| SEEING BLUE ON THE GREEN LINE |
By Lydia Aisenberg
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Yedid Plus of Hashomer Hatzair and madrichim scrum down in the wadi and pre-1967 border between West and East Barta’a snaking through the Wadi Ara village.
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At the beginning of August a group of North American members of Hashomer Hatzair’s Yedid Plus program, on Israel tour with machrichim from the States and Israel, participated in a seminar at Givat Haviva under the auspices of the International Department.
The group of 35 youngsters and five staff members also stayed overnight on campus.
Yotam Marom, one of the madrichim accompanying the group recently spent six months living on Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek together with a group of Hashomer Hatzair young adults who belong to a rather special ‘garin’ nowadays getting organized in New York to continue along their communal ideological path of working in educational projects whilst also building a strong and contributing society of their very own – together.
The garin is made up of Hashomer Hatzair madrichim, most of whom post-university, from the States and Canada and during the period they were ‘adopted’ by Mishmar HaEmek they worked on movement projects in nearby towns as well as undertaking a number of days a week rather intensive work with Israel Arab Muslim youth at the high-school of Barta’a village in Wadi Ara.
The garin members quickly gained the confidence of the Arab youth, fifty percent of who live on the Palestinian West Bank side of the village divided by the Green Line in 1949. As their mothers (in the main) were holders of Israeli citizenship and had married Palestinian men from East Barta’a, then the children were also born into Israeli citizenship, therefore entitled to an education in the State of Israel. In their case this meant at the school just meters across the Green Line in West Barta’a.
Apart from helping the students out with their English and other activities the Hashomer Hatzair garin members successfully organized an English Language Drama Festival which saw their more than boisterous students put on scenes from famous plays the likes of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and popular Arab folklore.
Staff members of the International Department were also invited to the Barta’a Drama Festival and were warmly welcomed by teaching staff and pupils alike, many of whom known to the staff members from their many visits with groups from overseas to the fascinating village a few minutes drive from the main Route 65 Wadi Ara highway.
Visits to the village and the opportunity to speak to residents from both sides of the divide are often singled out by seminar participants from abroad as being the highlight not only of their seminar with Givat Haviva, but also of their visit to Israel.
One of the garin members Daniel Roth is the brother of Adam Roth, head of Hashomer Hatzair for North America in recent years, sons of Lippa Roth from Toronto. Lippa was for many years a member of the Canadian Friends of Givat Haviva and prior to finishing the period of the garin’s work in Israel and return to North America, Daniel was one of the madrichim accompanying and working with a large group of American students on a 10-day visit to Israel through the birthright.Israel-Taglit program.
The UPZ student group also participated in a seminar at Givat Haviva and undertook a tour of the area with International Department staff and heard from Daniel about his and other garin members experiences during their time going to school with the Barta’a kids from both sides of the not so green divide running through the center of the village.
In a recent email Yotam Marom (in blue movement shirt, standing second from the left in the back row of the group photograph above) wrote that the group had thoroughly enjoyed their seminar and overnight stay at Givat Haviva and had spoken a great deal about what they had seen and heard.
Yotam also mentioned that the garin will shortly be moving in to their collective home in Brooklyn and we look forward to hearing about their activities as well as continuing to work in future with this exceptionally talented and dedicated group of young adult ‘bogrim’ of the Hashomer Hatzair movement of North America.
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Yedid Plus, Hashomer Hatzair, strolling through the village of Bart’a.
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Yotam Marom and Barta’a village pupils during the English Language Drama Festival and below Daniel Roth thanking the school, teaching staff and pupils for welcoming them in to their community
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