“That talks more about mutual respect and relating to others as people, and not just categorizing them as Jews and Arabs”.
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During a recent spate of near-daily attacks between the two communities, Mr Tzafrir says he’s made the move to bring people together.
Jews take pride in police presence provided to a few shuls at holidays or on Shabbat, when all across America, churches large and small don’t have such police protection – because they don’t need any! On smart phones, Jewish teens replay videos of stabbings and auto attacks. The Arabs of the area have not yet even labelled themselves as Palestinians.
The tense atmosphere has led to tragic mistakes. “And I invited many Jews to my wedding”, she said.
It is 1966. The entire West Bank and Gaza are in Arab hands and there is no “occupation”.
He said he feels constantly watched.
In the streets of Jerusalem and other cities, Israelis are frightened by random knife attacks, while … “I will not go to Jaffa until the situation calms down”, she says.
Omar Jamjoon, a 20-year-old Arab employee at the Israeli bus company Egged, said he was recently assaulted by a group of Israelis after finishing work at 5:00 am.
Perpetrators of violence against Jews always have a perceived grievance – no matter how irrational it might be.
Here’s the deal. If you oppose the policies of the State of Israel, if, for example, you oppose Israel’s “occupation” of Palestinian territories, or the “disproportionate force” Israel uses when its citizens are subjected to terrorist attacks, there are many things you can do to protest these policies.
Take Friday’s news. Palestinians threw a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli auto, injuring a 44-year-old woman and her daughters, ages 11 and 4.
Gil Schecter, a Jewish father of four whose apartment complex is across the street from several single-family Jabel Mukaber homes, said frustration is no excuse for violence.
“How can a 13-year-old stab another child the same age”, she asked, referring to an attack earlier this month. The promotion has been in progress since October 13 and was described as “well received by Arabs and Jews alike, as well as people online from as far afield as Japan who’d heard of the initiative”.
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Islil Reich, a 24-year-old Israeli cafe worker, said she considered herself open, but her attitudes were changing. We embrace the ideology that we must never be like “them” (those who treated us in such a way), rather than saying a-ha! – so you know it is not right but seemed to think it was alright for us to be treated that way. “So what does that make me?” In Wadi Ara, near Megiddo Intersection – where looms the archeological mound made famous by James Michner’s novel The Source – hundreds of Arab and Jewish Israelis came together for a meeting of hearts and minds at The Tent of Peace, organized by Yaniv Sagee, the director of Givat Haviva, a nonprofit institute awarded the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education for promoting Jewish-Arab dialogue and reconciliation.
