Keep hope alive in Palestine

20 March 2005

Before leaving for Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories on Y Care International’s delegation in December 2004, we’d received one piece of advice: become ’engaged’ in the struggle for freedom, justice and peace. At the end of our week we sat in an East Jerusalem bar, with our local Tay-Beh beers and asked ourselves if we were engaged. Were we fully and passionately committed?

Stark choice

The night before, we had attended a meeting with Israeli Jews in the Old City. Rami Elhanan, a member of an organisation for bereaved parents, told us his daughter was killed by a suicide bomber a few hundred metres from where we sat. He had run frantically through the streets looking for her before eventually finding her body in the morgue.

He said he was living in a ‘bubble’ before that, not really acknowledging the grave reality of the conflict. The loss of his daughter forced him to confront it. He had a stark choice: spend a lifetime of hatred and revenge towards those responsible, or try to understand why it had happened and work to prevent future tragedies. He chose the latter – undoubtedly more difficult – path

Change hearts and minds

Mr Elhanan and others like him work to bring bereaved parents together from both sides of the divide and give talks in schools to try to change hearts and minds.

But, he says, achieving reconciliation is like “trying to empty the ocean with a spoon full of holes”.

Education and rehabilitation   

Our visit took us to various projects run by the East Jerusalem YMCA and supported by Y Care International. At the Vocational Training Centre in Jericho we saw young men and women training in mechanics, graphic design, plumbing and other trades.

In Beit Sahour the YMCA carries out rehabilitation for children and young adults who have been physically and psychologically damaged. This is a place where children’s drawings are of guns and tanks rather than cars and houses. In Ramallah the YMCA is building a new centre to bring hope of some sort of normality to the local population.

Keep hope alive

While in Ramallah we saw in action the ‘Keep Hope Alive’ Olive Tree Campaign. Thousands of trees are being planted to replace those destroyed by the building of settlements and roads. Farmers face a constant struggle to hang on to land and harvest olives in the face of confiscation, harassment, intimidation and attack.

Hope is still alive

So, what of the future? There is intolerable suffering among both Palestinians and

Israelis. Both endure death, injury, instability and constant trauma. Palestinians face daily occupation, oppression, injustice and a tremendous imbalance of power. Their economy and society lie in ruins. And the militarisation of Israel has huge costs, and not just economic ones.

Hope is still alive, although there have been many false dawns. Both sides uttered the same sage words of caution – after three days you think you know everything; after three months you realise you know very little. It is a very complex and enormously difficult situation.

Responsibility for us all

The YMCA is trying to instil hope in the lives of young Palestinians and Israelis that they can create a better future. But there is a responsibility for the world community, for all of us, to engage, be aware, and support a fair and just solution. A big step forward for a fairer, more stable and peaceful planet is worth striving for. Keep hope alive!

A full version of this article appeared in the Y Care International publication: ‘Palestine: In Their Own Words. Views from Young People on a Y Care International Delegation’, published in August 2005