Coexistence is a powerful buzzword, particularly in Israel. Many Israelis talk about living in peace, with Jews and Palestinians side by side in a spirit of cooperation and mutual respect.
Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, whose name means Oasis of Peace, has been turning the talk into reality. The village, which lies midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, is the only village in Israel in which Jews and Arabs have chosen to live together and to educate their children together.
Two representatives of the village of 50 families were in Milwaukee last week to talk about their village, their goals and the unique challenges they face. One was Sagi Frish, 23, a Jew and the first child to be born in the community. The other was Abdessalam Najjar, mayor of NSWAS and the first Palestinian to bring his family there.
The March 25 event at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee drew an audience
of about 40.
So successful has the village’s coexistence been that residents now are dealing even with such issues as intermarriage between Arabs and Jews. Frish claims as one of his closest friends Najjar’s 23-year-old daughter. Another is also Israeli-Palestinian.
Still, Najjar explained, his daughter sees the great hurdles in a mixed marriage.
“What happens if she has a Jewish boyfriend? She says it’s hard enough to live with somebody else, so to make it easier they should at least be from the same faith and culture. But, if someday a [mixed] couple from our community does marry, so what? God bless them.”
Coexisting as equals
Frish attended an all-Jewish high school since NSWAS does not have one. Later he served for three years as an infantryman in the army. He said his military service was the natural thing to do since residents of NSWAS are encouraged, even expected, to maintain their ethno/religious identity.
Najjar said that since both sides have such strong identities, most villagers agree that “we should not try to overcome our diversity” by necessarily intermarrying and blending into one people. The idea, Najjar said, is to coexist as equals and to respect the other as they are.
Frish added, “We see our own cultures and wonder, ‘Why should we overcome our diversity?’”
Najjar said one of the biggest issues dividing Jews and Palestinians is that both view themselves as victims.
“It is difficult when both sides believe they are victims, because if you are a victim, the other side is the perpetrator. We try to show both sides that they are in competition to be victims. If you are a ‘victim’ you don’t have to change your behavior or views. Victims don’t usually take responsibility,” he said.
Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam was founded in 1972 by Father Bruno Hussar, an Egyptian-born Jew by birth and a Catholic by conversion. He leased the land from the adjacent Latrun Monastery. In 1977 the first family came to reside there; now, the village’s 50 families are half Jewish and half Palestinian.
Najjar explained why he came to the village. “Twenty-five years ago I was involved in a dialogue group and I realized I wanted to do more than just dialogue,” said. “I was involved in a group that wanted to make change.”
Frish came to the community in 1978 with his parents. “It was clear to my parents that they didn’t want me brought up segregated in the Israeli school system,” he said.
Frish attended elementary school in the village’s bilingual, bicultural school, which instructs students in both Arabic and Hebrew. He now manages the village’s guesthouse.
“There was nowhere to learn about [Palestinian-Israelis] since schools in Israel are segregated,” he said. “But in our community there are now 300 children enrolled in our schools, most from neighboring communities. We have influenced others around us.”
One of the ways the village supports itself is by holding workshops and seminars at its School for Peace, which brings Jews and Palestinians together. Every year there are about 40 workshops for Jewish and Arab youth, as well as for Palestinian youth from the West Bank and Gaza.
The school also conducts workshops and courses for university students and adults, a facilitator training course for encounters between Jews and Palestinians, and international programs in cooperation with organizations and institutions in other conflict areas, such as Northern Ireland and Cyprus.
UWM freshman Vitali Gueron expressed hope after hearing the pair speak. “I was happy to see that there is an effort to create better Jewish-Arab/Israeli-Palestinian relations without the involvement of the government. Neve Shalom/Wahad al-Salam should be an example to everyone … and I hope this model will be replicated throughout the State of Israel,” he said.
Sophomore Shanna Shapiro said that the program was a positive thing to hold on campus. “It gave people the opportunity to look at things from a different perspective,” she said. “The audience was able to see that people in Israel really do want to live in peace and that there are efforts for co-existence.”
The UWM event was co-sponsored by the Hillel Foundation-Milwaukee, the American Friends of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, the American Jewish Committee, Congregation Shir Hadash, the Interfaith Council of Greater Milwaukee, North Shore Presbyterian Church, Peace Action Wisconsin, Unity Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Najjar and Frish also spoke at the two churches and to students at local schools, including Nicolet High School and the Milwaukee Jewish Day School.
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