Dennis Disbot/The Ithacan SAFA ABU RABIA and Hannah Safran discuss peace between Israel and Palestine in Emerson Suites on Tuesday.

Safa Abu Rabia was born a Palestinian Bedouin, and had to face the harsh reality of life as an Arab in post-1948 Israel. Her history and culture were absent from the Jewish textbooks she studied in her youth, and she struggled to find a solid identity in a complex Israeli society.

Hannah Safran led a different life as a Jewish citizen in Israel fighting for woman’s rights. She served as coordinator of the Haifa Feminist Center between 1987 and 1996, where she advocated for Jewish women’s rights and protection in Israel.

Though they come from opposing sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the two women are united in their desire for peace in the area.

Sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, both women came to the college Monday to deliver a joint lecture about their diverse, yet similar, experiences in war-torn Israel.

Both women stressed the need for equality and justice for all citizens of Israel, including Palestinians and women.

“As a Palestinian citizen in Israel, the democracy ends with me,” Abu Rabia said. She explained the political marginalization of Palestinians in Israel, and how much greater the gap was for Palestinian women.

“There is no democracy in the world like Israel,” Safran said.  “Extremists on both sides say ‘the entire country is mine.’” 

Safran said that in Israel, the government is politically extreme. The dream of leaders like Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is to make the land of Israel a total Jewish state, she said. Therefore, the rights of the Palestinians are usually totally ignored, she said. 

“They don’t treat [the Palestinian people] as people of their land,” Safran said.

Both women also spoke on the limitations of the public education they received in Israel.

“There was no mention of my people’s past in the Zionist textbooks,” Abu Rabia said. “I had to rely on oral history from my mother and father to find an identity for myself. People were educated to be afraid of each other.”

Safran said she seeks out different viewpoints.

“Part of what I am doing is undoing my education,” Safran said. “The story Israel is selling is not the real story, is not the whole story, is not the true story.”

Abu Rabia also said that she hopes that Palestinians can create an identity that can be shared with their children.

“I see how the Arab Bedouin children are lost,” Abu Rabia said. “I want my children to be proud of who they are.”

Barbara Johnson, coordinator of Jewish Studies and associate professor of anthropology, said she was pleased with the opportunity to bring the speakers to the college.

“Israel is a very diverse country, and these women’s voices and their different life experiences are not often heard in the United States,” Johnson said. She said the Jewish Studies program is committed to presenting a variety of perspectives on the Jewish experience.

Sophomore Elyssa Kolber lived in Israel for a year, and said attending the event was worthwhile.

“The conflict in Israel is so widespread and so complex, it is very important to get ideas from all sides and all opinions,” Kolber said. “I don’t think that right now, peace is at all possible. But I do believe that through dialogue we can alleviate a lot of these tensions.”

The lecture was part of a nationwide tour sponsored by the Faculty for Israeli Palestinian Peace. The women also gave an anthropology master class Tuesday on “Israel: Ethnicity, Politics and Culture.”

The two women will be traveling around the country giving lectures and open sessions on the Israeli Palestinian conflict, the peace movements they represent and the situation of women in Israel today.

More information on the speakers is available at http://www.ffipp.org.