Last Sunday, the often elusive Palestinian narrative emerged as part of the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts. The festival featured the world premiere of Mohammad Kundos' '10 documentary about Brandeis' Palestinian students, Before Sunrise, which was preceded by the first full performance of the Arabic and jazz fusion band Mochila. This was followed by the first performance of Walaa Sbeit's '08 experiential theater piece presented on the balcony of the Spingold Theater, Welcome to our Refugee Camp.... All were successful in bringing to light repressed feelings of oppression and powerlessness that are part of the Palestinian identity. Unfortunately, while these expressions were stirring profound, they lacked something significant.
Inside the program for Welcome to our Refugee Camp... lies a quote from Leonard Bernstein, saying, " It's the artists of the world, the feelers and thinkers, who will ultimately save us, who can articulate, educate, defy, insist, sing and shout big dreams. Only the artist can turn the 'not yet' into reality." In essence, it is this element of a vision or a dream that was missing from all of the touching expressions. The works only stood to categorize what is or what appears to be rather than what could or should be. They expressed common stereotypes of the"other" present in the Palestinian narrative rather than challenging them and fighting to build a bridge towards greater understanding.
Welcome to our Refugee Camp... in particular features a stereotypically negative view of Israeli soldiers and an equally angelic and innocent portrayal of Palestinian refugees as merely victims of circumstance. Israeli soldiers are dehumanized as brutal individuals or else as spineless and unwilling to resist orders. They are quick to react violently and without sense or reason. This mirror reflection of the often negative stereotypes that strongly right-wing, pro-Zionist Israeli films or narratives give of the Palestinians was disappointing and discouraging.
Sbeit and others involved in the performance of course emphasize that they use art as a tool to make the Brandeis community "aware of the existence of the Palestinian students and their struggle in a Jewish school." according to the Before Sunset program. However, such stereotyping only hinders, rather than helps, the peace process. While it is true that Sbeit is reflecting on stories told to him since childhood of "poverty, oppression, Refugeeness and injustice," according to the Welcome to our Refugee Camp... program, it is his job and ours as students and members of an intellectual community to realize that these stories and narratives are biased and ultimately only a fragment of reality.
Sbeit takes a profound step towards reconciliation and inclusion when he says in the program, "This is not only Palestine, this is the Ghettos of Europe." As a student of sociology and Peace and Conflict Studies, he of course realizes the universality of feelings of marginalization through history. Therefore, his failure to incorporate this idea fully into his work is even more disappointing.
Palestinians and Israelis on campus and in the Middle East both feel a sense of injustice and oppression that can not be ignored or denied. They each have had their identity and very existence threatened over the past century. Neither is pure or free of aggression, sin and acts of oppression. Both would have acted as the other has if situations and circumstance were different. Israelis and Palestinians alike need to stop pretending to be holier, wiser, purer or nobler than the others-myself, as an Israeli, included of course. These are the basic preconditions that a true and lasting peace will require.
Unfortunately, Israel and the leaders of the Palestinian people, as Israeli statesman Abba Eban said about the Palestinians in 1978, never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Over the past decade in particular, both peoples have mastered the art of demonization and self-righteous victimhood. Due to the circumstances on the ground today, peace seems more distant and unlikely than ever. Yet across the Atlantic, in our Brandeis bubble, we have the opportunity to do something profound. We have the chance to actually listen, build a dialogue and reconcile our narratives and identities. Missed opportunities, however beautiful and finely crafted, are a true tragedy.