attend here. The Relief Society President here is a Palestinian woman from Bethlehem that got baptized when she went to BYU for school. She is an amazing woman, so loving. She works for the United Nations so she is able to have a permit that allows her to travel from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. A drive that takes her an hour each way every sabbath. This sabbath Saturday is District Conference and she emailed me to let me know she wouldn't be able to attend because her permit has expired. Many members of the branch cannot attend branch activities depending on where they have it. If they decide to do an activity in Israel, the members in Jordan can't come. If they decide to have an activity in Jordan, vice versa. Another branch member is a student working on his masters here at Hebrew University. He lives in Jerusalem but works outside of the city in an area where enforcements are strict on who can come and go into Jerusalem. He spends his whole day interacting and living out side of Jerusalem and essentially only returns to eat and sleep at night. This issue comes with marriage. If he meets someone and they decide they want to get married even if they are married that doesn't give the wife any type of permit to come into Jerusalem. You can see the stand still it puts people in....

Our Arabic teacher was also expressing his frustrations to his class the other day. The topic was brought up because of a couple questions that were asked. His name is Ayman and he is a Muslim, Israeli citizen. He went with his family on a trip to Egypt which is where their family heritage extends from. At the border crossing into Egypt he was treated as a Palestinian and was held up for several hours while border control checked his and all his family's luggage. He said that he wanted his sons to watch as the Israeli soldiers searched his body so they could see first hand that even though they are legitimate Israeli citizens that they are not treated equally. When returning from Egypt the Egyptian border control saw his Israeli passport and he got hassled for that coming back into Israel. When our group was coming back from Egypt one student was born in Turkey and he was interrogated for 3 hours at the border. I'm just glad our Egypt trip wasn't a week later than it had been scheduled. He would have had some SERIOUS issues if we were crossing the border yesterday or today.

There is just always so much tension in the air. On any street in Jerusalem when the Jewish and Arab neighborhoods cross paths you can feel it. I'm not picking sides. A lot of what I've heard recently has been from a Palestinian perspective. We are having Israeli forum speakers for the next 2 weeks so I will be able to get more of the other side of the story. I just feel sad for the people exiled from Jerusalem. The whole thing is really so complex and I've only learned small bits and pieces. The Palestinian forum speaker apologized for addressing us with a message that seemed to give no hope. It's not difficult to feel hopeless and I'm sure if I have lived my whole life here it would be more difficult. But I do have hope in the fact that at least the people here realize that things are not settled. As long as people realize there is a problem there will always be people engaged in trying to conjure up solutions. They may not be serious plans and they may be long-range but something can happen. It's a bit emotionally exhausting to live with so much tension it will be a relief in that aspect when I got back to the States. I just pray that people here always have something in their lives to turn to when they feel themselves losing hope. Once hope is completely lost in this land, truly completely lost, that will be a very sad day.

In the forum one student asked what can we can do on a day to day basis to ease the tension. Everything is discussed on such large scale agendas which I feel adds to the hopelessness. It's pretty frustrating when the physical threat is in close proximity to you but the political debates and institutions seem so distant. The impression that I got is to keep loving everyone around you.