Nusseibeh in Chicago: Palestinian leader here to talk peace

 

http://www.chijewishnews.com/features.jsp#42862

Amid heavy security, demonstrators outside and a number of hecklers inside, a controversial Palestinian leader came to Chicago last week and said that "as far as the Israeli- Palestinian conflict is concerned, force simply does not work."

Sari Nusseibeh, senior Palestinian Liberation Organization representative in Jerusalem and the leader of the Palestinian peace camp, spoke Oct. 1 during a program at Temple Sholom on Chicago's North Side, sponsored by Americans for Peace Now and Chicago Peace Now. He shared the podium with Menachem Brinker, a University of Chicago professor and a founder of Shalom Achshav, the Israeli version of Peace Now. Nusseibeh's appearance was part of a three-city tour sponsored by Americans for Peace Now.

In his talk, Nusseibeh, who also serves as president of Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, outlined his vision for peace between Israelis and Palestinians: "Two states on the basis of the '67 borders, with Jerusalem to be shared by the two peoples. ... Settlers have to be evacuated from the Palestinian state." The proposal drew applause from an overwhelmingly sympathetic audience. A spokesperson for Chicago Peace Now estimated the crowd to be more than 600.

On the highly controversial issue of Palestinian right of return, Nusseibeh called the right "sacrosanct," but said, "I think there are other rights beside the right to return." Another right that is just as sacrosanct to Palestinians is the right to live in freedom and to have self- determination, he said.

When those two rights clash, Palestinians must realize that the right to self-determination and freedom is achievable and compatible with a two-state solution, while the right of return is not, he said. Therefore they should choose the right that will lead to peace. That way, he said, Palestinians will have a real future, as will Palestinian refugees, some of whom can be resettled in the future Palestinian state.

Nusseibeh called suicide bombing "morally repugnant and counterproductive" and noted that he had instituted a campaign against it in the Palestinian community. "In my opinion, turning into a killer deprives oneself of one's humanity," he said. "If I condemn (the killing of a Palestinian) as the violation of a basic human principal ... (then I must) condemn equally the killing of an Israeli on the basis of their humanity."

In an interview with Chicago Jewish News before the program, Nusseibeh offered a moderate assessment of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, saying that "he may surprise us by trying to lead the process back to peace."

Sharon "is hard to read properly," he said. "So far, he has been much more adept at being a clever player, but I suspect we haven't heard the whole story yet."

Still, Nusseibeh added, Sharon "hasn't shown any sign of willingness to recognize Palestinians as a people with equal rights."

During his talk, Nusseibeh was unruffled when hecklers interrupted him, even when one called him "a liar and a murderer." When others in the audience tried to quiet the interruptions, he held up a hand and said, "It's OK, let them shout." Security guards eventually ejected a handful of hecklers.

Although most of the interruptions expressed a pro-Israel point of view, one man repeatedly shouted "Zionism is racism" until he, too, was ejected.

Security was heavy throughout the event, with guards scanning everyone who entered with a metal-detecting wand. Across the street from the temple entrance, a number of protesters held up signs and a banner that stated "If you stand with Israel, stand outside."

Earlier, Nusseibeh's tour had sparked a dustup between Americans for Peace Now and the Zionist Organization of America. ZOA national president Morton Klein wrote a letter to rabbis at a New York synagogue where Nusseibeh was scheduled to speak urging them to boot him from the program. He accused Nusseibeh of being "a wolf in sheep's clothing" who uses moderate language to English-speaking audiences but supports terrorism and the destruction of Israel when speaking in Arabic.

That accusation prompted Gidon "Doni" Remba, president of Chicago Peace Now, to reply with a lengthy "white paper" detailing what he called Nusseibeh's consistently dovish stance over the last two years. The paper was posted on the group's Web site and widely circulated over the Internet.

Remba said that before the Chicago event, some members of the local Jewish community embarked on "an organized campaign to try to pressure and persuade Temple Sholom to cancel the event. Very strong language was used by quite a number of people who wrote and called," he said. "It reminded me of the way people were talking before (Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak) Rabin's assassination. People were using ugly invective to try to browbeat Temple Sholom and its rabbi into withdrawing from the event."

Rabbi Aaron Petuchowski, senior rabbi of Temple Sholom, said that in the week before the event, he received "a deluge of e-mails and phone calls" asking him to cancel the event. The majority of those who opposed the program "expressed dismay that the temple would open its doors to a 'Palestinian terrorist,'" he said.

Petuchowski, who introduced the program, said that Temple Sholom is "not only a house of prayer, not only a house of study, but a house of assembly," welcoming over the past years not only Jewish leaders but the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Cardinal Francis George. Petuchowski said he believes strongly that a synagogue must "provide opportunities for members of the community to hear a variety of perspectives on topics of legitimate Jewish concern."

Nusseibeh, for his part, began his talk on a poignant note. He described his childhood in Jerusalem, where he could look past the garden of his house and see "the other side," the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim, 500 meters away. "My mind was full of images, of fears, of worries, of fantasies about who I was and who the people on the other side were," he said.

After the 1967 war, he said he decided to find out, and started hesitantly walking until he reached Mea Shearim. Ever since then, he said, "every day I've been trying to make that journey, to walk the distance between me and my enemy."

He has come to the conclusion that "the only way forward to ensure a secure and stable existence is to have mutual recognition between the two peoples.

"We live at each others' doorsteps, and in order to create space for ourselves, to create a peaceful neighborhood, we have to create peace between each other," he said. "We cannot build a future on the basis of killing and hatred."

In his interview with the Chicago Jewish News, Nusseibeh said that a major stumbling block to peace between Israelis and Palestinians is "an absolute problem of mistrust on both sides." That problem can only be solved by "a conscious effort by political leaders (on both sides) to get us back into negotiations."

Among the Israeli people, he said, there are two incompatible points of view expressed: one that would like to deal harshly with the Palestinians and another, which he said is held by a majority of Israelis, in favor of realizing a two-state solution. "Among Palestinians, those two perspectives seem incompatible with each other," he said. The viewpoints can only be reconciled when leaders on both sides decide to work for peace, he added.

Brinker, the evening's other speaker, said that as an Israeli, he has participated in six wars and fears that his son and grandson will participate in more. He is a professor of philosophy and literature at the University of Chicago and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

He said he agrees with the general outline of a solution drafted by Nusseibeh-the return of land based on 1967 borders, evacuation of the settlements, sharing Jerusalem and renouncing the Palestinian right of return-but wanted to explore in his talk the question of why, since the solution is so rational, it is so difficult to achieve.

He said that although the majority of people on both sides believe there is no military solution, that message has not been "internalized" by their leaders.

Once both sides have leaders who understand "the overall outline of what the outcome" should be, they must make that clear to their populations and then must proceed to achieve it, step by step.

The first stage, he said, is to acknowledge "that there is no military solution. Of course, Israel has military and technological superiority. But this is balanced by the almost infinite readiness to sacrifice of the Palestinians. You cannot destroy Dimona with suicide bombers, but you can't throw a nuclear bomb on a suicide bomber."

Second, he said, is to understand that a "political solution is possible. For this, we need to hear more voices from the Palestinian side, and more voices from the Israeli side.

"The Israeli Jews want security, and are ready to trade the settlements for security, as one poll after another shows. But they don't believe it's achievable.

"The Palestinians want economic improvement, a Palestinian state, independence, and their lands back, and the stopping of the settlement policy, but are not sure they can get it by a political agreement.

"There is a vicious circle. You don't start a peace process without minimal trust, and you don't gain trust without courageous leadership and a vision of what it would look like at the end.

"The job of politicians is to show us that the two peoples can live together. To show that the two can usurp one another, to kill one another, we have too much proof. So perhaps it is time for a change."