A time for reflection among Jewish and Muslim Communities in Europe

Bashy Quraishy Chief Editor – Media Watch - Copenhagen

President – ENAR (European Network Against Racism –Brussels) 

Travelling is often the best way to personal enlightenment or if one is unfortunate, it can also result in confirming one’s own long held prejudices. I have had the blessing to visit many countries, both professionally and as a private person. It surely made me a cosmopolitan person who looks at people as individuals and judges them through their actions and not who they are.  

But up until recently, there was one country, which I badly wanted to visit but my ignorance and fear came in the way. Israel is that land in question.

Like so many other persons in the world, especially among the Muslim communities and western leftwing circles, I also saw Israel through some tainted glasses. In this fast age of instant communication, who have not heard untold stories of Arab-Israeli wars unresolved Palestinian issue, first and second Intifadas, human rights abuses in the occupied territories and the famous Wall of separation. Looking at the newspapers coverage, live TV reports and Radio messages, no one could remain emotionally untouched or take a side.

And this is what I did. I sided with those who were weak and occupied. Oppressor can not have my sympathy, was my excuse. And then, there came three separate invitations in a short span of time. I was invited to come to Israel to take part in an NGO seminar on inter-culturalism, to be part of a European delegation to study Israel’s integration policies and finally to speak at an International Inter-faith Conference in Haifa on Jewish Muslim Dialogue in Europe.  I was excited. I was finally going to Israel, to the ancient holy land, full of history, to the land of Israelites, of crusades, of Jerusalem, of Masada, of Wailing Wall, Dome of Rock, Al-Aqsa, places of Jesus’ birth and crucifixion.    But I was also scared. My Danish passport tells about my relation to Pakistan and my name is very Arabic. How would the immigration treat me? How I would be searched at the customs? Would I be treated differently because of my Muslim origins?

Israel turned out to be an adventure without comparison. To see for myself, how Israelis and Arabs live and interact, I criss crossed the land from the Sea of Galilee in the North to Be’er Sheva in the South. I also visited Ramala. I saw many of the famous and ordinary historical places, talked in length with some politicians, discussed touchy issues with many academics, locked horns with journalists, asked touchy questions to government officials, visited Kibbutz to see the alternative living styles, Israel was built on, centres for uncontrollable Falasha youth, integrated activity centres for all children, villages for handicap adults, hospital where Jew and Muslims lay side by side and even had the possibility to exchange ideas with Israel’s former Minister for immigration. Although, one can not claim to know a complex society like Israel in few visits, I did come across some amazing facts. 

So is the diversity of views in Israel’s Jewish population on every issue under the sun, that it is jokingly said that if there are two Israelis Jews discussing an issue, they will have three opinions. But when it comes to their own history, I was amazed to notice that from taxi driver to a professor, every one knew, where a particular village has its Hebrew name from, which tribe of Israel lived where, who built a particular site and what the Jewish people went through in their wanderings. It was not school books knowledge. It was a genuine interest in their roots and background.     

But what touched me most was the world of the NGOs who are truly the unsung heroes of the Israeli society. They are in the front line of building bridges among Arabs - Muslim, Christian and Darude – and Jewish populations in Israel and the occupied territories. Contrary to what the outside media would have us believe that Israelis are en mass oppressors and Palestinians are totally oppressed, I saw numbers of projects which are the proof that there is great desire among people to live in peace with each other. There is a huge reservoir of good will on both sides and an awareness that they have no choice but to co-exist.   

By saying so, I am not closing my eyes to the harsh conditions many Palestinians are living under. No doubt that there are differences of perception;  daily bad treatment at check points by young soldiers, continuous building of separation wall, lack of work and opportunities, ID checks in the cities and derogatory behaviour towards Arabs – Palestinians on one side and a deeply felt, experienced, and now engraved sense of insecurity and fear of survival on the Israeli Jewish side. Driving in the country gave me the understanding of how small and vulnerable the country really is. Add to that the constant fear of suicide bombings, rocket attacks and being surrounded by uncompromising adversaries. On top of all this, the collective memory of expulsions, pogroms, historical anti-Semitism and worst of all, the Holocaust has left such a deep scar on the Jewish psychic and soul that it will take centuries to heal.