It has been said that one of the fundamental laws of particle physics – that the act of observing a thing alters the nature of the thing being observed – is also fundamentally true of the media. By observing and reporting on an issue, the media create or alter public perception and response.

Nowhere is this more true than in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Very few Australians have first hand knowledge of the Palestinian conflict; public perception is built around two minute news headlines about Israeli invasion and yet more suicide bombings by fundamentalists. There are countless tomes written about the source of the conflict and who is to blame or who is responsible for the lack of solutions, but none of these things give us any idea of how the conflict looks to the people involved.

Which is why, when a Jewish friend’s 23 year old son went on a study trip to Israel, the emails he was sending back to friends and family were so fascinating. The following is just one story from his time there.

Philip was studying Environmental issues at a college in a small Kibbutz in southern Israel. While he was there he struck up a friendship with an Arab student named Adli. Adli was from Ramallah (a Palestinian city in the central West Bank about 10 kilometres north of Jerusalem) which currently serves as the administrative capital of the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Philip, quite naturally, had all the preconceptions of life in PA that anyone growing up in Australia, Jewish or not, would have. “The PA I had envisioned was a land living in poverty, with dirty streets filled with beggars and violence”.

The Ramallah Adli described was quite different, but description is not the same as experience so Philip decided to visit Adli’s home and see life in PA for himself. The perfectly understandable reaction from his family and friends was that it was far too dangerous for Philip to cross the checkpoints on his own. “When I told my family that I planned to spend my next Shabbos in Ramallah they (fearfully) told me not to leave. Like a gang they teamed up and bullied me into believing that I wouldn’t come out of PA alive and that everyone there would want me dead!”

Philip is not one to give up on an idea easily, so he managed to convince his school that he and Adli could teach a primary school class in Ramallah about litter and pollution as part of their course. “It was a bit of a struggle with our teacher on our side and one faculty member on the other, but we managed to get approval from the Institute to visit Ramallah. It later appeared that our small battle opened the door and about 20% of the school followed us for the weekend”.

Moving through the checkpoints between Israel and the PA was something that even Philip, with all his optimism, was a little apprehensive about. Again, the experience was nothing like the expectation. “Throughout the few days I spent in Ramallah I went through the checkpoints twice and both experiences were very similar. To enter the PA takes no effort. You drive or walk through - no security check - it’s when you leave the checkpoint the security takes effect. Similar to airport security but with much less effort and personal contact, we all lined up and took turns in going through a turnstile. One-by-one we placed our bags on an x-ray machine and we walked through a metal detector. Up until this point it’s the same as what happens when you enter the bus stations in Israel, except here you don’t have a security guard standing next to you the entire time. Once you pass through the scanner you must show your Photo-ID to a soldier sitting behind a glass panel and keep walking. I would have seen about 100 or more people going through the same process that I did and, honestly, I didn’t understand what the big deal was. I’ve heard many people claim that you have to unpack your bags, take off your shoes, lift up your top - well nothing I saw or experience even remotely resembling these stories or what I’ve seen on TV!”

Adli took Philip to stay with his family, where he was welcomed with open arms and enough food to satisfy the hungriest of 23 year old. They went out at night to a local café to play cards and drink coffee with Adli’s friends, Philip’s obviously Jewish features attracting no attention or remark.

The next day they went to teach the local grade five class about litter, pollution and the basics of ‘strine (all together now: ‘G’day mate, owz it goin’?’). The kids loved them so much they ended up staying on to teach another two classes. “Then, towards the end of the third class – and after three hours of bonding – one of the students asked me if I was Christian. I said no, I’m Jewish. Immediately two of the grade 5 students raised their hands in the air and shouted ‘You’re Jewish! Are you going to shoot us?’”

Philip grew up in Australia; in his world Jewish people abhor violence. I think it was something of a shock for him to see so clearly that those children are growing up in a very different world. “I said ‘I’m Jewish and I visit Israel as often as I can, but in no way does that mean I want to bring any harm to you, or any other student in this room.’ I had the entire class’s attention by this stage. So I talked briefly about the importance of not generalizing and avoiding racism – especially when considering one’s religion and nationality. I would like to think that I may have changed some of their views, but whatever their future will hold, I know that the time we spent together was a life changing experience. We all left on good terms and I can’t wait to go back and visit them.”

In the next generation of Palestinians is a group of children who see Jewish Israelis as something more than just frightening men in uniform. Philip, with his kindness and enthusiasm, wanted to meet them, to teach them, make them laugh and to understand something about of their life. More Israelis followed in his wake, wanting to teach and learn.

For Philip and his friends, Palestinians are no longer just violent fundamentalist who want all Jews to die, they are also children who have not had a chance to see things any other way.

By being there, by observing and by being observed, they changed the thing they were observing, and changed it for the better.

If any conflict is just the sum of its parts, perhaps Philip has found the beginnings of a solution to the conflict in the Middle East? It sounds a little too good to be true, and it probably is, but I still think the world is just a tiny little better off now than it was before Philip visited Ramallah , and that’s always a good thing.

 

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