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the administration became more publicly critical of Netanyahu. Netanyahu ambiguously says he intends to exert “indefinite security control over Gaza” when the war is over. That would likely mean an endless war. Biden, the European Union and Arab allies are talking about a two-state solution. Netanyahu isn’t particularly interested. On Oct. 7, Hamas’ horrific and gleeful butchery of men, women, children and infants was an enormous shock for Israelis. It was filmed and shared on social media. Haggai Matar writes in +972, a progressive joint Israeli-Palestinian publication, “...The dread Israelis are feeling right now, myself included, is a sliver of what Palestinians have been feeling on a daily basis under the decades-long military regime in the West Bank, and under the siege and repeated assaults on Gaza. The response we are hearing from many Israelis today — of people calling to ‘flatten Gaza,’ that ‘these are savages, not people you can negotiate with,’ ‘they are murdering whole families,’ ‘there’s no room to talk with these people’ — are exactly what I hear occupied Palestinians say about Israelis countless times.” Samah Salaime, a Palestinian feminist writer and activist, wrote a tribute in +972 to her friend Vivian Silver, a Canadian-Israeli peace activist who lived in Kibbutz Be’eri, which was attacked on Oct. 7 by the Hamas butchers, murdering more than a hundred and kidnapping many others. It was assumed that Silver had been abducted. Salaime said she imagined “a thousand times” how the 74-year-old grandmother would comfort the kidnapped Israeli kids and try to communicate in her “mangled Arabic” with her captors and the Palestinian kids scared of the Israeli bombs. She 8
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imagined a future headline saying “Peace Activist Released.” Instead, the news said that Vivian Silver’s body had been identified by her DNA. She had been murdered in her home. Vivian was born in Winnipeg in 1949, and immigrated to Israel in 1974. For decades, she was a social activist involved in projects promoting women’s rights and advocating for peace. In 1999, she became codirector of the Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment, and Cooperation, part of the Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Economic Development, an organization that focuses on education, development and leadership for the Bedouin community of the Negev and Arab citizens throughout Israel. She was active in Women Wage Peace and a volunteer with The Road to Recovery, which helps transport cancer patients from Gaza to Israeli hospitals. She was a board member of the human rights group B’Tselem, which strives to end “Israel’s regime of apartheid and occupation” since “that is the only way forward to a future in which human rights, democracy, liberty and equality are ensured to all people, both Palestinian and Israeli, living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.” Oct. 7 was a political/social earthquake like 9/11. Peter Beinart, editor of Jewish Currents, said shortly after Oct. 7, “My basic bedrock assumption is that the fate of these two peoples are intertwined. Neither of them are going anywhere.” This crisis also impacts the whole world with a moral interconnectedness. Israel had to respond militarily, but we need a negotiated ceasefire now. This opinion does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly.
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OPINION
TOUGH TALK How parents are discussing Israel and Palestine with their kids BY SARAH LUTERMAN, THE 19TH
S
ince the conflict between Israel and Hamas accelerated on Oct. 7, social media and news have been saturated with images of unspeakable violence — Palestinian children, living and dead, being dug out of rubble, the burnt body of an Israeli baby, children’s bedrooms smeared in blood and dust. Over 1,200 Israelis and 11,000 Palestinians have been killed. The 19th asked four parents from various ideological backgrounds how they’re approaching such a complex conversation with their children. Excerpts from two of those conversations follow. To read the full report, visit bit.ly/19th-israel-kids.
‘NOT A TEAM SPORT’
Rachel Faulkner is the director of national campaigns and partnerships at the National Council of Jewish Women, which aims to better the lives of Jewish women, children and families in the United States and Israel. Faulkner has a 3-year-old daughter. She and her wife work hard to explain the importance of Israel to their family, as well as the importance of civil and human rights for everyone, including Palestinians. “Because she’s only three, we haven’t gotten into the specifics of the war. But she does know that there’s a conflict happening in Israel. She knows about Israel as a Jewish state. She already has, we think, a love for Israel, but we also want to teach her that it’s OK and actually a good thing to question the way people are being treated,” Faulkner said. She is also dismayed by the polarization she has seen in discussions meant for children. It has made it difficult to find resources for support. “What I’ve seen for kids is a narrative that only allows you to love Israel but not talk about Palestinians, or that
wants you to end the occupation but also pushes for the demise of Israel altogether. It’s all so extreme and bifurcated — right and wrong, black and white. But it’s not a team sport. We’re talking about people’s lives.”
‘HE NEEDED ME TO EXPLAIN’
Manal Hilaneh is a PalestinianAmerican restaurant owner and student with two children, ages 8 and 9. She and her family live in Washington, D.C. but she was born in Ramallah, a Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank. In 2019, Hilaneh took her children to where she was born. Her family is Catholic, and she wanted her children to be baptized in the Jordan River. They were 4 and 5. “The whole flight, I wondered how I was going to explain to them the soldiers or the checkpoints. How I was going to answer this question or that question,” she said. In Jerusalem, the children saw soldiers carrying guns for the first time. The family traveled to Bethlehem to see the Church of the Nativity, where Jesus is believed to have been born. In order to do so, they had to cross a checkpoint. Because of the Israeli occupation, the West Bank is riddled with checkpoints that restrict the movement of Palestinians. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, there are over 700 checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank alone, as well as segregated roads for Palestinians and Israelis. “My children saw people lining up through bars. It was like a cage. They saw soldiers treating people like cows,” Hilaneh said. Even after thinking about it for so long, she struggled to explain the ordeal to her son. “I told my son that in Palestine, we have to go through checkpoints. In America, we can go from Washington D.C. to Virginia with no checkpoints,” she said. “He was quiet. I could see in his face that he needed me to explain, and I couldn’t explain it.” The 19th is an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. See 19thnews. org for more. BOULDER WEEKLY
