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Finding Hope in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict On the 23rd of February, students from across Europe were joined by Israeli and Palestinian peers in the town of Hofgeismar, Germany under the auspices of a conference on “The
European Role in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” organized by the PIE (Palestinan Isrealis Europeans)-Project Team of the European student organization AEGEE. Lectures and workshops tackling the issues of the
conflict’s narration, refugees, and the nature of borders were arranged to facilitate dialogue and enable understanding between all sides. What unfolded over the course of the next week was a process that
nobody, including organizers, expected. Heike Kratt, a participant from Germany, decided that “it really has been the most interesting, the most intensive and the most exhausting conference I've ever been to. It went
way beyond mere academic discussions and exchange. Rather, it involved emotions and set in motion some sort of psychological process. Maybe not each and every one of us to the same extent but at least to my
understanding – there was a general feeling of personal exchange.” The first day kicked off with the outlining of the group’s expectations for the resolution of the conflict. It was decided that
one was inevitable – because of fatigue, popular will or the role of external actors. Most importantly, however, the role of positive expectations was highlighted. Ahmad Badawi, one of the conference’s moderators,
elucidated this factor by suggesting that any future is dependent to some extent on the expectations held about it, which are in turn shaped by perceptions of the past. In other words, “the choice of expectations is a
mechanism for determining the future”. With this bold, emancipatory agenda – the group collectively produced a vision for 2008. In what was perhaps a portent for the rest of the conference, it was a vision already
imbued with tension between the majority desire to see a two-state solution along the ’67 borders and a splinter single bi-national state objective. With a vision in hand, the group spilt up into the three
workshops. Obstacles were identified, and then methods of resolving them. Yet among all this affirming activity, underlying friction strained the process and historical baggage constrained its progress. It not only
meant extensions of workshops late into the evening, but a soul-searching exercise for all. This became evident on the last night during an open discussion on the Holocaust. The Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, after all, is one contingent on the fact of the Holocaust on this continent. Alon Simhayoff, an Israeli participant, confessed in perhaps one of the most heart-breaking and illuminating moments of the event,
“What goes on in my head when I travel on a train, or take a shower in this country are not things you would be thinking of.” One was confronted daily with such glimpses of naked fear - and the guilt it could elicit.
These emotions were summed up in presentation after presentation of the workshops’ results identifying the lack of mistrust as the gravest obstacle to the conflict’s resolution. On the other hand,
determination to achieve reconciliation was also articulated throughout and the last day culminated in the outlining of concrete commitments for the group. A range were declared from a proposal to establish a project to
“live the life of the other” between Israelis and Palestinians, helping Israeli and Palestinians students enter the ERASMUS program, a planned visit to Israel later this summer by European students, and various
networking and funding opportunities to follow up on. But perhaps the most significant accomplishment that resulted was something less transmutable and more intangible. Dima Abdellatif, a participant from
Ramallah, quoted a Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish in her presentation on the effects of the Occupation. She stood in front of her “other”, sitting alongside their “other”. Before this visible demonstration of breaking
for a moment in time the vicious cycle currently being played out in the Middle East where while the Germans created an “exceptional history of the Jews”, as it had been characterized during one of the many charged
debates, the Israelis are creating an exceptional history for the Palestinians… and both sides use their past and present misery as rationale – she sung out that “Here, where the hills slope before sunset/ And the
Chasm of Time/ Near gardens whose shades have been cast aside/ We do what prisoners do/ We do what jobless do/ We sow hope”. And in that moment, one could almost forget words like “refugees”, “genocide”, “suicide
bombers” and that there is an aweful conflict ongoing which we all take sides on. The conference ended on a Friday afternoon with the promise of spring and a final photo-op outside. Handshakes and
farewells were exchanged in front of a frozen lake beginning to thaw and the group dispersed. Some left Hofgeismar with promises made in their hearts to continue this process at the next PIE conference in Copenhagen
this August or back home wherever it may be; but everyone with a keener understanding of how difficult and important it is to simply be able to hope - with all the resolve and fearlessness youth can manifest, and peace
will need. |
