If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse

Last year when I arrived back from the US to Jerusalem, I was trying to stay in the middle in my perspective on the conflict. Being to pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian frustrated me. I also, had very idealistic views that if both sides simply talked to each other and learned about each other, the conflict would be solved. While I still feel like being pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian, or as a friend of mine says, "More Palestinian than a Palestinian," and one could also say, "More Israeli than an Israel," my idea of having a balanced perspective on the conflict has become more nuanced.

One of the perks of studying in Jerusalem, is not only being able to study about Israel/Palestine, but also being able to experience it. I imagine that if I was studying Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies in the US, I would read a lot of books, but I would not have the chance to learn from the people first hand. I took advantage of this ability my first semester. I decided to write a paper based on interviews with Palestinians.

My initial interest was knowing what both sides knew about each other's perspective. Since, however, I know mostly Palestinians and could find interviewees within this community better, I focused my interviews on asking Palestinians what they knew about Jewish history? I interviewed all middle-aged males, but from varying religious backgrounds and perspectives on the conflict. I initially expected people to agree with my view that if both Israelis and Palestinians learned about each other's backgrounds and interacted with each other, then the conflict would be easier to solve.

I soon came into contact with the term 'normalization'. Normalization is a term that came to be used of many educational programs, retreats, and conferences that brought Palestinians and Israelis together to talk about their perspectives. Instead of solving the conflict, however, many of these programs simply made people feel good about themselves, and become 'normalized' to the conflict, without having to really change how they acted to bring about a true solution.

One of the men I interviewed, a Catholic priest and theology professor at Bethlehem University, who has attended many conferences with Jewish and Muslim leaders, as well as bringing his students to interfaith dialogue sessions emphasized the need for a 'just' peace. He explained that because of the Israeli occupation, anytime Palestinians and Israelis meet, there is a sense of inequality; there is an oppressor and an oppressed. The only way to truly meet and understand each other, would be to meet as equals. As long as there is occupation, there will always be inequality in this meetings. He explained: "The idea is if you want me to know about your history you need to know about mine. If you want me to know about your suffering, I suffer as well and I want you to acknowledge that I suffer."

I no longer strive to stay in the middle and simply listen to both sides neutrally. The fact is that there is a situation of injustice here, where Palestinians every day lives are controlled by the Israeli occupation. Until there is a politically solution, there will never be equality in which both sides have human dignity. As Desmond Tutu said: "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality."

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