Dear Bjorn...

Hello this is Bjørn Westlie a Norwegian reporter. In December last year I visited Tel Aviv and interviewed Ethan Bronstein in Zochrot. Now I am writing a story about him and Zochrot. Therefore I want to fill out my story with comments about him from other people in Israel. The “other” side of Israel is so seldom in the media.

Could you say something about the importance of Zochrot? How would you describe Mr. Bronstein? Do you now of anyone else who could say something about him?

Yours Sincerely
Bjørn Westlie


Dear Bjorn:

Many thanks for your email. During the past four years I have worked as an alternative tour guide of critical tours – a form of justice tourism. One of the most powerful occasions I have witnessed (and which I refer to on a regular basis as a resource for my guiding) was the Deir Yassin Memorial Day, which takes place regularly every year at the site of the Deir Yassin Massacre of 1948, carried out by the original Palestinian survivors and witnessed by Zochrot and their invited Israeli guests. The site is now a Jewish neighbourhood, inhabited by Orthodox Jews. We Israeli peace activists walked through the neighbourhood, now Givat Shaul, being video’d by the Israeli Police all the way – the first time I was ever made to feel that the authorities viewed me with suspicion. That in itself was a weird feeling, having been a paralegal in the past, working in many lawcourts.

We sat and listened to the long list of names read out in memorial, at the site of the massacre and amid small remains of the village. Arabic music was beautifully played, giving the occasion a sense of dignity and authenticity. Original survivors sat with us, and whispered to us some of the gory details of that day’s events, including rape and bloody torture. These elderly Palestinians gather every year there, something increasingly difficult to do because of the suffocating Closure suffered by West Bankers at the hands of Israel, and their inability to get permits to enter Jerusalem – and, of course, the limited numbers due to advancing age.

As a new Israeli immigrant in 1981, I asked questions when I came from South Africa. “No, no” they answered, “we didn’t cause the refugee problem. They left of their own accord.” But Zochrot and others have not just taught me, they have shown me in a very concrete, physical and impacting way, that such a massacre, carried out by Jewish terrorists, was at the heart of the refugees’ decision to flee. Jews went around the area of West Jerusalem where I now live, Baka, with megaphones that same evening, broadcasting to terrified Palestinians “Get out. Go, before we do to you what we did at Deir Yassin.” Whether you call it ethnic cleansing or ethnic transfer, it worked. Thousands of Palestinians fled, leaving homes empty. Homes which were subsequently transferred as Absentee Property under an Israeli law to Jews (including traumatized refugees newly arrived in waves from Europe), which have now become prime real estate, advertised as highly desirable “Arab property”. Owners are said to have a subliminal ear open for the knock on the door that heralds someone come to claim his home back, or the sound of an original key trying the lock.

I do not know Eytan Bronstein well. We have met perhaps once or twice since. But I shall always be extremely grateful to him for opening my naïve eyes, allowing me to understand the sources of this conflict far better. Living in a country in willful denial, such an insight – such courage and such truthfulness - are rare. I believe that what Zochrot is starting to do is of enormous value. It is breaking the silence. It is holding up a mirror. It is daring to go across the huge divide to work on the basic assumption that there will only be peace, or a movement in the direction of genuine peace, when Israelis understand their own history, and their role in causing the refugee problem. Peace will come, insha’allah, once they acknowledge their responsibility and engage intelligently in truth and reconciliation, working sincerely and negotiating honestly for restitution or reparation.

One day this history will come out of the dark subconscious into the healthier air of the conscious and be taught and understood in Israeli schools, as it now is in universities.

The refugees’ Right of Return is an inalienable right under international law. If Israel wants peace, this problem must be solved; refugee numbers are swelling as families increase. It is not a problem which will disappear – on the contrary. The Palestinian Disaster, the Naqba, is increasing in many ways, as Palestinians are increasingly now moved off their land. Militaristic Israel can never ensure a viable, sustainable future. Truth, reconciliation and remembering (“zochrot”) is the only way.

Angela
October 18, 2006