Nostalgia of 'Forward to the Past'

Nachom Pachnik, a Gush Etzion resident, is a poet and holds yoga and laughter workshops. He recalls era of coexistence in Judea and Samaria in early 1980s:

The forgotten story

It’s the middle of summer and it’s hot. We’re in the midst of our vacation. About 30 children leave the community of Beit-El aboard a municipal bus and travel to the nearby town, Ramallah. The minibus enters town, crosses it, and climbs up a narrow and steep road until it reaches a Palestinian hotel. The children go into the lobby screaming with joy, and from there they head directly to the swimming pool, where they’ll enjoy themselves alongside Palestinian children

This story is not taken from the distant future, but rather, from the not-so-distant past. It was the end of the 1970s and beginning of the cheerful 1980s: Back then, war was about playfully “fighting” Palestinian children at the pool. We did not understand their language, but we were able to communicate without words.

...And here is yet another story about those days: A woman who today is happily married to one of the Jewish leaders in Judea and Samaria took driving lessons with a Palestinian instructor in one of the West Bank towns. Try to imagine the small details: How she leaves the house in the morning with her well-known husband, gets into the Arab instructor’s vehicle, and drives off. Just him and her, as she gently hold the wheel while entrusting her life in his hands. And she wasn’t the only woman to do it. Back then, many men and women learned how to drive in Arab towns.

I think back, with a sense of longing, to the buds of mutual respect that were growing between us, the Jewish residents in Judea and Samaria and the Palestinians, and my heart aches.

...my mother took me shopping in Ramallah...I recall how we used to stop for fuel at the gas stations of al-Bireh, Ramallah. How we traveled in their cabs and purchased goats from Palestinian shepherds...

...This was reality until the stone throwing started, followed by the Molotov cocktails, and finally the gunshots and shells and our military operations.

...What enabled all of this to happen? It was an atmosphere of familiarity and an initial sense of accepting the other that were prevalent in Judea and Samaria back then...I completely believe that if we invest our energies and talents in becoming mutually familiar with our Palestinian cousins, if we learn to respect them and they learn to respect us, if we accept their presence here and they accept our presence – we’ll be able to spare the settlement enterprise another round of destruction and another expulsion...

...Quite a few Jewish residents, many of them young ones, are interested in embarking on the path of peace. However, the process has to be parallel. The Palestinians also have to get to know us, recognize us, and educate their children to know that we are no monsters...