The University of Winchester asked me to make my next presentation a more positive one. They wanted me to show positive developments. I am all too aware that whatever the truth of what I have to say might be, hearing relentless negativity is unpalatable and also leads to the accusation of bias and much worse. So with that in mind I discovered an organic farm situated near Bethlehem called Fields of Heaven. I understood that it was an enterprise run jointly between Israelis and Palestinians and looked like the sort of development I needed. I decided that I would try to visit it on one of my spare days.
Unfortunately it does not look as if a visit is likely to happen, because although I have been in contact with the farm, I have not managed to make any arrangements to visit and I don't even have a specific address for it. In order to get there I have made extensive inquiries and contacted all the leads I have been given along with existing Palestinian and Israeli contacts.
However some of the responses I have received from both Israelis and Palestinians have been very telling. I have been told that the farm is not a good thing and that I should not visit it, because it is nothing but 'normalizing' the occupation'. So my understanding of this organic farm is that the land belonged to a Palestinian farmer. The Israeli settlers took it, but instead of doing what most of the other settlers have done, which is to drive the Palestinians off their land to make it wholly Jewish, they have decided to work with the Palestinians and to farm the land together.
It probably sounds quite positive to you as it did at first to me, but imagine this: I come and take your home and your land and am ever so kind and instead of driving you off it I agree to share it with you. Are you happy now? Yes, it is better than ethnic cleansing, but in effect it creates a 2-tier system of occupier and occupied, with the occupied having few rights. That is dangerous from the Palestinian perspective because it normalizes a situation that is inherently unjust.
So there goes my positive spin. I can use the material I have gained from all this, but it is difficult to use it very positively and instead I will have to look further.
All this leads to the title I have used for my next presentations, which is 'Fields of Hope'.
I chose the title not just because of my intended visit to the jointly run farm, but because of Abraham's Field in Hebron. The Bible only tells us that he bought a field and not the whole area, but Hebron is where the tombs of the Patriarchs are situated and also where the Oak of Mamra can be found. It is here that Abraham entertained the 3 angels and pitched his tent. The site is now in the grounds of a Russian Orthodox Church. There is an ancient, half dead tree still there, but whether it is the original tree........
So a field is the cause of much disputed land and also the possible grounds for hope.....
Unfortunately it does not look as if a visit is likely to happen, because although I have been in contact with the farm, I have not managed to make any arrangements to visit and I don't even have a specific address for it. In order to get there I have made extensive inquiries and contacted all the leads I have been given along with existing Palestinian and Israeli contacts.
However some of the responses I have received from both Israelis and Palestinians have been very telling. I have been told that the farm is not a good thing and that I should not visit it, because it is nothing but 'normalizing' the occupation'. So my understanding of this organic farm is that the land belonged to a Palestinian farmer. The Israeli settlers took it, but instead of doing what most of the other settlers have done, which is to drive the Palestinians off their land to make it wholly Jewish, they have decided to work with the Palestinians and to farm the land together.
It probably sounds quite positive to you as it did at first to me, but imagine this: I come and take your home and your land and am ever so kind and instead of driving you off it I agree to share it with you. Are you happy now? Yes, it is better than ethnic cleansing, but in effect it creates a 2-tier system of occupier and occupied, with the occupied having few rights. That is dangerous from the Palestinian perspective because it normalizes a situation that is inherently unjust.
So there goes my positive spin. I can use the material I have gained from all this, but it is difficult to use it very positively and instead I will have to look further.
All this leads to the title I have used for my next presentations, which is 'Fields of Hope'.
I chose the title not just because of my intended visit to the jointly run farm, but because of Abraham's Field in Hebron. The Bible only tells us that he bought a field and not the whole area, but Hebron is where the tombs of the Patriarchs are situated and also where the Oak of Mamra can be found. It is here that Abraham entertained the 3 angels and pitched his tent. The site is now in the grounds of a Russian Orthodox Church. There is an ancient, half dead tree still there, but whether it is the original tree........
So a field is the cause of much disputed land and also the possible grounds for hope.....
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