Most people think of the occupation of Palestine as Israel’s great divide, but the distances between Israeli and Palestinian citizens, Ethiopian Jews, African asylum-seekers, Ultra-Orthodox Jews, Bedouins, Sephardic Jews from the Middle East and Ashkenazic Jews from Eastern Europe foster prejudice and deny opportunity to many trying to find their way in this complex country.
Dr. Norbert Goldfield of Northampton has developed a foundation, Healing Across the Divides, to improve the health care of marginalized groups in Israel and the West Bank/Palestine. He knows he will not bring peace to this explosive region, but he is trying to do his part to heal the wounds of long-standing conflicts that have no end in sight.
I recently helped lead a study tour of 20 people from all over the U.S., Jews and non-Jews, first-time and veteran travelers to Israel, to bear witness to the programs funded by Healing Across the Divides (www.healingdivides.org).
Every program we visited welcomed us with warmth, gratitude and tables spread with Middle Eastern delicacies. We heard speakers voice their determination to lower the rate of late stage breast cancer among ultra-Orthodox Jewish women who avoid mammograms due to not only modesty, but the fear that their daughters will not be marriageable if they carry the breast cancer gene.
We watched a petite young woman from the African country of Eritrea, who made her way to Israel after imprisonment at home, describe her job educating her community about HIV, including the importance of using condoms. She is a force to be reckoned with. In a country affording her few opportunities, Healing Across the Divides has enabled her to help create community in the midst of poverty.
A group of Palestinian women living in the north of Israel bring their children for well baby visits, while learning about the value of nutrition and exercise. A beautiful mother bouncing her baby on her lap explains, “I used to feed my family hot dogs and Coca-Cola. Now I give them tabouli, hummus, and water.” When I asked about exercise, she talked of family walks, while others spoke of working out with other participants. This program has been so successful that the Israeli Ministry of Health now offers it throughout the country.
We met young Bedouin high school women growing up in a polygamous culture with an extraordinarily high rate of domestic violence. They spoke of their participation in a program funded by Healing Across the Divides that teaches them to dream big and to claim their human rights, while they and their mothers are given access to an abuse hotline, legal services and shelter when necessary.
About 1,000 people live in tents badly in need of replacement in the West Bank village of Susiya, where Healing Across the Divides funds a program to help mothers and children manage the trauma associated with neighboring Jewish settlers known to physically assault Susiya’s residents. I sat in on a women’s support group and heard a member speak of gaining the courage to demand to be treated with respect.
There were others, too numerous to describe. I routinely left each visit wanting to shake my fists at the leaders on both sides, who use the politics of fear and hatred for their own political gains. At the same time, I was heartened by the courage and tenacity of the women I met at each program we visited.
So many of the women experienced a sense of solidarity through mutual healing and empowerment. The programs that Healing Across the Divide funds are mainly developed by local communities. Goldfield insists on a rigorous evaluation plan before a program is funded and only continues backing programs that document outcomes.
There are also unintended consequences. A member of a support group for unmarried Arab women is attending chef’s school. Another has enrolled in a local college. The women in the Susiya group have formed a crafts collaborative with women in surrounding villages. Women are raising their daughters to value education and their sons to value women.
Representatives of these programs in Israel meet quarterly to share accounts of successes, failures and to learn from people they ordinarily would never come into contact with.
Kayan, a consciousness-raising program for Palestinian women in Israel, is adapting One In Nine, the breast cancer prevention program that targets ultra-Orthodox Jewish women, for the Palestinian communities they serve. Mistrust is slowly giving way to respect and a synergy of ideas.
Boycotts, checkpoints and bureaucracies on both sides have stood in the way of West Bank attendance at Healing Across the Divide quarterly meetings, but it’s part of the dream of bringing people together to listen to each other’s stories, to see each other as human beings.
I am pessimistic about the prospects for peace in Israel and Palestine. I am certain, however, that much can be accomplished when we tear down the barriers that perpetuate fear and hatred.
Goldfield, a Jew, has built an organization that reaches across religious, ethnic and racial divides. I flew back to the U.S. excited by the opportunity to continue to help grow this incredible organization.
Sara Weinberger of Northampton is a professor emerita of social work and writes a monthly column.