Uri Sonnenschein is almost 18. Like most Israelis, he will soon be called upon to serve in the Israel Defense Force. But his friend, Rami Mannaa, a 17-year-old Arab Israeli who identifies as an Israeli Palestinian, doesn’t think Sonnenschein should go.
“The army represents something really negative to me,” said Mannaa. Noting that there should be other options for national service other than the military, Mannaa said, “Especially in the situation of today. Those that serve are still my friends, but I can’t be happy about it. They know how I feel.”
That Sonnenschein and Mannaa even had this conversation is almost unheard of in Israel. Even though Arabs make up 20 percent of the country’s population, it is rare for Jews and Arabs to know each other as friends, and when they do meet, it is often in a university or professional setting.
But these two teenagers are not typical Israelis. They grew up at Neve Shalom/Wahat Al-Salam, a village between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where Jews and Arabs have lived together peacefully for almost 30 years.
They were in San Francisco recently during an American tour on behalf of American Friends of Neve Shalom/ Wahat Al-Salam. Their goal was to raise consciousness that despite the intifada, coexistence is still a reality in some areas of Israel.
Founded by a Dominican priest, Father Bruno Hussar, in 1972, the village consists of 50 families, half Jewish, half Arab, and has a waiting list of 300 families waiting to join.
Sonnenschein was born in the village; his parents were one of the first four families to move there. They had lived in Haifa previously, and strongly believed in the idea of Jewish-Arab coexistence. His father is a physicist who spent a few years at UCLA and U.C. Berkeley years ago. His mother is a founder and co-director of the School of Peace, a bilingual school that now has 300 children. Sonnenschein’s older brother was one of the first children to be born there.
Mannaa’s father is a pharmacist, and his mother is a botanist at Hebrew University. He spent the first few years of his life in Jerusalem, but his parents left there during the first intifada, because “my parents wanted to find a better place for us to grow up,” he said.
Mannaa and Sonnenschein attended the same elementary school at the village, not realizing that the experience of being bilingual and learning together was far different from that of the rest of the country.
But once they got to high school, things changed. The village does not have one of its own, so Mannaa attends an Arab high school, Sonnenschein a Jewish one.
Sonnenschein described his classmates as mostly left-wing, as they were primarily kibbutznik children, but still, they tended to make some remarks that “were not based on experience,” he said. “They sometimes asked whether we were afraid to live with Arabs, or would make generalizations about them.”
Sonnenschein said when he defended his views, most of his classmates “didn’t object to it, but my experience was new to them.”
Mannaa said he experienced a similar situation. He attends high school in Ramla, a mixed Arab and Jewish city, but unlike Neve Shalom, it’s not an integrated community.
Most of his classmates think Neve Shalom “is a good idea,” he said.
Things in the village haven’t changed much since the renewal of the intifada last year, both boys said. However, people are more depressed. “The ideas and ideology of the people in the village haven’t changed,” said Sonnenschein.
Among themselves, they don’t talk about the situation so much, they both said. “It’s better not to talk about politics,” said Sonnenschein. “The grownups talk about it a lot.”
Both boys agreed that life in Israel is not as eventful as the news media portray.
“I don’t feel like I’m living in a war,” said Sonnenschein. “We don’t live in fear.” Mannaa added, “”You can’t live in fear. Especially at Neve Shalom.”
When asked whether the village had ever been made a target because of its message, Sonnenschein said that many years ago, the Arabic part of the village’s sign had been torn off by a right-wing Jewish extremist. “People ask me, ‘Aren’t you afraid? You live with Arabs every day,’ and it seems so ridiculous,” he said.
Mannaa joked “Nothing ever happens at Neve Shalom.”
Both teens said they plan to go to university, and both hope to travel. And they both said they thought the village would be a wonderful place to live and bring up their children, although neither could be sure they would definitely return.
Both said living in such a small community can be isolating. Nonetheless, Sonnenschein said, “I liked growing up there. I got something 99.9 percent of Jews in Israel never got, to know Arabs on an everyday basis. It would be good to give it to my children, if and when.”
But Sonnenschein’s plans are delayed for a while. Getting back to the topic of his upcoming military service, he said because of a medical condition, he would not have to serve in a combat unit.
He was relieved.
But he is still hoping he won’t be required to serve in the West Bank or Gaza. “I believe in giving back to my country, but I don’t believe in serving in the occupied territories,” he said. “I hope to serve and get out as quickly as I can.”
Mannaa said three Neve Shalom teens had refused to serve in the territories already, which he thought was the right approach.
When asked if a soldier from Neve Shalom might be more humane if serving in the territories, Mannaa said no. “There is nothing humane about the occupation,” he said. “You can’t be humane there. If one of my friends shot at a Palestinian, it would be very hard to accept.” Then after thinking about it a moment, he added, “I know a solider from Neve Shalom would only shoot when attacked. But that still wouldn’t make it right.”