A Palestinian professor took 27 of his students to see Auschwitz in a trip that was funded by the German Government. The trip created an uproar within Palestine; however, cultural exchanges of this sort may well be the best way forward. But given that the Israeli government continues to commit itself to a policy of perpetual warfare, don't count on them to reciprocate.
Professor Mohammed S. Dajani took 27 Palestinian college students to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland a few weeks ago as part of a project designed to teach empathy and tolerance. Upon his return, his university disowned the trip, his fellow Palestinians branded him a traitor and friends advised a quick vacation abroad.
Dajani said he expected criticism. “I believe a trip like this, for an organized group of Palestinian youth going to visit Auschwitz, is not only rare, but a first,” he said. “I thought there would be some complaints, then it would be forgotten.”
The problem is that holocaust denial is widely believed within Palestine.
Dajani said that many Palestinians think the Holocaust is used by Jews and Israelis as propaganda to justify the seizure of lands that Palestinians say are theirs and to create sympathy for Israel. Others, he said, think the Holocaust is exaggerated or just one of many massacres that occurred during World War II.
So maybe instead of facilitating a policy of perpetual warfare, Israel should work for cultural exchanges with the Palestinians. Israeli students would learn about the Nakba, while Palestinians would learn about the Holocaust.
Dajani is one of the few voices for peace in a toxic political climate that has been hijacked by religious fanatics on both sides. His website is here. He writes:
Moderation is not normally thought of as a revolutionary concept, but viewed within the context of the stubbornly intractable conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, it is precisely that. It is not the militant, extremist voices on either side who are revolutionary. Their refusal to seek a middle way and their self-serving campaigns to demonize each other only lead to more conflict, not change. It is those who call for moderation and understanding as the basis for a fairly negotiated two-state solution who are the true revolutionaries.
A deep chasm of misunderstanding, distrust, hatred, and enmity separates Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Holy Land. The question is; should we stand by and watch that chasm widen and widen or should we work to bridge it? If Muslims are taught that Christians and Jews are the enemies of Islam and Christians and Jews are taught that Islam is a false religion, all bridge building will be futile. As political and religious radicalism in Palestinian and Israeli societies continue to rise, the question remains; How can we stem this tide to avoid the outbreak of violence in the near future?
Contrary to what you might gather from the news headlines there is an expanding community of Palestinians whose call for moderation is garnering widespread attention and support under the banner of a movement called Al Wasatia.
I founded Al Wasatia in 2007 with the goal of advocating moderation as the only effective path towards a final, peaceful resolution of the conflict. Pragmatically, such an approach can lead to a compromise solution but one that will rest on very shaky ground unless it is founded on a sea-change in attitudes. This is what Wasatia is trying to do.
The movement’s name derives from the term wasatan which appears in a verse in Al Baqarah Surah in the Quran. The word wasatia, in Arabic means center and middle. In the Holy Quran it means “justice, moderation, balance and temperance”. The word wasat appears in verse 143 of the second chapter, which is 286 verses long, so it appears exactly in the middle. The verse says: “And We have created you a middle ground (moderate) nation” or “a centrist ummah [community]”. The passage demonstrates that the need to be moderate and temperate is a central message within Islam. Wasatia addresses all aspects of life: the way you eat, the way you dress, the way you spend money. Those of us in the movement interpret this to indicate justice, balance, moderation, middle ground, centrism, and temperance. In studying other faiths, particularly Judaism and Christianity, it becomes clear that they too uphold the same values, thus offering fertile ground for inter-faith understanding and peaceful co-existence.
Rather than spend billions of dollars to facilitate Israel's policy of perpetual warfare, the US should take that money and finance peacemakers on both sides of the divide like Dajani.