[WCUSP] No revenge, compassion (Gershon Baskin)

Wed Nov 22 19:24:02 CST 2006

Hi everyone,
This from Eileen Lundy, currently attending the International  
Israeli-Palestinian Peace Conference in Turkey.  250 or more  
participants were expected, mostly from Israel and Palestine.  The  
organizers of the conference, the Israeli-Palestinian Center for Peace  
Research and Information at Tantur Ecumenical Center in Jerusalem, plan  
to issue a book of the proceedings.  I'll ask Eileen for a copy.
Tura

> Friends,
>  
> This article is written by one of the organizers of the conference we  
> are attending in Turkey.  It is a description of compassion and  
> forgiveness in time of terrible atrocities.  While the situation is  
> not a symmetrical one as far as numbers and violence, the individuals  
> suffering and their spirit of compassion and forgiveness is a sign of  
> hope in the midst of it all.
>  
> Eileen Lundy
>
> Gershon Baskin <peace at netvision.net.il> wrote:
>>
>> http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite? 
>> cid=1162378452995&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
>>
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>> No revenge, compassion
>>
>> Gershon Baskin, THE JERUSALEM POST
>> Nov. 22, 2006
>>
>> The families and survivors of the victims of the tragic killings in  
>> Beit Hanun have stated that they are not interested in revenge. Noam  
>> Shalit, the father of kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Shalit, visited the Beit  
>> Hanun families in a Tel Aviv hospital and voiced his sympathy for   
>> their suffering and mourning.
>> How unusual is this demonstration of common compassion. How powerful  
>> is this emotion, yet so lacking from our two societies. When did we  
>> all become so numb to the suffering of others? Has our own suffering  
>> so overpowered our hearts that we are not capable of showing  
>> compassion for others?
>> In Israeli society the term for showing compassion is referred to as  
>> yefeh nefesh - literally a beautiful soul. This term is thrown at  
>> various leftists and others as a derogatory belittlement of their  
>> abilities in the field of logic and reason by those who think that  
>> they have a better understanding of human nature and of the world.
>> The behavior of Noam Shalit and the people of Beit Hanun are so  
>> unusual  in our political environment and so unexpected that they  
>> have been criticized for being too soft or for capitulating in the  
>> face of the enemy.
>> I want to dedicate my words this week to celebrate the compassion of  
>> these people:
>> ? Ghassan al-Qassem lost his brother in the Beit Hanun killings. His  
>> mother is still hospitalized in very serious condition. I have known  
>> Ghassan for more than 10 years. He is the head of the Beit Hanun  
>> agricultural cooperative, one of the largest producers of  
>> strawberries and flowers in Gaza. He is farmer, a man of action, not  
>> of words. His handshake is firm and you can feel his warmth through  
>> his eyes, which don't avoid looking directly at you.
>> He  collects friends wherever he goes because of his good nature, his  
>> smile and his hard work. Ghassan is a businessman who is dedicated to  
>> working for the benefit of his family and his community. A long time  
>> ago, Ghassan came to understand that meant working with Israelis who  
>> share the same interests of profit and prosperity through and as a  
>> result of cooperation.
>> During the past six years, he has seen those interests trampled on by  
>> IDF tanks and by Islamist Kassam rocket launchers. Last year, after  
>> the disengagement from Gaza, the Karni crossing was closed for months  
>> and all of the farmers of Beit Hanun lost a whole season of their  
>> hard labor.
>> Some friends of Ghassan, myself included, appealed to the Israeli  
>> authorities to open Karni so that they could export their  flowers,  
>> but to no avail. Kassams were flying into Israel from Beit Hanun and  
>> while the people of Sderot were suffering, there was no compassion  
>> for the people of Beit Hanun. The farmers of Beit Hanun uprooted  
>> their fields and cried for the losses and went on to plant for the  
>> next season.
>> I think that I would be filled with hate if I were in their shoes.  
>> But the people of Beit Hanun didn't ask for revenge then (as now),  
>> they simply wanted to get on with their lives and hoped that their  
>> next crop would reach its destiny.
>> ? I met Noam Shalit a short time after the kidnapping of his son  
>> Gilad.
>> I did not know him, and I became deeply involved in trying to secure  
>> the release of Gilad after a Palestinian from Hamas in Gaza asked me  
>> to help because he was  convinced that the people of Gaza would  
>> suffer as a result of the kidnapping. Despite the fact that I have  
>> spoken with Noam more than a 100 times, I never told him what has  
>> brought me to be so deeply involved.
>> Sasson Nuriel, who was kidnapped by Hamas and killed in the Ramallah  
>> area in September last year, was my wife's first cousin. They were  
>> the same age. They grew up together. I even knew the kidnapper - or  
>> more correctly, I knew his father. Muhammad Salah, the father of the  
>> boy who murdered my wife's cousin, was the commander of the Ramallah  
>> police.
>> In 1996 I took a group of Israeli and Palestinian police officers for  
>> a learning visit to Germany. Muhammad Salah was a member of the  
>> Palestinian team. I spent 10 days with him there. His son killed my  
>> wife's cousin.  When Sasson was kidnapped, I was abroad and his  
>> sister called me to see if I could help with my Palestinian contacts  
>> to find him. I asked my partner Hanna Siniora to go to Ramallah to  
>> ask people if they heard anything about Sasson. Hanna even went and  
>> spoke to Muhammad Salah. Of course, he didn't know then that his own  
>> son had kidnapped and already killed Sasson. When I asked to help  
>> secure the release of Gilad Shalit, I made a commitment to myself  
>> that I would do everything possible so that Gilad would make it home  
>> safe to his family.
>> Noam Shalit and Ghassan al-Qassem are my heroes. They should be the  
>> heroes of us all.
>> Through their personal suffering they have demonstrated compassion.  
>> They have shown the true power of the human spirit. They are not  
>> naive. They are yefeh nefesh and they are symbols of hope for a  
>> better future for us all.
>> The writer is co-CEO of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and  
>> Information.
>>  
>>
>> This article can also be read at  
>> http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite? 
>> cid=1162378452995&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
>> [ Back to the Article ]
>>
>> Copyright 1995-2006 The Jerusalem Post - http://www.jpost.com/
>>  
>> Gershon Baskin, Ph.D.
>> Co-CEO, IPCRI
>> ISRAEL/PALESTINE CENTER FOR RESEARCH & INFORMATION
>> P.O. Box 9321, Jerusalem 91092
>> Tel: 972-2-676-9460   Fax: 972-2-676-8011
>> Mobile: 052-238-1715
>> gershon at ipcri.org
>> http://www.ipcri.org
> _._,___ 
>   
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