Sunday night speaker

I know I am skipping what happend on Saturday night, but I feel that what happend this Sunday is more important. Don't worry, I have notes and will probably get around to posting [Saturday's events] tomorrow.

One of the really cool components of the Boneh program is that on every sunday night, our madrichim (counselors) bring in external speakers for us. Tonight's session was incredibly intense.

We had two speakers, an Israeli and a Palestinian, from a group called The Parents' Circle come and talk to us about a cooperative Israeli and Palistinian path to peace. In a nutshell, they try to bring both sides together to show both sides that the other side are human beings too, and are suffering from the violence. Check out the link to find out more about them. If you have any questions, or anything is unclear, please post a comment and I will respond. The evening started out with Aaron, the Israeli, telling us his story.

Aaron was born many many years ago in Argentina. He made aliya when "[he] was a youngster, like [the Habonim group]." He married his wife and had three kids, one daughter then two sons. They were an incredibly liberal family, going to rallys, protests, and the like. His oldest, his daughter, completed her compulsory army service without any problem.

His second child, his son Alon, wanted to become a pilot but did not pass one of the final pilots' tests. He decided to join what is considered to be one of the most dangerous branches of the Tzahal (the Israeli Army -- short for "Tzava Hagana L'Yisrael", which means "Israeli Defensive Army"), the EOD. The EOD is the Explosive Ordinances Division, and their role is to study and disarm hostile explosive devices. His platoon worked in Lebanon.

Noam, the youngest child, wanted become a pilot, but ended up joining his brother's platoon. Noam still had time left in the army after his brother had left. Noam's official time in the Army ended on year at Passover, but he felt that it was his duty to volunteer for an additional month to support his platoon-mates. Before he left home to return to Lebanon, his mother gave him a little amulet that read in Hebrew, "We Must Leave Lebanon." His commanding officers at the base were very much against Noam wearing the amulet on his uniform, but he told them that he was volunteering and if they made him take it off, he would leave. About a week into his volunteer service, Noam was killed by a Hamas remotely detonated bomb.


After Aaron spoke, Sheeri, the Palestinian, told us her story:

Sheeri has had three tragedies in her family.

Her civillian uncle was an innocent bystander killed during a Tzahal mission in Beirut.

Her grandmother used to live in an Arabic village in Israel. After a series of piguot (terrorist attacks) in Israel, the Tzahal decided to increase the security surronding and inside of her grandmother's village. The additional security included a total lockdown of residents, preventing anyone from going into or leaving from the village. One day, a canister of tear-gas was launched near to the grandmother's house. The grandmother became so freightened that she had a heart-attack. Sheeri's aunt called an ambulance for the grandmother, but it was in vain. The Tzahal officer refused to allow the grandmother and aunt to leave and go to a hospital. Worse, the officer also denied the paramedics either option of caring for the grandmother inside of the city or taking her to a hospital. As Sheeri put it, her Grandmother was killed by the decision of that officer.

After a similar time of increased tension due to piguot (but not increased security) Sheeri's brother and his friend were walking to their Grandfather's land to help him with the work around the family's small farm. A hitchiking Israeli officer saw them, and without reason or cause, shot the boys in the throat and killed the two boys instantly.


Both Sheeri and Aaron continued to tell different stories about their work together and the work of The Parents Circle. (Post a comment if you want to me to write one of the stories).

The take home message of their program is that both people, not necessarily the governments, are sick and tired of the needless bloodshed. People on both sides have realized that iron fist policies will only result in the other side retaliating leading to the original side retaliating... ad infinitum. Only working together towards peace can break the otherwise unending circle of violence.