By Ari Friedman
Early on in the semester we had the opportunity to learn with Zeev Ben Shachar. Zeev is incredibly well versed in Israeli history and the regional conflict. Zeev provided us with balanced information on the what’s and why’s of Israeli history. Zeev teaches a year long course on Israeli history that he consolidated into two small sessions specifically for the Nachshon Project.
We touched on security related issues such as the security wall that separates Jewish and Arab towns in Israel proper and the West Bank. We spoke about the different rights held by Palestinians and Jews such as rights to water, rights to legal documents, and freedom of travel. Zeev went on to show us propaganda released by popular Palestinian media outlets prompting hatred and violence. It seems that education is the key to understanding why Jews in Israel think one way and Palestinians another way. It was extremely interesting to speak about security at a time in Israel when there were almost daily stabbings or car ramming attacks. We learned that these tragic events happen in the same places over and over again simply because those are the locations where Jews and Palestinians physically meet. These events happen in the overlapping locations such as Damascus Gate where West and East Jerusalem meet, where the Jewish and Muslim worlds meet to visit their most holy locations.
We spent some time discussing the Israeli borders which is a confusing and difficult topic to say the least. There are borders recognized by the United Nations, by Israelis in Tel Aviv, Israelis in Ma’ale Adumim, Palestinians in the West Bank, the European Union, and the United States. Everyone seems to have very different beliefs as to whether the borders should look like they did in 1967, in 1947, or even in biblical times. We spoke of the various challenges faced by Israel in trying to have Jerusalem be it’s capital while the rest of the world views Tel Aviv as the capital while the Palestine Authority also views Jerusalem as its capital.
Zeev allowed us to speak our minds freely without the fear of being judged by our peers. We shared different opinions and accounts of Jews and Arabs in this long and difficult conflict. Zeev provided us with a comprehensive and beneficial learning experience that reinforced our prior knowledge on Israeli history and taught us many new things about the conflict that we otherwise would not have learned.
