Hardly were we on our way to the Migdalor meeting when a message came from Ghadir that she and Jaber were not coming. Shmulik went to the Dead Sea, Malki and Uzi were at a jazz festival, and Rami notified that he was at a photo shoot…
Who? What? Nahshi and I come to Beeri and meet three students of the Sapir College. They are second year communications students, armed with documentation equipment. They’re making a film for their studies. Or (guy), Or (another guy) and Shani (girl). They follow us to the Migdalor meeting at the sulfur plant.
As usual we arrange a circle. Now it’s even documented… Rami comes, coffee as well (brought by Nahshi, who else…) and there are also Mark, Roni, Nomika, Nur and Hanan.
Finally for the last hour Mirale and Neta from Be’eri also arrive. At this time Rami reviews the rationale behind the Migdalor (lighthouse) project to the camera and microphone placed in front of him by the film students.
Nahshi says of himself that until some time ago he was “floating” in the suppressed mode until he realized “something was wrong” and began to be active.
I have something to say too, and I say it…
Rami does not give the students a break, although they act as being immersed in their project, and asks them to take part in the discussion circle. They come from Ramle, Kiryat Ono and Bat Yam. Beyond their assignment, Gaza arouses their curiosity, they took part as soldiers in the 2014 military actions. One of them he “abstains”. We wonder, he explains. He avoids thinking about Gaza because it is a complex tangle of struggles, intrigue and insoluble conflicts.
Mark who is presently much busier with the climate struggle stretches his vision from Gaza to the entire planet.
Roni brings the discourse back to the simple people on both sides of the fence and tells about the friend who managed to come out of Gaza and is on his way to meet the Dalai Lama in India! On his way, he paid her a visit. He crossed over at the Erez Checkpoint, at Netiv Ha-Asara, on a bus from Ashqelon, visited a friend in Jerusalem, went to Jericho, from there to Jordan, and from there took a plane to India.
Hanan tells about his Buddhism studies and how they are tied with his feelings about the goings-on in Gaza.
Nur, always touching our feelings, does it again as she says that she tells herself about a girl her own age, also called “Nur”, who lives in Gaza and cannot do the simple things that she, Nur from Sderot, can do. Although the Gazan Nur is someone whom the Israeli Nur has invented, she knows there are many real “Nurs” in Gaza who suffer from the ongoing siege.
Nomika was not eager to speak but still, somewhat tired, speaks about the declarations that are repeated again and again without managing to change reality.
Mirale remembers Khaled who had worked in Be’eri, that “he and Rami actually grew up together” on the kibbutz grounds.
Then a conversation ensues about the future of the world, and notions such as “extinction rebellion” and “9 billion humans in the world”, “2 million in Gaza”, “Yuval Noah Harari” are mentioned. There is no argument about the concepts and facts, there are only optimism and pessimism…
Clearly here, at the “Lighthouse”, even the pessimists continued – secretly – to be optimists and act for the present and the future of the nearby space and beyond… and it’s now all photographed.
In the meantime we received a video record of the encounter with the Dalai Lama! Hopefully soon in our parts…
Okay. It’s 4 p.m. Time to go home.
Oded