A Vision of Hope

Suhad Babaa is an intelligent and articulate young woman, bursting with a passion to make this world a better place. She is currently Director of Programming for Just Vision

(justvision.org), based in Washington, D.C., as well as in New York and East Jerusalem. According to its promotional literature, the organization “supports Palestinians and Israelis who pursue freedom, dignity, security and peace using nonviolent means. We tell these under-reported stories through award-winning films, multimedia and public education campaigns.”

I have seen three of Just Vision’s films – Encounter Point, Budrus, and My Neighborhood; each of them is a work of art, a work of social conscience, and an effective vehicle for putting a human face on Israelis and Palestinians who are working towards ending the occupation through non-violent means.

Babaa came to Rhode Island’s capital city to speak at Providence College at the invitation of Ruth Ben-Artzi, assistant professor of political science at P.C. Following her major presentation, Babaa made herself available to other students as well as to religious leaders in the Rhode Island community.

I had the opportunity to meet with Suhad – I never used her surname during our time together – this past October 23 at the Starbucks on Thayer Street just off the Brown campus. Over the course of nearly two hours that Wednesday afternoon, we had the opportunity to share our perspectives, at times congruent and at times divergent.

During the course of our face to face dialogue and in follow-up phone calls and email exchanges, I came to gain some insight into Suhad’s biography. In a recent email, she wrote: “Suhad was raised in a Los Angeles suburb in a multi-ethnic and multi-faith household; her father from Tulkarem in what is today Occupied Palestinian Territory and her mother is from Seoul, South Korea. When September 11 took place, Suhad began to question how the public understood her identities, and why they were being understood as such. From that moment on, she knew that she would devote herself to working on issues of social justice and human rights.” Working in Just Vision, then, is thoroughly consistent with Suhad’s background and aspirations.

It seems to me that Just Vision, along with similar organizations, is trying to build trust among people who are inherently distrustful of each other. The root of this distrust is fear, the fear of being obliterated. Large numbers of Palestinians view the State of Israel and its powerful army as an amoral Goliath bent upon crushing their national aspirations and their essential human rights. At the same time, large numbers of Israelis and their American Jewish supporters, still haunted by the Holocaust, believe that the Palestinians, given the opportunity, would not hesitate to drive them into the sea.

Though I often wonder if the heroic efforts of a few can overcome the fear and distrust of the many, if it is ever possible to turn enemies into friends, I continue to hope for an eventual reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis. One member of our local Jewish community is forever criticizing my allegedly naïve advocacy for a two-state solution; as he puts it: “The Arabs want us dead, and still you want to sing Kumbaya.” to which I respond, if we abandon our deepest hopes, we abandon our future.

During our conversations, Suhad has acknowledged that an enduring peace that ends the occupation and the conflict at large will require structural political, social and economic initiatives on a scale far beyond the capacity of Just Vision. Nevertheless, she remains convinced that her work with Just Vision plays a significant role in shifting the discourse by showing Israelis and Palestinians who – all too often ignored by the mainstream media – are working towards full freedom, dignity and equality for both peoples.

It is unlikely that Suhad Baaba has ever heard of Rabbi Tarfon, who lived about 1,900 years ago. However, I suspect that she would concur wholeheartedly with his expression of measured hopefulness: “It is not required of us that we finish the task, but neither are we free to stop working on it.” (Pirkei Avot.2.21)

James B. Rosenberg (rabbiemeritus@templehabonim.org)is rabbi emeritus at Temple Habonim in Barrington.