JERUSALEM: I was a prisoner for a period of 12 years in Israeli jails for committing an act of violence. I spent those years reading and learning about the region. Many of the books I read and the films I watched dealt with the Holocaust and the genocide against Jews in Nazi Germany. Today, most nations throughout the world sympathies with the extreme suffering of the Jewish people. However, in the Middle East there are many Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular, who express doubts about the number of victims cited or the nature of the Holocaust.
Last month I took part in an Israeli-Palestinian visit to Yad Vashem — the Holocaust museum in Israel. The aim of the visit was to familiarize young Palestinians with the narrative of “the Other” — a narrative which, under the shadow of the Occupation, is often ignored. This may not have been the first time I heard about the Holocaust as a historical event, but it was the first time that I came face-to-face with the personal stories.
During the visit, our guide, Mr. Yacov Yaniv told his own personal story — how he lost most of his family members and how he wished, when he was a child, that he had a grandfather so he could sit on his lap and play with his beard like other children. We also listened to a story by a woman called Ruth, who lived through that period and witnessed first-hand how her father was abducted, the family left unclear about his fate. At the time she tried to write a letter to her father, but as she was too young to write, she drew pictures of their house and garden, and placed the picture letter in the mailbox in front of their house, hoping her father would return. Sadly her father never returned and she later found out that he was one of those consumed by the fires of Nazi furnaces. She still has the letter today.
More than anything the touching stories and lasting trauma of the Holocaust during my visit made it clear to me that Palestinians and Israelis must strive to achieve peace as soon as possible. Enough blood-letting, enough suffering. Hounded by our past, we should strive towards a better future. There are currently too many prisoners or hostages on either side whose fate remains unknown. Should we wait, once again, for a Palestinian or Israeli child’s letter, searching for his or her father or family? As the children of Abraham we do not want our children to suffer like Ruth.
The Israeli and Palestinian governments should work jointly to create programs that teach both sides about the Nakba and provide courses and visits to Yad Vashem. Only by hearing the personal stories of “the Other” can we begin to acknowledge their suffering, their place in history, their value as human beings who are no different than us. Our hearts are big enough to accommodate more than one nation, one history and one mode of suffering.
Faisal Al-Khteeb is married with four children: three daughters and a son, between the ages of 8 and 1. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).
