As a substitute of turning to bombs, Aramin turned to reconciliation. He studied the Holocaust in a grasp’s program, discovered glorious Hebrew and tried to see the humanity in Israeli troopers at West Financial institution checkpoints.
A technique of mutual dehumanization has led all sides, he mentioned, to treat the opposite as morally inferior. He famous that Israelis typically counsel that the issue is that Palestinians don’t love their children and are able to sacrifice them for the battle, whereas Palestinians visitors in an analogous stereotype about Israelis.
“We don’t see one another as human beings,” he mentioned, and he informed me of the Palestinian mom of a teenage boy killed by Israeli troopers who reluctantly got here to a Mother and father Circle assembly, nonetheless fuming at Jews.
“She believed that they had been animals,” he recounted, quoting her as saying, “They don’t have hearts like us; they hate their youngsters as a result of they ship them to the military.” However she met an Israeli mother who informed of shedding her baby to a Palestinian, and shortly they had been each sobbing and embracing.
Aramin is outraged at what he sees as Israel’s quotidian mistreatment of West Financial institution Palestinians, together with girls, at checkpoints, however he sees the humanity within the troopers there.
“They seem like killing machines, however they’re afraid of us,” he mentioned. Aramin informed me that the day earlier than I spoke to him, he and his spouse had pushed to go to their youngsters, taking a mountain street to bypass delays and humiliation at Israeli checkpoints within the West Financial institution. However he mentioned they had been stopped by 4 Israeli troopers who angrily informed them to return and threatened to grab their automotive. Aramin mentioned he spoke calmly in Hebrew, recognizing the troopers’ worry, and so they quickly obtained to speaking. In the long run, the troopers nonetheless turned them again however apologized for doing so.
I famous to Aramin that these organizations selling mutual understanding principally date from the Oslo peace course of, when two states had been anticipated to emerge aspect by aspect. Now that course of is in hibernation, if not lifeless. It’s good that Mother and father Circle holds camps for Israeli and Palestinian youngsters to get to know one another, however how is that saving lives on both aspect of the Gaza border?
The arc of historical past is lengthy, he replied. Germany as soon as tried to wipe out Jews and now exchanges ambassadors with Israel. Some day Israel and Palestine will coexist as states, he mentioned, and the query is solely what number of corpses will pile up earlier than that occurs.
“We should share this land as one state or two states or 5 states,” he mentioned. “In any other case, we are going to share this similar piece of land because the graveyards of our children.”