Toward A Third Intifada

This article was first published in the Baltimore Sun, 28th May 2006, and is a modified version of the preceding article.

Toward a Third Intifada
Fred Schlomka – Kfar Saba, Israel

Besides cementing relations between Israel’s new prime minister and President Bush, Olmert’s ritual visit to the White House was little more than a photo opportunity. While Bush seems to understand that negotiations are a prerequisite to any successful redrawing of Israel’s borders, he also described Olmert’s unilateral ideas as “bold”. As he hedges on supporting the Israeli “convergence” plan, Bush is also pushing legislation intended to isolate the new Palestinian government with sanctions and further impoverish its people. At the same time Israelis continue to thicken the settlement blocks and prepare for partition of the West Bank. Ongoing construction of settlements, completion of the “security fence”, and the unilateral redrawing of the country’s borders are not a move towards a just peace, or the establishment of a viable Palestinian state, but an attempt to separate Israelis from the bulk of the Palestinian population.

The Hebrew term ‘Hafrada’ which means “separation” or “apartheid” has entered the mainstream lexicon in Israel and determined much of the government policies since the Oslo process began in 1993. Ever increasing restrictions on Palestinian movement and employment during the 1990s, combined with settlement expansion that doubled the number of Jewish settlers, set the stage for the eruption of the Second Intifada, or uprising, in 2000. Palestinian employment also plummeted during the mid-nineties when Israel initiated the policy of replacing Palestinians with migrant workers from Africa and Asia. These workers now account for about 5% of the population of Israel and have virtually eliminated the need for cheap Palestinian labor. The resulting economic hardship, combined with military incursions, an Orwellian labyrinth of permits, roadblocks, and Jewish-only roads, paralyzed Palestinian society and made a mockery of the Oslo Agreements.

Hafrada has since entered a new state of development. Using Palestinian acts of terror as justification, successive Israeli governments increased restrictions on Palestinians and built the “Security Fence”, cutting a wide swath through the West Bank and effectively annexing tens of thousands of acres of prime agricultural land and key aquifers, in addition to the settlement blocks. Then came last year’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza leaving behind the most impoverished enclave in the eastern Mediterranean. Not content with withdrawal, and with US support, Israel has largely cut off the area from the outside world though a sea blockade, a no-fly zone, and a border with Egypt subject to continuing Israeli control. Thus the “withdrawal” from Gaza has only served to separate the imprisoned population from their Israeli guards while deepening their isolation.

The Bush administration and Mr. Olmert’s refusal to fully engage the Palestinian Authority only continues US and Israeli policy. They have been telling us for years that ‘there is no partner’, and as a result no serious negotiations have taken place since the Camp David and Sharm El-Sheik meetings between President Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in 2000. The current Hamas-controlled Palestinian Authority now provides a convenient pretext for Israel to continue their 5-year policy of no negotiation and unilateral action. As Israel and the USA tightens the matrix of control, Palestinian anger may erupt again. Once the new Hamas security forces have sorted out their differences with the Fatah-controlled police, they might turn once again to the common enemy. Hamas could cancel its fifteen-month truce. The Israeli Army’s recent show of force and arrest of Hamas official Ibrahim Hamed in the West Bank city of Ramallah only adds fuel to the fire, and demonstrates that Mr. Olmert has learned little from the experience of his predecessors. These military incursions and continuing repressive measures will only serve to stir the pot and ensure the next uprising. Israelis want peace and quiet, and are less interested in peace with justice, unfortunately the ongoing government tactics will bring them neither.

Without hope for a real peace in the horizon most Palestinians are turning inward, seeking ever-elusive ways to keep their families intact and put food on the table. But make no mistake, as conditions for Palestinians continue to decline, and Israel moves ahead with the partitioning of the West Bank, further revolts from the beleaguered population are inevitable. Israelis are also turning inward, but the Third Intifada could be looming in front of them like an approaching tsunami, and their ignorance of its arrival echoes the complacency prior to the Intifadas of 1987 and 2000.

Fred Schlomka is an Israeli businessman and a board member of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). He is a 2003 Fellow of the Echoing Green Foundation in New York and the founder of Mosaic Communities in Israel. Email: fred@schlomka.com

This article may be reprinted without prior permission provided the author's credits are included.

The West Bank Partition – Towards the Third Intifada

This article was first published in the Jordan Times 25th May, 2006

How can Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stand up in front of Israel’s Parliament as he did in early May, pronounce himself ready for “…..negotiations with a Palestinian Authority committed to the principals of the Roadmap…..”, and the very next day rebuff Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas when he called to inquire about a meeting? Meanwhile the new government continues to ‘thicken’ the West Bank settlement blocks with ongoing construction and prepare plans for the partitioning of the West Bank in a unilateral redrawing of Israel’s borders. The system of fortifications called a ‘Security Fence’ by the Israeli Government includes 24-feet high walls that often cut through neighborhoods and isolate Palestinian villages on the ‘Israeli side’. It is fast defining the new borders of the Israeli State despite repeated government statements over the past four years that the fence was a purely security consideration.

Security may indeed be part of the equation, but the term ‘Hafrada’ (separation or apartheid in Hebrew) has entered the mainstream lexicon in Israel and determined much of the government policies since the Oslo process began in 1992. Ever increasing restrictions on Palestinian movement and employment during the 1990s, combined with settlement expansion that doubled the number of Jewish settlers, set the stage for the eruption of the Second Intifada in 2000. The build-up to the revolt began during the mid-nineties when Israel initiated the policy of replacing Palestinian labor with migrant workers from Thailand, the Philippines, Eastern Europe, and African countries. These workers now amount to almost 5% of the population of Israel and have virtually eliminated the need for cheap Palestinian labor. The resulting economic hardship for Palestinian workers, combined with military incursions, an Orwellian labyrinth of permits, roadblocks, and Jewish-only roads, have paralyzed Palestinian society and made a mockery of the Oslo Agreements.

‘Hafrada’ has since entered a new state of development. Using Palestinian acts of terror as justification, successive Israeli governments deepened the already repressive restrictions on Palestinians and constructed the ‘Security Fence’, cutting a wide swath through the West Bank and effectively annexing hundreds of thousands of acres of prime agricultural land and key aquifers, in addition to the settlement blocks. During this ongoing land grab in the West Bank, Sharon pushed through last year’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, leaving behind the most impoverished enclave in the Eastern Mediterranean. Not content with withdrawal, Israel has largely cut off the area from the outside world though a sea blockade, a no-fly zone, and a border with Egypt subject to continuing Israeli control. Thus the ‘withdrawal’ from Gaza has only served to separate the imprisoned population from their Israeli guards while deepening their isolation. The recent promise of limited funds to the Palestinian Authority by the USA and Europe may be too little, too late, and not nearly enough to stem the humanitarian disaster.

Olmert’s refusal to engage the Palestinian Authority only continues pre-existing Israeli government policy. Keep in mind that there have been no serious negotiations since the Camp David and Sharm El-Sheik meetings between President Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in 2000. The current Hamas controlled Palestinian Authority now provides a convenient pretext for Israel to continue their 5-year policy of no negotiation and unilateral action. Anger is once again building on the Palestinian street, and not against Hamas, but against the Israeli regime that is tightening its matrix of control. Once the new Hamas security forces have sorted out their differences with the Fatah controlled police, they might well bury the hatchet and turn once again to the common enemy. Hamas may yet cancel its year-long truce. Olmert would do well to learn from the experience of his predecessors. Maintaining a cauldron of resentment among an occupied population is a recipe for disaster, and continuing repressive measures designed to keep the lid on outbursts of protest by Palestinians will only serve to stir the pot. Israelis want peace and quiet, and are less interested in peace with justice, but the ongoing government tactics will bring them neither.

Without hope for a real peace in the horizon most Palestinians are turning inward, seeking ever-elusive ways to keep their families intact and put food on the table. But make no mistake, as conditions for Palestinians continue to decline, and Israel moves ahead with the partitioning of the West Bank, further revolts from the beleaguered population are inevitable. Israelis are also turning inward, but the Third Intifada could be looming in front of them like an approaching tsunami, and their ignorance of its arrival echoes the complacency prior to the Intifadas of 1987 and 2000.
___________
Fred Schlomka is an Israeli businessman and a board member of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). He is a 2003 Fellow of the Echoing Green Foundation in New York and the founder of Mosaic Communities in Israel. Email: fred@schlomka.com
__________
This article may be reprinted without prior permission provided the author's credits and this footer is included.

Redlining and the Israeli Real Estate Industry

This article was first published by the Jordan Times 19th April 2006

The recent Israeli elections were followed by a number of pronouncements by US officials praising democracy in Israel. However democracy is much more than elections, and many freedoms that Americans take for granted are not available in Israel. For example, Israel’s Arab citizens suffer from discriminatory real estate and housing practices of the sort that were outlawed in the US almost 40 years ago.

Redlining, or restricting home purchasing by African Americans and other minorities in ‘white’ neighborhoods was once a common practice by realtors in the USA. Due to the 1968 Fair Housing Act, they are now required by law to treat all homebuyers equally. However in Israel the practice of redlining has been entrenched since the founding of the state.

The Israeli real estate industry, housing developers and the government, restricts Arab citizens of Israel, 20% of the population, in their housing choices. Contributing factors include marketing strategies by realtors and housing developers, segregated planned communities by non-profit developers, and government control of the most of the country’s property. As a result, virtually all new homes and pre-owned homes are sold exclusively to the Jewish population. Arabs mostly ‘make do’ with owner built homes in tightly zoned towns and villages, often having their homes demolished as a result of the lack of appropriate zoning and building permits.

The largest real estate development company in Israel, Industrial Buildings Corporation (IBC) is part of the Fishman Group with a market value exceeding $1.5 billion. IBC develops, and manages 230 infrastructure projects for tens of thousands of housing units in 80 locations throughout the country for the Israel Lands Authority (ILA), the Ministry of Housing and local authorities. All of the company’s projects are marketed to Jewish-Israelis and foreign buyers only.

The leading real estate brokerage firm is Anglo-Saxon, part of Africa-Israel Investments Ltd with a 2004 net profit of over $92 million. Their network of 55 offices, none of which are in an Arab locality, have marketed tens of thousands of homes exclusively to Jewish and foreign buyers. Other realtors, including Century 21 and ReMax follow the same pattern of selective sales, effectively excluding Arab buyers from the real estate market.

For example no homes have been sold to Arabs in the fast-growing new city of Modiin with a population of over 60,000. When Arabs try and gain access to segregated communities they are met with organized resistance and legal restraints. This happened in the northern Israeli town of Karmiel when the ILA cancelled a offer in October 2004 for leasing 26 lots. The cancellation was in response to a petition submitted to the Haifa District Court against the ILA, the Jewish National Fund (JNF), and the Karmiel Municipality, by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the Arab Center for Alternative Planning. Rather than extend the tender so that Arabs could lease land, the court allowed the ILA and JNF to withdraw the offer.

Government tactics to restrict housing choices include offering grants, low interest mortgages and tax incentives to Jews only, and requiring army service for residents. However the most blatant form of discrimination is exercised through the government’s control, through the ILA, of most of the land in Israel.

The ILA manages a total of about 78 million acres or 93% of all the land in the state. The 1961 Agreements between the JNF and the Israeli Government stipulates that the ILA would administer all JNF-owned lands. A primary objective of these documents is to prohibit land allocation to non-Jews. These agreements also redefined the JNF as a Public Authority in Israel, yet their charity organizations operate in numerous countries and have 501c3 non-profit tax-exempt status in the USA, possibly in violation of the US tax code. Their international activities are closely linked with the real estate industry in Israel and hundreds of segregated Jewish communities have been built on JNF land.

Thus today there are over 4.5 million Jewish-Israelis with free choice to live anywhere in the country while the 1.2 million Christian and Muslim Arab citizens are mostly relegated to a mere 3.5% of the land that they still own. Africa Israel Investments, The Fishman Group, or Industrial Buildings Corporation could not practice such blatant Redlining and segregation in their projects in Europe and the USA. Housing and land reform in Israel is long overdue and perhaps it’s time for investors to prod these companies, and the Israeli Government into the 21st century.
__________
Fred Schlomka is an Israeli businessman and a board member of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). He is a 2003 Fellow of the Echoing Green Foundation in New York and the founder of Mosaic Communities in Israel. Email: fred@schlomka.com
__________
This article may be reprinted without prior permission provided the author's credits and this footer is included.

The New Political Divide in Israel

I started wondering where the members and voters where going to come from for Sharon's new political party. He will definitely split the Likud, taking with him at least a third of their votes, maybe more. But where will his additional support come from in order to give him a strong presence in the next Knesset? He'll gain some from the other right wing parties, National Union, Yisrael B'aliyah, and the NRP. However it's unlikely that Shas or Union Torah Judaism voters will shift. A few from the conservative wing of the Labor party may jump ship, especially since Peretz, a leftist labor leader, in now at the helm of the party.

It's ironic to note that Sharon was at the forefront of the repeal of the legislation that allowed for direct election of the prime minister for he has great personal support today in the electorate. Many who might vote for him as prime minister and their own party for the Knesset would be loathe to vote for his new party. Sharon benefited from this law in the 2001 elections and then campaigned for its repeal. He may live to regret it.

This Morning in Israel

So it seems there is to be early elections. Not unexpected. Now that we have Peretz, a so-called leftist in charge of the labor party, Prime Minister Sharon is in process of reinventing himself as a centrist and will establish a new party. Never a dull moment in the Holy Land. But will the next elections change the facts on the ground? Will the Palestinians come any closer to establishing a viable sovereign state. I think not. Sharon's government continues to expand the West Bank Settlements, gobbling up Palestinian land at an ever-increasing rate.

Notwithstanding Peretz's commitment to evacuating West Bank Settlers, the best that the Palestinians can hope for is a truncated state chopped into poverty stricken Bantustans amid a sea of upper middle class Jewish settlements. Look forward to the third Intifada.

Hope for the Future

This presentation was delivered to audiences throughout the United States during July 2003
______________

I live in a land where people feel there is very little hope for the future. Israelis are gripped by fear of random violence and existential threats. and see no way out. Palestinians are imprisoned behind walls and fences confining another deprived generation inside the refugee camps and towns that have become prisons. Hope is in short supply.

This is not new in the Holy Land. My own family were victims of the madness of 1948 when the region erupted into violence and chaos. My father had arrived in Palestine in 1936, tortured and broken by the Nazis. He married my mother who comes from 5 generations of Palestinian Jews. My father was an ardent socialist who saw no future in Zionism and finally took my mother and brother out of Palestine to Scotland where I was born. We were another kind of Palestinian refugee, Palestinian Jewish refugees. Like many refugees my traumatized family failed to adjust in critical ways to our new environment and were dislocated from our community, our traditions, and our people. First my father died at a relatively young age, then my mother’s mental health deteriorated and she was confined to an institution for my entire childhood. My older brother committed suicide at fourteen, and I was left at eight years old dangling by a most slender thread of sanity and humanity.

So finally at sixteen years old I abandoned my life in Scotland and embarked on a journey of personal growth that took me to many parts of the world, and eventually led me back to Israel, and Palestine, where it all began. In the late 1970s I started meeting my mother in Israel for annual visits. My first visits were explorations of my Israeli family of numerous cousins, aunts and uncles; and also of Palestinian society. My mother speaks fluent Arabic having been raised there before Hebrew was widely spoken. We used to travel together to areas of Gaza and the West Bank and my first experiences of Palestinian Arabs was their warmth, and open hospitality. My Israeli family, of course, thought we were crazy, because like most Israelis, they believe that all Palestinians are terrorists and can’t be trusted. I was confused, and I remain confused, since these attitudes contradict my own experience. However I came to understand that these fears have a direct relationship to the emergence of Zionism over 100 years ago and the subsequent opposition of Palestinian Arabs to Jewish settlement in Palestine.

The emergence of the state of Israel was one of the great miracles of the 20th century. Our religious civilization was exiled for almost 2,000 years, wandering and settling in often-inhospitable places, clinging tenaciously to our religious and cultural traditions, and being influenced by the peoples among whom we lived. For long centuries the Hebrew language lapsed for use exclusively in prayer, religious ritual, and holy texts. Now it is the every-day language of millions of Israelis.

In the late nineteenth century, European Jews developed the foundation for the return to Eretz Israel, the Land of Israel. These Europeans were products of western secular civilization; most of them did not practice Judaism but were influenced by the culture and political development of European states. They came to be called Zionists, and changed the course of history in the Middle East. Driven by the tremendous need for identity and security, they built a network of organizations and fundraising mechanisms that started to buy land and settle European and Russian Jews in large numbers. These new communities, and the organizations that supported them were planned to be separate and segregated from the surrounding Arab population in Palestine, creating a society within a society. Despite opposition from the indigenous Palestinian Arabs these communities grew successfully during the first half of the 20th century. Then, after 50 years of Zionist settlement, the horror of the Holocaust spurred the United Nations in 1947 to decree the partition of Palestine into two states and provide a haven for the Jews.

However for 500 years Palestine was not a state but an administrative region of the Ottoman Empire, encompassing what is now called Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Southern Lebanon, Southern Syria, and Jordan. Until the end of the Ottoman era after the First World War, peoples of all religions were known generally as Palestinians, but gave their first allegiance to the family, clan, and religion. Islam was, and still is, the dominant religion but there were also Christian and Jewish Palestinians prior to the 20th century. My own family were Palestinian Jews until the advent of the state of Israel. The growth of national consciousness among Palestinian Arab Muslims and Christians paralleled the development of Zionism throughout the 20th century.

In 1948, after the cease-fire, there were by various estimates between 5 and 700,000 Palestinian Arab civilians who fled their villages to areas of Palestine that were outside the territory that became the State of Israel. Israel has never allowed these refugees to return, destroyed the over 400 villages that were their homes, and confiscated their lands which constitute the majority of all the land in the state of Israel. This disaster for the Palestinian People came to be known as the Nakbah, or catastrophe. In addition there are hundreds of thousands of Palestinian citizens in Israel today who also had their land and homes confiscated by the government.

This human tragedy has been compounded by over 50 years of violence, 50 years of civil war, 50 years of wars and conflict with surrounding countries.

Every day we are still killing each other over who has more rights to the tiny sliver of land in the Eastern Mediterranean. Every day we are killing each other’s children. Every day we send young Jewish and Arab soldiers and irregulars to kill. Every day we demolish more homes. Every day a bus is blown up, or a rocket fired at a residential neighborhood. Ever day there is terror. Every day there is fear. Every day people lose their final shred of hope.

When people lose hope then we also lose our will to survive. We become self-destructive. The wanton violence from Palestinians and the calculated attacks by Israelis are a symptom of this loss of hope. How else can one explain the suicide bombers, the poisoning of fields, the house demolitions, the terrorist shootings. These are not rational acts. When people have nothing to lose, life itself becomes worthless. Your life. Their life.

I have seen hope diminish among many of my colleagues in the Israeli peace & justice movement during the past three years of Intifada. Most of mainstream Israel and Palestine also have little faith in the future. Even the new Road Map is not enthusiastically received, with all its flaws and limitations. It requires an end to the Occupation but does not define the territory to be de-occupied. It does not require an early withdrawal from large settlements. It calls for early stage so-called provisional borders for the new Palestinian State. Today, these provisional borders are unilaterally being created by the Israeli Army by fencing in the centers of Palestinian population, and building a wall between the West Bank and Israel, a wall that is east of the Green Line and is de-facto confiscating hundreds of thousands of acres of prime Palestinian agricultural land. These ghettos in the West Bank are reminiscent of the Native American reservations, or the so-called black homelands of Apartheid South Africa, which like the Palestinian Ghettos confined and restricted their inhabitants to a life of despair.

Even inside Israel itself the Palestinian population is under siege. 20% of our citizens are confined to less than 3% of the country. The government controls over 93% of the land and through the cynical use of zoning and land planning regulations effectively imprisons the Arab citizens to overcrowded and under serviced towns and villages. The government also mandates segregation in housing and public schools. Democracy in Israel today can only be defined, at best, as the tyranny of the majority, without checks and balances to protect minorities. Even if we sign a peace agreement tomorrow, we still have not developed a social and political system inside Israel that provides for equality of opportunity, and freedom of movement for all citizens. We have not learned how to live together, and the present war only exasperates an already untenable situation. Only by learning to live together within a democratic framework can any future peace be sustained.

And so, out of this morass, a new idea was born. The idea that private citizens could exercise their human and civil rights though organizing new facts on the ground, new communities and schools where equality and social justice are paramount concerns. Communities where Hebrew and Arabic have equal status. Communities where ordinary people can do ordinary activities together, where the restrictions of the larger society will not apply. In organizing to build these communities we can give hope and a prospect for a better future. In learning to live together we can lay a foundation for a future where all Israelis can pursue a life of freedom and dignity. In seeking a human solution to our conflicts we can help build a society that values liberty and inclusiveness.

Over the past year I have been working with a group of Israelis, Arabs and Jews, to develop a plan to build mixed, integrated communities across Israel. Our new organization, Mosaic Communities, becomes operational in October with myself as Executive Director. Essentially we are establishing a private affirmative action program to impact housing and education. In the United States these goals were developed through civic action and the legislative process, however in Israel this is currently unrealisitic. The civil rights revolution in this country developed when social and political conditions were optimum, and appropriate leadership emerged to lead the way. However it’s possible that if a group of whites and blacks, in the year 1920, had decided to build de-segregated housing communities across America, then the resulting new dynamic might have precipitated civil rights reforms much sooner. This is the process we are initiating in Israel.

The conditions in Israel are, of course, much different than the ‘Jim Crow’ era in the USA. However the results are similar and the resulting human tragedy lies at the heart of the ongoing violence.

Mosaic Communities intends to become part of the solution. Our program of action includes community-building activities that bring people together in a de-segregated environment. We have plans for mixed kindergartens, after school programs, adult education activities, and we will build communities where everyone will be welcome.

Our cooperative structure is bringing together a constituency of Jews and Arabs who are seeking a better life. Support for Mosaic is coming not only from progressive elements in Israeli society but also from mainstream Israelis. Collectively we will bring influence to bear on our people and our government, and in so doing we will facilitate the emergence of an alternate civil society. The time will come when the ever present discrimination in our economic, social, and educational institutions will no longer be tolerable for the majority of Israelis, and political action on a large scale will become possible.

The shape of this emerging new civil society is as-yet undefined. However the signs are evident in both the Jewish and Arab sectors in Israel. One of the most visible signs is the growth of the new Jewish/Arab social movement, Ta’ayush or Coexistance. Spurred by the Intifada they have become the vanguard of social and political change in Israel today. Comprising largely of young people, the activists of Ta’ayush address the issues of the Occupation, and issues of discrimination and oppression inside Israel.

Emerging bonds and common cause between Israeli Jews and Arabs are also evident as a result of the recent draconian economic program by our government which undermines the basic social safety net of all underprivileged Israelis, Arabs and Jews alike. There is also a large professional class of Israeli-Palestinians who are underemployed since most of the jobs go to Jews. These same Arabs are also increasingly frustrated by their confinement in their traditional villages and towns, through the lack of housing options elsewhere. Israeli secular society has had an ever-increasing influence on traditional Arab values and community life. Arabs can see the modern western lifestyles of many Israelis which remain tantalizingly out of their reach.

In addition there is tremendous pressure within Arab communities due to the housing shortage, since most communities are restricted from expanding due to zoning regulations which classify most Arab land as agricultural despite the desire of it’s owners and their communities to use it for housing. Many build anyway without permits and their homes are subject to demolition. There has been a tremendous upsurge in house demolitions inside Israel over the past year, as the government implements its program to establish more exclusive Jewish communities throughout the country. This year alone In the Negev Desert the Beduin have had a mosque demolished and fields poisoned from the air in addition to having homes demolished. In the town of Kfur Kasm just a few miles from where I live, an entire neighborhood of 17 homes was demolished earlier this year. In the meanwhile some Jewish kibbutzim are building neighborhoods, gas stations and shopping malls illegally on their agricultural land, and obtain retroactive building permits.

So our constituency in the Arab sector is there, waiting for opportunities in housing, propelled by social and economic reasons. Our constituency in the Jewish sector is also there, waiting for a framework within which to forge alternate lifestyles for mostly ideological reasons, the same reasons why many of you encourage your children to learn from, and mix with other cultures and races in American society.

However providing housing will only be the first step. The national, cultural, linguistic and religious differences between our residents will have to be bridged. Mosaic will need to develop the capacity to provide social and educational services to our communities. Each new community will have a kindergarten and school to serve not only the community residents but also to function as a magnet school for the surrounding area. There are currently only a handful of mixed schools in Israel so a great deal of research and experimenting needs to be accomplished in order to build a model curriculum that meets the communities’ needs. We are already planning to establish an integrated kindergarten near our new office in the center of the country, in order to begin to provide the service, and to evolve ideas regarding curriculum, use of language, and parent relations.

We anticipate that the new communities will also need integrated after school programs, and adult social and educational activities. We also plan to establish such programs before we build our first community. There are virtually no ordinary activities for children today in Israel that mix Arabs and Jews. I live in Kfar Saba, a Jewish town in the center of the country. We are surrounded by Arab villages and towns but there are currently no ordinary activities in the area where I can send my children to play and socialize with Arab kids. Our school is all Jewish, the baseball team is all Jewish, the dance class is all Jewish, the swimming pool is all Jewish, etc. etc. Mosaic Communities will build local programs that will bring children, and their parents, together. As these programs develop we hope their influence will help build a growing constituency for our communities as they are established.

Mosaic Communities recently elected our first board of directors comprising five Arab members and three Jewish members. We are currently building a base of support, conducting a fundraising campaign, and implementing a five-year plan to establish three pilot communities. I recently received a two-year fellowship from the Echoing Green Foundation in New York to establish the new organization. Echoing Green is funded by some of America’s largest corporations and is dedicated to seeking out emerging social entrepreneurs from all over the world who have developed new ideas that may have a profound impact on their society. This year I was privileged to be among the ten new Fellows selected out of a field of almost 1,000 applicants. We have also received a small grant from The New Israel Fund. However it is with limited resources that we launch the new organization. To implement our program we will need extensive resources and support, and I am seeking your help, morally, financially and practically.

In conclusion I would like to remind you that the United States government pours billions of dollars a year into supporting Israel. Why should your tax dollars support structural discrimination? If a small fraction of this support were to be allocated to assist the integration of housing and education we could alter the status quo in a generation. Please raise these issues with your government representatives. It is only with international support that Mosaic Communities can be successful and move our people and government towards a path of expanding democracy, freedom and security for all our people in Israel, and the possibility for hope might return.

Of Demolitions, Homelessness and Cruelty

In my years of living in Israel I have never seen such a heartless and senseless act of cruelty such as was committed by the municipal government of Lod, a town in central Israel. A 23 year old Palestinian citizen of Israel who is confined to a wheelchair, Hany Zbedah, was removed from his house which was demolished with all contents inside.

It took over 200 police and paramilitary police, a helicopter and two bulldozers to destroy the 40 square meter (360 square feet) shed addition to his family home. The house itself has two rooms providing living and sleeping space for six people. After years of saving, Hany’s Father had renovated the small shed adjacent to their home in order to provide him with a better quality of life. The doors were extra wide to accommodate the wheelchair, a special bath had been installed so he could bathe in privacy, and a ramp built to the door providing access and a modicum of independence.

The house is owned by Amidar, the Israeli Government’s housing company. The shed addition had been existing since 1971. No permits were available for renovations to the building since the site has been slated for redevelopment at some future date. After being refused a permit for the renovation the family quietly went ahead and improved the property without altering the exterior except to paint it. Was the municipality happy that a poor family would try and improve their lot, and that of their most needy member? No, quite the contrary, they sent two companies of police and soldiers to flush out this menace to society, and left him sitting on the sidewalk while his newly renovated home was demolished with the contents inside.

Hany’s father sit’s languishing in jail, beaten and taken by Government stormtroopers when he non-violently protested their vile act. Two others suffered the same fate.

I sat with Hany for some time, as the bulldozers mopped up the rubble. His handicap is only physical, and has been with him from birth, restricting the movements of arms and legs, distorting his fingers, twisting his face so his words are slurred and head movements jerky. But when Hany smiles he lights up the space around him with a light that comes from a pure soul. Five minutes in his company are enough to convince you that there might even be hope for his Israeli Municipal tormentors who have done their worst with him but evoke no rancor or hate, only puzzlement and sadness. Hany’s eyes light up when he talks of his work repairing computers, and the Internet that has become his window to the world. One quickly realizes that here is a man with a quick mind and a ready answer to my probing questions. There is a quiet wisdom is his eyes, and a keen intelligence hampered but a little by his physical infirmity.

One wonders where the humanity has gone in a society that allows these atrocities to occur on a daily basis to minority citizens. And one has to ask the Jewish people in Israel where their outrage is, where their sense of common decency has gone, to allow any among us to be treated like dogs and garbage. Has the legacy of the Holocaust done this to us? Are we so traumatized as a people that we truly cannot see others as deserving a life? Are we so devoid of feeling that we cannot even consider a non-Jew to be worthy . . . of existence in this land?

The bombing today in Jerusalem was also a terrible thing. Fifteen people killed, many more injured. Lives destroyed, families shattered. Where do they come from these terrorists, and why? Over twelve thousand homes destroyed in the Occupied Territories since 1967. Where do they come from? Several hundred thousand people with shattered lives. Where do they come from? Children watching, their fathers beaten. Where do they come from? Women screaming. Where do they come from?

And yet I can only see Hany’s eyes, shining as he talked of his computers, as the bulldozed scraped the last of his house he was still smiling, at me, a Jew.

Hany’s email address is hanyz2@hotmail.com
I am sure that he would appreciate any words of kindness for today’s loss. Thank you

 2003 Fred Schlomka