No, it is not another of those awful jokes bandied about The Media Line offices. It is, however, a story of a group of American students and their desire to learn what is really happening in the Middle East.
The phone rings. “We need someone at The Media Line to present a three-hour session on practical aspects of the media in the Middle East.”
Hmmm. Twenty-something twenty-somethings. Three hours. Get them to do the work. Saves me having to talk for three hours. And that saves their ears.
What to do?
Well, all this took place just before the breach of the temporary Palestinian Hudna cease-fire. So, the natural topic of the hour was “will the Hudna work?” (Hindsight tells us the answer, of course.) But how to get that over to a group of students covering all corners and all types of campus of the U.S.?
Here is an aside. The young people had come to Israel under the auspices of the Caravan for Democracy. It is an organization that operates on campuses across the States giving students a better understanding of democracy, with the focus often on the Middle East.
Back to the plot. So, the big day arrives. After seeing a short documentary about The Media Line, the students hopped on a small bus and set off for Talpiyot, a suburb of Jerusalem. En route they received their instructions. Split into groups and interview a broad cross-section of the Israeli public about the likely success of the Hudna.
After the initial trepidation, the teams wandered into a shopping mall and began their task.
It has to be said it looked at first as though the exercise would be a disaster: all the groups interviewing the same people; one team with virtually no Hebrew trying to converse with a middle-aged Israeli man, who looked and sounded as though he had imbibed a drop too much for his lunch.
But from small beginnings…
Gradually the students began to blossom, becoming bolder, asking more intelligent questions until finally a wonderful picture of Israel came to life. A country deeply divided as to solutions but in agreement that Hudnas come and go, and people continue to die.
One woman explained she was originally from Germany, married to an Arab but now going through a divorce. Then there was the Arab polishing fruit for display in the supermarket. He is one of a handful of Arabs living in the Jewish neighborhood Gilo. He told the students his home has been hit many times by Palestinian gunfire from the nearby Beit Jala on the outskirts of Bethlehem. And his view on the situation: eventually there will be all-out war between the Arab states and Israel. The American new-immigrant mother of heaven-knows-how-many-children told the group of her fear of living in this part of the world in the current wave of violence.
Not a pleasant picture all-in-all.
But one that allowed the twenty-something twenty-somethings to return to their colleges with a better handle on the real Israel.
If you happen to be an American student and want to learn more of the fruits of their labors, then look out for the upcoming editions of your school newspapers. The hands-on media element was a brief but intensive writing workshop given to the young people by The Media Line, to allow them to impart their new knowledge to their fellow students, to help give a fresh dimension to the education of ‘the next generation’.