It's 9:40 pm in Israel as I begin writing this post.

My head is spinning. I am trying to digest all that we saw and heard today. Before I get into the details, let me start with my conclusion. There is so much peace work being done in this country, even after October 7. It's harder than it was before and some activists express a lack of hope and pessimism, but they won't give up or stop their work.

Standing Together

Our morning began outside of the gates of Hebrew University, Mount Scopus campus. We met Ariya and Noam, sophomores at the school. Ariya is from an Arab village in northern Israel, and identifies as Palestinian, a relatively new expression of identity for Israeli Arabs. She had never met a Jew before moving to Jerusalem for college. She held every negative feeling and stereotype possible about Jews. Noam was born in Jerusalem to a Jewish family with left-wing leanings.

Ariya's friends had been attending meetings of Standing Together and encouraged her to go. She didn't want to, but finally gave in. Noam, on the other hand, had heard of the group and joined immediately when he began college, as he knew his left leaning views, especially his opposition to Netanyanu, would be welcome. 

Standing Together is an organization of Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs/Palestinians who come together to talk, learn about each other, and advocate for social justice for all members of Israeli society. The emphasize their shared goals. The organization is active across Israel and growing. It's membership was 5,000 before October 7; since the start of the war, it has grown to 10,000. 

Standing Together is so important because Jews and Arabs live in separate bubbles. Ariya shared with us that she now lives in East Jerusalem, in an Arab village that borders on the university. The village is extremely crowded. Yet, their are very few roads, no buses, no voting in national elections (only municipal ones), and a large presence of Israeli police, especially during Ramadan. She said this was scary and disappointing because it is so different in West Jerusalem where the school is. She was also arrested one day outside of the school by Druze police. There were no charges, just harassment. Officials from the school apologized to her, but it still left her feeling angry.

She stays in Standing Together because she remains hopeful that her generation can make changes, and believes that that will come only by talking about peace and being together. Noam finds that Standing Together gives him hope and optimism, and allows him to believe that things will be better. As we left to walk along the path around the campus, Noam and Ariya hugged each other goodbye. Ariya thanked us for coming and hearing their stories. I think we provided her and Noam with hope just as they gave it to us. 

Ein Rafa Village

We met with Yasmin, a Swiss-British woman who converted to Islam when she met her husband Musa, an Israeli Muslim Arab. They live in the Arab village of Ein Rafa, which sits west of Jerusalem. This village and two near it were unaffected by Israelis in 1948, who entered Jerusalem on a different hill. Yasmin and Musa live is a beautiful home with lush gardens and goats. They have four children -- one who attends a Jewish/Hebrew language school, two who attended Arab schools, and one who attended a private school. Their large garden includes a long table for hosting groups for lunch and conversation. Mostly they host Jewish youth groups from the U.S. and Europe, and thus they have applied for kosher certification for their kitchen. Musa is an excellent cook.

Yasmin believes the main issue between Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem is trust, and that the war has only made that harder.

She commented that Arab Israelis (Arab citizens of Israel) are mostly silent on October 7 and the war. She emphasized that the Imams are particularly quiet because they are civil servants who are paid by the Israeli government. I mentioned that the Israeli government provides payment to religious leaders it deems to be proper -- Imams and Orthodox rabbis, but Reform, Reconstructionist, and Conservative rabbis in Israel do not receive payment from the government. (I don't know about Christian clergy.)

She had a number of other observations: That Arabs misunderstand Judaism because they focus on the Hebrew Bible and assume that is how we live today. But she also thinks it's a place for finding commonality because the Hebrew prophets are an important part of Islam. She also said that Arabs won't vote in municipal elections because they don't think it will make a difference. (Ariya said the same thing.) Her liberal Jewish friends encourage the Arabs and liberal Jews to vote the same way and oust the ultra-Orthodox, but the Arabs won't. One final observation from Yasmin: That peace is already here -- you just have to open your eyes to it. That's more hope than anyone else has expressed in this country. I wonder what she sees that no one else does.

Rossing Center

Hana has worked at the Rossing Center for 20 years. Formerly it was the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian relations. When the founder, Daniel Rossing, died in 2010, they renamed the center and expanded its mission to work with people of all religions in Israel. They focus on inter-religious dialogue and peace building. She pointed out that Christians in Israel are a very small minority -- about 188,000 people who are registered with the country as Christians. Another 200,000+ people are of Christian backgrounds but register as nonreligious. In the West Bank, there is about 50,000 Christians; in Gaza, a few hundred.

They have several challenges in their work:

• Who is a minority? A Christian in Israel? A Jew in the Middle East and the world? Who must listen to the other? Who gets to express their victimhood?
• Past relations -- historic Christian antisemitism.
• Theological questions -- Christians in Israel do not talk about Jesus as a Jew; Jews don't understand trinity, incarnation, and icons; and fear that Christians want to convert them.
• Language of dialogue -- Arabic? Hebrew? English? Translation is laden with interpretation.
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- this is the crux of the problem; not a dialogue of religion, but of identity; non-Arab Christians feel that they must take a side; they often side with Israelis because they are integrated into the Jewish community (sometimes they are married to Jews), speak Hebrew, and even have their church services/prayers done in Hebrew.

Rossing Center focuses on:
• Education -- even Orthodox Jews learn about other relgions online in Hebrew.
• Research -- staff is all religions and levels of observances; staff of 18; all languages spoken in the office.
• Responding to attacks on Christians (spitting and some other harassment) by Orthodox religious nationalist men.
• Open House/Ramle -- Bulagarian Jews bought house in 1948; Arab family came back in 1967, knocked on the door and said it had been their house; Dalia, Jewish daughter living in house turned it into a Jewish-Arab meeting house and turned it over to the Rossing Center when she retired; this year, they could not hold joint programs so began with separate programs for two communities; then brought the two communities together with limited success.
• Meeting Place at Hebrew University -- inter-religious study of religious texts of three faiths, dialogue circles, encounters with the general public. Hard for Arabs seeing soldiers in uniforms with weapons. How do they sit together in classes? So they focus on similarities -- connection to Jerusalem and to the land.
• Taught narrative on conflict -- everyone angry and happy at the same time but able to move ahead and meet together.
• Educating for Change -- teach teachers how to respond to racist statements in classes.
• Dialogue and Unity -- 5th and 6th graders to learn about each other; this year didn't happen because Arabs afraid to talk.
• Healing Hatred -- facilitating ways to let people talk about the conflict.

Since October 7, they have done aid distribution in East Jerusalem, run a Jerusalem dialogue group, held special learning sessions. Still, Hana is not optimistic. So she tries to focus on hope for a better future because she does not have the luxury to not be hopeful. Yet, she wonders why she is doing the work she is doing. She was so sad yet not.

Road to Recovery

Motty has been a ten-year volunteer with the group. They transport Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza (before October 7) to hospitals in Israel for needed medical care. They pick up the Palestinians at check points and drive them 1-2 hours to the hospital, and back again if it's an appointment just for the day. They are also called to go to the hospitals to take the Palestinians home after a stay in the hospital. Volunteers also arrange "fun" days for sick Palestinian kids, such as taking them to a beach. And 5% of their budget is spent on purchasing life-saving medical supllies for Palestinians.

Volunteers make 10,000 journeys per year; more than 600 Israelis volunteer, five were murdered on October 7 and three taken hostage (one released), many volunteers had family members killed, and many of the volunteers are now refugees living in the north of Israel. West Bank transports stopped for a month or so after October 7, but have resumed at full capacity.

Palestinians express tremendous gratitude for the rides. They are necessary because Palestinians cannot drive into Israel (only those with work permits can). Motty talks with his passengers about family, food (share recipes), and some times politics; he will play Arabic music. Less talk of politics since October 7, but he sees this volunteering as a small seed of hope which can only grow.

I have been deeply touched by the stories told and the honesty and openness of those with whom we met.

I started writing at 9:40 and it's now 11:15. Time for bed to prepare for another full day tomorrow.