Welcome and ‘Political Tour’
Day one of Thrive by student:
Today the first Thrive group in the history of Hebrew University met in the Rothberg International Campus for its first gathering. The group of 15 participants came to Israel from all over the United States to study abroad this semester. Thrive is one of the only opportunities for us to balance academics with Jewish learning and experiencing Israel through group trips, Shabbatons, and more.
It was incredible to meet these new eager faces, most of whom just got off the boat yet are already actively searching for more.
This first program focused on Introduction to the Arab-Israeli conflict through the lens of Israeli politics, which encompassed a tour of Jerusalem and would not be complete without a delicious dinner and a hummus making competition! We are Jews, after all.
Focusing on our city Jerusalem, we covered topics ranging from general history from 1948-today, borders, East/West Jerusalem- what does this mean? What and where are settlements? Our tour was let by Gill Hoffman, chief political correspondent and analyst for The Jerusalem Post and regular on CNN. One of the first things he told us was, “I am here to show you the political spectrum. That means the far Left wing and far Right wing- I’m not holding anything back”. And with that, off we went!
Our first meeting was with left-wing Meir Margalit, representing the Meretz party, who until recently was a member of the Jerusalem municipality. The word most repeated in his short lecture was “discrimination”. Against who you are thinking? The Arabs of Jerusalem of course! Using statistics and historical facts of the Jews settling in Arab neighborhoods after the 1967, the Six Day War, Meir tried to convince the group that the only real solution to the Arab- Israeli conflict in Jerusalem would be turning the city into a bi-capitol city for two nations. Why? A participant in the group wondered just the same, “so are you saying that once the Arab population is a majority they will all vote in the municipality and take over?” Meir’s answer was, “Yes. Right now they are choosing not to vote because they do not want to appear to be consenting to the unfair policies placed against them. But when they become majority, they WILL strike back and take over. Unless we divide Jerusalem- then we allow that part to remain Jewish.”
With that insight into the Left wing, Gill took us to a Jewish settlement called Ma’ale Zeitim, located just under Har HaZeitim, outside the borders of the Old City in East Jerusalem. It is a functioning settlement for 12 years now, taken back in 1967 when the land was bought by a Jew after the war. We had the honor of meeting Right- winged Mordecai, an Orthodox Jew living in the settlement, who told us about the settlement’s history, present situation, and prospects to grow in the future. Mordecai assured the group that the importance of settling land under Israeli rule even outside of the ’67 borders is essential- that this is the land of the Jewish nation and burial place of many Jews including Rabbi Kook, the First Chief Rabbi of Israel, and former Prime Minister Menachem Begin. “Therefore, having a Jewish presence in this area is essential”, he said. One of the participants boldly asks, “but are you not afraid to live here amongst the Arabs?” Mordecai sighed and responded, “I personally am not afraid. The likelihood of the Israeli army coming into this area to escort a terrorist at 2am is far more than any other Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem, yet I personally am not afraid.”
To conclude, this tour can be summed up in three words, said best by our wonderful tour guide Gill, “It’s VERY complicated”. Through this experience, we all came away with a deeper understanding of Israel’s political spectrum through experiencing both sides, as well as a sense of excitement for living in Israel’s capitol as well as one of the four Holy cities; Jerusalem- where all the action is happening.
All of this food for thought would not be complete without some real food! Wefinished off the eveningwith a delicious home-cooked meal and a fun hummus- making activity, which we did paired with young parents who immigrated to Israel from North America, most of whom live walking distance from the student dorms on campus. We made connections with these wonderful people while sharing laughs and jokes with each other, sharing our own stories, and expectations of our Israel experience. There is one thing on which we can all agree- just on the first day, Thrive has already become an integral part of our Israel experience having provided us with so much learning, connections, and thought-provoking ideas.
As interested Jewish students coming from abroad, this first day not only brought us together as a group, it encouraged us as Jews to stay tuned and alert to everything going on around us, since in Israel there is no such thing as status quo- the political situation often changes before the country has a chance to blink. Now we are part of this amazing country and understanding it’s political challenges will help those of us returning to American colleges be Israel activists on campus in the future.
