Today, in the circle we sat with the Nabataeans, the Byzantines, the Romans, the Arabs, the Ottomans, the English, human kingdoms, one god and multiplicity of gods. Most of them spoke from Rami’s throat, some were represented by Shmulik and sometimes Rami’s Byzantines argued with those of Shmulik.
I completed the cycle by listening, coffee rounds and hallucinatory musings on the motives that create the human urge to act. As the discerning among us have already noticed, amidst thousands of years of history and entire peoples for their equipment hosted in the circle, we were also three present humans: Shmulik, Rami and I. Like the history that was present with us in its spirit, there were with us in their spirit who’s instinctively remembered on Friday between one and four in the “lighthouse”. Three hours passed like lightning and shook the intellect like thunder, even in the middle of summer… the summary can be long and tedious and to be honest, mostly invented… because I did not record as summary customs during the “circle”. Therefore, I will be content with what has been written so far.
So Today, Friday, Shmulik, Rami and I were here.
Another thing: Shmulik, Hayuta, Nahshi and I met last Sunday, August 8, at the “Lighthouse”, with about 80 youths from the KKL-JNF patrol circles. Guys aged 17-18 from around the country and with them their slightly older instructors. We divided them into two circles with Shmulik leading the conversation in one circle and I in the other. In the middle of both, Nahshi serves rounds of coffee.
Anyone who has recently listened to the way Shmulik and I express ourselves on the JNF issue in the context of the role it played (and still plays) in the Israeli-Zionist conflict with the Palestinians, could have feared the virgin consciousness of young people who had to sit on bare ground and listen to JNF oppressors like us. Well, remove fear from your heart.
We told about the “lighthouse”, about the history of the area, about Gaza, about the English and the Turks, about farmers and soldiers, about one engineer who smelled sulfur, about Rami and Rami and the one and only Roni… We toured inside the factory building, outside for the letters RAF and on the tennis court.
We were asked about our feelings as residents of the area at the sight of the burned fields, our opinion on resolving the difficult situation in Gaza and our opinion about the future in the context of the conflict. An hour and a half in which, I at least, “poured” the information I had accumulated, especially in the three and a half years of “Lighthouse”! (Well, also some knowledge of a pensioner born in the country and the region).
Even after the instructors repeatedly asked to gather the youth back on the buses, small groups continued to gather around us to ask something, say something, know more, gather more insight, clarification and also say thank you.
It was Sunday and we were Hayuta, Shmulik, Nahshi and I.
Wrote: Oded
