Sixty Years, Sixty Voices » Peace and Dialogue

Nira- just skipped one……….

NiraLamay — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:52:25 +0000

My apologies to the avid readers of that blog, for skipping the yesterday one. Or maybe no one really noticed due to time differences. So what was there for me yesterday? Read an e-mail from Elana Rozenman that she sent a few days ago. She is the peacexpeace Israeli liaison. Than suddenly realized she is in India for a few days now. She does not answer her cell as well as the office phone….I’m worried. This too familiar feeling of “please god, let it be someone else” is here again. I’m not ashamed of it. In a country where each moment can break news of casualties from terror, you’re always tuned to hearing that and wishing it will not be a familiar name…..(I actually got mail from her office this morning, so I guess everything is fine…). My husband complained again about the delay in choosing our wedding photos. We married six months ago and still have not got one picture, since we have to pick 400 out of over 800, to make an album. Talk about choices in life. How can approaching this issue be so difficult for me? Maybe because no women is ever satisfied from how she looks, Maybe because you try so hard before your wedding or because of the “build up” created throughout your life towards “the night you will look the most beautiful..”. I actually had better nights in my life…..I swear talking about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in Washington was an easier task…..end of day one to the “wedding album project”- 140 photos deleted. May we all have a great day.

Nira- Friday night is gonna be alright?

NiraLamay — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 08:50:56 +0000

Finally Friday. Blessed Weekend. Cried yesterday, watching the news and this morning, reading the paper. Makes it difficult to think of peace when 125, at least, killed in terror attack in India and hundreds more injured. Especially India. The place on earth where I found quiet and quite a lot of myself when traveled there six years ago. So do almost everyone I know. A two years old baby, Mose-Tzvi, who’s Hasidic (ultra orthodox jews) parents run kind of a home providing Jewish environment for Israelis that wish to feel at home, is all over the news. They managed to get him out of the “Jewish house” where his parents, brothers and sisters and other Israelis (about 6 people) are still held hostage. What do we do with that one? And what do we do with the explosive issue of the rights of the Bedouins in the Negev desert area in the south of Israel,on their land? Just a day before yesterday, a documentary on TV quoted a Bedouin man saying: “your conflict with the Palestinians is a piece of cake (he actually said “a children game”, which is the figure of speech in Hebrew) compared to the disaster you’re going to have with your Bedouin citizens. This weekend I probably won’t figure out what to do with all of our national and international problems. Maybe next week. Shabbat Shalom (“good Sabbath” or “peace sabbath”) in the meantime. salam.

Nira- looking forward to weekend

NiraLamay — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 12:18:58 +0000

Main thing that reminds me of Washington now is the jet-lag and not being able to wake up in the morning. Not quite just that. Actually, the pics that keep coming in, now from Patricia, make everything live again. Everyone is admiring the women’s beauty and energy coming out of the photos. Haven’t had the time to write Reem yet. Wanted to hear how the lap-top did at school, how she is doing with all that goes on in Hebron now. How ironic that this is what she faces when she returns from a peace conference in Washington… Imagined how it will be like, if we can get Reem to visit us in Tel-Aviv. I have no doubt she will love my two of my best friends Orly and Hanna, both independent and professional strong women and moms, both come from North-African Jewish background (Orly’s parents were born and raised in Libya and Hanna’s- in Morocco). It will probably be an eye opener for them both as well, since they never met with a Palestinian woman (or man….). I guess main issue for me now is make sure we find a place to live by the beginning of next week, when our contract ends and we have o evacuate… (Patricia, maybe returning to McLean is an option

Nira- on lunchbreak in the Knesset

NiraLamay — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 12:41:29 +0000

Funny. A new rutine started for me, and that is looking for peacexpeace e-mail correspondance first thing in the morning. This morning it was also there, reminding me once again that a real continuation to what we did in Washington is happening. Things straightened with Jumana, Patt looking forward to going on with Nabil Abuznaid (head of PLO mission in Washington) suggestion of a flag march of Isrealies and Palestinians, expressing their wish for peace (I’m already contemplating whom I should approach with this idea. I have to talk to Amira Dotan, member of Knesset who’s in the book, with whom I worked before). And of course an e-mail from dear Louise who added me as her friend on facebook and was happy to see that the photo she took of me and Reem at Capitol Hill, is alredy my profile picture and finally, an e-mail from Rachelle saying she might be coming to our little corner of the world for Christmas. It is a bit of a frustrating era, though. Election time. So no one is actually in the Knesset. Everyone is so concerned with being elected in her/his own party in a place that will make it realistic for them to get in. It is really hard to think of even trying to approach any of them now with peace issues. But that’s ok. Gives me more time to figure out things to myself.

Nira- back in Israel

NiraLamay — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:53:38 +0000

second day at home. back from a week in Washington, that felt like a dream, apparently not just to me. That’s what Reem said to Patricia she felt. Mixed reactions at home. People try to understand what was it exactly that made me return with such enthusiasm and passion to go on doing. Looks like that fur away from home it seems more possible to make peace, talk about peace, feel peace. Decided not to give up. E-mail I got from Patricia and than from Barbara, showed that everyone wanted to keep in touch. Some pics that Louise sent of herself, myself and Reem, reminded me of the true colours of the experience we had. Keep thinking what to do next, how to maintain the momentum, that this can not have been just a one-time event. That there is a future for peace.