CPTnet
8 January 2008

HEBRON REFLECTION: "Tae see wirselves as ithers see us"*

by Jan Benvie

On 28 December 2007, two armed, off-duty Israeli soldiers and two Palestinian gunmen killed each other. (See 30 December 2007 CPTnet release, "Israeli army, in search of injured gunmen, lays siege to Hebron hospital.") The Israelis were from the settlement of Kiryat Arba, near Hebron, the Palestinians from Hebron.

Both communities have their narratives of why their young men are dead. Their narratives are similar, although I doubt either would agree with me, such is their enmity towards each other. Part of the narrative goes like this: both believe the other wants to kill them and steal their land; neither thinks the other wants peace. In 1967, Isaac Deutscher, a Polish Jew, wrote an analogy about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He told the story of a man who jumps from a burning building in which many members of his family have already died. In jumping, he saves his life, but he lands on a passerby, breaking the man's limbs. "If both behaved rationally, they would not become enemies," Deutscher wrote. "The injured man blames the other for his misery and swears to make him pay for it. The other, afraid of the crippled man's revenge, insults him, kicks him and beats him up whenever they meet. -- look what happens when these people behave irrationally. The bitter enmity -- hardens and comes to overshadow the whole existence of both men and to poison their minds" (from "The Non-Jewish Jew" Oxford University Press, 1968).

Forty years after Deutscher's words, the enmity has indeed hardened and casts a dark shadow over the lives of both communities. I think of the bereaved families in both Kiryat Arba and Hebron. As a mother, I feel particularly for the parents mourning their dead sons. The loss of a child, even when they are adults, is a heavy burden to bear. I read the angry words expressed by both communities and wonder how many more sons or daughters will be slain in the vengeful aftermath of this particular incident.

Our team meets every morning for worship. The morning after the killings we prayed for all the young men killed and for their families. We also prayed for a peace and healing for the peoples of this divided land.

* from "To a Louse," by Scottish poet, Robert Burns: "o' wid thy power the gift tae gie us, Tae see wirselves as ithers see us." ("tae see wirselves"= "to see ourselves," "ithers"= "others").