Widow leads factions past Mideast conflict

Widow leads factions past Mideast conflict: Israeli's message is that love can overcome history

by Gretel Kovach
The Dallas Morning News
July 14, 2005

ARLINGTON – The Israeli war widow traveled to North Texas to tell Muslims and Jews they can live together in peace.

Israeli peace activist Hagit Ra'anan (right) and student Robert Gonzales lay out flags to illustrate Ms. Ra'anan's point: a line may separate one place from another, but people are people on both sides of the line.

The power to heal the deepest pain and loss is inside us all, if only we love one another with a childlike heart unclouded by the bitter leavings of politics and history, Hagit Ra'anan told a group assembled Thursday at the University of Texas at Arlington.

"To me, peace is when I look at you and see myself," Ms. Ra'anan said. "There is no blood that is cheaper or more red than the others'. There is no mother that suffers less than the other society. It goes both ways, Israel and Palestine.

"We can live together. We have no choice."

To those gathered at her interfaith talks this week at universities, churches and homes, her message was provocation and inspiration.

Ms. Ra'anan spent several years paralyzed by grief after her husband was killed by Palestinian fighters in Lebanon and she miscarried their child.

But she eventually found that loving her one-time enemy was the path from hatred and suffering. She has spent more than two decades since working for reconciliation between Muslims and Jews.

Zehra Reza, 18, a Pakistani-American UTA student who wears a headscarf, said she was impressed by Ms. Ra'anan's overcoming her losses.

"The fact that she was able to put aside her personal tragedy that would have embittered most people ... it's really inspiring," she said.

Many in North Texas are watching as Israel prepares next month to dismantle Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip area of the Palestinian territories.

The passions of that event halfway around the world also erupted at Ms. Ra'anan's talk Tuesday at Southern Methodist University.

An angry debate broke out among the audience of about 70, which included Palestinian students, Christian seminarians and Jewish adults.

Ms. Ra'anan let the emotions flow, participants said, and eventually steered them toward resolution. Before they left, two women – one Muslim, one Jewish – stood in a tight embrace.

Dan Levine, a UTA professor who attended Thursday's talk, said, "What struck me is the hope, knowing that there is a group in this area, Israelis and Palestinians, who are actively working for peace."

Umer Raffat, a 21-year-old UTA student and vice president of Americans for Informed Democracy, said he thinks politicians are moving people in the right direction even while the Middle East remains culturally and physically divided.

"There is a re-emergence of the political center, of the moderates," he said. "This is a great step forward."

But Ms. Ra'anan avoids politics. In her view, peace is effortless because it is innate.

She described a meeting she organized in Nablus at a Palestinian refugee camp.

While the adults were arguing, she suddenly noticed that the young Israelis she brought had disappeared.

The children, Jewish and Muslim, had grown bored by the heated talk. They were in the next room playing.

"The kids, the children – they are the teachers," she said. "I learn so much from them."

E-mail gkovach@dallasnews.com