| TUFTS UNIVERSITY in JATT VILLAGE |
By Lydia Aisenberg
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Visitors are not unusual in the home of Amir Gara in the Muslim Arab village of Jatt.
However, 40 Jewish American university students coming through the front door one after the other is not exactly a daily occurrence either, but such was the case recently when a group of students from Tufts University came a-knocking on the Gara door.
The students had spent some days in the north of Israel working alongside Israelis in efforts to repair damage caused during the war last summer. Unlike many groups of Jewish students from abroad traveling the country for 10 days with the all expenses paid Taglit-Birthright organization, not only did the Tufts students pay their own way but they had all been to Israel before, some having participated in long and short term study programs as well.
Fund raising efforts by the group back home achieved an astounding $70,000 toward the trip and financial contributions to projects of their choice during travels in Israel.
The meeting with the 30 year-old Israeli Arab lawyer from Jatt in the Little Triangle (Wadi Ara and environs) was arranged by the International Department of Givat Haviva situated in the same locality and with whom Amir has been closely associated with since finishing his law studies at a British university as well as studying for and passing the New York Bar examinations.
Sitting around a rather large and impressive stairway leading up to the second floor of Amir's parents spacious home, the Tuft students listened intently as Amir explained about daily life for himself and his family on both sides of the Palestinian/Israeli divide.
Touching on sensitive issues such as family connections to the Palestinian people, relationships with Jewish Israelis, the effects of the security fence running within a few score meters of his village and a myriad of other issues, Amir not only explained a great deal but also answered many difficult and well put questions fielded by the American students and the staff members accompanying them.
Amir's father, a retired high-school teacher and his mother – a very successful local hairdresser who recently opened a state-of-the-art hairdressing salon in the adjoining city of Baka-el-Gharbiya - met after l967. His father was born and raised in Jatt village as was his father and grandfather before him. The village became part of the State of Israel when the Green Line (former border with the West Bank) was drawn in l949. His mother was born and educated in Tulkarm, a Palestinian West Bank town nowadays under the Palestinian Authority.
Amir commented that had it not been for the l967 war his parents would not have been able to meet and therefore, he would not have been born!
Amir's mother became a citizen of the State of Israel through marriage and apart from Amir there are 2 daughters and another son in the Gara household. All four siblings are university graduates and of course, Israeli citizens but with a large extended family on the maternal side still living in Tulkarm – a short journey away but almost unattainable for family visits in present times.
The Tufts University students were accompanied by Rabbi Jeffrey A. Summit and Research Fellow Joshua L. Gleis.
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Tufts University students with Rabbi Jeffrey A. Summit and next
to him, Research Fellow Joshua Gleis.
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Rabbi Summit is Executive Director of the Hillel Foundation at Tufts University where he also serves as Associate Chaplain and Associate Professor in the Department of Music and Joshua Gleis who has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East and studied at Tel Aviv university.
Both Rabbi Summit and Joshua Gleis are involved in implementing Muslim-Christian-Jewish dialogue and were very enthusiastic about the opportunity to meet with and hear Amir Gara and particularly to do so in his own home.
As the students were leaving the Gara home Amir found himself showered with more questions from the Tufts group, many of whom told him that they wished there had been more time to hear and discuss the issues they as one student remarked "knew something of but certainly not enough."
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A few days later the International Department staff was informed that in summarizing their visit to Israel prior to leaving for home, the Tufts University students and staff marked down the Givat Haviva International Department's initiated meeting with Amir Gara as one of the most powerful experiences they had had during their visit to Israel, and this coming from a group whose Israeli tour guide commented were "a group who didn't give compliments too easily."
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