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Jewish actor visits West Bank camp in quest for peace
'It's very hard to talk about Palestine to Jewish people
? they see me as a betrayer,' says British actor Miriam
Margolyes
by: Harriet Sherwood
guardian.co.uk
In a small, bare room in a refugee camp in the southern
West Bank, a Palestinian Muslim man and a British Jewish
woman face each other on plastic chairs and grope towards
a mutual understanding across decades of mistrust,
injustice, hostility and violence.
The man is Said Ali Banat Hajarah: 82, partially deaf,
failing eyesight, a former farmer nostalgic about his
fields and livestock, bitter at the loss of his family
home more than six decades ago, still grieving the deaths
of his father and a son at the hands of Israeli soldiers,
convinced that the gun must be part of the toolbox of
resistance alongside the pen and the voice.
The woman is Miriam Margolyes: 69, stage and film actor,
ageing knee joints that won't allow her to sit on the
floor, intensely curious about life in a refugee camp
under occupation, furious at the actions and policies of
the Israeli government, passionately opposed to violence
as a tool of resistance.
Margolyes has travelled to Al Arroub, halfway between the
Palestinian cities of Bethlehem and Hebron, to hear stories
like Hajarah's. "I wanted to see what's going on, to learn
? and it's not a happy experience," she tells the Guardian.
This is Hajarah's tale, much abbreviated: born in the
village of Aggour in southern Palestine in 1928, he grew
barley, courgettes, tomatoes and onions and raised sheep,
cows, horses and donkeys. "Then the Jews came from all
over the world to our country."
In 1948, the year the state of Israel was declared, Jewish
militia surrounded Hajarah's village and started shooting.
The villagers left, in fear of their lives, thinking they
would return within a week. His family ended up in Al
Arroub, where they have lived for the past 62 years, still
dreaming of returning to their home and fields. "I remember
every square metre of my land," he tells Margolyes, his
rheumy eyes staring into the middle-distance.
For the past 43 years, since Israel occupied the West Bank
during the six-day war, he has lived not just as a refugee,
but a refugee under military rule. He joined the struggle:
"I believe in all forms of resistance ? the pen, the voice
and the gun," he says with passion.
This is Margolyes' story, also much abbreviated: born in
Oxford into a secular Jewish family, she became an ardent
supporter of the anti-apartheid movement at university
before becoming an actor. Never a Zionist, she has
become convinced of the wrongs perpetrated against the
Palestiniansin the name of Jews. She has spoken out against
Israeli policies, earning opprobrium from fellow Jews and
losing friends. She briefly visited the Holy Land 15 years
ago and vowed to return to find out more. Now here she is,
on a trip organised by the charity Actionaid and she's
finding it "emotional and uncomfortable".
The pair talk for an hour with warmth and empathy, but do
not fudge their differences.
"I cannot accept violence. Somehow we have to move people,
both Palestinians and Jews. But not kill."
"Palestinians use violence because our homes and land was
stolen, taken by violence and they can only be restored by
violence."
"I can't speak for Israel, but I want you to know I am
appalled and sorry and you should know there are other
Jews who think like this."
"I respect you as a Jew, I am not angry with you."
Later, after an animated Harry Potter discussion with
Hajarah's grandsons who concede that Margolyes looks
"very similar" to Professor Sprout in the films (no,
says Margolyes patiently, I'm not similar, I am Professor
Sprout), the actor reflects on the meeting. "His story
is so terrible. I have no glib words," she says.
She explains her mission: "I hope to be able to shift a
very harsh attitude [among Jews] towards Palestinians.
It's very hard to talk about Palestine to Jewish people
? they see me as a betrayer. I'm trying to tread carefully
but I'm very angry and shocked. Minds have got to be
changed.
"I believe Jews are compassionate people because of what
we've suffered. We must not put that suffering on to
others."
In another conversation, with mother and grandmother
Rasmieh Titi, 55, Margolyes learns that the woman's
grown-up sons have been repeatedly arrested and detained
without charge for long periods by the Israeli military.
"What do you think of Israelis?" Margolyes asks. "You
cannot love those who have kidnapped your sons and stolen
your land," Titi replies.
Margolyes wants her interlocutors to understand that not
all Jews support the policies of the Israeli government,
that there are those who do not just sympathise with the
Palestinians but want to move forward in partnership with
them.
She would like to see one state for Palestinians and
Israelis on the land that both have fought over for
close to a century. "I can't see any other solution
working. I realise that if it's one state, it can't be
a Jewish state. When I say this to Jewish people, they
go mental ? but to me it's the obvious solution.
"It makes me very sad. Everyone's afraid of each other ?
Jews are afraid of Palestinians, Palestinians are afraid
of Jews. Everywhere I see fear, not understanding. Reason
went out of the window a long time ago."
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