Newsletter May 2008 - Email

May 2008

A minor step towards a big change

nar, we were still too many participants. Out of 30

At first, I thought I didn’t deserve to attend Sada-

would continue with the project in a different way.

ka Reut’s activities - I didn’t have the courage to

The youth that were not able to go to the seminar

say whatever I thought about politics. I wasn't sure

didn’t like this decision and most of them left for

of what I knew. But with time I started to express

good; only a few returned straight after the semi-

myself better. I widened my horizons and knowl-

nar and some returned only after a while.

edge about the situation in Israel increased as well.

only 10 could attend, so Yoa’ad had to select participants. I was selected, but a few of my friends were told that they could not attend and that they

After attending 3 seminars, we and the Kfar Saba group began our joint meetings, once in

The first meeting I attended was uni-national. 60

our school and once in theirs. Both we and the

youth from Taybe showed up. Yoa'ad, our facilita-

opposite group have learned a great deal of dif-

tor, had to bring down the number of participants.

ficult facts, so naturally we had a lot of hard ques-

They divided us in two groups and gave us an arti-

tions for each other, like: How would a Jew treat

cle to discuss. In my group, we had opinion letters

an Arab, like one of their own? and What was your

about television. At first I was afraid – I was not

first impression about us?

sure if I could speak my mind. But Yoa'ad created an atmosphere in which each of us could speak their mind on the subject. This was a strong experience - it made me realize that I have a lot of opinions on many different subjects. Since then, we have had many activities. Every meeting was special and to make it more interesting we suggested some subjects to talk about, like the way society pictures people from Taybe and first impressions between Arabs and Jews.

Both we and the opposite group have learned a great deal of difficult facts, so naturally we had a lot of hard questions for each other When time came to participate in the first semi-

Two weeks ago, we had a meeting with Mohammad Judi, a Palestinian facilitator from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. He came to speak to us about his work with Palestinian youth, but mostly to do a presentation on the Nakba, the reality of living under military occupation and everyday struggle for a normal life. Members from our group in Taybe were joined by members from the Palestinian group in Tira and some Jewish members of the Kfar Saba group. Although they were few (and we would wish more Jews attend these sorts of meetings), we were proud to have such friends from Kfar Saba who are ready to come and hear about what it is/takes to be a Palestinian in the Middle East today. Linda Massarwe - Taybe group

2 'Following Home' Photo exhibition in Jaffa, month of May

People can make Jaffa more calm and organised if they want.

Sama Shakra

The exhibition “Following Home” presents the

I am 18 years old. I am from Jaffa and I live

works of young Arab and Jewish girls from Jaffa

here with my mother. I am a poet. This is my first

and Bat Yam. Through photography, the girls dia-

experience with photography. Through this work, I

logue between their personal and collective sto-

learned more about Jaffa – small things that I never

ries as two intertwined aspects of the same expe-

saw before. The pictures let you see small details.

rience. The girls deal with the concept of ‘home’ as

The project brought me to ask further questions

it is lived on the private and public levels. The pic-

about my family’s history. I asked my mother and

tures seek to expose the erasure and the destruc-

my aunt about the family’s history before 1948.

tion that the eye cannot see, while exposing the force of home, its history, its richness and its community. Here are the works of two of the group's members.

Jamilah Siksik I am nearly 15 and I live in Jaffa. I want peace. I love life. I think photography is interesting and it helps to know better meanings of life. It's my way of showing myself different things and also showing them to other people. In the future I would like to do something connected to making our environ-

I already knew that the Jewish army had taken our house, but I did not know that the family had fled in the middle of the night in a small car. The Jewish army announced that is the men would not take the women and the children with them, everyone would be raped. So the family fled to Ramallah, but the journey turned out to be too difficult – it was hot and they were with a month old child. At one point they turned back. In Jaffa they found an empty and run-down house, close to where they used to live, and they began living in it.

ment better and to help people see the world in a

My work is political. It deals with what is going

good way - not only the bad. I would like to study

on in Jaffa and with the Palestinian-Israeli reality.

photography more. I loved working on this project. I learned things that I didn't see in the beginning.

‘A different view’ I like this picture because there is a boat but no sea. A boat in the middle of the street. When you look at it, it gives you a feeling of tranquility. On every part of this picture there is something special. When I look at it, I feel calm - but when someone walks in the street and sees the view, he might think 'what is this boat doing in the middle of the street?' It stands there like a parked car.

3 This week the country is celebrating 60 years of independence. We can see on the television that Jerusalem is important for the Jews: ‘It is important that we fight for the Jewish heritage’ they say. But what about the Arabs? What about us and our rights? Are we just air? Do we not count? Photography came to be a new way for me to express myself. With poetry, you know what you will write about, but when you go out with the cam-

Land day demo in Jaffa

era you can never know what you will see and what

The Jaffa Popular Committee Against

pictures will come out. For example, I knew about

House Demolitions and Evictions orga-

the house demolitions in Jaffa, but when I saw the

nized a big demonstration in the context

picture I took ‘Wall/Barrier’, I said to myself – look

of the Palestinian Land Day, which is cel-

how easy it would be to bring down this wall made

ebrated each year on the 30th of March.

from doors, but no Arab would dare do that.

Some 2,000 Arabs and Jews united in call-

My work is political. It deals with what is going on in Jaffa and with the Palestinian-Israeli reality. ‘Wall/Barrier’ This picture represents all that is unjust. I am sure that the doors themselves were taken from a destroyed home. You can see the words written in red ‘Ya’ad – sand extracting’. They are sucking the life out of Jaffa. They only want to build new luxurious houses and push the poor people away. The funny thing I that the Arab workers are the ones to build these houses – and all they want is to eat. One could easily take down the doors – but no Arab would dream of doing such a thing. – we are too afraid.

ing the authorities to cease their discriminating policies giving advantage to rich real estate brokers over the historic residents of Arab Jaffa. The demonstration was covered in all Israeli media, bringing the Palestinian flag going around the streets of Jaffa on the front page of all important newspapers.

4

System Ali events in 2008 System Ali is a band that was born the ‘Markaz’ – Sadaka Reut’s Jaffa youth center. The

band is composed of 8 rappers and 5 musicians. Its music stems from the encounter between the different young creators, all from various backgrounds and personal stories, but all living within the geographical space of the mixed city of Jaffa. This space and its variety form the primary element to the band’s soul and creation. After two years of common creation and public performances, System Ali is today a popular scene in Jaffa. Here is a list of the last months' performances in Tel Aviv and Jaffa; - June 2007-April 2008; Tour of Jaffa and Tel Aviv streets, raising awareness on the situation of housing in Jaffa - January; Event against the eviction order in the Markaz – Sadaka Reut shelter, Jaffa - March; performance with Tamer Nafar and D.J. Volkan, Levontin club, Tel Aviv; Plastic Festival, the Old Central Bus Station, Tel Aviv - April; performance with Fred Johnson, Tel Aviv; performance in Flea Market, Jaffa - May; Movie on the creation and work of the band, Cinematheque Tel Aviv; Live Jam at 106 FM radio station; Performance in Jaffa Port, Performance in Mendel Cultural Center, Jaffa, Performance on the roof of the Beit Daniel youth hostel, Jaffa

Facilitating in Sadaka Reut An educational process whose goal is to create a ‘political person’ It has been three years now that I have been a facilitator at Sadaka Reut. In the first year I facilitated a bi-national group, last year I built up a new Jewish group and this year I pursued with the Jewish group for a second year of activities. The continuity and the deepening of my work with the group permitted me to better understand where I was going with the group and what it was that I wished to create with it. The urgency I feel these past years to awaken Israeli society from its

deepest meaning the fact that in Sadaka Reut I provide the participants with a counter-discourse that in reality they cannot find, even if they look for it very hard.

slumber, or from its lost of direction, brought me

The experience of facilitating the Tel Aviv group

to combine between two very important elements

was very good. The size of the group provided for

– knowledge and dynamics. I understood in its

intimacy and friendship. The gender representa-

5 tion, characteristically feminist, gave me the oppor-

the ‘Women’s Coalition for Peace’); social (a

tunity, as the group’s facilitator, to deepen the issue

deeper understanding of the socio-economic and

of gender identity and to link it to other types of

ethnic gaps that exist within Jewish society); and

identity the members of the groups encountered

towards the end of the year, when I understood as

in their daily lives. The power relations that exist in

a facilitator that the members of my group knew

society are all products of the same social mecha-

practically nothing about the occupation of Pales-

nism, and they take on different forms according

tine – we dedicated a month to learning about it

to the different social and political situations in

and analyzing it from different angles.

which they occur. Our attempt to expose and identify these power relations, and the role each one of us plays in their midst – at times oppressed and at times oppressors – was one of the significant and challenging learning experiences our group went through during these two years of activities.

And yet, the third level or the third stage in the process, the same one that changes someone into a true politically and socially involved individual – the level of action – was more difficult to reach. It appeared here and there – in the recruitment stand we did at the start of the year on Shenkin

Another level of content that was added during

street, and in the joint action against militarism

this year was the issue of knowledge. Whereas

in the educational system we initiated together

Sadaka Reut’s approach in the past was to look

with ‘New Profile’: two actions that provided for a

for sources of knowledge from among the group

framework to ‘practice activism’.

participants, it has now become clear that, in order to create awareness among the individual participants, the passing on of information has a central role to play in the educational process. Thus, as facilitators we now combine between exposure to new pieces of information – leading to critical thinking and the intellectual doubt – and the emotional experience the participants go through in the bi-national process, bringing them to face and challenge the difficult questions that demand constant self-examination.

...it has now become clear that, in order to create awareness among the individual participants, the passing on of information has a central role to play in the educational process. The exposure to knowledge in the Tel Aviv group was in a variety of subjects: gender (mostly with

Nevertheless, for next year the true challenge will be to provide for an equal space to the three elements that are crucial in order to bring the educational process into political and social action for change. - Natali Levi, Tel Aviv facilitator

6 C h a l l e n g i n g ourselves

they needed to let go of things that were usually

Youth workshops in Bat Yam

ings. We were forced to deal with the school which

We started to work in ‘Ramot’ school in Bat Yam about mid-year. It was the first time that we did something that was ours from the beginning to the end. When we began working, we didn't have a program we needed to follow, or that we could follow. At first that was a bit scary, mostly because it was all new for us and we were not sure what we were getting into. At the same time, there was

kept deep inside them, mostly because of their environment – including their schools – that does not allow free expression and discussion on feelsometimes put barriers in the way we wanted to work with the group, mostly when we reached the final stages of the project – the actual mural painting. One of the central issues that were raised by the youth was the fact that the school had installed cameras in the school premises because of repeated break-ins after school hours. Today, the cameras are turned on also during school hours

something attractive in this uncertainty and in the possibility to do something we have never done before. Most of our activities take place in Jaffa with Palestinian youth, and the idea to work with Jewish youth in Bat Yam seemed important and challenging. We called it “The Graffiti Group”, even though the educational program was not meant to provide youth with expert training in the techniques of graf-

and the youth feel that this goes against their right

fiti making. Rather, we used graffiti as a means for

to privacy. The school did not agree that the mural

self expression and the passing on of social and

deals with the subject of the cameras, and the

political messages. In this context, we set out to

youth reacted with anger and felt that they were

check with the youth what it was that they want-

being silenced. The disagreement between the

ed to say. The main issues raised did not relate

school and the youth brought us to think anew of

directly to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but to the

our goals. It is very important for us to find the way

youth’s personal experiences and the oppression

that will enable the youth to speak their minds in the

and discrimination the are witness to in their lives

framework of school, which can be an oppressive

– either directed towards them by others or direct-

influence on self-expression and free speech.

ed by them towards others.

Although we have worked with the group for a

At first it was difficult to have serious discussions

short period and a lot of the planned work was

with the youth, but the structure of the workshops,

changed during the process, we feel that this is

which gave them freedom to say what they had

one of the most significant things we have done

on their minds, permitted them to let go of a lot

this year.

of thoughts and feelings. It was clear to us that

- Omri Gershon and Roga Koren

7 Building a Culture of Peace - yearly activities Here is a list of the nation-wide activities that have taken place during the activity year. - December 14th and 15th - first weekend youth seminar, Neve Shalom - Februar 15th and 16th - second weekend youth seminar, Neve Shalom - March 4th and 5th - third week-end youth seminar, Kibbutz Galon - March 15th - day picknick, Ofer Forest, North Israel - April 2nd and 3rd - youth outdoors trip, Tal Grove, North Israel

home, closer to society. The youth are Palestinian, ten of them in all, between the ages of 12 to 18, living together and not leaving the Hostel much. At times one of the youth is set free, at times a new one arrives. When I arrived to Jaffa for a year with Sadaka Reut, for a year in the commune, I was enchanted with the idea that in my personal project I would try and put up a community vegetable garden. The garden would be operated by the neighborhood and would therefore exist by and through the residents. The establishment of such a community garden seemed to me a good and unique way to take part in the environment I lived in. To change and enrich the lives of all residents taking part in the project, and also my own, on the issue of environment and ecology and their place in our lives. After long term efforts, I was not able to find enough people that would be interested in the project – there was no community that would be ready to donate time to the project and realize it together with me. To the Hostel I was connected in an uncanny fashion, through the Tel Aviv municipality representative of community gardens Oded Mesholam. For some reason I had never thought of the con-

Creating a small garden and what is in the process My experience in the Hostel was a first of its kind for me. ‘Hostel Yasmine’ is a home in which there

nection by myself, although I knew of the Hostel, seeing that Sadaka Reut has been working with the youth there for some years. Oded was approached by the Hostel’s wardress, who was looking for help and guiding with her idea – to put up a garden in the Hostel’s grounds together with the youth residents.

lives youth under the definition of ‘substitution of

I was excited with the idea. I met with the Hos-

detention’ – underage youth that have performed

tel’s staff and I proposed to be the one to coordi-

some crime but that, because of alleviating con-

nate the project. I met with the youth, we shared

ditions, are not put in jail but rather in a closed

ideas and I became convinced that, even though

8 the idea was the wardress’s at first, the youth were interested in taking part in the project. With the thought of something new coming into their lives,

ing up to the house’s front door. The work in the Hostel was for me a completely new experience. With all the youth groups I have coordinated, even the ones I was part of, I was afraid of the participants that would interact with me in an aggressive way. Even if the group was very pleasant, there was always at least one member I was afraid of because there is something inside me that paralyzes in the presence of violence. And in the Hostel… what was I doing there at all?! At all times there was a youth ready to check me out, to test my boundaries, to throw a

they could not remain indifferent. Two months of weekly work has passed in the Hostel. Work has been done. I can see that when I look at the Hostel’s appearance and all that has

remark that I am a skilled at taking personal. Why am I there? They always wanted to check my reasons, in the way they know best I guess, and their questions echoed in my mind…

changed, I can feel that in the change that over-

I think I got involved in a place that, if I was to

came the youth I worked with – and I can feel the

think in a rational way, I would never have chosen

influence of all of these on myself, who I am.

to go there. But was made me get involved in the

Even if the group was very pleasant, there was always at least one member I was afraid of because there is something inside me that paralyzes in the presence of violence.

Hostel was my feeling. Something in me told me to check out that territory, to try for real and not to flee. I had a strong enough feeling that nothing could hurt me there, and that the experience is mostly for me. The moments that I remember the most are the ones when a soft discussion was developed during work, when we would do some-

We uprooted grass. We hoed. We prepared rows

thing small together, moments when the youth

of flowerbeds. We planted dozens of plants and

would be doing something out of their free will, the

flowers all around the Hostel’s grounds. We build

moments in which confidence was a the heart of

spiral flowerbeds for the spices. We even planted

the action.

a few trees and, not as part of the planned work; we scraped, plastered and painted the stairs lead-

- Ben Sirota