MWO hears from Israelis and Palestinians (and eats) during visit

Back in March and April I dispatched myself to Israel for what I have termed a “sun-bbatical,” a pleasant mishmash of lots of Tel Aviv beach with work volunteering and meeting cool people in the peace-building community. In 2015, I was in Israel during the dramatic elections, coached young journalism students on freedom of expression at the Eastern Mediterranean International School during its inaugural year, met with Palestinian free speech advocates in Ramallah and got to know Tel Aviv. This year, I was lucky to meet with a couple of organizations I’ve been following for a while and did a lot of eating.

Food, glorious food: Both years, my husband and kids (and their friends) stop by for a visit and continue to learn more about daily life in Israel and Palestine and food is a huge part of daily life here. This year we had extra incredible food experiences which included: an old favorite Suzana in Neve Tzedek (favorite place to go when I am alone), Shila (OMG!), my son’s favorite hummus at Shlomo v’ Doron in the Yemenite Quarter, mixed kebab at Shmuel in the Carmel Market, pre-Shabbat drinks and mayhem in the Jaffa market, Eyal Shani’s North Abraxis (gotta have that roasted cauliflower), after seeing Bat Sheva we went to Bicicletta on Nahalat Benyamina (had some eggplant fries and homemade pastrami), our ritual dinner before we head to the airport to go home is the Thai House on Bograshov and my daily absolute favorite hangout across the street from my flat, Cafe Kovshim. In Jerusalem we finally made it to Machne Yehuda (it lived up to its reputation, incredible food, crazy atmosphere, wear earplugs) and back to Azura in the shuk, hung out and smoked a shesha and listened to some bands at the Machane Yedhuda market after hours, got a drink at the King David with the Safirs from Jackson Hole, always have the best waffles in the world at Babette’s near Ben Yehuda and French pastries at Gagou du Paris on King George, coffee at the historic and quaint Tmol Shilshom and we never, ever, miss Ghaleb Zahdeh’s hummus at Lina Cafe in the Old City. Zahdeh is a quiet and gentle soul, go visit him. I always remember to pick up a kilo or two of turkish coffee, custom ground and mixed with freshly-roasted cardamom per order, from Sadek Sandouka’s kiosk also in the Muslim quarter. We often go to East Jerusalem to our favorite shawarma place called Istanbul, but it was a little tense this year so we thought we’d take a pass until things settle down a bit.

Back to business: This year, I met with a couple of groups that I had been communicating with via email throughout 2015, the YaLa Academy and Building Bridges East. I first met the elegant and caring Sarah Perle who is the program director and blogger for the YaLa Academy. She is French and Tunisian and has wonderful stories to tell about her family and growing up Arab and Jewish in Israel. From Building Bridges East I first met the petite powerhouse Angie Hsu. She works with BBE on fundraising and alumni programs. She was introduced to Building Bridges (original organization located in Denver) while growing up in Colorado and participated in their programs. She is now married to her high school sweetheart, who is Israeli, and lives in south Tel Aviv. She is an amazing chef (Chinese and Korean cuisine) and is a regular host for EatWith Tel Aviv. Then I met with the BBE executive director, Amani Rahana who is getting her masters in International Relations from Hebrew University in Jerusalem. We met for coffee at the Hebrew U Aroma and she gave me great insight into the challenges of operating a nonprofit in Israel. It’s complicated, to say the least. Amani is funny and steadfast and I know that she can take Building Bridges East to new levels. And last, though I never met her face-to-face due to circumstances, there was Tal-Shahar Knohl who is an alumni of Building Bridges. I helped edit her column on building peace for Times of Israel and hope to work with her on creating a blog for Building Bridges alumni in their native languages. Building Bridges East is looking for board members and support, contact them if you’d like to help out.

These are remarkable young people who lead their organizations in a challenging environment, both politically and financially. One of my takeaways from my meetings with these women was the disappointing environment in which Israeli nonprofits, or amutot, must survive (learn more about the baffling government regulations and definition of amutot here). Unlike the United States, there is not a generous philanthropic culture in Israel. Of course, keep in mind, I’m a bit spoiled coming from Jackson Hole where there are a mind-blowing 267 nonprofits in this town of 12,000 and  tens of millions of nonprofit dollars flowing through our small economy each year. So anything less may seem uncharitable to me. I heard that fundraising in Israel is difficult, yields meager funds and forces institutions to seek money outside the country. And now, due to political pressures, the Israeli government is meddling in fundraising practices of amutot.

I also heard that there extra challenges if you are a “peace building” nonprofit. Now “peace building” is a loose term in Israel and has many interpretations depending on who you ask. There are the traditional left-leaning peace organizations (anti-occupation, coexistence between Arabs and Jews) but there are also right-leaning peace organizations (Zionist and settler advocates and religious organizations) and both claim to be building peace. Either way, Israeli donors do not want to publicly attach their name to a “peace-building” amutah fearing political ramifications of being outed.

I believe talking to passionate activists about freedom of expression is very important because they require a difficult balance between promoting tolerance and practicing tolerance.

The night before I returned back to the U.S., I was, along with my husband Judd and son Isaac, able to join the Building Bridges alumni for their first BBE Alumni gathering. We all met at the famous club in Jaffa, Anna LouLou. About 20 alumni from various past cohorts got together and updated everyone on what they are doing. My husband and I spoke to the group about the challenges of freedom of expression from our experience of owning an outspoken alternative weekly newspaper. I believe talking to passionate activists about freedom of expression is very important because they require a difficult balance between promoting tolerance and practicing tolerance.

I look forward to keeping in touch with everyone and seeing them in 2017. Click on the links above to learn more about the work they are doing in Israel.