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CAN PALESTINIANS IMAGINE A FUTURE WITH ISRAELIS AFTER THIS WAR?  
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Mahmoud Mushtaha
May 27, 2024
972 Magazine
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_ My grandfather remembers neighborly relations with Jews before
1948. For Palestinians today, such a prospect seems nearly impossible.
_

Palestinians inspect a house that was destroyed in an Israeli air
strike, in the city of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, April 24, 2024,
Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90

 

“We were free. It was the most beautiful life. We had everything —
our heritage, our trade, and our sea.” My grandfather, who is now
85, still remembers life in Palestine before 1948. There were no
restrictions on travel, no checkpoints, no sieges, and no curfews. He
grew up in a small village in Jaffa, where life was bustling with
activity during the day, and filled with social gatherings at night.
His was a community rich in culture and connection.

But this life was abruptly shattered by the events of the Nakba. The
necessary consequence of Zionism, the Nakba of 1948 marked the
beginning of an unhealed wound that has continued to deepen ever
since. The profound sense of loss and the enduring pain of
displacement are feelings that many Palestinians, like my grandfather,
continue to bear — a pain that is now being horrifyingly inflicted
upon [[link removed]] a new
generation.

Alongside tens of thousands of other Palestinians, my grandparents
were forced to leave Jaffa in 1948. They initially went to Hebron,
hoping to soon return to their home. Within a week, however, it became
clear that such a quick return would be impossible. Instead, they
moved to Gaza, where my grandfather’s brother worked in trade. They
have lived there ever since. 

During the ongoing Israeli war against Gaza, my grandfather has looked
back on his childhood. The echoes of the Nakba are unmistakable, but
he has also been thinking about life in Palestine before 1948.
Reminiscing about his family’s small house in Jaffa, he frequently
mentions the Palestinian families he remembers from his neighborhood.
Some, like the Masoud, Husseini, and Khalidi families, moved to Gaza
in 1948. Others, like the Dajani, Muzafar, and Levan families, have
been out of touch with my grandfather for 76 years, yet he remembers
them fondly.

The Levan family, with their non-Arabic surname, caught my attention.
“They were a Jewish family,” my grandfather explained. “They
were our neighbors in Jaffa, and our mothers were very close
friends.” The Palestinian mothers shared so much food with their
Jewish neighbors that Mrs. Levan would joke about never having the
opportunity to cook at all.

[Entrance to Jaffa train station, early 1920s (Frank
Scholten/Wikimedia Commons)]
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Entrance to Jaffa train station, early 1920s (Frank Scholten/Wikimedia
Commons)
Entrance to Jaffa train station, early 1920s (Frank Scholten/Wikimedia
Commons)

“In those days,” he went on, “It didn’t matter who you were,
where you came from, or what your religion was. The important thing
was to love one another. The Levan family celebrated our holidays with
us, and we did the same with theirs.” These were glimpses of the old
days, when life was more stable on this land and people could more
easily accept each other, whether they were Muslim, Christian, or
Jewish — glimpses into a time before tragic political events broke
these bonds.

‘The soldier is the one who kills and oppresses’

Reflecting on my grandfather’s stories, I often find myself
wondering when our struggle will end. How long will this land, sacred
to Muslims, Christians, and Jews, continue to be soaked in blood?

Many people, especially young Palestinians, see the bloody history of
the conflict and ask themselves, “How can we live with them after
all they’ve done to us?” This is a sentiment that is almost
certainly growing in the face of the current onslaught. 

There are not many Palestinians who can remember a different life.
Most of us have experienced only the injustices of the last 76 years:
a decades-long refugee crisis, occupation, wars, siege, apartheid,
injustice, and the deprivation of basic rights. These forms of
oppression make the idea of reconciliation, of sharing the land, or of
living together in peace seem impossible.

Yet it’s also true that there have been small moments that reveal
the possibility of reconciliation, so long as violence and inequality
are pushed aside. My uncle, for example, is a strong supporter of the
resistance. Despite his age of 66, he still believes he will one day
return to the land from which his father was forcibly displaced. He
would tell me stories about Palestine in the ’90s and ’80s, the
occupied cities, and the West Bank, where he once worked for an
Israeli boss. I asked him: how could he work in an Israeli factory
after he had been arrested and tortured for throwing stones at Israeli
military jeeps — and while Israeli soldiers continued to harass him
at checkpoints?

[Palestinian workers cross Eyal checkpoint in Qalqilya in the early
morning hours to reach their workplaces beyond the Green Line,
occupied West Bank, January 10, 2021. (Keren Manor/Activestills)]
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Palestinian workers cross Eyal checkpoint in Qalqilya in the early
morning hours to reach their workplaces beyond the Green Line,
occupied West Bank, January 10, 2021. (Keren Manor/Activestills)
Palestinian workers cross Eyal checkpoint in Qalqilya in the early
morning hours to reach their workplaces beyond the Green Line,
occupied West Bank, January 10, 2021. (Keren Manor/Activestills)

“I worked there because the Israeli government pressured
Palestinians economically, so I had to earn money and work with an
Israeli boss. Our relationship was that of employer and employee. But
with the Israeli soldiers, it was a relationship of oppressor and
oppressed,” he explained. “The soldiers are occupiers; there’s a
big difference.”

“During the intifadas,” he continued, “most of the Palestinians
who fought Israeli soldiers, even those willing to sacrifice
themselves, were also working under Israeli bosses — because the
soldier [unlike the boss] is the one who kills and oppresses.”

Toward a ‘mentality of infinity’

I myself have many Israeli-Jewish friends, who reject the Israeli
government’s increasingly far-right politics and most of whom have
left the country as a result. One such friend is an Israeli-born
British Jew, nicknamed Gelleh, whom I met through our work at We Are
Not Numbers
[[link removed]],
a project promoting the Palestinian narrative. We’ve spoken about
how strange it is that we, an Israeli and a Palestinian, are speaking
amiably, while elsewhere, Israelis commit war crimes against
Palestinians simply because they can’t accept their existence as a
people.

Gelleh and her family left Israel-Palestine in 2002 because of the
Second Intifada, and I asked her if Palestinians and Israelis could
ever live together on the same land. “I know what I want to answer:
I want to answer yes,” she reflected. “But reality now changes my
answer.” We agreed that we first need to prioritize raising
generations of children who will not experience direct trauma before
we can think of coexistence.

Gelleh also spoke of the skepticism much of her own community feels at
the prospect of reconciliation. “Reconciliation is not going to be
solely achieved through policy change, like a one- or two-state
solution. From the side of my community, it requires transforming our
scarcity mindset — that there are few people in the world who accept
us as Jews and only a tiny land where we can live freely — into a
mentality of infinity, that the love and fear we have for our
community can be extended to everyone under oppression.”

This transformation, she said, is a prerequisite for political change:
“The recognition that true freedom will only come with everyone’s
freedom is a transformation that will bring sustainable change and
justice to the land.”

[Several hundred Jewish and Palestinian activists protest against
Israel's assault on Gaza, Haifa, January 20, 2024. (Oren Ziv)]
[[link removed]] Several
hundred Jewish and Palestinian activists protest against Israel's
assault on Gaza, Haifa, January 20, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Several hundred Jewish and Palestinian activists protest against
Israel’s assault on Gaza, Haifa, January 20, 2024. (Oren Ziv)

As a human rights activist, I’m constantly engaged in conversations
about coexistence and reconciliation. But Israel’s actions against
Palestinians consistently undermine what I am advocating. How can I
convince people in Gaza — who have lived and grown up under a brutal
Israeli siege — to live together with the very people who are
responsible for their suffering? How can I convince a child who has
lost every member of their family to accept the killer as a neighbor?
How can I convince my own generation, humiliated and harassed by
Israeli soldiers, to accept them as friends? How can I convince the
youth of the West Bank, who are killed by Israeli soldiers at
checkpoints, to accept coexistence?

We just marked the 76th anniversary of the Nakba
[[link removed]], a grim milestone
that occurred while Israeli forces were committing what members of
their government have themselves called a “Second Nakba” in Gaza.
Palestinian territories remain divided and fully controlled by the
Israeli army. The West Bank separation wall — stretching 440 miles
and reaching a height of 25 feet — penetrates and confiscates
Palestinian lands. No one enters or exits without Israeli permission.

This reality amounts to Israel’s rejection of reconciliation and
coexistence, and provides fertile ground for hatred, resentment,
brainwashing, and fear of the “other” — all of which are only
intensifying today. Israeli politicians know this and exploit it for
their own benefit, prolonging the occupation and maintaining
Israel-Palestine as a racially segregated state that discriminates
against anyone who is not a Jew. 

Can Jews and Palestinians truly coexist in historic Palestine? This is
the question at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the
question that runs through our history and our present. Despite the
formidable obstacles and entrenched divisions, is there a path forward
towards a future of peaceful reconciliation? Under military
occupation, discrimination, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid, the
answer is no.

The only way to achieve reconciliation is by addressing the root
causes of the conflict. For a just peace to be achieved, Israel must
adhere to international law and United Nations resolutions —
specifically UN Security Council Resolution 242, which calls for an
end to the occupation, and UN General Assembly Resolution 194, which
recognizes Palestinians’ right of return. The policies and actions
of the Israeli government are the root cause of the conflict; a shared
existence requires their reversal. It is the only path that can lead
us to a life that resembles the memories cherished by our grandparents
— a life of relative peace. 

_Mahmoud Mushtaha is a Gaza-based freelance journalist and human
rights activist._

_+972 Magazine is an independent, online, nonprofit magazine run by a
group of Palestinian and Israeli journalists. Founded in 2010, our
mission is to provide in-depth reporting, analysis, and opinions from
the ground in Israel-Palestine. The name of the site is derived from
the telephone country code that can be used to dial throughout
Israel-Palestine._

_Our core values are a commitment to equity, justice, and freedom of
information. We believe in accurate and fair journalism that
spotlights the people and communities working to oppose occupation and
apartheid, and that showcases perspectives often overlooked or
marginalized in mainstream narratives._

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MEDIA VOICE OF THIS MOVEMENT, A DESPERATELY NEEDED PLATFORM WHERE
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