In conversation: Perspectives from Palestine

Three Palestinian professionals share their experience and views

14 June Newtown Synagogue Community Hall

 

 

iwJAFA organized a special ‘in conversation’ event last month with a panel of speakers: Nahed Odeh, Ahmed Bishtawi and Imad Kilani, three Palestinians currently here in Sydney completing post-graduate studies.

 

It was an evening refreshingly free of propaganda, spin and rhetoric.  

Instead the conversation was personal and authentic, direct and heartfelt. The three speakers shared some of their personal stories and described aspects of their lives in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, living within the confines and restrictions caused by the Occupation and ongoing conflict with Israel.

Rabbi Eli Cohen of Newtown Synagogue opened the meeting by Acknowledging Country and spoke of the importance of peace and the importance of moving beyond conflict, beyond seeing each other as the ‘other’.

This certainly set the tone for the evening, where the atmosphere was open hearted and engaged, with an audience of around 40 – 50 mostly Jewish locals.

Each of the speakers shared something of their personal background, career and academic work and explained what had brought them to Australia. They gave us insights into their lives in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and explored examples of what daily life involves there, compared to what most of us experience here in Australia.


We heard about some of the daily difficulties. For example, just travelling the equivalent distance from Newtown to North Sydney could take up to 5 hours due to check points and delays, which then of course, made face to face meetings with colleagues almost impossible due to uncertainty about timeframes.

Two of the speakers are lawyers, and we learnt that in most parts of the West Bank, where there is a system of military justice, the ‘law’, (a complex system of regulations) is unclear to Palestinian lawyers and the trial is run by the Israeli military. Each case is therefore a matter of negotiation rather than advocacy before an independent judiciary – something that we all take for granted.  

We also heard about some of the personal concerns of our speakers. For example fearing being stereotyped as a terrorist, or of supporting terrorists, just because they are Palestinian, and worries for teenage children who are going to have to adapt to a much more restricted life back in Palestine, having got used to the freedom enjoyed here.

 

At the end of the evening questions from the audience ranged from what the panel thought about the future for Israel/Palestine, which led to an intelligent and thoughtful exploration of ideas about one or two states, to the importance of Palestinians and Israelis meeting each other face to face, not as ‘soldiers or settlers’ or presumed ‘terrorists’.

 

And to conclude, echoing Eli Cohen’s opening comments, one of our speakers laughed about his multiple visits and Shabbat dinners at Newtown Shul and the friendships he had made, and how, as a result, his opinion of ‘Jews’ had been turned upside down!

 

The meeting finally ended with a Middle Eastern supper with conversations continuing for much longer.

 

As is our tradition, we also used the opportunity to collect donations for EcoPeace Middle East, an organization run jointly by Palestinians, Israelis and Jordanians, which works to solve environmental and water issues across the three borders.

 

- Gail Kennedy