Two years ago I went to Israel for the summer to work on a small organic farm and learn about permaculture. Israel and Palestine have been centers of full-scale war and daily frustration over thousands of years, leading to a complex web of anger and hostility. My own experience witnessing social repression left me shaken.
I made some Israeli friends there and one weekend we went camping on the Dead Sea. Many other people were there- it's unique qualities and stunning beauty make it a popular location. Hiking around the Sea at sunset, we came across a group of Muslims. They looked unaccustomed to camping- the women wore high heels and make-up, their equipment looked new. They also looked like they were having a lot of fun.
When we walked back that way again, two soldiers had arrived. My Israeli friends told me that the Muslims were being asked to leave. They weren't sure why- my friends suspected they didn't have the right permits, which, due to political whims that changed hourly, they might not have any way of knowing about. It was a kind of psychological warfare. I was was surprised and confused. How dare they deny these people the right to camp here! I had left my own comfortable bubble in America and traveled across the world so that I could make a difference. So I turned to the soldiers and did... nothing.
I was paralyzed by indecision. My friends turned away, jaded by the political mess of the Middle East, and so I followed their lead. We all felt sick at this turn of events, but what could we do against soldiers following orders? Since then, I have gone over this event many times in my mind. Should I have said something, however futile, just so that family could have known they had supporters? I don't speak Hebrew or Arabic- perhaps nobody would have understood me anyway.
I returned to the farm a few days later. I had volunteered with other NGOs in the past, but this farm operated under different rules. NGOs I had seen followed basic business principles: make a lot of money, keep the customer (the donors) happy. While millions of dollars flowed in and did a lot of good, the people giving the money had little contact with the organization itself. Those who did travel from America to see what it was like were treated as visiting investors- useful for monetary purposes but actual work would be done by others. This model has done a lot of good and brought a lot of aid to areas with great need, but removes the donor from personal contact. At the farm, however, I learned there was a different way.
The farmer was also a former soldier. One day he put down his gun and decided there was a better way to promote peace. He began by creating a farm that was also a school for sustainable living. People could come for the afternoon or stay for years as a worker. With the amazing ability of the internet to connect people across borders and bipass government regulations, this farm has also become an international gathering spot for activists. His core belief in change and peaceful resolution is realized through community and education. The community of his family and friends working on the farm, the community of students who come to be educated, and the community of activists who use it as a retreat; for them the point is not the power of money for change but the saving grace of dialogue. Solutions- both for the earth and for the people who live there- are all interconnected, and must be tackled together. As I talked about the incident I had witnessed, others shared what they had seen. I was invited to protests and a women's retreat for other like-minded people. I found out about Israelis who would pick fruit for Palestinian farm workers who couldn't get to their jobs because of border crossing problems, thus keeping their job for them the next day. That is an act of compassion that can only be formed at the personal level.
As I witnessed this former soldier turned farmer bring his peaceful ideal to fruition I could see how the exchangeof ideas on the individual and not the global level could bring big benefits for our future. In my experience, partnerships with Middle Eastern activists through personal interaction on the internet and face-to-face in the Middle East can bring wide-spread grassroots change.
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I doubt it was psychological warfare. Angering and supressing people leads to more anger and violence - the army knows this. It was more likely there was a warning about a terrorist attack or something of the like, so they decided to clear the beach of "suspicious" people. I'm not saying it was right in the least, but try to see it from their POV.
Great post though. I just moved from Israel to the US this last September.