Flashback for the Future
An Experiment in Reconciling History
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Project Overview
Project Goals:
- Highlight the tragedy of the three villages and stimulate dialogue about history and reconciliation, in a spirit of truthfulness and concern.
- Support the village associations by publicizing and humanizing their situation.
- Undertake creative actions that will change the experience of the visitor to "Canada Park".
Initiatives to Date:
- Organized a joint steering committee.
- Sponsored a public meeting of Palestinians and Israelis to introduce the project and view an investigative documentary produced by Canadian television in 1991.
- Held meetings with representatives of the villages and their descendants.
- Organized a visit and tour of the site by 100 Israelis, Palestinians, journalists, and invited guests. This event was covered in leading Palestinian and Israeli newspapers and Palestinian television.
- Organized visits by students of Bethlehem University to the site.
- Organised a viewing of the video of the visit and the site.
- Conducted an internet search and made contact with Canadian media and peace activists.
- Published correspondence with Jerusalem Report (Israeli weekly magazine).
- Sermon was given by an American rabbi on Canada Park on Yom Kippur (Amherst, MA).
Ideas for Future Activities:
- Educating both Palestinian and Israeli communities about the history of the site, via press, booklets, videos, TV, dialogues, and explanatory visits to the area.
- Changing the name of Canada Park and erecting new signs, marking out a historical walking trail, and restoring the abandoned Moslem cemetery.
- Establishing a research committee to reconstruct the history of events and circumstances.
- Starting a scholarship fund for children of the refugees, possibly from Canadian sources.
- Ensuring free access to the area for West Bank Palestinians.
- Prompting the Palestinian Authority to support the villagers and to acknowledge the Latrun Pocket as part of the West Bank.
Key Dilemmas:
- Is this project appropriate given the critical, often survival issues facing the Palestinian people today? (Problem of prioritization.)
- What will be our next step: research, education, alternative tourism, activism? Are we able to accomplish our goals as an ad hoc committee, or do we need to progress under the auspices of a larger organization? Should we raise money to create a new organization for this purpose?
- If we take an activist approach (such as changing the historical sign at the site) will there be personal and political risks?
- How can we productively address the tensions and conflicts that emerge among our steering committee as we undertake work that is politically difficult and emotionally charged?
- What if, after our educational work is done, we all feel that the villagers should and could be returned to their land in this case? Are we prepared to go the next step in this process- not a symbolic reparation, but a demand?
Insights Learned to Date:
- It has been important to acknowledge and challenge the distorted history written on the site; the eradication of all trace of three villages and the stories of 10,000 inhabitants.
- Bringing people from both communities together to the pace was emotionally charged and important.
- The project motivated some villagers to move from observation to action, creating potential for long-term impact.
- The response of the villagers themselves to a joint Israeli-Palestinian effort was remarkable in its generosity of spirit.
