Rami was at a conference this week along with another 1,500 participants from all over the world. He explained the insights in front of us in the first hour of the meeting, and the gist of it as it was preserved in my memory:
The earth provides resources for sustaining life on it. Humans live on and near these resources. The resources in a certain area need to sustain the community living near them. The distribution of resources should not be by countries but by regional communities. For example, here, in the area where we live, there are large areas of land, there is groundwater, there is rainfall, there is the sea. These are resources that all residents of the area have to live off of without state border lines. Rami adds and says that it is possible (with a legal procedure, some of which can already be implemented) to establish here, in the compound where we sit, an environmental research station that will conduct research on subsistence in the environment’s resources. Rami stated in advance that he came today for a short time and we did not discuss too much understanding or development of the idea.
A little before Rami’s departure, Jaber arrived.
After Rami left, it was Jaber’s turn for insight: he is currently working as an bus driver, he does not intend to continue doing so for a long time. He finished the tours operators course with mixed feelings. On the one hand, he studied a lot and on the other hand, he had difficulty in the final exam, according to him, due to internal resistance to basic assumptions that contradict his knowledge and understanding of territorial and historical facts and processes on which he grew up (I tried to phrase it gently…). Jaber’s son finished his medical studies in Romania, returned to Israel and needs to complete exams to start working. applause! Today Jaber was quite upset and spoke excitedly about his attitude as an Israeli-Arab-Muslim to the protest.
Shmulik Nahshi and I are already traveling as usual to Be’er Sheva for demonstrations on Saturdays. We invited him to demonstrate with us, and he gave us an emotional speech about why he doesn’t see any benefit in these demonstrations and even said that if the government succeeds in its plot, we might finally feel a little of what he goes through in his daily routine as a citizen. He of course understands that his situation will also get worse, but he is intrigued to see the reaction of the privileged when their privileges are harmed.
We parted as friends because four o’clock had come.
And Gaza, what about it? Maybe this is the place to tell that a few days ago we were present at an artistic event where we met Gaza with whom we communicated until about a year ago…
We were: Moshe, Rami, Jaber, Nahshi, Shmulik, Oded.
Written by: Oded