There is no Two-State Solution.
The IDF physically forced my grandparents from their home and chased them down the street, said Anwar, an Israeli-Arab. A group of us, mostly Americans, were sitting in a friend’s dorm alongside a full moon when the topic came up. She was recounting the story about the Nakba, cataclysm in Arabic, her grandparents would tell their grandchildren during family gatherings. She also told us about the camping trips her family would take into the Golan and around Jerusalem. Do you see that mountain? her father would ask. From that mountain to that mountain, everything in between is your land.
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So what is the solution? my Turkish-Muslim friend, Sinan, asked the Palestinian girls we met on the bus back from Ramallah. It was a cold day when we went to visit the city containing the grave of the Nobel Prize winner for Peace, Yasser Arafat. The sky was the color of cement and the air hung heavy in or way. The day started early on the Temple Mount. Sinan went into the mosque to pray, while I waited outside with Hana and Andrea. From there we tried to navigate the old city to the Ash-Sham Gate, a.k.a. Damascus Gate. We stopped once for directions. The person made us repeat the name, Sham Gate, several times in an attempt to improve our pronunciation. Once he was satisfied he pointed us in the right direction and declared rather loudly, We love all our Palestinian brothers, and smiled goodbye.
The sites in Ramallah are limited, but Sinan and I went there in search of people, not attractions. Johara Baker is an American born Palestinian we met in the security line on our way back into Jerusalem. She immigrated to Palestine sixteen years ago. She commutes from Ramallah to Jerusalem for work five days a week. She told us she felt her place was with her people in Palestine.
Diala and Aya were the two girls we met on the bus back to Jerusalem. Sinan saw Aya carrying a physics text book in English and jumped at his opportunity to speak with her and Diala. They were born in East Jerusalem and attend Birzeit University a few kilometers outside of Ramallah. Diala wore a shiny, purple hijab, a black and white keffiyeh around her neck, and blue-jeans. Her eyes were like a grandfather clock, further accentuated by her fair complexion. Aya wore a brown hijab with a plaid coat and brown dress that fell to her ankles.
Why don’t you accept Israel’s Two-State Solution? Sinan asked. Diala took a moment to fight off the tears that began to boil over. If a person chased you out of your home with a bat would you accept half of your home and live with them after you’ve returned with the cops? She demanded to know.
But Israel is strong, now. The Jews are strong. So what is the solution? he pushed. You are talking to two Palestinian girls, she shot back with a sniffle, what do you expect us to say? Step one: we better ourselves. We do this through education. By average, Palestinians are the highest educated people in the Arab world. Her composure grew as she spoke. Step two: we take back our land.
What about the Jews? I asked. Will you drive them all out? Maybe kill every last one? The Jews are not the problem, Diala said. The Israelis are not the problem. It is their government. Of course they want to live here. If I were Jewish I’d move here, too, but it is not their land.
Step two: take back our land, she said. Their land, as they see it, up to every last grain of sand on the shores of Tel-Aviv is never far from their thoughts. It is their primary reason for becoming educated. It is their reason for playing along with Israel and building the settlements. Their land is their reason for being and it is never more than two steps away from their thoughts and actions.
Mario Uriarte is a Masa participant studying at Ben-Gurion University in the Overseas Student Program, one of Masa Israel‘s 160 programs.
