Intensive Arabic Semester

Photos & Text: Lydia Aisenberg

LEFT: Dudu Amitai, Givat Haviva spokesperson and director of the Yad Yaari Research and Documentation Center showing Barcelona journalist Ofer Laszewicki and photojournalist colleague Oliver de Ros newspapers from the unique Givat Haviva collection of Arabic language newspapers

Ofer Laszewicki and Oliver de Ros grew up in the same neighborhood and have been friends since the age of four.

The friends from Barcelona chose the same profession, journalism. Oliver, a photojournalist was born in Spain ‐ his mother is originally from Britain and teaches English whilst writer Ofer was born in Israel but moved with his parents to Spain when he was a toddler.

The childhood friends recently took a 2‐month sojourn with a joint professional eye through Israel and

Palestinian areas to try and better understand the Palestinian‐Israeli conflict and to also focus on organizations

concentrating on peace education and Jewish‐Arab shared society projects such as those found in Givat Haviva.

“Although I was born in Haifa but raised in Barcelona, Oliver and I realized that in order to cover different social and political issues on our own – and particularly to focus more on dialogue and reconciliation histories between the people – it would need a few months of research work. Reading about Givat Haviva on the internet propelled us to want to know more about all the special projects here,” explained Ofer.

The eager pair of young journalists met with Etti Amram, director of the Givat Haviva Arts Center and Peace Gallery. Naturally Oliver showed particular interest in the Through Others’ Eyes photography and video project and how photography had been the tool to successfully bring Jewish and Arab youth together for over 12 years in the much in demand project.

Following their visit to the Art Center the Spanish duo had the opportunity to generally soak up the atmosphere on campus together with International Department’s Lydia Aisenberg who also guided them on an in‐depth tour of the region. The tour dealt with the 1949 Armistice Line in the area, the security fence and checkpoints, Jewish settlements, the ‘Seven Stars of Sharon’ such as Katzir ‐ and much more ‐ before tackling the complicated history and present day situation of East and West Barta’a, divided to this day by that very Armistice Line of ’49.

During a second visit to the Wadi Ara campus the following week, Ofer and Oliver were invited to view the unique Givat Haviva collection of Arabic language newspapers and to receive an explanation from Dudu Amitai, the Givat Haviva spokesperson and director of the Yad Yaari Research and Documentation Center, of how the collection not only became recognized by UNESCO but that funding from that organization has enabled thousands of pages of 1930s and 1940s editions of the newspapers to be digitized and made available on the internet.

The Barcelonans were also joined in the library by Galit Kellner, director of the Givat Haviva School of Arabic Language & Middle East Studies who spoke with them about the many long and short term courses offered both Israelis and overseas students who speak Hebrew – as does Ofer who has a large family in Israel. Oliver, who is not Jewish, has no knowledge of Hebrew or Arabic but has picked up a small vocabulary in both languages in the two months he has been in the region.

Galit Kellner translates a few lines of an Arabic language newspaper, circa 1940s.

“Hebrew and Arabic are very similar, in fact there are no two languages that are as similar to each other as that of Hebrew and Arabic,” explained Galit, whose parents originate from the Yemen and Egypt. She holds a B.A. in Arabic and Education from Haifa University and M.A. in Arabic from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and impressed upon the visitors the importance of the Arabic language newspaper collection – for both the Palestinians and Israelis – and how she incorporates articles from those newspapers in her teaching and also to assist researchers such as one young man, a former Arabic language student of hers, who is nowadays undertaking research in Israel toward a degree at Cambridge University.

“Through teaching the language to Jewish Israelis and those from abroad I feel I have an extra purpose above and beyond just language as through the language tuition one can create more understanding. The similarities are not only in the language but these similarities only recognized positively when speaking the language of the other. The languages are more than cousins! The Arabs in Israel speak Hebrew, know us well but only a small percentage of the Jewish population speak Arabic,” she said. “My friend Anhar in the next office to me here in Givat Haviva is like me, just she is a Muslim and I am Jewish. We have and share a great deal in common.”

“I have discovered that once Israeli Jews learn the Arabic language much of the hostility and fear falls by the wayside and they are no longer uncomfortable when they hear Arabic being spoken, so my objective is to teach the Arabic language to as many people as possible,” she declared, with a broad smile and wave of a hand in the direction of the fray edged, yellowing newspaper pages stored in the cardboard box on the table in front of Ofer and Oliver.

“Many of those that attend the long term or adult evening classes choose the Arabic language studies as a means of understanding the language and culture of their neighbors, that they recognize Arabic as the language of the neighbor and not just of the enemy,” emphasized Galit. She also told the journalists about being one of a group of Arabic language teachers who worked together on creating a new set of Arabic language textbooks.

“We changed the books as we decided a different approach was necessary. Again there is more of an emphasis on ‘language explaining a culture’ and we use this method for high‐school students coming here for Arabic language enrichment programs that help break down stereotypes, basically bringing them to a point where they can understand that Jewish and Arab teens have the same dreams, needs and goals in life.”

Galit also pointed out to the Barcelonans that in the last decade the Arab population in Israel go out and about from their villages far more with family outings to other areas of the country, mooch around shopping malls in the towns and cities ‐ therefore exposing more Jewish Israelis to hearing Arabic spoken in their public places and spaces than in the past.

“The Arabic language has been taught at Givat Haviva since 1949 and in recent years our teachers have also been running courses off campus for large organizations. We have run courses for social workers, government employees and recently ran a course for Protection of Nature Society rangers so that they could explain in Arabic to Arab visitors why it is forbidden to collect za’ata (hyssop) from the wild, how to approach women in a different way to the men and so on.”

Teachers involved in coexistence projects, local municipality workers, university graduates, lawyers and folks who have graduated university studies in International Relations and Politics have all sat on the learning benches of the Givat Haviva Arabic Language School.

“After the Arab Spring broke out in Egypt, many of the foreign students studying Arabic at the university in Cairo had to leave and transferred to Israeli universities and also to Givat Haviva – two of whom joined the Intensive Arabic Semester of the International Department for instance,” explained Galit who then with a broad smile and much to the amusement of Ofer and Oliver said:

“You see, Israel is the safest place to learn Arabic!”

In and outside the Peace Library: Galit writes Oliver’s name in Arabic for him and right: standing by the Peace Pole in the library forecourt. On the pole is inscribed in Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese and English the slogan: May Peace Prevail on Earth.

The young journalists also joined a German group of university students to hear a talk by Riad Kabaha, director of the Givat Haviva Jewish‐Arab Center for Peace and also accompany MASA‐Givat Haviva Intensive Arabic Semester students for a few hours during their weekly visit to the Baka al‐Gharbiya high‐school where they teach English, the work in the community component of their 5‐month program organized by the International Department. At the end of the visit and speaking with some of the overseas students from France, Russia, Norway and North America, Ofer and Oliver said they would both love to do the program!

Ofer and Oliver meet with Etti Amram, director of the Arts Center and Peace Gallery and ceramics teacher Avner Singer and right: Etti presenting the Spaniards with a copy of CHILDREN WRITE for PEACE

During their visit to the Givat Haviva Arts Center and Peace Gallery, Ofer and Oliver were presented with a copy of CHILDREN WRITE for PEACE, a book of poems and prose written by young children and teens – an Art Center project with funding from the Friends of Givat Haviva, Switzerland.

Already back in Barcelona, the two young journalists are now working hard to write, sift through thousands of photographs and publish articles and photos of their extensive travels, interviews and personal thoughts about the regions people, places and on‐going conflict as well as write about the organizations and individuals who are attempting to combat the divide between Arabs and Jews, Palestinians and Israelis.

Ofer and Oliver emailed their thanks for the 2‐days spent with Givat Haviva staff members and also a few thoughts with regard CHILDREN WRITE for PEACE, their copy now sitting on a Barcelona bookshelf.

“While I was reading most of the poems it was difficult to accept that they were written by kids. All of them are clear, simple and really powerful and show the desperate shouts of a generation that wants to definitely stop this endless conflict. Probably they don’t know all the details, but they feel inside their souls the pain and suffering and they express themselves perfectly. I think that this book needs to be distributed to adults both sides of the conflict. It shows that the work you are doing in Givat Haviva really has good results and so don’t give up and continue with your educational projects.

Best wishes, Ofer Laszewicki

A second email from Oliver reads as follows: “When I was a 10 year old kid I wasn’t worried about peace. In these poems the main thing that the reader first notices is how much these kids care about peace, and how they have had preoccupied with worries for peace since being just small children. They have grown up looking at the same sky and I can appreciate those lines and how they care about peace. They are not talking about their personal stories but about the most important thing, being a human being. Through this very emotional book, we can truly understand what it is that Givat Haviva tries to show and another important component of what we have learned in Israel and the region during our stay.

Peace,
Oliver de Ros.”

War and Peace: Ofer and Oliver visiting the Salem checkpoint (middle) Ofer standing at the spot where the Green Line and electronic security fence parts company at Mei Ami‐umm al‐Fahm and (far right) they both look back over the area from the Border Police Educational Center and Museum in Wadi Ara, a short drive from Givat Haviva

Photos & text:  Lydia Aisenberg

Left: East Barta’a under the Palestinian Authority and below: West Barta’a in the State of Israel

The first intifada (Palestinian uprising of 1987-1993) began in Gaza and very quickly spread throughout the whole of the West Bank.  Unlike the second intifada of the year 2000, the Israeli Arab population did not physically join the Palestinian attempt to ‘shake off’ as the Arabic word means, the as then 20-year Israeli presence in Gaza and the West Bank.

In the Wadi Ara village of Barta’a, part of which having ended up on the West Bank side of the 1949 drawn Armistice Line and part on the Israeli side, the Palestinian East Barta’ans participated in the intifada whilst their close family members on the Israeli side, citizens of the State of Israel, watched in fear and trepidation as IDF soldiers climbed on to the roofs of their houses and launched tear gas shells over the Armistice Line - a one and half meter deep ditch that runs between the two portions of the village - in order to quell disturbances on the other side.

The 6-year long intifada took a heavy toll on the relationship between the Arab Muslim residents of East and West Barta’a, all of whom members of the same extended family, or hamula as known locally - best translation of that Arabic word, clan.  After a period of time and the Kabha’s on the Israeli side refusing to join in the stone and rock throwing, burning of tires and forages into nearby Jewish communities to damage property, the local mosque in East Barta’a began to not only call local folks to prayer five times a day over the loudspeakers just as easily heard in West Barta’a, but in between tried to entice their Israeli citizenship holding family members to join in and “fight the fight, push the Jews into the sea and return Palestine to the Palestinians.”

When there was no response to the come-and-join call, the Palestinians – holders of Jordanian citizenship after that country annexed the West Bank in April, 1950 – began to call them traitors.

In the mid-1980s I began working at the Givat Haviva Educational Center situated in Wadi Ara founded in 1949 by the Hashomer Hatzair kibbutz movement with a major focus on fostering positive relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel.  Before the intifada broke out I felt very much at home taking groups of overseas students, academics, journalists, youth movement members, educators and many others from abroad to the what had been a rather sleepy off-the-beaten track village, a stone’s throw – excuse the pun – from the main Route 65 highway, a busy thoroughfare passing between the Menashe and Amir mountain ranges.  The tours continued, but with limited numbers of people, for the whole intifada period.

The complications of being an Arab born this or that side of the ditch that was designated to become the deepest of divides between those people has always fascinated me and no less so most of those I have accompanied there, through thick and thin periods of the on-going conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

During the first intifada whilst walking with a group of some 20 black American educators in East Barta’a close to the ditch, a young boy – about ten years old – suddenly threw an egg-sized stone in our direction.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw him raise his hand but my reflexes were not quick enough to get out of the way and the stone connected with the side of my head.  It hurt – both physically and emotionally.

Interestingly enough the black American teachers were positive the stone had been aimed at them, because they were black!  As a splitting headache developed at the same rate as a golf-ball sized bump on my head, a discussion broke out as to really whom he had intended to hit – I guess I still believe it was aimed at me - the Israeli - and they to this day well over 20 years later, will probably tell you it was meant for them but the kid had a lousy throwing arm.

Looking back on that incident I now realize just how much of a watershed experience that was.  I never told my husband about the rock on my head or complained to him about the headache and was thankful that my hair was long, the bump on the right side of my head well covered.  I didn’t tell him because I knew he would ask me to stop working at Givat Haviva and being involved in Israeli-Palestinian educational projects after this particular encounter of a rather nasty kind.

I made the decision to continue not because I am of a particularly stubborn nature – which I suppose I am actually – but based on the fact that I could not, would not, let a 10 year-old be the one who would alter my belief that once people meet and listen to each other there is often an acceptance that the other has a right to a different narrative but also discover they share a great deal in common upon which it is possible to begin to build positively if they so desire. 

The rock-slinging boy would now be somewhere in his early 30s.  I wonder if he has ever given any thought to the day he chucked that rock and why the lady he managed to clobber is still bringing so many people to Barta’a, to meet and speak with those living on either side of their and our divide.

Check out this article about David Mendelsohn, our academic director, and his passion for languages (including Hebrew and Arabic!).

Click here to read the article! 

Photos and text by Lydia Aisenberg

When the news of Gilad Schalit’s impending release in exchange for 1,026 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel was first announced I was in Britain. “Ima, Gilad is coming home next week,” I read on the small mobile telephone screen, the SMS message sent by my daughter in Israel. I fished in my bag for my reading glasses fearful I had misread the message and for once I hadn’t!

Walking down Putney High Street at the time I’m sure that if not for the noise of the traffic the people passing me by on the pavement would have heard my heart pounding and seen a smile that could have lit up Blackpool illuminations without any electricity!

Overcome with tremendous relief and unabashed happiness, I looked around to see if possibly there was someone – anyone – in the vicinity that looked as if their chest was going to burst along with mine, but nothing –gurnished, as my Dad would have said.

Frantically wanting to share with all and sundry the phenomenal feeling of joy that Gilad, whose boyish looks would have not been out of place had he been wearing a school uniform and not that of the IDF when he was kidnapped, was being released from the Hamas Gaza hell‐hole he had been kept in.

When I reached the home of my South London cousin, bursting with the news of Gilad Schalit and yelling “Gilad’s coming home, Gilad’s coming home,” I realized from the mediocre response that the name didn’t mean much – had known vaguely but forgotten ‐ nor was there any real understanding after a discussion that Gilad

could have been one of my four sons or that of one of my Israeli friends, fellow kibbutz members or work

colleagues…that he could have been – and over the years became – the son, brother and friend of all. By the time I returned to Israel the Schalit‐Palestinian prisoner exchange had been made and although still very much a topic of discussion, the initial excitement and media frenzy had calmed down.

A frequent visitor within the framework of my work at the International Department of the Givat Haviva Jewish‐Arab Center for Peace to the Wadi Ara village of Barta’a, part of which in the State of Israel and part of which in the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority, I was informed by a colleague that one of the released Palestinian prisoners was originally from East Barta’a. Following his release and banishment to Gaza – having served 18 years of a 30 year sentence – apparently there had been a huge celebration in East Barta’a (where the population is around 5,000) the fireworks seen for miles around by Israeli Arabs and Jews living in the Wadi Ara region.

Many people in the area took the celebrations in East Barta’a ‐ situated west of the electronic surveillance fence constructed in recent years and the pre‐1967 ‘Green Line’ ‐ as a show of support for Hamas and terrorism, a fact that didn’t ring true with this writer, familiar with the village residents for over 20 years.

“The celebration had nothing to do with Hamas but everything to do with a family celebrating the release of a close family member,” explained one of the local East Barta’a Palestinian merchants who said that Thaher Kabha, the released Palestinian, was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment in the early 1990’s for allowing a Palestinian suicide bomber from a nearby West Bank village to stay overnight in his home. He also said that Kabha hadn’t know that his house guest had explosives and was on his way to carry out a suicide bombing the following day in the Israeli town of Hadera, a half hour drive away.

“Thaher was engaged to a local girl and she has waited 18 years for him,” explained the same merchant. “When it became known that he was going to be released she sent to Jordan and from there to Egypt in order to be in Gaza to welcome him. They were married immediately and the celebration here in East Barta’a was to join his father – the mother died some years ago – and the family of the bride in a wedding celebration although the wedding actually took place in Gaza,” he said.

“It had nothing to do with whether he did or he didn’t deserve to be in prison, nothing to do with politics nor nationalism or anything else you want to throw in. It had everything to do with a family celebrating with and supporting close family,” he explained.

A local restaurant owner in East Barta’a reiterated the story and when asked if there was a possibility of Hamas representatives being active in the village as had been inferred to this writer, he laughed. “Nobody here wants any trouble. We are busy working hard to make a living and East Barta’a is doing well commercially so why would anyone want to endanger that? ” he asked.

Agreeing with the restaurant owner another local Palestinian merchant added that most East Barta’a folk were relieved that Thahar Kabha had been released to Gaza and not to East Barta’a. “We are happy for his close family that he is out of prison and happy for the girl’s family that she could marry the man she waited for so long – but we are also happy he isn’t here bringing attention of the type we definitely do not need nor want,” he added.

Photos and text by Lydia Aisenberg 
 
Over a period of years octogenarian Gerhilde Merz from Austria has taken it upon herself to translate from English to German articles by this writer dealing with Givat Haviva projects as well as events and stories from the daily life of the Israeli Jews and Arabs of Wadi Ara and Palestinians living in the nearby Dotan Valley in the West Bank.

Gerhilde volunteered her translating abilities following a visit to Givat Haviva quite some years ago and her efforts have enabled many a German visitor to read about complicated issues, topics and life stories which are certainly complex enough to understand even when reading the material in one’s native tongue never mind in another.

Grateful for Gerhilde’s time and efforts and an exchange of lengthy emails over the years – and taking into consideration that we have met only twice, briefly at that ‐ one can say that a friendship has built up and absolutely nothing of the mutual respect developed has been lost in translation so to say!

Gerhilde, an activist for the Protestant church for many years including stints in Africa, is a member of Pax Christi – a nonprofit, non‐governmental peace movement working on a global scale on a wide variety of issues in the fields of human rights, human security, disarmament and demilitarization, and a just world order. She is also an ardent supporter of the Ecumenical Accompaniment program of assistance to the Palestinian people in the West Bank whereby people from all over the world volunteer their services for 3 months in different parts of the region under the auspices of the World Council of Churches.

“When I came to Givat Haviva with a Pax Christi group you showed us around and took us on a tour of the Green Line and introduced us to some of the people living in the area,” wrote Gerhilde recently. “During this tour I became familiar with the people and places you later described in your articles and can now honestly say that I truly understand the difficulties of living together ‐ and living apart.

“For many years I was involved with the Austrian Protestant Women’s Desk paper and I remember I was searching through material and found an article in English I really not only related to but translated and spoke about many times. That article had been written by you, Lydia – and then I met you and look what we have achieved together since,” writes Gerhilde.

Photos and text by Lydia Aisenberg 

Over 30,000 pages of Givat Haviva pre‐State Arabic Language FALASTIN newspaper collection now on internet

Stacked up on the  top of broad wooden cupboards in the main library of the Givat Haviva Institute in Wadi Ara are a dozen or so somewhat battered brown cardboard boxes containing scores of crumbling pages of Arabic language newspapers from the 1930s, 1940s and more. 

The disintegrating pages of history contain fascinating news reports, articles, opinion pieces and political cartoons, all of which pure gems of information for the serious researcher to the amateur sleuths of the regions past.

 Whether one knows the Arabic language or not it is easy to get hooked on the yellowing tattered edged pages of yesteryear  - the black and white photographs of Arab, British, Jewish and other personalities who were directly or indirectly connected to events in the pre-State of Israel region and major events taking place in other parts of the world in those times.

One would hardly believe that one could find a picture of the former American competitive swimmer and Hollywood movie star Esther Williams on the front page of a 1940s Arabic language newspaper dressed only in her swimsuit but it’s definitely her about to dive across a number of print columns, whilst at the same time stern faced politicians and uniformed British Army officers stand stiffly to attention on another part of the page.

Photographs taken from vintage – well these days they are – planes flying over British Mandate Palestine landscapes and others of scenes from the daily life of those living in the troubled region have been brought out of the musty cardboard boxes, brought to life with digitization and made available on the internet with the help of UNESCO and other organizations who recognized the importance of the Givat Haviva collection.   An astonishing 33,685 pages are already there at the touch of a button with plenty more awaiting the painstaking laborious and expensive process developed by specialists in the field of digitization and therefore preserving an important record of the past for both the present and future generations of researchers and seekers of genuine material from the past.

Many a visitor to the Peace Library at Givat Haviva has viewed the crumbling artifacts from the publishing world of over 90 years ago.  Immaterial if they know Arabic or not the first sight of the newspapers leaves an indelible mark on the memory boxes of those folks and for some is a definite key to another section of their curiosity boxes and motivated to know more.

“Until the recent digitization the Early Palestinian Newspaper Collection was unfortunately one of Israel’s better kept secrets,” says Canadian-born Dr. David Mendelsohn, a social linguist and Academic Director of the Givat Haviva Intensive Arabic Semester for overseas students.  Dr. Mendelsohn is fluent in Arabic, Hebrew and several others languages and is one of the founding staff members of the Intensive Arabic Semester at Givat Haviva due to start its fifth term in January, 2012.

“Having access to a local Arab journal recording the crucial years of 1936-1947 is a gift to any serious researcher into this region of the Middle East.  I would feel much more comfortable if these archives would be required reading for any leader or negotiator with the desire to influence or bring about positive change in terms of the Palestine/Israeli conflict.  Reading these records allows the for better understanding of the local Arab perspective of the time and safeguards against the natural temptation of both sides to give in to historical revisionism,” he added.

The Early Palestinian Newspaper Collection can be viewed at: www.pastnet.org

Photos and text by Lydia Aisenberg
One of the arrested leader activists of the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York is a well known and much respected member of Hashomer Hatzair in North America and with short and long stints of studying and working on co-existence projects in Israel – including Givat Haviva – under his belt and blue movement shirt.

Yotam Marom, a member of Hashomer Hatzair’s Kvutzat Orev that some years ago was involved in community work in Barta’a village where they taught English in the high-school, was among a large group of protesters arrested at the beginning of October.  After his release Yotam returned to the streets to carry on with other leaders the Occupy Wall Street momentum.

In an interview given to the RT television news Yotam, wearing his trade mark scarf wrapped loosely around his neck, Yotam corrected the interviewer who had stated he was arrested as protesters crossed over the Brooklyn Bridge.  

“I’m sorry to have to correct you but I was arrested during the mass rallies a week before the Brooklyn Bridge demonstration,” he commented adding that he saw an interesting contrast in the way police responded to the first two demonstrations in America.

“The first mass arrest was just an act of desperation.  The police just did not know how to end the march as this happened for the first time.  And the arrests that happened on the Brooklyn Bridge were quite different.  That was a strategic attack to arrest an enormous amount of people and to scare away the community groups from coming to join the movement,” said Yotam.

He also commented on the heavy-handy police behavior.  

“I was hit with a metal baton and some of my friends were pepper-sprayed and beaten with metal batons as well.  I think it reflects a lot of fear and an incredibly stupid approach,” said Yotam who a few years ago was the leader of a large group of Hashomer Hatzair youngsters in Israel on summer tour with the movements Yedid Plus program.  During a one day seminar at GIVAT HAVIVA’S INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT the group toured Barta’a and region.

 The RT television interviewer commented that despite getting bigger and gaining more support every day the Occupy Wall Street movement has been largely criticized for not having any definite demands.  Yotam, a proponent of demands, explained that generally they are necessary as they clarify the struggle.  However, he said he believes it is not compulsory for Occupy Wall Street to come up with demands.

“I don’t think this occupation has come up with its own demands.  It can be a foundation on top of which community and grassroots organizations and movements can fight.  We have an enormous potential to really build a movement capable of both creating an alternative structure and fighting to create space for that structure,” he stated.

We are so excited to have so many great students signed up for our spring 2012 semester starting in January. We are busy preparing the kibbutz and our classroom for a new semester of Arabic students. There's still a month to register and we encourage anyone interested to email us and learn more about the program from one of our past participants. 

Request Information Now!