Unequal Equals: How Politics Can Block Empathy

The Israeli NGO Zochrot recently hosted a public hearing modelled on the South African ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commissions’. The hearing focused on events that took place from 1948 to 1960 in the South of Israel. Elderly Palestinians gave testimonies about how their villages and locations were destroyed and how they and their relatives were expelled from their land after the establishment of the State of Israel. Jewish Israelis who had fought in the Zionist Armed forces and later in the Israeli army bore witness to the orders they received and the deeds they had done. The event was titled ‘Truth Commission’; the term ‘reconciliation’ was deliberately avoided. “We cannot talk about reconciliation when the Nakba is ongoing. We are still in a situation where there is apartheid, constant violations of human rights and 70 percent of the Palestinian community are refugees”, Liat Rosenberg, director of Zochrot, pointed out.1 The Truth Commission indicates a change of paradigm taking place since 2000 in the Israeli-Palestinian peace movement. The peace agenda used to focus on reconciliation, dialogue and on the acknowledgment of two different narratives -Arab-Palestinian and Jewish-Israeli. Today it focuses on solidarity with the oppressed, on justice, and on truth. Zochrot is but one example of this change.