Apparently there are days like that too: all our attempts to manage a circle as usual were shattered in the face of an extraordinary verbal storm from one of the guests, a theater actor by training. To his credit, he was alternately funny and dramatic, with an impressive ability to imitate which he wove into his stories. When he stopped to breathe and I managed to get a word in, he had to say what is his Gaza consciousness.
Ofer begins by quoting from the sources, “Strong like the death the love.” Then he says that if it is about Gaza, “Gaza is like the death of hate” and adds that if he is Gazan, he hates Israel. But feels that he knows nothing, everything is being hidden from us, he states.
Meanwhile between coffee and talking, his partner Tali also manages to say something.
Tali: The solution is educational, on both sides. For her, with the level of knowledge she possesses, there is no one to talk to there. Defines herself as “less humane than Ofer”. The little person controlled by forces stronger than him is quite poor, she says and asks the circle, what is the solution?
Nahshi agrees that the solution is education. Our partners in Gaza, are trying to do it through the “Youth Committees”, an understanding that an alternative to violence can be created. We want to tell them that they have partners in non-violence here, says Nahshi. In his opinion, the main positive change that Gantz created is the permits for entering workers.
Tali says that her right-wing friends say that hatred is inherent in the Palestinians personality. Ending with a question/idea, perhaps it is possible to organize there, in Gaza, adults who remember Israel well, to explain Israel to young people.
After that, Ofer played alone on the entire field and mainly described anecdotes from the joint show of him and his brother Dekel, who has Down syndrome, from decades of performances throughout the world.
When it got a little colder, Ofer and Tali got on their bikes and rode to another horizon.
We remained only the “regulars”.
In the remaining time I raised the question of whether it was right to come to the demonstrations with the Palestinian flag.
The answers were divided and ranged from a complete negative, mainly for the reason that it could divide the consensus that prevails in the demonstrations and disintegrate the impressive mass. Those in favor of raising the Palestinian flag argued mainly that the regime change would harm many groups in the population and perhaps most of all the Palestinian community under Israeli control would be harmed. That is why it is the right and even the duty of every community to represent itself in a demonstration as part of a whole opposing the regime change.
There was also one who said that flags don’t speak to him and he doesn’t care who waves what.
This week we were: Shmulik, Nahshi, Mary, Bella, Malki, Dina, Oded, Tali, Ofer, Nur, Farhan, Mark and a few others who passed by, listened to Ofer and continued on.
Written by: Oded