Oasis of Dreams: Teaching and Learning Peace in a Jewish-Palestinian Village in Israel (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Oasis of Dreams: Teaching and Learning Peace in a Jewish-Palestinian Village in Israel Joseph Rubinstein Oasis of Dreams: Teaching and Learning Peace in a Jewish-Palestinian Village in Israel, by Grace Feuerverger. New York, London: RoutledgeFalmer, 2001. 218 pp. $22.95. As tensions reach the boiling point in Israel and the appetite for demonizing the other becomes increasingly compelling, it seems nearly impossible to imagine Jews and Arabs living side by side. But many Arabs and Jews who lived on the land before mid twentieth century remember each other as good neighbors. There are still places within Israel where Jews and Arabs demonstrate that they can share their lives amicably. Oasis of Dreams, by Grace Feuerverger, is the story of a Jewish-Palestinian village in Israel dedicated to keeping that hope active. The name of the village is Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, “Oasis of Peace” in Hebrew and Arabic. The convention is to refer to the village in both languages. Both Arabic and Hebrew are taught to all students in the school system. Jewish, Muslim, and Christian residents, about forty families, share holiday celebrations while maintaining their own religious and cultural identities. Parents from nearby Israeli towns send their children to the village school system to learn to be bilingual and share in the exchange of cultures. [End Page 175] An essential aspect of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam is the School for Peace, with its conflict resolution workshops attended frequently by Palestinian and Israeli teenagers. In addition to brisk local activity, the school collaborates with organizations from other nations like Northern Ireland, Cyprus, America, Italy, and Germany. The recipient of numerous international awards, the village with its School for Peace has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on five occasions. Feuerverger’s account describes the village as a community of moral education. Her descriptions include School for Peace workshops, interviews with noteworthy committed individuals who keep the dream alive, and a pervasive concern at all levels for intercultural discourse while maintaining good will. Three clear interweaving tracks emerge from her account: one track is academic, sometimes pedantic, with occasional jargon and multiple references. Some paragraphs that read like a doctoral dissertation testify to the scholarly prowess of the author, who has a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics. One section in chapter two is entitled “Moral Dilemmas Within a Sociohistoric Context: The Dialogic Relationship Between Justice and Care.” A second track, the participatory, ably compensates for the pedantry by bringing individuals to life whose extraordinary diligence and commitment keep the dream alive. It includes interviews with individuals and is a journey into the mindsets of caring people from a variety of backgrounds. One of these interviews is with the Jewish-born Dominican priest, Father Bruno Hassar, whose vision and industriousness are responsible for creating the village. Another is with Rayek Rizek, the Palestinian who was mayor of the village at the time of the interview. Also included are conversations with teachers in the elementary school and the School for Peace. A third track, the personal, is Feuerverger’s fascinating narrative of her struggle with her personal identity and the part that Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam played in her personal deliverance. This track reappears frequently throughout the book. Here are some excerpts describing her identity struggles: p. 93: “. . . being Jewish, for me, has always been a painful journey from the center into the margins; that is, it represents, in part, an experience of mass expulsions and genocide, a nomadic wandering throughout the centuries in order to find a sense of home and of legitimacy in the world. This ‘strangerhood’ or ‘otherness’ in the Diaspora is a disturbing way to live.” p. 185: “Many people see the Tower of Babel as a disaster that unleashed confusion onto humanity, but I see it as a personal salvation. We all have our own perceptions of reality and our own needs. We all have to find meaning in our unique life experiences. . . . As a child of survivors in the post-Holocaust era, I have always searched for a sense of personal belonging within the protective layers of my professional life . . .” [End Page 176] p. 188: “I was fueled by...