An early start to the day had us chatting from 5am, joking about the surrealism of being in Israel and soon to see Palestine. Once we were ready (around 8am) we set off in search of breakfast and a bus to the Dead Sea, the latter being much harder to locate than the former.
Eventually we were on our way to the first destination, Mitzpe Shalem; a kibbutz, settlement and home to Ahava.
Ahava is a cosmetics company which has been the focus of many boycotts back in the UK. The argument made against the company is that they’re an illegal settlement, established on Palestinian land, which now uses the natural resources of the area (specifically the Dead Sea) to make a profit. Having now actually visited the area, much of this is brought into question.
With the beautiful backdrop of the Dead Sea, any establishment would find it hard to compete, but the visitor centre came nowhere close, it was essentially just a gift shop and a small canteen. We tried to ask one member of staff if they spoke English or perhaps Arabic and were met with the indignant response of, “No! This is Israel, my country, why would I speak Arabic? I speak only Hebrew.” Ironically enough, her nationalistic response was in English. Fortunately we were eventually pointed towards the manager’s office where we met Dr Miriam Oron Mingelgrin, Chief Chemist. Miriam give up half an hour of a clearly very busy schedule to talk to the four of us, something we’re grateful for as it was enlightening and we had turned up uninvited.
The following is what we learnt about the past, present and possible future running of Ahava which we gained from the interview:
Ahava, Hebrew for ‘love’, was established 20 years ago, around the same time as the kibbutz. Originally a family business, Ahava is a multi-national corporation, owned by the largest cosmetics company in Israel. Up until the second Intifada, Ahava employed many Jericho Arabs, only ceasing due to the lack of freedom of movement they suffered, leaving only two Bedouin Muslims in their employment today.
As a supporter and cofounder of bilingual schools in the region and a self confessed lefty, she spoke out against, what she termed as, ‘highly ineffective’ boycotts against Israel, especially academic boycotts. She believes that the universities are one of the few places which are an open forum for Palestinians, letting them be treated as equals with their Israeli colleagues, allowing open discussion, a free flow of ideas and giving an opportunity to discuss their own narratives. This is unrivalled in any other sector of wider Palestinian-Israeli society.
She urged students, or in fact anyone, in support of the Palestinian people to redirect their efforts to more practical measures such as helping cross border groups or sending aid in the form of clothes, medicines, books or medical and legal volunteering. She reiterated that any protest should directed at embassies and political leaders, not people as this only leads to more damage and hurt. Boycotts against companies such as Ahava, she believes, have very little effect, and Ahava has noticed no drop in sales.
We then shifted the interview to topic of settlements as one of the main criticisms of Ahava was it being an illegal settlement. Miriam had quite a clear view that the religious right who lived in the multiple, illegal settlements creeping into the Occupied Palestinian Territories, are just as much in the wrong and to blame as the suicide bombers on the other side. She also saw these settlements as blocking any path to peace between these two peoples, and was happily surprised when presented with our broad polling statistic that 77% of Israelis would agree to a freeze on settlements. She added that in the past, the people of Mitzpe Shalem have stated that they’d happily move if it was needed to progress peace.
Miriam’s closing remark was to say that the real obstacles to peace is the leaders on both sides.
After the interview we took a few photos with Miriam (to be uploaded later), had a more casual conversation, exchanged contact details and said goodbye. We then waited for the right bus, while in the process Gary attempted to flag down every other one using all his assets (which turned out just to be his hat). Once on the bus we headed to Ein Gedi, a beach resort on the Dead Sea. We had a short lunch and then Gary and Anthony went...floating, while David and Hala paddled and applied their own black mud face packs, after climbing through barbed wire fencing. Extreme spa treatment, eh?
After a long bus trip home we rested on the terrace roof, talking about the day’s events and taking advantage of having free internet. We were later joined by an Australian member of the IDF and talked to him at length, but we’ll cover that tomorrow.
Talk soon,
David, Hala, Gary and Anthony
OneVoice Glasgow
No comments:
Post a Comment