Over a recent weekend, I joined dozens of Diaspora Jews invited to do practical work in the Palestinian village of Susiya: planting thyme, picking up trash, and leveling a bad road. There is a growing movement of Jews resisting injustice in Israel and Palestine in creative, energetic ways. It is inspiring to see how they are currently planning more, and bigger, solidarity trips with Palestinians in the West Bank. The following is me working through my thoughts during and since that weekend.
The hills, like a landmass floating in the sky.
The simple resilience of shacks and tents,
Honey bees, shorn sheep, a gaggle of geese.
They say we aren’t truly free till we all are.
How far away it all feels!
When one lousy road takes dozens of us,
Armed but with shovels, picks, and buckets.
Never have I stood face-to-face with a sheer lack of basic infrastructure imposed on others.
With a day’s work behind us, the sun’s begun setting.
Our thoughts are collectively asking: over already?
How much more could we do!
If our brothers and sisters lined their shoulders with ours?
The hills, they’re awash in gold now
As we find our places in a Kabbalat Shabbat circle.
Our bellies are empty, the desert wind is chilly.
But much more, a sense of privilege,
Practicing our Judaism and liberal values
In a land where it’s good to be Jews.
In our laps or piggybacked,
Palestinian children are among us, too.
As we break into song, a boy humorously shouts, Yalla, sing! Dance, dance!
And I think, such maturity to entertain!
But still, an endearing, undeniable innocence.
Some have said the Palestinians raise their children to hate. If you say I’m naive, then first come prove to me how this happens with ‘statistical significance’!
The following day comes, and we work some more.
And we discuss Jewish tenets that propel us to social justice.
“Oppress not a stranger, for we were strangers in Egypt.”
I’m eager to see my religious wellspring, admire and find pride in it.
But one of the small boys comes to alert, mustauten!
A settler has attacked a Susiya resident!
The timing as if to challenge us
As we were cupping our hands into the tributary to go forward right.
So many of us trudge through the rocks and weeds,
To donate our international, Jewish eyes.
Some of us surely puffed out our chests
As if to say: leave the stones, drop your saw!
The olive grove has deep roots here!
I stay behind, though, uneasy and wondering,
Do our protective actions entrench their sense of victimhood?
The police arrests the settler, and sure, part of me rejoices,
While part of me senses justice doesn’t come piecemeal.
Rather, it takes a deep reckoning
By societies to together determine its shape,
And build it together.
The Medford Pact 