Israel's mixed feelings about 1967

The curse of a great war victory.

from the June 13, 2007 edition

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If the mainstream public let the anniversary pass with little controversy, the Israeli left was active in trying to drum up pressure to resume the moribund peace process.

Their effort included calls for a mass demonstration in Tel Aviv at the square where former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated, documentary film screenings at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, bicycle marathons, a festive meal at a Bedouin town in the Galilee, an exhibition by Israeli and Palestinian artists, Arab and Israeli musician performances in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and bi-national meetings at points along the Green Line – marking Israel's pre-1967 borders.

For me, an intellectual commemoration summed up feelings both of pessimism and hope – a three-day conference on legal discourse on the Israeli occupation that attracted eminent international and local legal scholars.

As they spoke about relating international humanitarian law to the status quo, the hope that their legal expertise might be harnessed in the service of a comprehensive agreement hung in the air. Yet hardly any dared voice the hope this could happen in the near future. "How will this nightmare end?" queried Harvard professor Claude Bruderlein.

Among the listeners at the Tel Aviv University sat the young instructor in the Israeli military college, not far from three Arab Israeli lawyers. They attended as part of their masters program in law at the University of Haifa, where they are taking a course with Israeli professor Sandy Kedar on the law of the occupied territories. Why were so few Arabs in the audience, I asked, when they make up between 20 and 30 percent of the student body at Israeli institutions of higher learning? One responded, "Palestinians don't have to attend a conference like this; they live the occupation every day."

Jerusalem was reunited in 1967, say the Israelis. Conquered, say the Arabs. Perhaps poetry and music express the most powerful truth. Old melodies rebroadcast on Israeli radio this past week had a bittersweet resonance. "O Jerusalem of gold," sang Naomi Shemer in 1967 with hope and passion, "I am the violin for all your songs." At the conference, a Palestinian-American professor summed up by quoting a line of Arabic poetry by Muhammad al-Asad: "With what faith can stars sparkle, and naked trees cast shade?"

Helen Schary Motro, a lawyer and writer, is author of "Maneuvering between the Headlines: An American Lives through the Intifada."

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