“I can be
sneered at, I can be hated, but I cannot risk my life. That is not the case for
the peace activists in Gaza…They are risking so much when they work for peace,
and it is not always we can help them. Sometimes there is a question in our
mind, are we doing good or are we doing bad?”
Rani is a
wife, a mother, a grandmother, a Jewish woman and a peace activist. Originally
she is from the United Kingdom, but she has lived in Israel for most of her
life. She says:
“I believe
this is my country. I am not willing to leave. But the people in Gaza, they
believe this is their country too, and they also want to be able to live on
their land in peace… I will do anything to help them have that, because only
then can we live together as neighbors; because we are neighbors. We are here
to stay, and they are here to stay, and we could have a wonderful life together
and we both have the same rights to have that.”
“We want to send another voice from this
region, trying to find a roof of communication. It is not necessarily who are
right and who is wrong, but talking to issues that concern people on both sides
of the border. We need people to listen to each other, without judging. This is
what is so important, and what we do not know how to do. We both share a
history, the same history, we just look at it through different set of eyes.”
Rani has
five children and eighteen grandchildren, and admits that life is not always
easy in the area, where they live so close to Gaza.
“When I go
to walks with my grandchildren, I wonder where I am going to run if a rocket is
coming, because I would have fifteen seconds to get to it (the bomb shelter).
There was this one day I really felt like I was losing it. My grandson was on
his bike going back from our place to his mother’s house, and my husband was in
the greenhouse. I heard the alarm. I was first running towards the bomb
shelter, but then I wanted to go out again to make sure my family was safe. But
I stopped. I was thinking you silly idiots, what are you doing? You know that the
airplanes will be up in air in five minutes, and retaliate with bombing Gaza.
It all felt so pointless. Then I did calm down, but for some of us it does not
work, and we are traumatized.”
“Yet the
immediate phone calls I get when we are bombed are from our friends in Gaza,
calling to see that we are all safe. And that nourish my hope. ..I cannot
accept this life for me or my children.”
“Find a way to stop the rockets, because we
have seen this does not work. Let’s think of another way, because there are solutions!
Try harder, think harder! There is a solution of two states for two people,
there is a solution of one state for two people. If we try to tolerate each
other, we can find a solution for peace."
Standing next to the border, looking out over Gaza from the top of the hill, I am struck by the automatic machine guns controlled by remote from Tel Aviv, and the wall surrounding Gaza like a prison. Rami is standing there next to me, talking about the situation from her perspective, saying how one of the biggest threats they face are the tunnels dug under the wall, used by Palestinians in Gaza to sneak into Israel. I admire this woman, living in a region scarred by conflict, who despite all obstacles is promoting another voice and working for peace for everyone, Palestinian or Israeli alike.
No comments:
Post a Comment