We are now heading to Tubas, then on to Al Aqaba. I’ve been able to interview a few people along the way, some who will be involved with our workshop on Wednesday.
I’ve found Palestine to be a beautiful, old area. I say “old” in terms of human impact. The land has lost a lot of soil and is very terraced after thousands of years of agriculture. There are a lot of rocky soils. When I view this landscape, my mind goes to the concept of sustainability for the human species. I see that the people here are closer to the land, and more capable than the typical American in being able to sustain themselves. However, I also see, like in America, a reliance on fossil energy to do work including making water available domestically and agriculturally, and transporting goods and services. There is a lot of produce grown and consumed locally. I find the standard of living is much higher here than what I observed through my work in Mali and Malawi.
I am finding the Palestinian people to be very gentle, generous, kind people. I do hear a significant amount of frustration with the way they are treated, as wholly separated from the Israeli-Jewish population. It does remind me of the painful separation that I see with American Indians, African Americans, and others that I have seen treated as a separate class. This, to me, is very disrespectful. As I mentioned in my previous paragraph that I pay attention to sustainability, I don’t believe that we, as a human species, will thrive, or even survive, as long as we treat people disrespectfully. I believe that our only hope for survival will occur when we are finally able to manage power, treat others equally, and manage our fears associated with issues like diversity and scarcity. Until we can learn to share, we will fight over what we have. I wrote about this concept in my previous post.
I hope to be able to listen to more Israeli Jews in order to understand their side of the story. I can only imagine that the behaviors that seem so disrespectful to the Palestinians have to do with the Jewish populations need to survive. I find that this region is full of traumatized human beings. Research is showing that continually traumatized human beings grow a significantly larger brain around the lower brain stem, which is our emotional center and our mechanism for “flight or fight,” the “reptile” part of our brain. Could the multitudes of time, based on trauma, have created a collection of people that have little hope of living in a world where fear is managed and best outcomes as humans is possible?
A shortcoming of the current philosophy that I see is that the “Second Law of Thermodynamics” for humans is at play in all interactions with humans. This is the concept that power has a tendency to equalize. That tendency is natural, and is always playing in the human realm. Consequently, if one force tries to suppress others with more power, the opposite group will resort to a power equalizing behavior. Either this can happen by increased the power of the opposing side through such actions similar to an “arms race” or through “sabotage.” Since shipment of arms has been limited in the region, then the only means for equalizing power, which I suggest has to happen according to natural law, is through sabotage.
Fighting this tendency of nature in humans is extremely costly in time, money, and the loss of human qualities. One can expect to spend a lot of time, money, and loss of human qualities by pursuing a route of doing power moves on other individuals. If one is wise, another opportunity is to seek means that equalize power in a respectful manner. The more powerful one can ask the lesser powered individual what can be done to resolve these issues, and act on those issues. Unfortunately, I wonder if there has been so much trauma in this region for so long, are humans capable of moving to concepts of power sharing and equalization.
Other options exist such as not choosing to stay in the conflict or rising above the conflict and learning new norms that tolerate or embrace the unique qualities of the other. Since this region is so significant from religious and ethnic reasons, choosing to leave is hardly an option. Rising above the conflict requires a new view of the situation, one where parties are willing to acknowledge and embrace the unique qualities of the other. Can individuals and entities that have such a history of trauma become capable of rising to this higher level?
After the initial interviews yesterday, the idea of the circle comes to my mind. When people sitting in the circle describe what they see from their viewpoint, the individual’s view is different than every other person in the circle. Sure, some people sit in closer proximity and see generally the same view. However, every degree that you move around the circle adds and loses part of the previous view.
The people who are opposite of the viewer describe a view that the original observer is not able to see. In conflict between two viewpoints, you will often hear forceful explanations of what is seen, and a denial that the opposite view exists. In reality, the full view of the circle exists, from each vantage point. Consequently, where you sit in the circle reflects only part of the view of the full circle.
In order to understand the full circle all parties need to describe their viewpoint. From that full view are we able to understand the room and what options exist for what we can do with “the room.” My work is about helping people to listen to each other, learn to accept the possibility that all views exist in a situation, and then determine what to do with the fuller view. I like to suggest the concept that in the future exists the possibility that the “best possible outcomes” can occur from this full view, which leads to incredible new perspectives that help people figure out how to get what they each want, through consensus. This is true power.
The same applies to what I am learning here. There are many views. Each of these views is correct, partially. They are only partially correct when understanding the full situation. I wonder that because there is so much fear and distrust of the other, is it possible to get all these views together and explore the possibility that common understanding can occur, people can acknowledge their fears and let go of these fears, shifting instead to their desired outcomes and discovering a path that can meet the needs of all parties? This is what I hope to discover on my trip. I have seen this outcome happen so successfully in many other situations. Can it happen in Israel?
Most people that I interviewed believed that it was impossible to meet the needs of all parties collectively. I asked one person what would meet the needs of all parties, and to give me an answer in the next morning. He did think about my question over the night and said the next morning “Tolerance and dignity. By coming from a base of being respectful to all ethnic-religious groups, it could be possible for the people to all co-exist in harmony and peace.” Nice answer! Now the question, “what do we need to do to create an environment of tolerance and dignity?”
