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I. J. Mansdorf, PhD is an Israeli-based psychologist who has been active dealing with the effects of terror both in Israel and in the United States. He most recently served as a consultant to the post 9-11 operations of Project Liberty in New York. He currently serves as director of the .
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By I. J. Mansdorf, PhD
September 3, 2004
Imagine this scene: Fences and walls enclosing people, roads controlled with checkpoints and armed guards, perceptions of a "fortress" mentality, all in the name of security and personal safety.
Are these the "walls of hatred ... of aggression..." in Israel that the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi said last week reminded him of the old, apartheid South Africa?
No, it's actually a description by an urban designer of some of the many legally sanctioned gated communities that exist today in post-apartheid, democratic South Africa.
In a country that no supporter of human rights would ever dare accuse today of racism or segregation, there is not even one metropolitan council that has not received an application for what are known as "neighborhood enclosures."
What people in South Africa seek is exactly what Israelis seek. A non-violent way to reduce violence. As in South Africa, the barrier is a deterrent and a method to prevent criminals who endorse violence to carry out their whims.
In South Africa, whole communities seek security in walled neighborhoods. Unlike South Africans, Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs live in communities with no barriers to access and no guards posted to prevent entry into any neighborhood. In ethnically diverse cities like Jerusalem, Tel Aviv-Jaffa and Haifa, citizens move about unobtrusively, and people of all colors and persuasions mingle freely.
What Israelis hope to eliminate, however, are bombed-out buses and cafes and the random killing of both Jews and Arabs by criminals who Yasser Arafat, Gandhi's host, calls freedom fighters. That is, if the non-violent security barrier that Arun Gandhi demonstrated against will be completed as planned.
Israelis seek only what others in the rest of the world, including places as diverse as the United States, South Africa, Brazil and Saudi Arabia, seek. In Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and India as well, whole communities have placed themselves behind the protective barriers of isolation and separation in order to exercise the most fundamental of all basic human rights, the right to life.
Is Israel's security barrier totally impenetrable? What we do know is that since it's been built, areas that once regularly experienced terror attacks have been relatively free from them. That, in a word, is non-violence.
In a country where children roam the streets at all hours of the night and where conventional violent crime is rare, living behind the types of barriers that are common in other parts of the world feels strange. But regardless of one's view of how peace will ultimately take shape between Israelis and Palestinians, the need for an increased sense of personal safety and an answer to the threat of violence is common throughout a wide swatch of the Israeli populace, from left to right.
To counter that threat, Israel has adopted a plan that is consistent with the following words, uttered by a man considered by many to be one of the greatest figures of the century.
"Every community in our country has a fundamental right to be free from fear. Each and every (one) has the right to feel secure in their home, to feel safe in the cities, towns and rural areas. People should not fear the night. They must be able to travel to work, to school and other places without danger. But these rights are being denied to many by criminals who do not hesitate to use violence to achieve their goals."
When Nelson Mandela spoke these words in 1994, the dreams of Israelis and Palestinians were tied to the optimism of the Oslo accords and the hope for peaceful coexistence. That all changed when, as Mandela said, "criminals who do not hesitate to use violence to achieve their goals" shattered the dream.
As in South Africa, the hopes for progress and peace between Israelis and Palestinians hinge on encouraging the path of nonviolence, as Mahatma Gandhi preached. Israel's security barrier does not shoot people, does not explode in buses and does not broadcast hate and incitement to violence as does Arafat's Palestinian Authority. Arun Gandhi embraced a violent Arafat and criticized the non-violent Israeli response.
Israel's security barrier will keep out those who revel in death, but it will open wide for those that truly seek peace.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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