Hi Souheila,

I read carefully your friend's advice and I am not surprised. As a guy who lived for 55 years in polarizied Jerusalem this is an understandable and regular reaction. We Palestinian and Israelis have for too long been in a deadly embrace. As for myself I have demonstrated against occupation and specifically against the settlements since 1968! So after 40 years of active opposition in Jeruslaem I moved to SF to have a break. For me, the Palestinian issue is very central to any dialog, and for me the eye to eye level is key to any real understanding.

In Jeruslaem I worked a  lot with Palestinian journalists and started the web site www.amin.org. I also started a dialog of the deaf project that was supposed to connect Palestinian and Israeli deaf children through the internet. Hopefully your friend knows that 99% of the people in the Middle East can hear, but only 5% are listening...

Hi David, as you know we have been sending out information about our blog to various people and networks. I got a  very critical e-mail from a Palestinian man, who lives in Jordan and asked not to be identified. It is a very harsh, but we knew from the start that this dialogue would not be easy. I wondered how you would respond to his e-mail below:

Hi Souheila , Sounds interesting. When you say he has roots the Middle

East are you saying he is Israeli? Even if not the case, please make

sure you are not dealing with a Jewish supremacist by asking him a

direct question as to whether he openly endorses, unconditionally,

elemental human rights for Jews and non-Jews alike  especially the 4th

Geneva convention. If he does not or if he gives a wishy washy answer,

you are doing Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinains in particular a great

disservice by giving a platform to a Jewish supremacist under the

guise of dialog. It's not possible to separate Arab/Mulsim/jewish/israeli

dialog apart.. To do so is to attempt to legitimize Jewish racial and religious

supremacy for the sake of a cordial TV conversation.  The treatment of

Arabs/Muslims in the Holy Land is the white elephant that cannot be ignored.

One cannot be a liberal in the US and a KKK in Israel. I know some will say Palestine

is not everything.

To Blacks, Apartheid South Africa was everything and no

Black, American or others attempted to skip a discussion of apartheid

for the sake of  bogus black-white relations. If you attempt to

sidetrack Jewish supremacy in the Holy Land  you are only falling into

the same trap of those who attempted dialog before you. Only open and

unconditional endorsement of the 4th geneva convention is the

ultimate litmus test before opening a dialog with any Jew. It's

elemental human rights, not philosophy. 

http://www.cicr.org/ihl.nsf/WebART/380-600056?OpenDocument

Sorry is the email comes across too preachy. Best of luck.