so how would open space handle this? - long -

[Lisa Heft]

There is indeed an organization comprised of women,
Palestinian and Israeli working together for peace -- Tova,
perhaps you know them.  It is actually the collaborative
work of two agencies for women.  The collaborative entity is
called The Jerusalem Link.

- - - -

http://www.batshalom.org/

[excerpt]
The Jerusalem Link is the coordinating body of two
independent women's centers: Bat Shalom - The Jerusalem
Women's
Action Center, located in West Jerusalem, and Marcaz al-Quds
la l-Nissah - the Jerusalem Center for Women, located in
East
Jerusalem.

Each organization is autonomous and takes its own national
constituency as its primary responsibility - but together we
run
programs promoting peace, democracy, human rights, and
women's leadership. Mandated to advocate for peace and
justice
between Israel and Palestine, we believe a viable solution
of the conflict between our two peoples must be based on
recognition of the right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination and independent state, Jerusalem as the
capital of
both states, and a final settlement of all relevant issues
based on international law.



[excerpt]
Bat Shalom is a feminist peace organization of Israeli
women. We work toward a just peace between Israel and its
Arab neighbors that includes recognition of a Palestinian
state side-by-side with Israel and Jerusalem as the capital
of both. Within Israel, Bat Shalom works toward a more just
and democratic society shaped equally by men and women.

Bat Shalom, together with The Jerusalem Center for Women, a
Palestinian women's peace organization, comprise The
Jerusalem Link. As Israeli and Palestinian women of The
Jerusalem Link, we work together toward a real peace – not
merely a treaty of mutual deterrence, but a culture of peace
and cooperation between our peoples.

We call on women and men in the region and elsewhere to join
in making our vision of peace a reality.

- - - -

I had the honor of hosting in my home Terry Greenblatt, the
Executive Director of Bat Shalom.  She came to the Bay Area
some weeks ago to raise money for the efforts of these
linked agencies.  Her Palestinian counterpart was, at the
last minute, unable to join her.  The Israeli government
decided to detain the Palestinian woman 'for her own
safety'.  It was very hard for her even to get the message
out to Terry that she could not join Terry, as the perimeter
to her village was currently being bulldozed and back hoed,
and all telephone lines (therefore internet use) was cut.
She used the last 20 minutes of battery time on her cell
phone to dictate a speech to a volunteer sitting in the
Israeli office.  A speech explaining the poignant reality of
her circumstances as well as her total trust in Terry to
represent them both, Palestinian and Israeli.  So everywhere
Terry spoke, she began by reading that speech.  Everywhere
she spoke, she represented both the oppressor and the
oppressed, the partnership and the prevention of
partnership.

And everywhere she spoke, well-meaning people asked her,
'please tell us -- what is your message? what would you like
us to do? what would be most helpful?'.  And she said [my
words to paraphrase], 'I am telling you what is happening in
my world.  I am answering your questions with as unprotected
an honesty I can, in order to respond to you in ways that
may not be comfortable for you or me but so that you can
hear what is really going on.  But I cannot tell you what to
do.  I cannot be your leader.  We are doing all we can to
tell the truth, and for many, such as my Palestinian
colleague, at great personal and physical risk.  And look
under what circumstances.  You have no such circumstances,
no such oppression, no such risk.  So all I ask you is that
you not continue asking the same questions of each other and
of us, but ask the deeper questions, the scary ones, the
ones nobody will name.  And then act as your heart tells you
to.  We are waiting for *you* to lead as well.'

She did say that both sister agencies of Bat Shalom feel
that [my words] as everybody argues and rages and defines
and fights and makes venomous statements and shouts about
action regarding returning to the land / staying where they
are -- people are dying.  Little children are being killed
by stray bullets streaking into their homes as they play
'safely' inside, for example.  Lack of work is slowly
starving families and wellness.  Bulldozers are destroying
communities, and food and water resources, and incomes.  So
they jointly say that the very first step to a *just* peace
is to stop occupation and action regarding occupation.  That
peace and talk about peace cannot begin until the actions
regarding occupation stop.

[excerpt from Jerusalem Link press release:]

Published in Ha’aretz on Jerusalem Day 1999:

The Time Has Come to Share Jerusalem

We, Palestinian and Israeli women, united in a joint effort
to end the conflict between our two peoples, re-affirm our
commitment to end the occupation and share Jerusalem: two
capitals for two sovereign states.

We condemn the unilateral actions of the Israeli government
that forestall a shared Jerusalem:

* Ongoing threats to close down the Orient House and other
Palestinian institutions

* The revocation of residency rights of Palestinian
Jerusalemites

* The demolition of homes of Palestinian Jerusalemites

* Confiscation of Palestinian lands

To achieve a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, our
leaders must speak out courageously: The time has come to
share
Jerusalem.

- - - -

Terry says that maybe what was decided some years ago was a
good decision, for the time.  But maybe it is time now for
two states.  I do know that it is time to stop pulling and
tearing and bleeding and shrieking about that image built in
the past, and to stop hurting and yelling long enough to
breathe and say maybe now is a different time.  Now requires
different thinking.

We all know that different thinking is the magic that comes
out of Open Space.

Maybe a way that we in other countries can help is to open
space in our own communities and our own peacemaking
organizations for the deeper truths and the intuition and
the good hard work that leads to action.  Rather than talk
about something and learn about something, maybe it is time
to be something.  I do know that opening space is a way to
create space for leaders to emerge.


Lisa Heft
Berkeley, California, USA

*
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