DATELINE–The West Bank

Integrated bus rides in Israel’s West Bank bring American Jews and Palestinians together

As President Bill Clinton exhorted Israeli and Palestinian leaders to “break the logjam” at the latest Mideast peace summit, hundreds of Jewish college students from the United States are rallying in the troubled region to stage 1960s-style “freedom rides” in support of civil rights.

Taking its cue from the civil rights movement strategy that teamed up liberal northeastern college students with southern Blacks, Freedom Ride ‘98 brings nearly 300 Jewish college students from the U.S. together with Palestinian activists agitating for peaceful change in the Middle East.

The convergence of young activists on Israel’s contested West Bank was planned months before it was announced that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat would participate in peace talks at a resort just outside of Washington, D.C. Officials at the State Department insist that the protests which have garnered international attention had little if any impact on the Wye negotiations.

While both the Israeli and Palestinian camps issued predictions of violence from the other side, the integrated bus rides across the West Bank and Gaza have met only verbal opposition thus far.

“Israel is not just a safe place for Jews. It’s a constitutional state which must afford rights and protections to all of its people, and that includes Palestinians,” exclaimed Paula Goodman, a political economy major from the University of Arizona at Tempe. “I’m proud to be a Jew, but I also want to be able to take pride in the way that Israel treats its non-Jewish residents.”

The government has issued no official response to the student calls for a diplomatic solution to conflict in the West Bank regions occupied by Israel since 1967. Current peace talks are stalled over a proposed Israeli pull out which would leave Palestinians in control of 40 percent of the territory.

While the students are optimistic that their nonviolent mission will have an impact on the soured relations between Israelis and Palestinians, West Bank residents remain skeptical. Shopkeeper Elihu Landau insists that the Americans don’t understand what it’s like to live every day under the threat of violence. “They are naive…they think that because they can talk to a Palestinian, sit next to him, everything is going to be o.k.,” Landau challenges. “What about our right to survive?”

Other observers see the situation in less black and white terms. Alma “Buzzie” Lerner, a 62 year old Israeli living in Jerusalem’s historic quarter, likes the idea of using nonviolent strategies to effect social change but is doubtful if the issue can be settled without more bloodshed. She participated in one of the free nonviolence workshops the student organizers held at a local college campus.

“I wanted to see what the kids had to say…even though they don’t live here, they are an important part of Israel’s future,” she explained. “Maybe they have the right idea, but it’s hard to imagine that a technique can thwart the thrust of history. Still, I hope they come back some day.”

Indeed many of the students have come to Israel not just to protest violence but to forge their own relationship with the Jewish homeland. Alex Bodner, a junior at Brown University, is the product of an interfaith marriage. “My mom and my grandparents are conservative — they didn’t even want me to come on this trip. But my dad whose not even Jewish thought it could be a life-changing experience,” he relates, “and it has been.”

Freedom Ride ‘98 organizers agree. “Jews have always led the way in the struggle for civil rights,” reminds the Matt Gandhoff, a New York City public defender who helped coordinate the event’s nonviolent workshop program. “We’re here not just to try to right an injustice but to inspire the next generation of Jewish moral and political leaders.”