I began thinking about a New Year’s message this week as Rosh Hashana approached. Last year during this time, the West Bank was under closure for the entire month of Jewish holidays, starting with Rosh Hashana. This year, closure has again been announced, although it does not seem to be as severely enforced yet. More flying checkpoints dot the roads, but Palestinian cars still seem to be able to drive on them.
Last year I sent a message calling for a collective New Year’s resolution to stop the Wall. I asked you to call your American officials to try to influence an upcoming vote. Since then, Bush has come out in full support of the Wall, pushed in part by Kerry to do so. The international community is playing around with opposition to the Wall, and even discussing sanctions against Israel, although I’m not sure anyone will have the courage to do it while the US continues its position. The International Court of Justice ruled that the Wall is illegal and needs to be dismantled. Meanwhile, the Israeli Supreme Court just ruled that the section in the town of Aram can begin again, and in no time, the Wall was erected in the middle of the road, separating Palestinians on one side of the street in Aram from those on the other.
So we haven’t stopped the Wall yet, we haven’t ended the occupation, and I’m not so sure what kind of New Year’s resolution to make at this time. What I do know is that we probably had the only Rosh Hashana dinner in a West Bank Palestinian village last night. We made eggplant parmesan. Dorothy, an Israeli friend, brought lasagna and grape juice (an acceptable substitute for wine considering we live in a Muslim village). And of course, we had plenty of apples and honey and other desserts. Fatima, the main Palestinian organizer who we work with, came over with her 5 kids, who all thought the food was quite strange but ate it anyway. That is, except for 9-year-old Baraa’, the youngest one. She liked the grape juice and the cookies, but didn’t eat much else.
We sat around eating, talking, playing a few games with the kids (actually, helping the boys connect to the internet games they wanted to play). The older girls have beautiful voices and sang a couple songs for us. The evening was simple and sweet. 6 Palestinians, 2 Israelis, 3 Jewish internationals, and 4 other internationals shared a beautiful meal together in Hares in honor of the New Year. Certainly peace begins at home.
A healthy, happy, inspiring, peaceful and just New Year to you all,
Hannah
P.S. Last year I sent you an Arabic phrase of the week in each report. I haven’t been doing it this time, but there’s one I want to share. On Rosh Hashana, Jews traditionally say, “Shana tova” to each other, meaning “A good year” in Hebrew. Fatima adapted a traditional Arabic phrase for the occasion, saying, “Kull sane w’inti taybe.” You can use it liberally this week.
