The Palestinian conflict is one of the most complicated in the world. I have so much to say about it that I’ve decided not to say much at all. My personal love for Israel is historical and mystical. It has little to do with the State of Israel today. To me, the idea of Israel brings forth an aspiration of Oneness for the world. It is sanctified space for the Jewish People; it is where we have come from and it’s a vision of where we are headed; it radiates with pure potential for coming closer to G-d, of uniting heaven and earth and transcending struggle. The land, Eretz Yisrael, is part of the collective Jewish Soul.
And yet, 75 years ago (and for hundreds of years), people were living in parts of this land successfully and happily. I have to believe that the hundreds of thousands of refugees who settled there truly believed it was “a land without a people for a people without a land” and they would not have immigrated to Israel in such numbers, would not have literally displaced so many families from their beautiful homes, had they known this. (I realize there are competing narratives about this fact.)
I have much more to learn and understand, but I started with these two books. Each of them tells both sides of the history of the founding of the State and events that unfolded afterwards. I wanted to learn more than stereotypes.
Just to be transparent, and I know this is controversial, I believe that both Israelis and Arabs have equal rights as well as equal responsibility for the ongoing conflict. I think some of Israel’s policies and past decisions are unjust, and I’m only now learning about more of those human rights violations from its history. And yet, people who toss around words like “apartheid” or “colonialism” are using this current situation as yet another excuse to practice antisemitism. People are free to disagree with government practices and decisions, as I do often, but to call for the end of existence of Israel at this point is unethical.
Is anyone saying that China shouldn’t exist? I am concerned about abuses happening right now in the Xinjiang region of China, but I haven’t heard anyone say that China doesn’t have the right to exist. Same for Iran, or Saudi Arabia. Amnesty International reports that in 2021, new and unresolved conflicts erupted or persisted in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Libya, Myanmar and Yemen, with warring parties violating international human rights and humanitarian law. Of all of these, I’ve only seen Israel in the news. (And yes, I think Israelis are wrongfully occupying Palestinian space, which further escalates the conflict.)
I see Israel as a country in its infancy still, trying to be a liberal democracy in a region where that is rare.
Can We Talk About Israel? A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted by Daniel Sokatch
Sokatch believes the conflict is a struggle between two victimized peoples with legitimate claims to the land. “It is a conflict about land, but also about memory and legitimacy, about the right to exist, and also about the right to self-determination. It is about survival and about justice. It is about competing narratives understood by their adherents to be singularly true.”
This is a very thorough yet casually-worded overview of history and how to understand today’s issues. I truly felt as if I were meeting a friend for coffee who could tell me all about what’s going on, starting with the Zionist concept in the 1860s, World War I and the British Mandate, the events of 1947-49, and the many conflicts and peace attempts since. Part II of Sokatch’s book is about the settlements, how a map can be a political tool, the American Jewish community and it’s disillusionment with Israel’s current right-wing policies, and some other current issues.
“At times, the sheer weight of the history there, the intensity of the conflict, and the adamancy of the attitudes can make a person pessimistic about the potential for a just and peaceful future for Israel and Palestine.”
He ends with stories of people who are trying to heal wounds, build bridges, and create a better future for everyone. This is an excellent and unbiased telling of the unfolding of events as experienced by both peoples.
The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan
Tolan’s book is nonfiction but reads as a novel would. I learned quite a bit of fact and context, but the single best aspect of this book is that it takes a gigantic issue and narrows it down to two individuals, telling their family stories in a personal and dignified way. These two families try to acknowledge one another’s pain and histories. I found this book remarkable and enlightening.
The book description from Amazon: “In 1967, Bashir Khairi, a twenty-five-year-old Palestinian, journeyed into Israel with the goal of seeing the beloved stone house with the lemon tree behind it that he and his family had fled nineteen years earlier. To his surprise, when he found the house he was greeted by Dalia Eshkenazi Landau, a nineteen-year-old Israeli college student, whose family left fled Europe for Israel following the Holocaust. On the stoop of their shared home, Dalia and Bashir began a rare friendship, forged in the aftermath of war and tested over the next half century in ways that neither could imagine on that summer day in 1967. Sandy Tolan brings the Israeli-Palestinian conflict down to its most human level, demonstrating that even amid the bleakest political realities there exist stories of hope and transformation.”
