‘LandPeace’: A Bottom-up Approach to Peace in Israel
The realizations that politicians have been unable to bring peace and that the involvement of the international community has only sharpened the division between Arab and Jew has prompted the creation of Eretz-Shalom (LandPeace) — a group seeking peace from the bottom up.
The Israeli left has made numerous attempts to make peace between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs. The Geneva document drafted by MK Yossi Beilin and PLO spokesperson Yasser Abed Rabbo in October 2003 failed, as did the previous attempt, the Ayalon-Nusseibeh peace plan of July 2002. Both were supported and funded by the EU and Western (mostly European) NGOs. These two failures represented the views and expectations of the secular leftist European worldview, to the exclusion of the traditional values of the people physically and emotionally tied to the land.
The people who live there, who have personally experienced the price of war and its cost in blood, are in the end the best possible peacemakers.
In “settler” communities such as Kedumim, in Samaria, the people are determined to live in peace with their Arab neighbors. There is no fence around Kedumim — the residents travel to Arab villages and Arab villagers come to be served at the settlement’s gas station. This is true for other communities as well. Says Raphaella Segal of Kedumim:
We are open and ready to settle our differences with our Arab neighbors on the basis of live and let live with mutual respect for one another.
Although Raphella is not yet an active member of Eretz-Shalom, she supports the idea behind the movement.
The LandPeace movement began with meetings between local Palestinians and Jewish settlers in the Etzion Bloc, then moved south to the Mt. Hebron region and north towards Samaria. In an interview with the Israeli Hebrew daily Makor Rishon, Nachum Petznick — one of the founders of LandPeace — explained:
LandPeace grew from the bottom by regular people, both Palestinian Arabs and Jewish settlers, who understood that there is no time to wait while politicians try time and again to present unsuccessful peace plans. Reality is more complex, and while the politicians discuss peace agreements something entirely different is occurring on the ground. Our aim is to impact reality while understanding that both the Palestinians and we, the Jewish settlers, are here to stay.
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We are now several hundred strong.
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The mere fact that we are meeting with scores of Palestinian Arabs who are interested, and that we are getting to know each other, is of immense importance.
Petznick added that the conversation among the political left is about “recognizing” the Palestinians, while at LandPeace they “get to know” real Palestinians as individual people. To recognize something is an amorphous state, but to know somebody is real, according to Petznick, and the people associated with LandPeace want to live side by side in peace with their neighbors, but he says the word “peace” has been exploited and beaten up from all directions:
I prefer to talk about good neighborly relations and mutual respect rather than use the word “peace.”
Thanks for sharing that story.
Always the same: once politicians get out, common sense gets in
“Peace will come not when the leadership will cook and we will eat from it but rather when we shall cook for ourselves.”
This has to be one of the best statements I have ever heard.
For Palestinian Arabs like S., reaching out to his Jewish neighbors could get him killed by Palestinians, while the Jewish settlers may reach out without risking retribution from other Jews. (Nonetheless, Jewish LandPeace members report being subjected to ridicule.)
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Jews trying to reach accomadation with Palestinians are ridiculed.
Palestinians trying to reach accomadation with Jews are killed.
Therin lies the difference between the two societies.
Is it really the politicians who should stay out of Israel. After all, aren’t they a representative of the people as imperfect a system as it may be. What about the call to wipe Israel and the Jewish People from the face of the earth. Is that call coming from the House of Politics or is that call coming from the House of Islam?
If the subject doesn’t come up when talking about war and peace in the Middle East, it is not speaking honestly. When push comes to shove, King of the Hill in Israel must be Islam or death. End of story.
These local stories while heartwarming to some, in my opinion are “feel good” missives to forget that the larger Middle Eastern Neighborhood does not want peace with Israel unless Islam is supreme and Israel acquiesces to their demands of superiority. That would pave the road to kindness toward a dhimmi living under the shadow of a sword.
“For Palestinian Arabs like S., reaching out to his Jewish neighbors could get him killed by Palestinians”
And that’s the problem in a nutshell. There can be no peace until enough Palestinians actually want to live in coexistence with Jews. Added to the difficulty is the host of countries and tyrants that don’t want the problem to go away.
And that’s why it will not work. Until ALL the people in ALL muslim countries take this attitude, and thereby take control of their country, the leaders of non-palestinian countries will continue importing murdering islamic thieves (I know, a bit redundant).
I could even extend this, by saying, That ALL western world governments a missing on the main culprit, ideology of muslims outside of this conflict. On the other hand, Before OSLO, all muslims in Israel, including Judea and Samara, wanted to live in Israel and be Israeli citizens. Once Israeli government created an outside entity, palestinian authority, arabs are afraid to take Israels side, even though, these standard of living greatly higher then those of these brethren in other muslim countries. So, to summarize this, Yes, People will solve this problem, not governments. But, that’s not going to happen tomorrow.
I have a Jewish friend who used to live in Hevron 30 years ago, before the so-called “peace process”. Hevron is an ancient city where Abraham used to live. The vast majority of residents are now Arabs, and the Jews live in a few blocks near the shrine where Abraham is buried.
Back then there were no Jewish schools in Hevron. This family hired an Arab Muslim man with a van to drive their kids to Jerusalem. There were no fences, checkpoints, or anything preventing movement back and forth. There was simply no need. On the way home the the van would stop in Bethlehem and the Jewish children would buy candy from Muslim storekeepers. Now there is a wall between Bethlehem and the highway, because terrorists were shooting at passing cars.
I will let readers draw their own conclusions as to the legacy of the “peace” process.
It seems the so-called Arab-Israeli conflict is really a proxy conflict controlled from the US and Iran/Saudi Arabia.
There must be many more like “S”. Because muslims are only fed a diet of hate propaganda and brainwashing, they cannot think rationally. The fact that their leaders cannot organise proper education for their people is a horrendous state, and yet the West never mentions it and now the Obama regime is supporting Iran.
Very good article, one minor nitpick: “Eretz Shalom” means “Land OF Peace”, not “Land Peace”. The possessive in Hebrew is a bitch…
Israel could give away all the land they have and they would never have peace because of the Palestinian mind set since they are small. They are taught to hate Israel. Hate them to death. On the other hand you have a small group of Jewish extremist that also hate the Palestinian people and would never accept them as a people because they have hate in their hearts and also teach their children to hate from a very early age. This is very sad anyway you look at it.
Its even sadder that both of these people are being used buy another group for their personal reasons and these people care not for the suffering of their own brothers, and used them for their evil agenda, but will not make themselves known. They do so in both groups. Its not just one sided. They do what they do for power and selfish agendas. They care not for peace or justice as long as they are in control.