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World Council of Churches - Feature
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org 
For immediate release - 02/09/2004

TWO ISRAELI WOMEN CHOOSE DIFFERENT PATHS

                           By Martin Smedjeback *

                                          Free photos available, see below.

Maya, 20 years old and Lior, 18, have lived their whole lives in Israel.
They are part of the same people, have a common history, have gone to the
same kinds of schools. Yet they have chosen two very different paths in
life. While Maya was polishing her boots at a military base in Gaza, Lior
was demonstrating against the Wall. But both women share a common dream
that there will be peace between Israelis and Palestinians someday.

All Israeli citizens, both men and women, get a call for recruitment to the
army when they are 16 years old. Two years later, one is actually inducted
into the army.  A few months before she received her call, Lior decided
that she didn't want to serve in a combat unit and carry a gun.  Later, she
decided to refuse to be inducted altogether.  "Most people in my class were
very open about discussing military service. Most of them were curious
about why I refused, and if I could imagine a world without armies and
stuff like that," Lior remembers. "But my parents reacted very badly,
especially my father. He was a general in the army for more than 20 years.
He took it very personally."

Maya, on the other hand, felt no ambivalence about induction into the army.
"No, it is the law, even if I disagreed about joining the army," she says.
"I can partly understand that some refuse, because the army does things
that I disagree with. But although we may look at it as a choice, it isn't
really. You go into the army unless you really, really want to be a
troublemaker."

In a country where military service is an experience shared by everyone -
men and women, from the ages of 18 through 45 - the importance of the army
in the Israeli ethos is evident.  Every man must serve three years on
active duty and then as a member of the reserves until the age of 45.
Women serve for two years' active duty, but most don't serve in the
reserves.

"The army is a really big part of our lives," Maya explains.  "We grow up
knowing that we will be soldiers. We have something, besides being
Israelis, which keeps us together. We all experience the same things. We
all shoot a gun; we all put a uniform on. It is a part of life."

Lior acknowledges the truth of Maya's words:  "Most of my friends refused
military service too, so it's not so problematic.  But when I meet other
friends from my school, they always talk about the army. It's hard,
because I don't feel that I'm part of their conversations."

>>> Two different kinds of life

The paths Maya and Lior have chosen have led to two very different
lifestyles.  Maya, for instance, does not belong to any organizations apart
from the Israel Defense Force (IDF), while Lior, who is living at home with
her parents before beginning university, is an active member in the Israeli
peace movement.

"I am not allowed to be a member of anything else as a soldier," Maya says.
"And you don't have time for anything else."

Maya used to serve on a military base in the Occupied Territories in Gaza.
One of her unit's tasks was to protect one particular settlement in
northern Gaza. "It was pretty funny, because it didn't matter if you were
right- or left-wing," she says. "Whoever came to the settlement said 'This
is the stupidest settlement in the world. It should be taken out.'"
Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon has agreed that this settlement will be
one of the first to go if the Gaza withdrawal plan ever comes to fruition.

Despite having to protect Israeli settlements in Gaza that she herself
doesn't think should be there, Maya found a reason to enjoy her assignment.
"I felt that I was doing my share to help the Palestinians because I could
try to make sure that whatever happened there was best for them," she
explains. "If any of my colleagues misbehaved or said anything bad to the
Palestinians, I would argue or yell at them."

When Lior started high school, she joined the youth wing of the largest of
the Israeli peace organizations, Peace Now.  There, she helped organize
peace demonstrations and also had the opportunity to meet people who were
more radical than her friends. These people, Israelis like herself, were
attending demonstrations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and they
were anti-Zionist. After a while, she began going to demonstrations in the
West Bank as well. She got involved in a network called Anarchists against
Fences - a group of people who carry out direct actions against Israel's
"Separation Wall", some of which is being built on Palestinian land.  She
now goes to demonstrations almost every week, most of them protests against
the Wall.

Israel prides itself on being a democracy, a tenet of which is freedom of
information.  Lior feels frustrated because she sees a decided lack of
information in Israeli society. "Take the Wall for example," Lior explains.
"Most Israelis haven't seen what the Wall is doing to the Palestinian
people. I don't think they know that the Wall goes inside villages and
through houses. All they know is that there is a Wall, and that it could be
a good thing because maybe it will bring peace."

>>> Only a rumour

The lands of Israel and Palestine taken together are not very large, but
the gulf between Israelis and Palestinians is large indeed.  For many
people, meeting someone from the "other side" is a rare occurrence - unless
one counts soldiers enforcing the occupation and those committing acts of
terror.

"Before I went to the Occupied Territories," remembers Lior, "I thought it
was strange that I considered myself to be a leftist and peace activist but
had no Palestinian friends and had never even met any Palestinians from the
Occupied Territories. I wasn't afraid to meet them, but I was a little
skeptical about their opinions on the situation because the whole
atmosphere in Israeli society is that Palestinians don't want peace. So I
was surprised to see that it was the exact opposite! I don't think I ever
heard a Palestinian who said that he doesn't want peace or that he wants to
occupy the whole of Israel, which is a common opinion about Palestinians in
Israeli society."

"Do I have Palestinian friends?" Maya repeats the question, which elicits a
"wow" from her as she ponders it.  "No, there is no connection between
Palestinians and Israelis at all. We don't see them. I never saw them until
I served in the army. Until then, they were only a rumour."

Maya sees that there would be a benefit to having more contacts between
Israelis and Palestinians but doesn't think it would make much of a
difference to her.  However, she also sees that, due to the current
situation, there are reasons to keep the two peoples apart.

"If I had Palestinian friends, I don't think it would change how I look at
the conflict because I take them into consideration already," she explains.
"But I think that it would have been very good and important for both sides
to have interactions.  The disconnection already started before and the
Wall makes it even bigger. On the other hand, the Wall was not built to
separate the people. It was built to separate the suicide bombers from the
Israelis. It is a matter of deciding if you are willing to take the risk of
being killed."

On the political side, Maya sees difficulty in finding a partner for peace
in Palestinian society.

"There are a lot of people of really good will, and they would do anything,
but these people don't have enough power or influence to really affect the
rest of the Palestinian people. I can understand why this happens because
they are all divided, and it is a mess, and a lot of people hate us. So it
is difficult for them to go to the people who hate us and tell them that
they should try harder to gain peace. It is as hard for us to go to the
Israeli extremists and say that we should strive for peace."

>>> Fear and war exhaustion in Israel

Despite their differences, both women share a common dream that there will
be peace between Israelis and Palestinians someday. Though they both see
some positive changes in the country, their optimism is somewhat tempered
by the fear that permeates Israeli society today.

"In the long-term perspective, the Israeli public is getting better," Lior
says. "In the 1970s and '80s, Israelis were not ready to divide the land
and allow a Palestinian state. Today, the majority of the Israeli public
wouldn't have any problem in giving the Occupied Territories to the
Palestinians if there was a peace agreement. But people have lost hope the
last couple of years. They just think that the Palestinians want to kill
us. The Israeli public is so afraid."

Maya sees that desperation, but thinks that within it, there are
possibilities for peace. "We, Israelis and Palestinians, live with each
other, hurting each other all the time and at the same time trying to have
a peace process. It is almost impossible. But I think that people are
getting so depressed about the war that they are ready for peace. Israelis
are so war-exhausted that they are willing to give up anything for peace."

One expression of that Israeli desire for peace was shown this past 15 May
when 100,000 Israelis turned out for a demonstration in Tel Aviv. The
message the people gave to their government was: "Get out of Gaza; start
talking." Maya was among the throng at that demonstration.

>>> Death is part of your life But so is joy

Maya talks about a time a couple of years ago when she drove near the
Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin.  Her eight-year-old brother began to ask
her some difficult questions. "Why do we have a war with the Palestinians?"
he asked.  "I tried to answer him as best as I could," Maya says, thinking
back.  "Maybe you think that this stuff shouldn't be on his mind, but when
terrible things happen every day he is going to stay interested.  People
are dying. It is a big thing for a kid to deal with when it happens on a
regular basis. Death is a part of your life. But you need to see that the
world is still a good place and that life is still good."

Before departing, Maya recommends a return to Tel Aviv "because the night
life is better than anywhere in the world". Through all the pain, confusion
and disagreements, Israelis still try to see that joy is also part of life.

- - -

* Martin Smedjeback is secretary for nonviolence in the Swedish Fellowship
of Reconciliation. During a prior visit to Israel and Palestine, he
collected material for a book entitled Nonviolence in Israel and Palestine.
He is currently working as an ecumenical accompanier in Jerusalem.

Free high resolution photos to accompany this story are available at:
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/palestine/twoisraeliwomen.html 

Opinions expressed in WCC Features do not necessarily reflect WCC policy.
This material may be reprinted freely, providing credit is given to the
author.

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The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) was
launched in August 2002. Ecumenical accompaniers monitor and report
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