This is one story of Kivunim Orientation, and a preview of the struggles and experiences that await.
In the desert strangers grow into unified bodies, revelations are transmitted, dreams are planted, and it is therefore appropriate that leaders like Ben-Gurion turned to the desert for the future. This orientation taught us that the future has been here for a while, and we should see to it that others don't miss out. The following account highlighting the last ten days demonstrates the capacity and intention of this program to transmit lessons in the art of moving mountains.
That night, our wonderful drivers Kfir and Yisrael pulled off the main road into Be'er Sheva, onto unpaved dirt roads, weaving through the dusty hills toward a Bedouin village called Abu Jarabiya.
Named after the head of the clan, Abu Jarabiya's son, named Mohammed Abu Yusef Abu Jarabiya, speaks his native Arabic, as well as Hebrew and even a little Yiddish. As you can probably assume, he fought with the Jews in 1948, and has since been supportive and accepting of Israel. Despite his tremendous respect, the privilege of his hospitality as he hosted the group for the evening, I was skeptical that such an attitude could be so natural. Moving such a mountain is an extremely daunting task, and I was not convinced that the other Bedouin communities shared his ideologies. In later conversations with Abu Yusef, I learned that he was an only son. While he had more than one wife, and plenty of children to established a community, the fact that he was an only son might have placed his towards the bottom of the social chain. It most certainly enabled him to pursue his own direction in an effort to establish himself and his family. Additionally, Abu Yusef and his family were of North African descent. This implies another challenge to the pride of his family, as Africans were once slaves of the Bedouin.
One of his sons spoke to us as well about his volunteering in the Israeli Army. He told us how he could walk into a bank in his traditional garb and be treated as a lesser citizen, or he could walk in with his military uniform on and be received with open arms. He also took us to his flock of sheep, pausing briefly at the site of a Mosque he constructed that was immediately reduced to rubble since Israel did not allow for building permanent structures in his village.
In the morning, we woke to the women preparing dry bread, which beats matzah because it has no yeast and isn't a cracker. Clinton explained the relationship between matzah and the Bedouin lifestyle in the tent:
From there we entered Be'er Sheva, and met with an amazing woman named Amal Elsana. Her story is below, and it includes her childhood and struggle as a feminist in Bedouin society, as well as her current work fighting for Bedouin's rights by running The Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment, and Cooperation.
We then traveled out of the city to a local neighborhood called Tel Sheva, where another Bedouin woman named Maryam is running her own business...
These incredible women presented some of the possible sources from which we might find solutions to these problems of accepting identity, society and individual. The other sources are the students on this program.
The orientation wrapped itself up with a stay in Yerucham for Simchat Torah, where Jews celebrate the completed reading of their sacred law, and then at 3am we departed for Masada, a desert fortress where the historian Josephus writes that a mass Jewish suicide took place.
Following dawn, we discussed the implications of a such a decision, to side with death over surrender and slavery, definitions of pride and freedom in that period, and how to apply such an event to our current political situation.
Kivunim was finally ready to begin its semi-nomadic residency in the hostel of Bet Shumel, in Jerusalem.
Named after the head of the clan, Abu Jarabiya's son, named Mohammed Abu Yusef Abu Jarabiya, speaks his native Arabic, as well as Hebrew and even a little Yiddish. As you can probably assume, he fought with the Jews in 1948, and has since been supportive and accepting of Israel. Despite his tremendous respect, the privilege of his hospitality as he hosted the group for the evening, I was skeptical that such an attitude could be so natural. Moving such a mountain is an extremely daunting task, and I was not convinced that the other Bedouin communities shared his ideologies. In later conversations with Abu Yusef, I learned that he was an only son. While he had more than one wife, and plenty of children to established a community, the fact that he was an only son might have placed his towards the bottom of the social chain. It most certainly enabled him to pursue his own direction in an effort to establish himself and his family. Additionally, Abu Yusef and his family were of North African descent. This implies another challenge to the pride of his family, as Africans were once slaves of the Bedouin.
One of his sons spoke to us as well about his volunteering in the Israeli Army. He told us how he could walk into a bank in his traditional garb and be treated as a lesser citizen, or he could walk in with his military uniform on and be received with open arms. He also took us to his flock of sheep, pausing briefly at the site of a Mosque he constructed that was immediately reduced to rubble since Israel did not allow for building permanent structures in his village.
In the morning, we woke to the women preparing dry bread, which beats matzah because it has no yeast and isn't a cracker. Clinton explained the relationship between matzah and the Bedouin lifestyle in the tent:
From there we entered Be'er Sheva, and met with an amazing woman named Amal Elsana. Her story is below, and it includes her childhood and struggle as a feminist in Bedouin society, as well as her current work fighting for Bedouin's rights by running The Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment, and Cooperation.
We then traveled out of the city to a local neighborhood called Tel Sheva, where another Bedouin woman named Maryam is running her own business...
These incredible women presented some of the possible sources from which we might find solutions to these problems of accepting identity, society and individual. The other sources are the students on this program.
The orientation wrapped itself up with a stay in Yerucham for Simchat Torah, where Jews celebrate the completed reading of their sacred law, and then at 3am we departed for Masada, a desert fortress where the historian Josephus writes that a mass Jewish suicide took place.
Following dawn, we discussed the implications of a such a decision, to side with death over surrender and slavery, definitions of pride and freedom in that period, and how to apply such an event to our current political situation.
Kivunim was finally ready to begin its semi-nomadic residency in the hostel of Bet Shumel, in Jerusalem.
I am aware and apologize for providing such minimal narrative. Unlike in previous experiences of travel and exploration, I now find it necessary to be multi-focal, since I am no longer responsible for just myself, and this detracts from my ability to concentrate entirely on everything before me. In addition, though, I allow you this opportunity to construct your own narrative and opinions based on the same words that we heard, and sights that we saw. Sure, you don't know how many bed bugs attacked in Abu Jarabiya, but you can see the passion in these people's eyes, and the puddles of Dead Sea that continue to shrink. On this occasion, I'm saving you the step of translating sights into words...
yerucham!! that's where we stayed with JNF
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