I must make an apology to my lovely friends in Tel Aviv for seeming to forget about them entirely. Indeed that's not what happened at all, in fact, Tel Aviv was absolutely one of my favourite places and experience on my trip and maybe because it was such a big deal, I bypassed it in my blog. So here goes...
I'd been in Israel for about 1 or two weeks when I got to Tel Aviv. So far I'd loved the experience and found it really interesting. But it wasn't until Tel Aviv that I felt like I was in and amongst it. My beautiful friends Katie and Omer had me at their house near the lovely Masaryk Square for about 2 weeks. I wont tell you about the city, or its buildings, the streets or the beaches, to me, those things were a give. Those things are the material and they exist everywhere, but I will tell you how this beautiful city challenged me and the things I thought I knew.
I really had some time to consider the situation between Lebanon and Israel while I was there - how I felt about it, what it meant, whether there was any sort of hope and I began to question what was happening more and more. The longer I stayed, the more I felt at home. That was a strange thing in itself and sometimes brought up issues for me around feeling patriotic towards Lebanon and my family although beginning to understand a different side of what was going on. It always comes back to the same thing for me. People are people and for the most part in this world, we appear to follow our governments and their ideals. This is in fact so untrue - particularly of Tel Aviv. I'm not sure if it was a risk I was taking, but I told most people that I met what my background was. This generally brought on interesting conversation and I began to find, particularly in the younger generation, that no-one agreed with what was going on, and that killing people in a fight for land was not something that they wanted. This is the same for the younger generation on 'the other side' in Lebanon.
I think what people need to understand about the conflict and the way people are dealing with it - from the conversations I have had.
When there is conflict that threatens you or your family, you will try anything to be safe. Sometimes, that may mean supporting the people that in essence are creating that conflict but are also your only protection against it. What a way to live. For most of us, particularly those who live in Australia, we have no idea, i repeat, no idea what that feels like. We live a safe and sheltered life and don't have reason to think that a rocket may come plummeting into our house at any time. So while people may not agree with the politics, they are still protective. There are also many more factors than the news lets on - we are spoon fed information and it is only the information that the governments want us to know, so they can go and do their dirty work behind our backs. I think this is true for Israel and Lebanon. There is much more to understand but what I got from the experience was that these people look just like me! I was mistaken for an Israeli on several occasions. There are mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, children, grandchildren, weddings, birthdays, deaths, and births the same in both countries. The only difference is that the people living in these two countries don't know each other and are closed off from the ability to connect - this is politics way of forwarding its agenda to get what it wants. As long as people think that the other side are the enemy, they will continue to think that way. I got to see it from a different perspective - I am one of the lucky people - I now know more than I ever did and want to do what I can to bring these two sides to more of an understanding by sharing what I know.
I stayed at Kibbutz Nir Oz, with my friend Katie. This was possibly one of the most important experiences of my time there. This particular Kibbutz is situated right next to Gaza, and by right next to, I mean, there is a field that separates the two. You could hear machine gun fire off in the distance and I was told stories of how people had been shot when working out in the fields. Fair enough, those things i'd assume are a given. They were in the process of building bomb shelters on the back of each Kibbutz dwelling - but they did so with a fair amount of indifference. You see, for the people that live there, those risks and dangers are a part of their life. From the people that I spoke to, you never got the sense that they lived in fear or were waiting for something horrible to happen at any moment. This is their life. This is how they live, and they live each day as it comes, because when you live in a place like that, there is no other way to live. I will treasure my experience there and the people I met who shared their time and stories with me.
My friend Zev asked me one day if there was any hope (for Israel and Lebanon)... I told him that as long as we are trying to conquer the divide, as long as we continue to be the beginning of the future even simply through our friendship and conversations, of course there is hope. There is always hope.
