One Israeli Perspective

Part of the theory of the Compassionate Listening Project is to have the opportunity to hear the various “narratives” and personal stories of a wide variety of perspectives across both Israel and Palestine. We began this practice with a visit to the young founder of an organization called: “Im Tirtzu” which is attempting to revitalize the Zionist movement within Israel. 

Ronan Shoval (photo by Ada)

His name was Ronen Shoval, and he has written a book called: Hertzel’s Vision 2.0 (Hertzel was considered the original founder of Zionism in the late 1800’s). Ronen seemed very dedicated to the idea that Zionism was mainly about the Jews as a people vs being about a religion. On the other hand, he said that the Bible predicted that the Jews would return to this whole land (Israel, West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights, etc.) as its sovereigns and here they will survive and flourish as a people.

He stated that he was open to having “Arabs” living within the State of Israel–but only if they were willing to support the state as citizens with equal “civil rights” but no “national rights”–meaning that they should not have any rights to become a nation or have a flag of their own or any other rights as a group of people. He stated that the Torah teaches that if a stranger (the Arab) respects you, he should be given rights, but if he is not respecting you (as the Jewish State), he has two choices: to leave or to die!

He acknowledged that sometimes Israel has fallen short of its very high vision, and it is appropriate for insiders to give corrective criticisms, but that people (or nations) outside of Israel should not criticize, especially if Israel is being held to a higher standard than other countries who have far worse records–for example on human rights issues. Ronan said he is “optimistic in seeing his vision fulfilled in the long term, but not in the short term. It is a long-term fight.”

 
Most days, as a group, we would take time to process what we had experienced and what we thought and felt about it. After Ronan's presentation, we had lunch together in a nearby mall. Clearly,
we each had lots of thoughts and feelings about this presentation, and many of us had self-assessments about how well we were able to listen with compassion and with open hearts. For me, Ronan's talk gave a new perspective, which helped me understand some of the statements and actions which I find so perplexing in the situation here.