Featured Articles: Nakba Day


This editorial by one of our long time original MEPJA members, Iris Keltz, was aired on KUNM, 89.9 the evening of May 15. It is posted here with her permission.

Hand in Hand Schools: KUNM radio editorial

by Iris Keltz 5/12/08

Jews around the world are celebrating the 60th year since the creation of Israel from the British ruled protectorate of Palestine while millions of others are mourning the ethnic cleansing of that same land. The foundational myth of Israel, “A land for a people for a people without a land,” is facing the Palestinian narrative, Al Nakba, the Catastrophe when over 400 villages were wiped off the map and 750,000 people became refugees. Their descendants number in the millions today. Many still carry the key to homes left in such a hurry, all they took were memories.

Sixty years later, Palestinians within Israel are second class citizens and those living on the West Bank and Gaza remain under a forty year occupation. Although 20% of Israeli citizens are Arab, there is little opportunity for the two communities to mix. The demographic fear in Israel, that Arabs will soon outnumber them, is so strong, the only solution many see is separation and dispossession.

Hope comes in the form of a quiet revolution happening inside Israel/Palestine led by children and their parents. Quiet, yet powerful. Bridging two cultures that seem to be on an irreconcilable collision course is the heart and soul of Hand in Hand Schools, co-founded in 1997 by Amin Khalif and Lee Gordon. Through the creation of a bilingual, multi-cultural curriculum, the schools foster the possibility of an egalitarian society with roots strong enough to withstand the banter of fear mongers and bombs of extremists. Sponsored by the Los Alamos Peace Club, Lee Gordan was the keynote speaker at the Second Annual Mother’s Day Peace Day in Los Alamos. He also spoke with Women in Black, Santa Fe and a group of educators and activists in Albuquerque.

Last May, I visited the only multi-cultural school in Jerusalem, an ethnically diverse city. Each class had two teachers, one Arabic and one Hebrew speaker. In the hallway was a bulletin board dedicated to the commemoration of Al Nakba (the Catastrophe) alongside one celebrating the 40th year since the reunification of Jerusalem. Briefly separated every May– Jewish Israeli kids mark Israeli Independence Day and Palestinian Israeli kids (Christian or Moslem) remember Al Nakba. Afterwards, they come together to discuss their historical perspectives. They do not have to agree. They dialogue.

Two boys played soccer in the schoolyard. The coach told me one was Jewish, the other Moslem. I could not tell which was which because skin, eyes and hair color do not reveal ethnic or religious differences in this part of the world. Israelis can be Jewish, Christian or Moslem and Palestinians can be Moslem, Christian or Jewish if you were born before 1948. The two boys leaned into each other on the bench as they drink water. They were friends.

While Hand in Hand schools are not growing as fast as illegal settlement construction, home demolitions and land confiscations, they are multiplying, four exist and more are planned. There are no such schools in the West Bank or Gaza partly because Israelis are prohibited from entering these areas and Palestinians are prohibited from entering Israel without a permit. But I have no doubt that these seeds for peace will someday proliferate there as well. Revolutions in the future might look like a slumber party at your best friend’s home who lives in a village your parents once feared entering, let alone sharing a pot luck. And that’s no small feat.

for more information lee@handinhand12.org website www.handinhandk12.org