Canadians work to bring Jews and Palestinians together
Ontario summer camp and agencies help build dialogue, trust and peace
Over the past few days, Jenny Isaacs’ cellphone has been pinging non-stop with messages from both her Jewish and Palestinian networks.
Amid those expressing fear over the conflict between Israeli forces and Hamas, one message in particular stood out to Isaacs, who is the director of the Heart to Heart summer leadership camp in Canada for Palestinian and Jewish youth from Israel.
It came from the mother of a Jewish former camper who recently called and spoke with one of Isaacs’ colleagues for a Palestinian perspective on what’s happening in the region.
Isaacs said the parent moved from feeling afraid and confused toward a sense of hope, and ended up participating in a joint rally of Jews and Arabs against violence.
“She sent me a voice mail. She was like, ‘So, Jenny. When times are hard and if you are not sure if Heart to Heart is doing its job, remember it takes time to see the result. The fact that I’ll be at the rally is the direct result of my daughter being part of Heart to Heart,’ ” Isaacs recalled.
“It’s real people conducting themselves differently as a result of having been exposed to another perspective, another real person that they never would’ve had the opportunity to connect with otherwise. Really, the only way out is to continue doing that hard work of education and relationship building.”
For a decade, the Heart to Heart camp has offered youth from Israel a break from the tension and division back home, with the goal of charting a new course for friendship, trust and, ultimately, peace.
Isaacs and her staff here are among the Canadians watching this week’s unfolding events in the Middle East with dread.
Karen Mock has been championing and leading dialogue between the two communities for decades.
Through groups that she helped found, such as the Canadian Association of Jews and Muslims and the Canadian Arab/Jewish Leadership Dialogue, she has led many difficult conversations on polarizing themes such as “apartheid” and anti-Semitism.
“This work is like God’s work, in terms of getting people to know each other and finding out that they have far more similarities than they have differences, including their own religious belief and own observance,” said Mock, who is also president of JSpaceCanada, which prides itself as a progressive sive Jewish voice.
“Once we got to know each other, then we could talk about how Jews feel about Israel and why, and what’s happening on the ground and what are the good things that are happening.”
Mock said the dialogue work is challenging in the good times and has become even more difficult in the millennial age with the explosion of social media outlets that proliferate propaganda and fuel divisions.
“It’s hard to maintain optimism,” she sighed. “Our work is about taking 10 steps forward and nine steps back.”
Raja Khouri, who met Mock years ago and has since become a good friend, said a meaningful dialogue isn’t all about reaching an agreement.
“You try to agree as much as possible but agreement is not what you’re after. When you disagree, at least you need to know why you disagree and why the other person feels a certain way,” explained Khouri, a Palestinian and founding of the Canadian Arab Institute.
“There has to be common grounds. The common ground for us is always human rightsbased equality and all that,” he said.
At the Heart to Heart camp, the goal is to expose Israel’s Jewish and Palestinian youth to people they otherwise would not meet in their divided country.
The three-week camp in Perth, Ont. — a joint initiative by Givat Haviva in Israel and Hashomer Hatzair-Camp Shomria in Canada — gives participants the space to be far away from their everyday lives and to develop relationships and viewpoints independent of the tension and conflict back home.
“I think the biggest thing that shifts for our participants is that when they think of the other group going forward, they’re thinking of real people they have a relationship with. That’s not a political stance or opinion,” Isaacs said.