“Until when do we have to see this bloodshed?”
The question was posed by Lucy Talgieh, a Palestinian Christian. She emegrated to Isreal from the United States 26 years ago, and works as project director for the Wi-am Center for Conflict Resolution in Bethlehem.
“We need to change the stereotypes, that’s the most important thing,” She said. “Palestinians want peace.”
Last Thursday night at Talbot auditorium, Talgieh was one-third of “Middle Eastern Women for Change: Three Voices, Three Religions, One Vision.”
The discussion, organized by Partners for Peace, is part of the Fifteenth National Jerusalem Women Speak Tour. Abraham Peck, Director of USM’s Academic Council for Jewish, Christian and Islamic Studies, offered his own brief introduction in three languages: Hebrew, Arabic, and English.
In his welcome, Peck characterized the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as “one of the most burning political, religious, and geographic issues in our world.” Partners for Peace was founded in the early 1990s, with the mission of trying to find a peaceful solutions by way of a vibrant Israeli-Palestinian dialogue. This traveling discussion – now in it’s fifteenth tour and tenth year – always includes three women of unique faiths.
Joining Talgieh in the current line-up is Enas Muthaffar, a Palestinian Muslim filmmaker from Jerusalem, and Julia Chaitin, an Israeli Jewish educator from the Negev in Israel.
During the evening, each woman got a chance to take the microphone and tell their personal story of living in their war-torn region.
Muthaffar spoke about the question of identity and her own conflicting identity in being a Palestinian Muslim living in Israel – how she is a resident therem but never a citizen. She described a recent experience at the airport in Amsterdam, where a customs official did not know what nationality to write on her form due to all the different identification cards she carries on her.
Talgieh moved the crowd with the story of her transformation from an unabashed believer in revenge and violence, to a peace activist who trains and advocates for nonviolent conflict resolution.
Witnessing the deaths of family members, including her father and cousin, had hardened her with anger and a strong desire to retaliate; gradually, she gravitated toward academia, eventually studying peaceful resolution at a university and volunteering at a multi-cultural center.
Both Lucy and Enas recall their experiences living in Palestine under an Israeli occupation, and the horrors and travesties that become routine there.
Despite all the women shared, as a Jewish Israeli, Chaitan’s perspective stood alone. Her story focused on the Israeli forces – and impact of their ubiquitis, everyday presence. Chaitan described herself and her husband as ardant pacificists – extremely pro-peace, and anti-military – until they moved to Israel. The military in Israel, which every man and woman is required to serve in when they turn eighteen, is a part of daily life. Chaitan discussed the conflict this provoked in her own psyche, one that continues to this day.
“I often feel very torn over this identity of being patriotic,” Chaitan says. “I love my country and want it to be healthy, but these last years of occupation have destroyed us.”
“I don’t want to be free if my freedom is dependent on locking up another person,” she adds.
The desire for equality and tolerance was one of the threads shared by all three women’s remarks. They each had thoughts, and regrets, about the difficult road to peace.
“People feel the need to be either pro-Palestinian or pro-Israel. I would love people to see Israelis and Palestinians as people,” Chaitan says.
University president Selma Botman, who offered her own opening remarks, was pleased by the open nature of the panel and the Maine crowd.
“The turnout tonight demonstrates a tolerance and openness to issues of social justice,” Botman says.
Talgieh also mentioned being encouraged by such crowds, albeit more tentatively.
“I am not usually that optimistic,” she said. “But still I have hope. Let’s pray that peace will come one day.”