The first episode will tell how Hayuta, Nahshi and Moshe arrived at the old Sulphur factory and even before the coffee was ready…
Hayuta invited a group of travelers, people of the North and they, motorcyclists, are all equally sure which way the wind is blowing. They believe that the solution, in space and in general, is very simple: a gun.
Politely say thank you for the coffee, both bitter and sweet.
And there was also a second and even a third episode…
With Guy, a photographer from the Modi’in area, who managed to taste coffee but not participate in the circle, compared to Oded and Shmulik who happened to come back from the Modi’in area and did not give up the circle, the cake and the coffee, and Malki and Uzi from Gvulot, and Tami and Doron from Tel Aviv.
Tami finds it hard to understand how people live there with all the poverty and hardship. She has an image she once saw in a movie about Gaza. In the film we see a tiger walking in a cage back and forth.
Doron says that there is a change in Gaza’s treatment of us in recent times, they don’t shoot at us! There is an organized mechanism against the Egyptians and the Qataris. They decided to maintain the status quo. They are not under our boot, they have independence, don’t they? (He says and puts a question mark on his own words) They don’t get up in the morning and see Jews.
Hayuta tells about Palestinians from Gaza that she knew. Three of his daughters are teachers and another son is a hospital male nurse. What they all have in common – they don’t have a job. He told her that before he came to work here, they sometimes suffered from hunger. Suddenly she understands the terrible predicament. He told her that all his children studied and yet could not find work. He does not want to leave Gaza, it is my home, he says and adds that now it is impossible to go to work even in Abu Dhabi.
Nahshi tells about a Palestinian he knows. His brother established a factory for building blocks. In an explosion of a gas tank used by a neighboring bakery, the factory was destroyed and a brother was killed. They tried to rebuild the business, but people don’t have money and don’t buy. Even if they receive goods, it is difficult to charge for them.
Malki says that she had two good encounters with Gaza recently: one is a film made by Gazans about what a wedding in Gaza looks like. The one who interviewed the group that made the film asked them why they made such a film and they said that they wanted to show that people still live there. The second meeting is her participation in the peace conference in Arava. There were many Arabs and Druze. Daliat El Carmel, Usafia, Ramallah, Nablus and more. There were also a father and son who came from Gaza. The 22-year-old son left Gaza for the first time! He was shocked by the encounter with Israelis who are different from the image he has known all his life. The father and son toured the country and it changed his view of Israel. In two months the son is going to study in Germany. Malki finishes by saying that she came to the lighthouse for the sake of the soul and for the meeting.
Shmulik says that in the permits that the Palestinians receive to work in Israel, it is written that they must return to Gaza every day. But that’s a white lie. Everyone knows it’s impossible and lets the possible exist. They are very careful not to take steps that would endanger their license to work in Israel. Shmulik talks about the UNRA agency. Gaza is closed, he says, and depends on the will or unwillingness of the Israelis. His first encounter with Gazans was when he arrived in the mid-sixties, to the Kibutz where he lives to this day. They would walk to the border. There were Swap cigarettes with the UN men. Later he was a dairy farmer and worked with Palestinian family members.
Shoshi says that everyone wants the best. You (she turns to me, Oded) are going through the experience of life on the Gaza side, you want things to go back to normal (well, not exactly what I said, but the rules of the circle “forbid” me to interrupt her speech). There, the common man on the street is a victim. I want to get up and earn a living. Every person is born to do good. She (on the other hand) first wants to help her people if she has free time. wants to help her family first. But, at the same time, she understands their plight.
Amnon agrees with his wife. We are in a difficult reality and there are no solutions at the moment. The reality is hard and sad and requires patience. He greatly appreciates our meeting here and the task we have undertaken. He defines it (the mission) as pioneers and Zionists.
Moshe tells about the meeting that started the circle today, a meeting with a northern group. What bothered him in this meeting was that things were presented as facts and not as opinions. We are the good ones and those beyond the fence cannot be trusted. We, at the Lighthouse, have partners there, says Moshe, we know that there is also a way of thinking that is a mirror image of thinking in Israel, and this makes Moshe very sad.
This time we were: Hayuta, Nahshi, Moshe, Guy, Oded, Shmulik, Malki, Uzi, Tami, Doron, Shoshi, Amnon and a group of bikers without names but with solutions.
Written by: Moshe, Oded and Nahshi.
Photo: Nahshi and Jaber.