Journalists sent on hostile environment courses are advised that
the best way to survive a kidnap attempt is to make your captor
empathize with you, to engage with them on a personal, humanizing
level. Michael Emery, a journalist and the driving force behind
Tears in the Holy Land, has taken this idea and applied it to
Israel/Palestine, publishing an intensely "human" history of the
conflict. Tears in the Holy Land is a collection of oral histories,
all of them tragedies, recorded and edited by American Deanna
Armbruster, (who took over the project following Michael Emery's
death). In his introduction, Emery states, "This is an emotional
book. I want you to share my experience, as intimately as possible,
by imagining the scenes described in the text." While this book is
far from a definitive source of reference, reliant as it is on the
fickleness of human memory, it is an interesting adjunct to the
academic and analytical tomes that study the conflict.
The stories, narrated by Israelis and Palestinians from all
backgrounds and walks of life, are preceded by a comprehensive
guide to the history of the region, and a chronology that
underlines the complete contrast between the experiences of two
nations confined in such a small geographical space.
Hanna Amoni's account of her time as a member of the Israeli
Underground, "A Country Too Small", is one of the more unusual
stories in the collection. She recounts her time with the Lehi from
the 1940s to the 1970s and hers is perhaps the least conciliatory
voice; "To say you have to divide this small country is ridiculous.
It is too close to the Arabs." Throughout the book there is an
interesting juxtaposition of stories: The harsh beside the humble,
the hurt and the oppressed. Following Amoni's account comes former
Red Cross worker Speer Munayer's narrative of how the Israeli Army
occupied his native town of Lydda in 1948 and left the inhabitants
without food or water for days. In contrast to these comes "A
Soldier's Stand", army reservist Yousi Khen's narration of his
refusal to take a Palestinian hostage and use him to check caves
for armed fighters. Despite threats from his commanding officers
that he would be punished, he is not. "For political reasons I was
not put on trial. Officially, the Israeli government never uses
hostages."
While the chapters are grouped under different headings - from
"Historical Accounts", through to "Voices for Peace and
Reconciliation" - similar threads run through the book as a whole.
A number of the Israeli contributors have lost family members to
the violence; "Norma", the daughter of Holocaust survivors, loses
her aunt in an attack at a checkpoint in 1969. Ofara Rapuer, a
second generation Israeli, loses her mother in 1972 when she is
killed by three Japanese terrorists opening fire in Tel Aviv
airport. Suzanne, a religious Jew, narrowly misses being caught in
a suicide bombing. Daniella Kitain's son Tom is killed while doing
his military service. Marlyn Butchins, an immigrant from South
Africa loses her mother and sister in a suicide attack in Tel Aviv
in 1996. Each of these speakers finishes their account by calling
for peace, not revenge. Butchins gives a joint account with her
husband Larry, who concludes, "The payoff must be to prevent those
of evil intent from getting away with what they are trying to do.
The peace process has to go forward... The ultimate betrayal would
be to let those who are against the peace process actually have
their way. On both sides."
The accounts from the Palestinian side tell of arbitrary
imprisonment, beatings by soldiers and wasted lives lived in fear
and frustration. Ahmad Muhammad, a field worker for Palestinian
human rights organization Al Haq, narrates the differing lengths of
time he and his male family members have spent in administrative
detention, each time having been arrested for no reason. Raed Hanna
Andoni, a writer on Palestinian Sesame Street tells of soldiers
playing bingo with his and other Palestinian's ID card numbers,
arresting men if their number is a "bingo".
Cheryl Rubenberg, an associate professor of political science at
Florida International University, is one of the rare cross-over
tales: A Jewish woman in a Palestinian environment. She writes of
her experiences living in Gaza from 1989 to 1990 and the friendship
she formed with a family there. Her sorrow at leaving these people
is matched by her relief at escaping the endless curfews, one of
which saw her confined to her living quarters for 40 days.
The lack of a precise narrative thread and the mixed placement of
the stories beside one another allows the reader to meander through
the collection. Whichever angle the reader approaches it from, the
one concrete conclusion to be drawn from the various stories is the
amount of damage done to both sides by the conflict. Throughout,
the sentiments of loss and victimhood expressed by both sides are
overwhelmingly similar.
While the introduction makes it clear these are oral accounts
collated by the editors after lengthy research, the desire to
remain true to the transcripts of their taped conversations makes
for occasionally awkward reading and, at times, incorrect grammar
or awkward syntax detract from the strength of the narrative. This
is particularly the case early on in the book. Albert Hazboun's
account of being persecuted by fellow Arabs for helping Jews, is
full of idiomatic inconsistencies, but is a powerful emotional
testament, nonetheless. This idea of raw self expression was
Emery's stated aim: He wanted to touch people personally, ignoring
the outwardly political to let ordinary people tell their
extraordinary tales. The one truth that any reader can garner from
this collection is that, more so than in many other places in the
world, the people of Israel/Palestine have remarkable stories to
tell.
The last section of the book is an increasingly coherent call for
peace. Emery's own contribution to the collection is arguably one
of the most important, drawing on his experiences as a reporter for
United Press International in the Occupied Territories. He
describes a trip to Gaza and the appalling treatment he receives
from the IDF and settlers there, then recounts the irony of
soldiers he passed calling on him to; "Be fair to Israel". As Emery
says, 'We didn't meet a single journalist who could be classified
as "unfair to Israel", but we met a number who were disgusted by
the excessive force, irritated by the petty censorship rules and
worried what Israel was doing to itself in the long run." As an
external observer, he offers a summary of what makes the conflict
go round and keeps its flame shining bright in both camps, "It is
clear that the Israelis will not break the Palestinian spirit, even
with more force, just as it is clear that Arabs cannot weaken
Israeli determination to be as secure as possible."