Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, January/February 1998, Pages 125-128

Northwest News

World Vision Jerusalem Director Tom Getman Speaks in Seattle

By Elaine Kelley

"I'll never forget it. It hit me in the chest like a bolt," said Tom Getman, World Vision director in Jerusalem, to an audience at the First Presbyterian Church in Seattle on Oct. 28. Getman was referring to the words spoken to him by Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa sometime in the mid-1970s in Uganda. Tutu had been thanking Getman for all he had done to support South African human rights.

"We were standing on the beach," Getman remembered, "and Desmond was thanking me for the solidarity, for the hosting, for the prayers and for the legislation. Then Tutu said: 'Mandela will be out of jail soon. We're on our way, liberation is at hand, and if you really want to prove your bona fides, in terms of human rights, turn your eyes to the Palestinians.'"

Shortly thereafter Tom Getman and his wife Karen began making regular trips to the Middle East and he consequently became World Vision's director and spokesperson on the big issues facing Christian charitable organizations in Israel.

Getman is a story teller and made his presentation based on his personal experiences in the Holy Land. "Jewish hope has been dashed because the moral core has been lost," he said, describing the "deep residue of pain" in Israeli and Palestinian society, which is so apparently sociopathological and so general that "you can actually smell it and feel it," he said.

Getman and his family live in East Jerusalem near the controversial Ras Al-Amoud neighborhood. He said that tensions are high there. He related a story about the time he negotiated with two young Palestinians to haul away a pile of trash in front of his house. He offered to pay 15 shekels (about $5) for them to get rid of it, which they accepted.

When the job was done he handed them 20 shekels, a little more than agreed upon, and one of them began cursing at him and walked away angrily. Getman asked the second one why they were angry. The Palestinian youth drew "50" in the dirt on the ground and Getman then realized that they had misunderstood his offer of 15 shekels to be "50."

Getman said that he worried a lot about this incident, so tense were the feelings in his area. He worried about violent retaliation. "I recognized in my own spirit why people get guns," he said.

So he went to a friend, an Arabist, who recommended to him not to let the incident just go by, or forget about it, because the anger would fester and escalate. She told him to make some demonstration of desire for reconciliation, a tradition called "sulha" in Arabic, which means taking something sweet to an alienated party to indicate that you wish to reconcile.

So Getman purchased some cookies and went looking for the two young men, and upon finding one of them, offered the bag of cookies, saying "Here is sulha." "I couldn't believe it," Getman said. "I loved his response, great big smiles. He clutched the bag of cookies, then I paid him the rest of the 50 shekels. I drove away much more at peace and very grateful that I hadn't bought a gun."

But the systems in Israel don't lend themselves to peaceful solutions like this, according to Getman. He described the most recent curfew which hit people in Bethlehem the hardest. "It was the most Byzantine thing I've ever seen in my life," he said. "There was barbed wire, piles of rubble, no food or petrol or medicine deliveries for weeks." Getman said that World Vision's Palestinian employees, who usually were able to sneak into Jerusalem to get to work, were unable to this time because of very strict enforcement of the curfew. One World Vision worker who did succeed was caught by the Israeli authorities and was jailed for a month and fined $3,500.

There is a lack of the real leadership that's needed to bring people together, Getman said. "The problem is that we don't have a Mandela or F.W. de Klerk, and the younger leaders are so sick at heart for what is happening to their Arab friends."

Getman said it is Netanyahu's "intractable short vision" and his practice of "calling every act of opposition terrorism" and "calling people to the barricades for a vision that is the lowest common denominator" that makes it hard for Dennis Ross or Madeleine Albright to make any difference.

Getman believes that the U.S. Congress is beginning to stir, and that individual legislators are doing and saying things to show they can no longer abide unquestioned giving to Israel.

Citing the U.S. tax deductions received by American Jews for giving to Israeli organizations, Getman said, "American Jews must stand up and say something. They must say this is evil, and we must move on."

Getman said he once attended a conference at the South African Embassy where the American Jewish Committee was to present South Africa with an award for its progress in the area of human rights. "The irony of it was too amazing to miss," Getman said.

With 400 American Jews at the South African Embassy, the ambassador asked if Getman would give him counsel on what he should tell this audience. So after they presented the award to Nelson Mandela for human rights work, the ambassador announced, "As long as there are human rights violations anywhere, none of us is free."

He then introduced Tom Getman, "who is living in Palestine/Israel and working on human rights issues." Getman said that afterward many who were in the audience spoke to him about their discomfort and asked if Getman would consider taking them to see Gaza.

Getman said it takes courage to stand up for justice, and urged his listeners to believe in "prophetic truth-telling that touches hearts before darkness takes them over." He told of a trip he made with Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) in Israel/Palestine.

"He was the only congressman who was courageous enough to stay in an East Jerusalem hotel," Getman related, "and to resist Israeli government officials who sought to take over his schedule."

Getman said that although both the U.S. Embassy and Israeli government discouraged McDermott from visiting Gaza because "they couldn't guarantee his security," McDermott nevertheless stayed overnight there.

Getman said that when McDermott was visiting al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, the director, a woman named Suhala, broke down crying. She explained that one of her women staff members had been separated for months from her husband and children who were in Jerusalem because her Jerusalem residency permit had been revoked.

McDermott was very moved by the story and went with Getman to discuss the case with Major Avi Legman, an Israeli commander at the Eretz checkpoint on the border of Israel and Gaza. Within four days the family was reunited in Jerusalem.

Getman said that McDermott had been his Sunday school teacher and inspired him to apply scripture to the world. "Jim is one of 17 congressmen who voted against moving the capital of Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem," Getman said. "He's taken some courageous stands."

He urged his audience to help by rooting out Zionism in American churches, and to investigate before investing in Israeli organizations or development projects. Finally, Getman urged his listeners to "Pray powerful, persistent prayers, not just for individuals, but for the atmosphere of the whole place."

Palestinian Scholar Rashid Khalidi Inaugurates U of O Study Program on Palestinian/Israel conflict

Rashid Khalidi, professor of Middle East history and Near East languages and civilization at the University of Chicago, gave the opening presentation on Oct. 16 for the University of Oregon's year-long in-depth study program on "Palestinians and Israelis: Narratives of Peace and Identity." The new course at the U of O is funded by the $1 million Savage Endowment created in 1987 by former U of O undergraduate Carlton Savage, who served as assistant secretary of state in 1927 and was present at the 1945 San Francisco conference that founded the United Nations.

David Frank, an associate professor of anthropology at the U of O, said the university's series on Palestinians and Israelis will seek to foster peace through course offerings at the university, free public lectures, a film series, story telling, readings at local bookstores, a special event called Middle East Cultural Appreciation Week scheduled for March 1998, and classes in schools and public libraries to engage students in issues of peace and conflict resolution.

A leading authority on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, Rashid Khalidi was an adviser to the Palestinian delegation at the Madrid peace conference and is president of the American Committee on Jerusalem, in Washington, DC. His lecture, before an audience of 250 in the U of O's Beall Concert Hall, focused on the theme of his recently published book, Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness.

In his historical analysis of the Palestinian and Israeli conflict, Khalidi argued that there are traditional ways of characterizing it, whether as religiously-based strife going back centuries; a larger conflict between Israel and the entire Arab world; or as a conflict between two rights to the same land. However, Khalidi said, there was no conflict between Palestinians and Jews until 100 years ago. Therefore, to characterize it as an age-old dispute falsifies the historical reality of this fierce conflict "over the very same land between two modern national movements."

Professor Khalidi, who earned his B.A. in history from Yale and a Ph.D. in modern history from Oxford and who has taught at the American Univesity in Beirut, Columbia University in New York and now at the University of Chicago, says that the conflict stems from recent national movements in which each side has come to see itself in terms of the national identities which would not have been used 100 years ago.

Using his own family as an example, Khalidi explained, "My grandfather, born in Jerusalem in 1864, saw himself in terms of Ottoman history and Muslim history." It wasn't until the later emergence of Zionist nationalism existing alongside a fledgling Palestinian nationalism that the two people took on new identities in which "each cast the other as primary villain," he said.

Khalidi said that looking at the dispute in this way "helps us to understand why the conflict is so intractable." It encompasses more than the struggle for control of the land, he explained, because "the two sides are engaged as well in competition to propagate authoritatively a sole way of...seeing the history of this land." He cited the bitterness each side manifests in its newspapers and other writings in an "intense war of history."

Khalidi said the discussion of the conflict between Palestinians and Israel is more balanced elsewhere in the world, but not in the U.S. For this reason, Khalidi describes himself as "grimly pessimistic" for the short- term possibilities of resolving the conflict.

He blames Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Bill Clinton for the current "disastrous situation," Netanyahu because "he acts as if peace were not possible, or even important" and Clinton because he gives currency solely to Israel's version of history and allows U.S. domestic political issues to dominate his policies with regard to the Middle East.

Khalidi says a real resolution depends on the emergence of sounder views of history on both sides. "Israelis must come to terms with their own enormous power," he said, "and Palestinians will have to come to terms with powerlessness."

Both sides are going to have to overcome using victimization as justification for their actions, in Khalidi's view. "There is nothing more nauseating than the awful atrocities committed in the name of victimhood," he said.

Oregon Middle East Studies Consortium Co-Sponsors Teacher Education Workshop

The Oregon Middle East Studies Consortium (OMESC) co-sponsored a workshop with the U of O Savage Committee on Oct. 10 to provide information and support for educators on all levels who are teaching about the Middle East. "The Israeli-Palestinian Relationship: Background and Current Realities for the Classroom" brought teachers from all over Oregon for a one-day intensive learning experience. David Frank of the Savage Committee opened the workshop, followed by a presentation on "An Historical Perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian Relationship" given by Jon Mandaville, director of the Middle East Studies Center at Portland State University.

A panel of four gave personal perspectives on current realities in Palestine and Israel: Larry Hansen of Portland, Oregon, who has been active in Palestine/Israel peace issues since his pilgrimage in 1989 and is currently working in support of Palestinian residency rights in East Jerusalem and promoting face-to-face contact of Holy Land pilgrims and Palestinians; Ibrahim Hamide from Bethlehem who is a restaurateur residing in Eugene, Oregon, and working with the Eugene chapter of the Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East and the Savage Committee planning team; Carole Stein, a teacher in Eugene who has been active with Americans for Peace Now; and Amit Kobrowski, a Jew with both American and Israeli citizenship who teaches the only class in the Beaverton, Oregon School District completely dedicated to the study of the Middle East.

A second panel of speakers during the afternoon session focused on "The Classroom Challenge: Presenting Conflicting Perspectives," a presentation by Jan Abushakrah and Marlene Eid, both educators in Portland.

Abushakrah, a sociology instructor at Portland Community College, lived in Israel/Palestine for 15 years, from 1980 to 1994, where she founded and directed the Palestine Human Rights Information Center (PHRIC), which monitored human rights issues in the West Bank and Gaza. She and her family moved back to Oregon in 1994 as "refugees of the peace process."

Marlene Eid, a Palestinian from Jerusalem, teaches psychology at Portland State University and is working with PSU's Middle East Studies Center to expand its Palestine Studies Program.

Abushakrah and Eid introduced a method of presenting the Palestine/Israel conflict based on the public deliberation model developed by the National Issues Forums as a way to revitalize citizen participation in the democratic process. Three approaches to the conflict were presented in role-playing techniques allowing participants to grasp the issues as a matter of conflicting values and to work toward an understanding of options and consequences.

The three choices offered for consideration were: Greater Israel vs. Palestine is Arab, which poses divine right against absolute historical justice; the two-state solution based on sacrifice of some land by Israel on the one hand, and opting for relative justice and independence for Palestinians on the other; and, finally, the binational, secular democratic state perspective based on a commitment to principles of democracy and equality.

The presenters encouraged teachers to pursue training in the NIF format, which is available through the Kettering Foundation in Dayton, OH (phone 800-600-4060) or from the Public Policy Institute which conducts training each summer at Reed College in Portland. The contact person in Portland is Neil Naigus at Portland Community College (phone 503-977-4122).

Other activities at the workshop included a presentation by Terrie Chrones of the Creswell, Oregon School District in Eugene on the use and style of comics about the Israeli-Palestinian Relationship. Chrones, an art and humanities educator, specializes in teaching about the Middle East through culinary lectures and cartooning. The workshop also included distribution of teaching materials and a showing of the video "Seeds of War in Jerusalem" produced by the Alternative Information Center in Jerusalem.

Willamette University Hears Meron Benvenisti speaking on "Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem: Intimate Enemies"

Israeli author, geographer and historian Meron Benvenisti opened the 1997-98 Atkinson Lecture Series before a packed auditorium at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, on Oct. 27. The series is an annual event sponsored by the university to provide speakers of distinction for the benefit of students, faculty and the community.

Author of Intimate Enemies: Jews and Arabs in a Shared Land (1995) and his most recent book, City of Stone: The Hidden History of Jerusalem, Benvenisti is also a writer and columnist for the Tel Aviv daily Ha'aretz. He is a visiting professor at Beersheba University in Israel and The Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC, and is a former deputy mayor of Jerusalem and administrator of the Old City. The topic of his lecture, "Intimate Enemies," combined the themes of his two recent books to illuminate the friction between the Arab and Jewish communities and their respective histories in one land.

"I am a Zionist, a citizen of Jerusalem," he began, "but I grant the same feelings to my neighbors." Benvenisti insisted that there is "no such thing as history" because history, for both Arabs and Jews, is a vast quarry of stones from which both sides "build myths and rocks to throw at the other side."

He described a "Siamese twins" relationship between peoples whose deep divisions and seeming inability to resolve their conflicts is hard for people in other societies to understand. "It is not armies that fight," he said, but "a friction between communities" that goes beyond armies or policemen or customs officers, to affect all levels of human interaction.

Benvenisti referred to the approaching year of jubilee in Israel and the 100th year of the first Zionist Congress and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel, stating that these commemorations are viewed by Jews as proof of the success of Zionism.

"At the same time I know how my neighbor across the street views that as a calamity," he said. "He views that as unjust, a settler state in his own midst."

International peace initiatives fail, according to Benvenisti, because they do not understand or address this type of historical conflict, with its ancient hatreds and continuing hostilities that affect the social, cultural and political fabric. For this reason, segregating the communities or trying to solve the strife through a "surgical solution" where two side-by-side states exist miraculously in peace is not a model Benvenisti thinks will work.

Instead, he says, it would "institutionalize a terrible disparity" in which Israel continues to control 70 to 75 percent of the land, 90 percent of the water, and where Israelis will continue to enjoy five or six times the per capita income of Palestinians. "To separate now means separate and unequal," he said, resembling more the bantustans of South Africa.

Benvenisti's view requires that a new agenda be written calling for a federation or binational state where Palestinians and Israelis would not be divided by rigid boundaries, but instead would form a shared government allowing both sides equal voice. But he does not think major change toward this vision of a shared land will materialize in the immediate future. And he said that the Oslo model is inapplicable because the conflict is not an international conflict.

"To look at it from the point of view of ethnic or social conflict is a better model to use," he said, comparing the Israel/Palestine conflict to the one in Bosnia and other places where strife is likely to prevail for many years. He hopes for a mutual "linear progression attitude," where the distinction is not made between war and peace, where no ultimate solution is reached, but where both sides "will agree to manage a continuous crisis in the foreseeable future," he said.

Benvenisti described the process of reconciliation as "very problematic" because both sides are burdened with historical baggage that has nothing to do with the present conflict. He pointed to the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin as one who paid with his life for believing that enough energy had been created to move ahead with conditions conducive to a solution. "Maybe he succeeded in changing the thinking of half of the Israeli public," Benvenisti said. "And Arafat could carry his people only half-way, so now we have four groups," he said, "half who believe in peace and half who don't."