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This past Monday, the JCC sponsored “The Israeli Palestinian Conversation”, an extra-ordinary, emotionally moving and thought-provoking play. I commend Ami Dayan and his cast for their courage in tackling this issue and providing an artfully weaved fabric of history and emotional context about the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The Conversation first had the actors, especially the two protagonists, Israeli and Palestinian, be themselves raw and uncensored. Dayan then had them not just be the other… but become the other. By his artful weaving of history and emotional context, I found myself experiencing not just their emotions as a victim or sufferer… but also, their emotions toward the other. What an emotional ride: anger, despair, hopelessness, sadness and grief just to name a few.
I felt uplifted by the play and, at the same time, sad, upset and angry. Not at the play or its material. But by the thoughts of what our community has lost. By what we have not experienced by the absence of lectures, films, discussions. and art on this subject. Let me explain.
The actors read Moshe Dayan’s famous speech, often dubbed as the “Israeli Gettysburg Address” that Dayan wrote in a half-hour as a eulogy for Roi Rothberg who was killed and mutilated by Palestinians while working in the fields by the Gazan border
Moshe Dayan starts out: “Yesterday with daybreak, Roi was murdered. The quiet of a spring morning blinded him, and he did not see the stalkers of his soul on the furrow. Let us not hurl blame at the murderers. Why should we complain of their hatred for us? Eight years have they sat in the refugee camps of Gaza, and seen, with their own eyes, how we have made a homeland of the soil and the villages where they and their forebears once dwelt.” Further in his eulogy, Dayan does not mince words about the hatred the Arabs have for Israelis and the necessity of Israel defending herself and of having no choice but to be ever vigilant and wary of the enemy.
I thought of the courage Moshe Dayan possessed to say what he knew. I thought of his understanding of reality and how he challenged us. What if our religious and lay leaders back then would have disseminated his words and we were able to look at Israeli actions and Palestinian responses through that lens?
Yitzhak Rabin (whose yahrzeit is this November 3rd) recorded an interview in 1976 that was discovered in 2015. He called the West Bank settlement movement “comparable to a cancer,” and warned that Israel risked becoming an “apartheid” state if it annexed and absorbed the West Bank’s Arab population.
What would have happened if as a community we had listened to this speech and looked at what Israel has done and the consequences through the Rabin’s eyes and see his evolution from “Let’s break their bones” to “let’s find a way to peace.”
The Israeli Palestinian Conversation worked because it presented the history of both sides and challenged the excuses both sides have used to justify their behaviors. It happened because each began taking responsibility for their actions.
I have a request of Ami and his troupe. We need a play entitled “Conversation Between Jew and Jew”. We need to look at our own history in Israel and our response here in order to understand our own rifts and start our own healing.
In order for this to work, I have a request of the JCC. Help us find a way to present films from Israeli and Palestinian film makers and speakers that would truly pull in all sides of our community to begin a dialogue based on shared information. I have a request of Haver, Boulder’s rabbinical association. You have the resources to help us look at collective Jewish action through a Torah lens whether it be the actions of the terrorist settlers/IDF axis or how the IDF has fought the war in Gaza.
We need a coordinated approach developed by all sides in our community to form the foundation for a conversation that could lead to understanding and respect among us, Ami Dayan and his cast showed us the power of weaving together history and emotional context. May we use it to go from strength to strength.
( I would like to put together a program on Yitzhak Rabin featuring his speeches and writings followed by a discussion on their relevance for today. Interested? Ed Kass at ekass18@gmail.com or 734-644-7305.)
