Up the road to the “Lighthouse” 3 cars drove ahead of us. Nice, I told Shmulik, there are travelers. In the parking lot we found out that in the cars there were 7 dear women from the “Women Wage Peace” movement who had come with deliberate intent to our Lighthouse. We arranged the chairs in a circle, Shmulik at the tea stand (maybe for the first time since the “Lighthouse” was founded, the tea was prepared before the coffee!) and Rebecca, who has already visited several times, asks me to tell about ourselves “because there are some who still don’t know the Lighthouse” (yes, it’s hard to believe, but it’s a painful fact, there are some who don’t know yet about the “Lighthouse”).
I told, I answered some questions, we discovered mutual acquaintances, from our field of occupation and the fabric of our lives (Because it is the Israeli nature to immediately discover common acquaintances, and we are all in the same circle of active in the matter we are dealing with). When I talked about Rami, Batya, who is both one of the peace-making women and a resident of the area, began to tell about a project that Rami was involved in:
Batya lives close to the fence, and has been photographing the area for many years. Sometimes, she points her camera towards Gaza as well. At some point she had the idea of holding an exhibition of her photographs. She thought that if you were going to present an exhibition that examines one side of the fence, it might be worth combining it with photography enthusiasts from the other side of the fence. Posted on the Internet, and received several responses. Also a response from a Dutch doctor from the organization “Physicians for Human Rights” who occasionally entered Gaza. Contact was made with Rami who interested several local photographers. Some got “cold feet” and did not want to continue the relationship. one remains. Batya will “host” his photographs at the exhibition. They exchanged pictures and Batya says that there are pictures that really complement each other. For example, the same place is photographed by her from the direction of Israel and by him from the direction of Gaza. Batya says that the thought that they are so close and so far – is frustrating. The photographer really wants to go to the exhibition but can’t. The exhibition is voluntarily promoted by a large advertising agency that has joined the project.
In the meantime Mark, Vivian, Malki and Bella joined the circle. Unfortunately, after Batya’s words, the women of peace decided to go on their (long) journey back to their homes in the north. They came to us after they had already frequented the Friday circuit at “Black Arrow”.
We remained the regular and close. Vivian brought up the topic of the meeting that took place in the Misgav Regional Council, which was about taking advantage of the opportunity in the establishment of the new government to create a Jewish settlement in the Galilee, led by the Political right movements and with the participation of representatives of the kibbutz movement and the moshavim movement. The issue was published in an opinion column published by the journalist and writer Odeh Basharat in Haaretz newspaper. Vivian and several other people sent a comment to the paper. We hope it will be published in the coming days. It is possible that a petition will be signed against the move and everyone is invited to sign.
A discussion developed that expanded to other matters that emerge and multiply in the usurping “Zionist” context.
This time we were: Arna, Tamar, Edna, Rivka, Sigal, Batya, Chaya, Vivian, Bella, Malki, Mark, Oded, Shmulik.
Written by: Oded