By Daniel Roth

2005

A few years ago a small group of youth met from the Progressive Zionist, Jewish, youth movement ‘Hashomer Hatzair’ and the Arab youth group Caya. I may have been hoping to make new friends, or I may have been hoping to find out that I have common political ground with the “other side”. Looking back on it now, I am not sure that we had any one goal in our minds. The following is my recollection of our first meeting.

I wrote this some time afterward.

Spring 2002

Walking along Bloor Street, from Spadina to Bay, my mind was wandering. I was trying to anticipate how this meeting would go. The cold Toronto wind was blowing hard on my face, but my chest was sweating underneath my shirt. I was walking faster than normal to make sure that I wouldn’t be late (I wouldn’t want to seem rude). I am rarely nervous when I am meeting people, not Arabs, not Jews, nor anyone (for the most part), but this time was different. This time we were going to specifically talk about some very personal, very sensitive issues for all of us.

Luckily, I arrived on time. Exactly Seven O’clock. I met Assaf outside and we walked in together. The Indigo Bookstore was massive, but we walked straight up to the Café, without stopping.

We stood in the centre of the Café spying each patron, looking for the ones we were supposed to meet. We were two Jewish teenagers standing in the middle of a Coffee shop looking for a table of Arabs who were about our age.

Assaf and I stood in the centre of that Café for about four minutes wondering how to go about finding our meeting partners. I heard from one table someone say the name Zahara (one of the people we were meeting), and we walked over and asked if one of them was her, they said no, but they realized that we must be the Jews who they were meeting. They explained that Zahara was just running late.

We found a table that was a bit bigger and sat down. The four of us (two Arabs and two Jews) began talking. All of us seemed nervous. None of us knew what to say, but we talked. We talked about sports, about school, and about other things that young people would talk about when they are first meeting each other. Aws, one of the Arabs helped ease the tension by telling us funny stories about sheep and his older brothers’ practical jokes back home.

After a few minutes Zahara arrived.  Sivan (another of my friends) arrived soon after. We kept talking about ‘regular’ things, but without warning the conversation turned to politics. A man listening in from another table walked over to us and dropped a leaflet in front of us. The paper explained that Zionism is racism. Immediately after this I was asked by Aws how it could be that I thought that Zionism was not a bad thing. I explained that for me Zionism does not mean that others should be oppressed to make room for a Jewish Homeland. I think that everybody deserves a land of their own, Jews, Palestinians, everyone. Zionism to me is about making Israel better, now that it exists. That includes fighting against the bad things that Israel does.

We continued to talk politics, but somehow, almost naturally, the conversation turned back to sports.

Soon enough though, we were back on the conflict.

We talked about the Occupation, Suicide Bombers and all the things that we wished that we could change. Someone brought up Arafat and Sharon, but we all agreed that both of them were unfit leaders and things would be better if we were in charge. It may have been kid’s talk and pipe dreams, but we were sitting there, we were talking, we were joking, and we were making an effort. It seemed like the most important meeting in the world, and maybe it was.

So we continue to meet and talk and we are planning a social event to start with. I think that I was sweating throughout that entire first meeting. I didn’t know what to expect, and even now I’m not sure exactly how it went.

Now, I feel fine. Now, I am not nervous to meet our Arab counterparts. Now, I am hanging out with my friends.

Autumn 2005

It’s been a while since I thought about those meetings. The Social event never happened, and I am pretty sure that we only ever met twice.

I wonder now what we were trying to accomplish. I wonder if we did accomplish anything. Not much has changed politically for Israel and Palestine. I mean, a lot has changed, but there is still plenty of conflict to go around.

I wonder why we didn’t continue meeting. There was a time that I thought that that meeting, that contact was the most important thing in the world. Maybe it was. Maybe it is.