Givat Haviva Voice

On a cold winter evening three and a half years ago, I went to Hampshire College in Massachusetts. At the time, I was the Jewish Agency emissary of Hashomer Hatzair in North America. I went there to help one of our youth group counselors, Allison, who was caught in a double bind. As a counselor for Hashomer Hatzair, in opposition to the occupation in the territories and inequality between Jews and Arabs in Israel, she found herself under attack and socially boycotted by Jewish students on campus. On the other hand, identifying as a Zionist who views Israel as the national home of the Jewish people, Allison found herself attacked and boycotted by leftist groups and supporters of Palestine on campus, who accused her of racism. "Even in the United States, it's difficult and complex to be a Shmutznik (nickname for member of Hashomer Hatzair, leftist Zionist youth movement)," I thought to myself as I walked to meet with students from both groups who came to hear me media...

Today was a terrible day. Jews burned a family of four Palestinians in the village of Duma in the West Bank . A baby was murdered; his parents and brother have been burned and are fighting for their lives. I arrived at the village after the end of the funeral as part of a delegation from the Meretz Party led by MK Eswai Freij. We couldn't see the family because the Palestinians were afraid that it was too risky to have Jewish Israelis at that time. Instead we met the governor of the Palestinian Nablus Region, in which Duma is located. We were there in solidarity and to express our shame and rage at Jewish terrorism. The Palestinian governor thanked us for coming. He spoke about Jews being burned by Nazis in the Holocaust and now entering this village to burn Palestinians. He denounced acts of terror perpetrated by both sides and spoke about his expectations for change from Israeli society. MK Friej introduced me to the governor as the head of Givat Haviva, which is working ...