The Hero's Journey Through Israel and Palestine

9 minute read

In 2016, the film Disturbing the Peace swept international film festivals. It chronicles the stories of Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters who, in 2005 following the second Palestinian Intifada (uprising), put down their arms in exchange for more powerful weapons: trust and optimism.  

"You enter the forest at the darkest point where there is no path.” 
This quotation by Joseph Campbell opens the documentary. In this context, Campbell, world-renowned mythologist and popularizer of the literary term “monomyth,” was speaking to the concept of the hero’s journey—the path the protagonist must take if they are to achieve their goal of retrieving the ultimate boon for their people; that restorative gift that acts as a catalyst for affecting a positive, social transformation the people so desperately need.
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While the conflict between Israel and Palestine is certainly not a myth, the men and women involved in this documentary who are engaged in this harrowing geopolitical struggle relate closely to Campbell’s concept of the monomyth. It is life imitating art which, in turn, imitates life. In brief, the men and women of Combatants for Peace represent the heroes who have elected to leave their ordinary world behind to trek into unfamiliar territory in order to retrieve a boon for their people. In the case of Israel and Palestine, that boon is mutual understanding and an end to the cyclical war that is ruining bodies, devastating lives, and destroying the future of this region. 

Campbell’s quotation, not included in the film, continues, "Where there is a way or path, it is someone else's path. You are not on your own path. If you follow someone else's way, you are not going to realize your potential."

The heroes of Combatants for Peace have forged their own path, a path of nonviolent resolutions meant to bridge the two sides through a concerted effort of continual dialogue and aid. The path they elected to take is in stark contrast to the path walked by the naysayers who so obstinately insist peace is not possible. The cynics enter the forest where it is brightest and where the path is clearly marked, “Enter here.” They follow the arrows and do not wander from the trail for the trail is comfortable to them, although it gets darker the further they walk. 

While the cynic's path initially appears pleasant, as opposed to the heroes', the hapless travelers are prevented from ever realizing their potential. What's worse, they have no inclination to. They are content with getting from point A to point B in the most convenient fashion, willingly blind to the darkness on the periphery that is slowly enveloping them. For them, all that matters is that they walk the path put before them. They are a sad lot, mostly because they don’t associate their unpleasant circumstances with the choices they themselves have made. Rather, they repeat the same behaviors over and over either expecting that one day the results with be different, or, even worse, they are resigned to the fact that darkness, disharmony, and suffering are a natural way of life here. 

It is impossible to write about Israel or Palestine without polarizing one group or another. For some more conservative Zionists, the mere acknowledgment of Palestine or Palestinians is enough to make them disregard your opinion altogether. “There is no such thing as a Palestinian,” you will hear apologists say--an oft-repeated, ill-informed line passed down by generations of Israelis thanks to the out of context quotation issued by former Israeli PM Golda Meir. Of course, such a statement is patently false since not having an officially recognized state does not negate the existence of a people's history or culture. Surely, the Jews (of all nations) can relate to this. 

Sadly, the dissonance runs both ways. Some Palestinians openly harbor intense hatred for Jewish Israelis and refuse to accept their right to self-determination. They flatly ignore the history and reality of anti-Semitism and the Nazi slaughter of millions of European Jews which lead them to fight for a country where they would never again be targeted for their otherness. On the other hand, that same right to self-determination that convinced the U.N. to draft Resolution 181 (II) and create Israel seven decades ago has not been afforded to the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza in any plausible fashion. I say implausible because the deal offered by the U.N demanded that the 1.2 million Palestinians who had lived on the land for generations receive less than half of it (4,500 sq mi.) while 600,000 newly arrived Jews were allotted the majority. The displacement of Palestinians by the immigrating Jews, and the state's refusal (to this day) to allow Palestinians to return home, the Nakba, is an unrecognized chapter in the official Israeli state narrative. The underlying animosity between the two sides is not at all unreasonable.

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Clearly, you can also see why so many people ignore the conflict altogether hoping it will resolve itself or one side will give up their autonomy. It is precisely because binational resolutions in this region are so difficult to come by that the Combatants for Peace relate so well to the heroes described by Campbell. For half a day, I walked beside these proponents of peace. I followed them on their journey through the figurative and literal road less traveled, into the West Bank to the little village of Beita just south of Nablus. There, on a stepped olive tree plantation, we harvested olives together, Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs, both of whom have laid down their arms and opted to build bridges rather than bombs, friendships rather than walls.

Meeting the Combatants for Peace
At 7:00 am, I met the group in front of the Tel Aviv central bus station. Like before, with the Women Wage Peace, participants trickled in until the 90th minute--a soccer derived saying Israelis use like "The eleventh hour". We boarded the tour bus, our names checked off on an official list, an overview of the day's schedule was given in Hebrew, and we were off! Back to Palestine I went.

This trip was much shorter since Tel Aviv and Nablus are only an hour an half, and one Israeli checkpoint, apart. As we rode east, I reflected on my previous night in Tel Aviv, specifically on a conversation I had with the taxi driver who dropped me at my Airbnb. The man had been quite kind to me. He let me use his cell phone to confirm details with my Airbnb host and even pulled over at a convenience store so I could use an ATM. His English was better than my Hebrew so we used it. We shared the usual small talk between cabbies and passengers, "How long are you here? What are your plans? How do you like my city?" I told him I was only in town for an event, that I was going to harvest olives in the West Bank with a group of Israelis called Combatants for Peace. I told him I participated in the Women Wage Peace march in Jerusalem and was writing about the peace movement in Israel and Palestine. My answers gave him pause and his mood became noticeably darker. 

"You think there will be peace here?" He asked me. This is not an unusual question. It has been posed to me on more than one occasion whenever I speak to Israelis about my research. It is a fair question, and one that demands an answer so I gave it, "That's not really up to me is it? I don't live here." He remained quiet for a time, possibly reflecting on my answer, maybe just focusing on the road. Then, he spoke again with a dullness that chilled me, partially because he had been so full of life only a few minutes before, partly because of the cynicism in his tone, "Here, it matters who is more fast, who is more smart. If a man wants to kill me, I wake up the day before and kill him." Then, silence.

Of course, I understood that his "a man" euphemism necessarily meant "an Arab", specifically a Palestinian. My heart was heavy, just as it had been when I saw the concrete barrier wall that separates Israel from the West Bank. I felt embarrassed for him, a grown man so openly jaded and comfortable enough in his racism that he could share it with a complete stranger he had known for all of ten minutes. "What would he divulge if the ride were longer?" I wondered. How much hate does this man harbor for the millions of Muslim and Christian Arabs who share this land? We turned a final corner and drove alongside Gan Hatikva, Garden of Hope in English. My driver's cognitive dissonance astounded me. Here he was making these hateful remarks in a part of the city that only a few decades ago had been home to Palestinian Arabs for generations until, with the help of the British, European Jews founded Tel Aviv on top of Jaffa and began pushing the Arabs out to make way for their Zionist nation-building project. The irony of his misanthropy being revealed by the Garden of Hope was also not lost on me. Finally, we arrived to Moshi'a Street. I paid him for the ride, collected my bags, and wished him a good day.

Harvesting Olives with the Hopeful
Our bus pulled into the little Palestinian village of Beita around 9:00 am. The plan for the day was to help harvest the trees belonging to Abu Fakhri, a Palestinian who joined Combatants for Peace after surviving a gunshot fired by Jewish Israeli settlers from neighboring settlements. The settlers had invaded his lands and killed two other people. I recorded the entirety of his story for posterity. It must never be forgotten. For those who speak Arabic, I am happy to share the video if you ask. 

Throughout the morning and afternoon, Israelis and Palestinians of all ages worked together to harvest the plentiful fruit from Abu Fakhri's trees. With everyone working efficiently for 5 hours--minus a break for an amazing Palestinian feast of labneh, hummus, fresh za'atar and olive oil, pita, and falafel--we cleared around 10 trees. It was during our lunch break that the personal accounts were offered by former combatants and those personally affected by Israeli and Palestinian violence. Even more stories are told in the film, Disturbing the Peace, and they too are heartbreaking. The ongoing violence Israel's occupation foments is literally destroying lives. Thank God for the brave souls of Combatants for Peace who have said enough is enough.

Since 2005, these soldiers for peace have refused to participate in the systemic violence that advances a corrupt government, on both sides of the wall, and demands that they see each other as enemies. These heroes do not accept the false narrative that Israel has no partner for peace. They do not accept the false narrative that, in order to define themselves, they must dehumanize the other. Rather, the Combatants for Peace forge ahead constructing a new narrative, a true one based on reality not propaganda. These realities are confirmed with every olive harvest, with every rebuilt home demolished by the Israeli government, with every Memorial Day celebration that acknowledges the pain and tragedy of the Palestinians as well as the Israelis, and with every successful joint venture the former combatants of Israel and Palestine undertake together.

I wish them well on their hero's journey. They are the bravest of the brave to enter the forest where none have tred before. Surely, they will bring the boon of peace to Israel and Palestine and help both sides to finally reach their potential--to live in harmony on the land that promises so much to those willing to work for it.