The Comings and Goings of June 2008
July 11, 2008
This month Jews celebrated the conclusion of the Counting of the Omer and the Mt. Sinai giving of the Torah to the Jewish people.
With tourism to the State of Israel breaking all-time records, International Department staff counted not only Omer but also their blessings in as much as so many program organizers considered a seminar at Givat Haviva as an important and integral part of their client’s itineraries. We also have our fair share of visitors who come to check out what is so special about the Givat Haviva campus, programs and projects and especially those devised by the International Department with a “talk and tour” approach to dealing with Jewish-Arab relations, the kibbutz movement and more.
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Four students from Canada who participated in a 10-day Birthright-Taglit group and remained in Israel for some days after the sponsored tour, spent a day visiting the campus and touring the surrounding area with staffer Lydia Aisenberg.
Raphael (Raffi) Szajnfarber studies in Ottowa and next year will be the vice-president of the Ottawa Hillel. Daryn Epstein, from Dundas, Ontario, is studying accountancy and was a staff member of Raffi’s Brithright-Taglit tour.
Daryn had visited Givat Haviva twice in the past with Canadian Habonim-Dror movement members and also with another group of Jewish students from North America.
Alan Borenstein, from Toronto is studying writing and David Abraham from Montreal has been studying Fine Arts at Concordia University.
The ‘Birthright Boys’ were taken on an in-depth tour of the region starting at Harish (one of Sharon’s Seven Stars along the Green Line), visited the security fence in the West Bank Dotan Valley region, where they saw Palestinians from Yabed engrossed in the local industry of charcoal making. A visit to the divided village of Barta’a by the Green Line proved to be fascinating, especially the conversations with local Palestinians in East Barta’a.
An owner of a barbers shop Rateb Kabha invited the young men in for coffee and a chat. During the course of the visit Rateb and the young men discussed attitudes to Palestinian and Israeli leaders and politics in general.
From Barta’a to the Reichan Checkpoint, the young men spoke with security personal manning the gate as well as Palestinian drivers waiting at the checkpoint.
Leaving the area by way of the new road running alongside the security fence, the students from Canada watched sunset over the Jezreel Valley from a vantage point near the Jewish settlements in the northern part of the West Bank.
Impressed with their seminar on wheels, the students enthusiastically said they would be promoting International Department programs such as "Talk and Tour" as well as the innovative up and coming 5-month semester program ("Masa To The East") for learning spoken Arabic and Hebrew plus Middle East studies slated to start in January, 2009.
“You can be assured we will do what we can to help promote Givat Haviva and especially the 'Masa To The East' program,” said Raffi at the end of a tiring but very satisfying day out and about in our Wadi Ara backyard.
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Hasbara Fellowships: together with their guide, Military and Political Analyst Elliot Chodoff, 30 students from across the United States came for an afternoon "Talk & Tour".
The students showed a great interest in the subject material and asked pertinent questions dealing with Israel’s Arab population, the Palestinians and the specific area known as Wadi Ara and more.
The tour took them to the Amir mountain range vantage point at Katzir and along the mountain ridge to the Palestinian village of Umm Reichan and back down the mountain via Mei Ami and Umm el-Fahm. They passed a late afternoon clearer view over the Palestinian town of Jenin, smaller Palestinian villages linking Jenin to Anin close to Umm el-Fahm, and across the Jezreel Valley.
“It is all so mind-boggling,” said one of the students overlooking a section of the security fence. “I understood why it was necessary to construct a barrier between here and there but didn’t realize the effect on the people who live there,” she said, pointing to the valley peppered with Palestinian villages – large and small - down below.
Hasbara Fellowships is a program aiming to educate and train university students to be effective Israel activists on their campuses. Founded in 2001 in conjunction with Israel’s Foreign Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hasbara Fellowships have brought 1,200 students from over 200 campuses across the United States and Canada to Israel and the vast majority of those students passed through an International Department "Talk & Tour" seminar at some point during their stay. We look forward to continuing the mutual respect built up over the years and hopefully continue to receive Hasbara Fellowship’s serious minded bright young folks from North America and their extremely professional guides in Israel, Elliot Chodoff and Yisrael Ne’eman, a historian and political analyst.
Elliot and Yisrael co-founded MidEast On Target, a website of great interest to followers of events in the Middle East and can be found at www.me-ontarget.com
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Jamie Ellerton from Ottowa is yet another young Canadian who wanted to get to know more about Givat Haviva. Jamies came for a day to the Givat Haviva campus and enjoyed a short excursion around Wadi Ara. Jamie is the executive assistant of the Canadian Secretary of State, Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity, Minister Jason Kenney.
While on campus he met with International Department staff and spoke with Shachar Yanai, co-director of the "Face to Face" encounter program involving Arab and Jewish 11th graders.
Jamie’s time in Israel was limited and he promised next visit to the region to come again – for longer.
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A group of 14 students presently studying at the World Union of Jewish Students in Arad came for a day seminar dealing with the Arab citizens of Israel and toured the Wadi Ara area with staff member David Mendelsohn.
All of the students hailed from the United States except one, a Londoner. The students were participating in various different tracks offered by WUJS Arad, including Arts, Peace and Social Justice studies.
A number of students asked about a possible internship at Givat Haviva when their program finishes.
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The American Council of Young Political Leaders educational exchange program from the States brought half a dozen up and coming political players to Israel.
A short visit to Givat Haviva’s Jewish-Arab Center for Peace made it possible for the group to meet with Ahmad Bdair, Executive Director of the center as well as Development Officer Jodi Cnaan and Lydia Aisenberg of the International Department.
In an email to Lydia following the visit Anne Im wrote: “It was a pleasure to meet you and learn more about the great work going on in Givat Haviva. I am sorry that we were not able to stay longer and go on the tour but I hope to return some day for that. Thank you for your time and for all that you are doing to promote peace in the region.”
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A new group of Ecumenical Accompaniers began their term of service in the West Bank in May. The present group of 24 accompaniers (coming from Germany, Hungary, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Britain and USA) spent a day with Lydia Aisenberg, first on campus at Givat Haviva and then followed by a tour of Barta’a village. The seminar was topped off by a visit to Kibbutz Mishmar Ha'Emek where the EA’s heard about the Zionist and Kibbutz movements and the history of Mishmar Ha'Emek in particular.
The group was accompanied by EA representative Pauline Nunu from Jerusalem as well as a dozen overseas visitors, among whom Michael Bartlet, Parliamentary Liasion Secretary of the Quaker Peace and Social Witness division of the Quakers in Britain.
In an email to Lydia, Anna-Clara Birgersson wrote that the group had been “inspired by the visit.”
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A large group of students from British universities and young professionals brought to Israel through Birthright-Israel participated in a "Talk & Tour" of Wadi Ara with Lydia Aisenberg while a second large group also from Britain did likewise with David Mendelsohn.
Although the students were studying at British universities, many were from other countries such as Germany, Switzerland, USA and Canada. They were brought to Israel through Taglit-Birthright, the Union of Jewish Students and the UJIA in Britain. The students were most interested in hearing about the Arab population in Israel, the former borders and present path of the security fence, and appreciated the opportunity to be able to tour the Amir mountain range in Wadi Ara.
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Eighteen 16 and 17 year-old Americans from Young Judaea, the Zionist Youth Movement of Hadassah, met with Lydia at Givat Haviva and also with Amir Gara, an Israeli Arab lawyer from the nearby village of Jatt.
Touring Wadi Ara after the hottest hours of the day were behind them, the youngsters visited the Katzir Observation point where they took in the view extended over a large part of the northern section of the West Bank and across the State of Israel to the sun setting on the Mediterranean.
The teens also had a brief but eye-opening visit to the village of Barta’a where from a rooftop vantage point they overlooked the pre-1967 border (Green Line), basically an open ditch running through the village - with West Barta’a in the State of Israel on one bank and East Barta’a, an Area B under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, on the other side of the divide.
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From overseas teens to adult groups already fast approaching retirement (and some mixed groups of different age levels) we manage to build and carry out thought provoking seminars and tours.
In the International Department we deal with extremely sensitive subjects and situations, do our best to give as balanced a program as possible. We look forward to continuing with the important work of ‘hasbara’ on behalf of both the Arab and Jewish people sharing the State of Israel and with our Palestinian neighbors down the road and around the corner from those of us striving to make a difference for all, here in Givat Haviva.
Shalom-Sala’am
Hilit Ben-Zvi, Uri Barel, Lydia Aisenberg and David Mendelsohn