We’ve basically reached the end of the seminar. It’s been exhausting and eye-opening and I’m definitely ready to move onto the next portion of my summer. I have, however, developed the tolerance and patience to listen to narratives and stories that I do not agree with; I am also beginning to refine my choices of which “battles”, so to say, to fight. I am now able to see opinions as conglomerations of upbringing, personal experience and trauma, social trajectories, etc etc. Certainly Jerusalem, and Israel/Palestine as a whole, is not something that can be discussed “objectively”, because it is an issue that is completely shaped by narratives. Sure, one can provide various numerical statistics concerning demographics, historical dates, and casualties. These numbers, I am learning, will not be the sole factor to shape any peace process. It will be the accepting of differing narratives (of suffering, claims to the land, historical ties to the region) on both sides that will, I think, ultimately bring justice to both the Palestinians and Israelis. Just as Palestinians cannot betray their collective histories of Deir Yassin, of embarrassment by years of living as occupied people, neither can Israelis shed their history of a nationless people and the fear of losing children, parents, and friends to attacks.

There is blood on each side’s hands, this is for sure. I hope to spend the rest of my time here soaking up as many personal narratives as possible. I am slowly gaining the sense that there is no overall “right” or “wrong”, “good” or “bad”, and the humility to recognize individuals as separate from their governments and their ideologies and agendas is a universal, international, and stateless duty.

–Molly