Noa Epstein
Posted on | November 10, 2008 | No Comments
Department Director at the Peres Center for Peace
Politically, I’ve always been motivated, active, and opinionated. Whenever women have an opinion, they are considered to be opinionated. At least in Hebrew, it has a negative connotation. I have tried to translate words into action—happiness, compassion, care, and love.
Peace is a big word, not just the absence of war. It is human relations, acceptance of people different than you, being prepared to pay a price—but a lower price than the cost of not having peace. It’s the maturity to leave behind nationalistic feelings to “win” and “eradicate”—words I am ashamed to hear on the Israeli side.
I can sit on my couch and say, “Look, they’re killing each other, it’s impossible to make peace with them,” but it is my duty to care what is happening on my borders, to help people if they are Jewish or Arab.
People want to prevail at the expense of another people. Peace comes from accepting that there is something better than all that. Peace comes when you believe that winning is living together rather than having more power than another group.
What do you feel when you look at the Wall?
I feel anger, frustration, and despair even though the wall does not cut me off from family or friends as it does the Palestinians. I feel a complex kind of anger—frustration because I can relate to the security argument for a barrier to prevent infiltration of terrorists. However, if Israel wanted security, it would build the Wall on the Green Line. As is, it is intended for a territorial solution the Palestinians will be forced to agree to. It is intended to separate us from the Palestinians. This is not how peace is achieved long term.
I know from Palestinian friends the Wall plays a very small role in the prevention of terrorism. It creates more terrorism. If a suicide bomber wants to come to Israel, he will find a way to do so.
How do you find the strength to do what you do?
It is surprising for women to find out how much they can do. Sometimes we are taught that we can’t do it. We internalize that and accept it. However, it’s about believing that you can and taking that leap of faith that you can do something. I was taught to believe in myself by my mother.
Is this conflict solved through the heart or mind?
Heart and mind, bottom-up and top-down simultaneously. As the occupier and stronger party, Israel has the responsibility to put one foot out first. It won’t kill us, it won’t mean we lost the game. It will mean we are setting a route out from this knot of conflict. The political climate and lack of leadership are such that the majority who feel we need to give back the territories won’t come out and demonstrate yet. They will, though, when something real is on the table.
I’ve heard Israelis refer to their nation as schizophrenic.
People have adapted to this outrageous situation, gone through so much that it’s hard to shock them. They accept worse and worse. If you can’t shock people, it’s hard to motivate them. If you took a few of the symptoms of what’s happening in our region and introduced them into Scandinavia, there would be revolution in the streets.
Someone at university said to me, “There is no solution. We have to be the best soldiers, and make Israel the strongest military power in the Middle East.” I said, “You are my age, but your vision is so bleak, why bother? Why don’t you just kill yourself now? Why should we even try?”
Optimism is essential to the desire to survive. Some Israelis refer to the Left as dreamers. To me, that is a compliment. If you don’t dream, how do you find meaning in life? If you close yourself in a box and focus on being mighty, there is no end to the cycle.
Have you ever lost anybody through terrorism?
One of my good friends, Asel Asleh, was an Israeli Arab. He has an Israeli passport and lived in Israeli. He was very dedicated to the cause of peace; he always saw himself as a bridge between the Palestinians and Israelis. He was the one of the thirteen citizens of Israel who were killed at the beginning of the second intifada, murdered at short range by an Israeli soldier. He was witnessing a demonstration by his house, when he was shot. That’s why I can’t say that I lost him to a terrorist attack because according to definitions, the Israeli army is not considered to be terrorist.
At the Remembrance Night last year, I kept thinking of Wassil and thinking that there was no public space where I could remember him in. I can only remember him privately as a friend.
Is forgiveness possible?
First, forgiveness occurs on a personal level between individuals. I have to forgive someone who did something to me. There are so many tragic stories on both sides, and I don’t know how successfully we can do this on an individual level.
Then there is also forgiveness on a collective level. This is necessary for the reconciliation process to achieve the absence of war and the acceptance of peace. People of the older generations are still part of us; they still bear the historical memory and in many cases, carry the old grudges. However, we must have a collective agreement to forgive, in the sense of not wiping out and forgetting the past, but putting it in a place that allows us to open a new page and move on.
A conscientious objector who refused to enlist in the army, Epstein has worked to get young people involved to end the conflict since 1997 when she was in Seeds of Peace, which brings together Israeli and Palestinian youth. There, she became friends with Bushka Mukbil, whose interview is also included. Epstein is Program Manager for Peace Now for courses, tours, and campaigns for a two-state solution to the conflict.
