Reconcilation: To victims engage each other

A young Israeli soldier desired to join the Israeli army. He wanted to defend himself against the enemy. It was a question of survival. He was extremely fearful of losing his life and the life of his people

Josef, at age 10, was forced from his home in Poland along with his family in 1939. As they were being forced to march toward the Russian border, a Nazi soldier was not convinced that his father was walking fast enough. The soldier bayoneted his father in front him, and as young boy, he would never lose that image in his mind. The family was hearded into Trains by Russian soldiers and sent to Siberian prison camps. His mother died during that time.

Eventually, he made it to Israel in 1948 and joined the army when he was 18. He was afraid of not surviving, and felt a need to defend himself. In one of his assignments, his unit forced Palestinians out of their homes, and watched while some of his fellow soldiers commited atrocities with the villagers. He saw at that moment that acts that they were performing were the same ones the Nazis had done to his family, and could not face his work. He quit the army and fled to England.

Some years later he returned toIsrael and went to the village of Lyda, and found a survivor there, and expressed his apologies for the acts he may have commited.

I had no idea that such atrocities were being committed during the War of Independence, as the Israelis called it. There is little information available about such acts in our sources at home. The Nokba or disaster, was a mass exodus of 750,000 Palestinians to the north and east of the land. Some 512 Palestinian villages were destroyed. While reading the book by Fawal called On the hills of God, I began to read stories of the forced marches that the Palestinians experienced. Visiting some of the villages and hearing the stories from survivors was a powerful moment for me as we stood in the midst of the remains of the buildings.

At the end of Josef's talk which came from the heart and he expressed several times his sorrow for acts he may have committed against members of the audience that night. There were many Palestinians who were present, and there was a hushed silence. Finally, a man in his seventies in back of the room stood and said, I appreciate what you have said, but it is not enough. More people like you need to share their stories and express forgivenes. I accept your apology and wish you a long and healthy life. There were tears in every one's eyes.

This is just one experience of many powerful ones that I have heard this week. Memories was the theme of the first week in Nazareth. The impact is the theme for this week as we look at the occupation up close in Jerusalem.

Love to you, BIll