My Ethical Dilemma. Teaching In Jaffa
It's been about a year now since I began doing English tutoring at Arab schools in Jaffa. It's a volunteer job, arranged through a local NGO geared at improving Jewish-Moslem and Israel-Arab relations. An admirable and peaceful aim, to be sure. The kids are mostly about 10 years old, boys & girls, largely Moslem, but some Christian Arabs too. (Why did I think Arab kids were more polite and better behaved than our Jewish youth? It seems that kids are kids - noisy, rowdy and out to avoid learning at all costs. Ok, I'm exaggerating, but humor me will you?) My two bêtes noires there are Ahmad and Mohammed, both sweet boys, but determined to make my life a misery.
Sunday was "Yom Hanaqba" in Israel. That is the Arab name for the day Israel was established in 1948, the day the Arab world now nominates as "Disaster Day". Sunday was horrific, with Syrian & Lebanese attempts to broach Israel's border and repudiate her sovereignty. Several Israeli soldiers were injured, several Arabs killed and many injured. What a waste of human life.
Eli Hertz, writing in "Myths & Facts" explains why Yom Hanaqba is the fault of the Arabs, and why their suffering (and we cannot deny that they suffer) is all their own fault, but can be alleviated at the drop of hat - if they would only accept the legitimacy of Israel. He writes:
"As May 14 [1948] approached, Israel could not afford to risk a Fifth Column at its rear to add to all other aspects of its militarily inferior situation. The cost of defeat was hammered home by a stream of dire warnings from Arab capitals, with perhaps the most chilling for Israelcoming from Jamal Al-Husayni as vice-chairman of the Arab Higher Committee [AHC], who publicly declared:
"The Arabs have taken into their own hands, the Final Solution of the Jewish problem. The problem will be solved only in blood and fire. The Jews will be driven out."
Three years after world Jewry had lost a third of its people in the Holocaust, Israelis were not about to test whether Al-Husayni's words were merely rhetoric or a real threat, and so they prepared for the worst."
Back to my dilemma: On the one hand, Ahmad, Mohammed and the other kids are innocent. They are children and they deserve the best education available. (I'm far from the best teacher, but hey - I do give some added value.) On the other hand, when I see the Palestinian flags in their copybooks, when I hear some of their comments, and when I just consider that these might be the seeds of a future "Fifth Column", I wonder why I schlep to Jaffa, give up my free time, and invest energy in motivating & teaching the little punks.
Israel is diverse democracy. Arabs & Jews have equal rights. The scales of justice must be blind. The clichés ring through my mind. And yet ... and yet .... I have a dilemma that I must resolve.
I went to teach today. The kids were sweet and responsive.
Jonathan Danilowitz is a Contributing Writer for The Propagandist
