Letters from Israel – Sida 2

A Story

When I travel out of Israel, I see local people traveling, going to work, meet for coffee – the routines of life. In my heart I feel hope that one day I can walk in my home without fear, that within my home I will be safe, that no one would claim that my home is not mine.
Is my hope strange to you? We have no other country to live in.
Wherever you go in Israel, you can find a piece of Jewish history: coins, scrolls, houses, synagogues…
A small region that has always been inhabited by the Jewish nation.
Although many argue otherwise, it is a proven fact.

Everywhere else in the world we will always be strangers, not belong.
It’s sad to hear people discuss the situation in my country, and always choose one side..I’ll tell you a story, a true story:

Many years ago, in a faraway land, there was a Jewish man, a father of seven sons. He had a croft – a small farm, but he was not a farmer.
He was a Dayan – a Jewish Judge, who travelled from village to village.
He was very important to the Jewish community. He would rule according to Jewish law in all sorts of topics: money, inheritance, and he also gave certificates for weddings, divorce.
Most of the time he was on the road, and his family saw him only five times a year.

He told his sons about a land far away, of a great king who lived in a holy great city.
He told them how his family was sent for a mission many, many years ago… and when they wanted to return their country was occupied and looted by other nations and all their people scattered around the world.

He promised his children that one day… and gave them hope…

One day our hero went away again, but he never returned.
Simply disappeared.
Like the story of Joseph from the Torah scroll, found was only his clothes, stained with blood.

His wife and their sons decided to leave.
They knew it was a matter of time until the neighbors would deport them and confiscate their property.
According to the law in that country, a widow was not entitled to own property and the children could be taken into slavery and convert.
They reached the port city where they asked permission to board the ship to the holy land.
Everyone received approval, except the youngest.

I can continue my story, but then you will need to read a whole book…
The ending is a happy ending.
The youngest son was my my great-grandfather .
His ”little” family currently includes almost 450 people, all born and raised in Israel.

Lital

”What I ask for is not support, I ask for understanding”

My name is Michael, I’m 22, I love life and I love my country.
I know Israel is far from perfect, but is there a country that is? Every country has its problems. As I have read in ”The girl with the dragon tattoo” by Stieg Larsen, it seems Sweden has its share of women’s rights problems.
But that doesn’t give me the right as an outsider to criticize and to call for boycotts on Sweden does it? Not at least until I have actually been there and read enough on the local history and the problems in order to understand it.

I am part of what the world media calls ”the settlers”.
What I’m about to say might shock you:
I don’t hate arabs. I don’t believe in segregation either. All I want to do is work hard, succeed, have a family of my own one day. And I know that like me, so many arabs want the same. So what is the problem? Why can’t we do that?
Go to this link: http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/12/500-muslim-youths-riot-in-gothenburg-sweden-to-protect-honour-against-sexual-rumours.html

See? Even at your own home. So why is this happening? We can find excuses, we can blame ourselves but that won’t get us anywhere. It won’t help to solve the problem.

The problem is that too many people make a living from this conflict, like Yasser Arafat before, and now Mahmud Abbas is getting a big fat pay check from the Europeans and the United Arab Emirates. Money that’s supposed to go to the Palestinians go to the authority’s mens own pockets to build big houses and buy expensive clothing for their wives. Some of that money is your tax money.

And the funny thing is. Many Israelis don’t even realize it. They think that the ”settlers” are the problem and that’s what they say to the world. And the world believes them. So please let me make it clear to anyone who’s reading this:

I never ”settled” anywhere. I lived here all my life; my parents came here when they were young. This land was empty; no one lived here before we came here; my parents worked hard and paid a mortgage. Not only that, the fact is, I live in an area called Gush Etzion – a place which had Jewish people living in it before 1948 (when the local arab villagers along with the Jordanian legions slaughtered the men, women and children that lived here).
And along with all that, we have a pretty good life here, as I am writing this, I am looking outside of my bedroom window, I see mountains and vineyards and the plum tree in my garden. An arab from one of the local villages is working in his field silently. No one has ever disturbed him, he’s never disturbed us. In the local supermarket you can see Jews and Muslims standing quietly (as far as people in the middle east can be quiet) in the line.
With a little more effort , this place could be Tuscany of the Middle East.

You think that many arabs want a state of their own? I suggest you ask them yourselves. Not the ones making a profit from providing the idea, I mean the actual people, taxi drivers, farmers, construction workers, I think some of their answers will surprise you.

What I ask for is not support, I ask for understanding. Understand that life is not black and white, there are deeper things and backgrounds to this conflict. But the solution might not be in western ways, because in many ways, the people living here are not western people (as much as we try to be and act like we are).

My name is Michael, I’m 22. I believe that all humans are born equal and I know that I have no other place to live but here and that is why I will protect myself in any way needed, even if it means to build walls and have check points with soldiers standing in them. We have no choice. This is our home and we love it.

”Dear Swede… I really don’t care.”

Dear Swede,

I’m sure you are a nice and wonderful person, but I have to be honest. I don’t care what you or the world thinks anymore. I’ve become tired of hearing distorted truths about my home. I’ve become tired of thinking about my national identity as a battle. I’m going to keep living my life, and I’m going to keep supporting my government to make sure that I can keep living my life.

I really don’t care if you think my neighbors are out to destroy my country or not. (They are by the way.) I don’t care if you think we are trying to remove non-Jews from Israel. (We aren’t by the way.) I really don’t care. Instead, I care about getting other Jews to feel proud of our home and our nation. I care about working 6 days a week, and bringing food to my family, and helping the company I work for become a better company.

I care about my friends and the people near me, and about making life worth living. If I have to do that with your accusing eye constantly looking for bad things to say about Israel, my home, then so be it.

But frankly, if you can’t work to stop evil in the world, if you can’t stop the Sudanese from raping, the Syrians from killing tens of thousands, the Arab countries from repressing women, the corrupt governments in South America, the totalitarian countries of Russia and China, then why in the world should I care what you think about the Democracy I live in?

Why should I care what you think about the my home which helps the people in Haiti, and helps the Sudanese build new farms, who helps the Indians with irrigation technologies? Why should I care what you think of us when we are the one force for good in the region? I don’t, and if you keep shaking your fists at those terrible Jews then you are just going to become dissapointed when we continue to flourish, thrive, grow, and improve the world for those willing to accept our help.

אבי

”We can walk hand in hand, be who we want to be, who we are”

Hi Kim, first, I would like to thank you for your support for Israel, so it is a thank you from me and from others that still don’t know you.

My name is Itay, 27 years old, former Extreme Ultra-Orthodox Jew and gay.
Where should I start? There are so many things that pop up in my mind now.
Israel, a small country maybe of the size of a county in the USA, Israel, a place where all Jews around the world feel safe, Israel, the only DEMOCRATIC country in the Middle East, Israel, the ONLY country in the Middle East where the LGBT community can actually live.

We are not perfect, far far away from it, but we do our best in the endless war for life and peace.
So many things people think about Israel, so many and we, we are so few against the world.

I work at the fire department, in my free time I love to study more about my country, my beloved one.
When I was Ultra-Orthodox I was in group called ”Neturei Karta”, you know them, those who ”make love” with Jew haters.
Of course they are just a few here in Israel but they remind me more than all why I love this country.
In times of war I find myself sometimes crying, not because I am afraid, not because I don’t know where I live, only because I feel tired, tired from the hunt against us from the beginning of our history, the pain is endless mostly because the world is deceived, blind, and sometimes even support terrorism.
I can’t describe the feelings, I can’t describe the strength you need when you know lots of countries see you and hate you just because you are Jewish, the media love to show that the reason why we are so hated is because we are Zionists, this is not true and it is about time people will learn before they judge and pointing a finger to us, we are hated only and only because we are Jews, we are hated only because we are Democrats, we are hated only because we can.

Golda Meir one of our PM said :
“Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.”

We tried, and we are still trying, in the last 2 decades our most efforts went to Defensive operations, the Dome, giving up our lands and so on and on, moreover Gaza strip get electricity from Israel, Gaza strip gets Humanitarian equipment from Israel, Gaza strip gets oil from Israeli gas stations (different name, Israeli owners), in Israel there are members in our Government that are Arabs and choosing the other side and they still live in Israel and gain every month salary from the Jewish people.

And still, no one from us (Israelis and Palestinians) want blood, casualties or war zones.
We, like you, are people who want to build a house, plant a tree, who want to love and live in dignity, in empathy, as human beings, as free people.

We more than all want that our taxes will not go to security.
We want it for us, for our development, for our success, for our families, for our elders and kids, for the few years a person has on this earth.
My reality is why I decided to study Political science and Middle East studies at the university. It is in many ways my redemption for who I was in the past.
Dramatic huh?
Well no, this is just one side of the story, the other one is stunning.

As a gay person in Israel I feel free to be who I am, of course it is maybe not ”perfect” like in some European countries, but hey we are not Europe but we develop fast, even in the closest societies in Israel people start to hear and understand.
We can walk hand in hand, be who we want to be, who we are.

We can do parades and getting more rights (and we succeed in it with every passing year) to live and love.

Israel for me is : Warm people, in every size, color or shape.
Markets, streets, views, beaches, stores, buildings, deserts, smells, SUN, studies, parties, beautiful people, cultures, tastes, smells and also free religion for all.
So You, the one who reads it, and has doubts in what I say, Come.
Let me show you, you are wrong, let me show you that we are dealing with things that many others don’t, that we have something to offer and we have things that you even might love.
And, even if you decide not give us a chance, I love you, just because you tried.

Itay

”Before you judge us, come and visit”

Hi, my name is Michal, 22 years old and I’m proud to be Israeli.

Life in Israel is sometimes not easy. We suffer from a lot of wars, rockets, raids… But I love Israel. It’s home.

Even though sometimes it’s not safe here, I feel that this is the safest place for me, as Israeli and a Jewish person.

We are not bad people, we are just like everyone else, we are just trying to live in peace and protect what is ours. This land belonged to us since forever. We built our homes, roads, everything here.
Children should not have to sleep in shelters, and be afraid of every boom they hear. It is not a way to live. Not a right one.
As someone who sufferd and celebrated her 16th birthday in the shelter I can tell you it wasn’t a very nice experience.
I was so scared and couldn’t understand why all of that was happening.
When I joined the army I loved it! I would go back anytime, just call me!

We have the most amazing sites here; beautiful beaches, beautiful cities to have a good time in.
Before you judge us, come and visit. See for yourself what this amazing country has to offer.

Thank you,

Michal