The Palestine-Israel Journal is one of the few institutions where both Palestinians and Israelis actually cooperate, almost on a daily basis, to produce food for the minds of people in the area and abroad. We try to keep the forum open and include a variety of opinions and points of view. Sometimes, we have to draw the line at extremist ideas from both sides. But the process for deciding on the topics and focuses of each issue is a democratic and inclusive one.
For another perspective on working at the Palestine-Israel Journal, read the article by its co-managing editor Hillel Schenker in openDemocracy
Other related Middle East material in openDemocracy:
- Gadi Wolfsfeld on the lessons of reporting the second intifada
- Abdel Karim Samara on Arab media and the Iraq war
- Andrew Steele of the BBC on professionalism under siege
- Stuart Cohen and others on the roadmap
We all usually gather at the office of the Palestinian editor Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member Ziad Abu Zayyad, in Ezariyya (Bethany), because he is prevented by the Israelis from entering Jerusalem. All the staff in the office participate in these meetings over a cup of coffee and sweets. The atmosphere is friendly and warm. Our Israeli colleagues usually have many questions about how the situation is developing on the ground because they come over from Tel Aviv and are unable to see what is really happening.
But on the way back into Jerusalem they get a slight taste of what the Palestinians endure day in and day out. We pass the checkpoint and many times have to climb over walls, stones or makeshift steps, along with the other Palestinians who are trying to get into Jerusalem.
Each time, our Israeli colleagues comment on the futility of the whole exercise, as most of the time the soldiers see the people climbing over the fences and checkpoints but the trouble is one can never exactly anticipate what they are going to do, or what they are capable of, when they have orders to dole out the rough treatment.
My Palestinian colleague Najat (our circulation manager) and I truly appreciate their sympathy. But we know that most Israelis cannot really imagine what the daily suffering is like, not only from the checkpoints, but also from the closures, the economic siege, the bombardment, the house demolitions, and worst of all the destruction of peoples livelihood through uprooting trees especially those that just happened to fall in the path of the malicious apartheid wall being built to force the Palestinians to live in Bantustans.
I do not wish to sound bitter. The cooperation among us is the heart of what we are doing on the Journal. But I want the people who read this article to realise that the general atmosphere in which we work does not exactly make for a peachy or peaceful co-existence and that is exactly what makes the Journal so exceptional and its work so essential. All the issues I mentioned above are frequently discussed in our meetings. We try to include something about each or a few of them in the four Journals that are issued every year.
A family affair
It is not all politics. I would like to give you an idea about the social atmosphere at the Journal. We are all very friendly and chatter over group meals that we whip up together or order. Topics tend to veer inevitably towards the situation on the ground and political analyses: but we are all confident that no matter how different or conflicting our inclinations or opinions are, everybody is tolerant enough to accept and absorb the other.
We all share the common concern though, that this is not so on the ground, and we all work hard to find ways to change this situation. Danny Bar-Tal for example, our Israeli editor, is always trying to promote the Journal and make it more widespread in order to influence both public and decision making circles for the better. My colleague Hillel and I, and Sarah McGregor-Wood, who is also on the editorial staff, get on very well together and have managed to cook up quite a bit of food for thought so far! Sarah keeps jokingly saying we are not just a Palestinian and an Israeli team, there is a Scotswoman too! She definitely levels our rudders if we veer off too far to one side or another!
Najat, my Palestinian colleague, Sarah, Karen (our fundraiser) and I, usually enjoy complaining about the menfolk and how they expect to be waited on. Of course that never happens! We do keep trying to make sure that womens rights are always respected too. What can I say? We seem like quite a cosy family most of the time. And the atmosphere is habitually warm and friendly. I wish many more Palestinians and Israelis felt able to cooperate and to produce together on an equal footing like this. It would definitely make such a big difference.
In a recent telephone interview with Bishop Desmond Tutu, that amazing individual ended the conversation by saying Please look at one another and see there not a Jew or a Palestinian, not an enemy, see yourselves as who you are, sisters and brothers in one family. The irony of it is that we actually are one, semitic family.
I will end with another of Desmond Tutus remarks. He insisted that, Peace can never come from the barrel of a gun, but peace is possible. Peace founded on justice for all. And he ended by saying An enemy is a friend waiting to be made. I feel that we at the Journal have managed to make fast friendships and I hope the notion will one day become catching within both our societies!
