Conference in Amman (I)

Once in Amman, we attend the opening of the Peace Conference. It seems to be a very serious thing, with official personalities included. We have a former Prime Minister of Jordan

a Christian Priest (H. E. Ekonomos Fr. Nabil D. Haddad)

and some Muslim Sheikhs

all of them presenting their best hopes for the conference and putting forward their work together for Peace in the region (some are part of this Jordanian Research Center).

After this, the participants become the protagonists and we sit in a circle in order to have an open mike and talk about our expectations for the conference. No one seems to be brave enough for talking so an member of the Israeli group takes the microphone. He says: “my name is ….. and I come from Tel Aviv”. At this moment a huge slam is heard on the speakers table. We see a member of the Jordanian group really infuriated while he shouts in Arabic something like “I’m out of here!!!” All the members of his group try to go after him to convince him to stay but they all leave.

Of course this is the first conflict that raises in the conference and people seem affected and react to it. We start hearing many different people (Palestinians, Jordanians and Israelis mainly) talking about their perceptions of the conflict. A couple of cases are worth mentioning. A Palestinian guy, who comes in the name of a Palestinian youth organization speaks about the way in which there was no “transparency”, as they had no idea they were going to share the conference with Israeli organizations. It seems most Palestinian NGOs (like most Israeli NGOs and the government) are not up to dialogue with “the other”.

Another Palestinian guy takes the microphone and speaks very slowly. He addresses the guy who left, by explaining that unlike him, he is from a refugee camp in the West Bank, that he has been fighting for the liberation of Palestine and suffering the oppression all his life, he contributed in the Second Intifada by throwing stones and he has been in an Israeli prison for 7 years. However, he says, he has now come to the conference with the Israeli group, in order to put forward the necessity to have dialogue. Leaving the room in front of the Israelis, like the other guy did, does not help at all the Palestinian people and does not help him at all, as a Palestinian suffering the occupation every day, he says.

Some other people talk, there are many people from Jordan, American Jews, American Christians, American Arabs, a couple of Europeans (including myself), etc… They all try to say how necessary and efficient dialogue with the “enemy” is, and how surprised they were after having experienced talking to “the other”.

The next morning I arrive late to the conference after an odyssey of traffic in Amman. The whole group seems to be discussing something. I get that some group is presenting some reasons why they will have to leave the conference. It seems one Palestinian group linked to the Quakers cannot stay in the conference if there are also Israelis. They explain that this is against their organization’s policies and they have to leave or they might have problems back home. They are not supposed to meet with Israelis on the risk of being seen as “normalizing” the situation. I cannot really believe this. Many people insist on them to stay, including other Palestinians, Jordanians and Israelis. A Jordanian guy starts quarrelling with another Jordanian guy at the other side of the room, telling him what kind of Arab he is if he is inviting Israelis to his country and “showing them around with his car”. He is taken out by another Jordanian guy. The Palestinian-quaker group takes the microphone again recognize that personally they would really like to stay but that they have to leave now, or they will have problems with their organizations. I wonder how we can really achieve peace if we are not able to break the structures and decide things for ourselves. Without disobedience and challenge there is no possibility for peace. I understand that staying might have supposed for these people, but if Egyptians had not gone against their same structures that claimed to be necessary for “stability”, Mubarak would still be in power.