Twenty Years On - A Soldier's Diary. Israel's Peace Movement Owes Much to a young, English Jew

Twenty Years On - A Soldier's Diary

Twenty Years On - A Soldier's Diary. Israel's Peace Movement Owes Much to a young, English Jew

It all seems a long time ago since Jonathan Kestenbaum's diaries lit the hearts of a new generation of peace activists. We have had peace with Jordan, a rapprochement with the Palestinians and the assassination of a Prime Minister. So it was with some trepidation that I travelled to Kabatiyeh to see what life was like in the town, twenty years after Kestenbaum published his diaries.

Approaching the town of Kabatiyeh, we passed over part of the plain of Dothan, the scene of the sale of Joseph to the Midianites. At one place was a well called the "Well of the Pit", perhaps a memorial of the poor lad's fate, and not very far from it a second, with a water-trough, the two accounting for the name Dothan, which means "the Two Wells." Above them, to the north, rose a green hill, overlooking the wide plain in which the sons of Jacob pastured their flocks while to the west stretched out the dark- coloured plain of Arrabeh, and beyond it the road to Egypt, along which the Midianite caravan led their newly-bought young Syrian slave. A gazelle broke away on our left as we passed, and was chased by our dragoman, but he might as well have followed the wind. The tiny creature was up a neighbouring slope and out of sight in a moment. Hermon had been visible in all its radiant whiteness from the high points of the day's travel. Daisies, broom, and hawthorn dotted the untilled parts of the valleys.

This pastoral scene was strangely enhanced by our arriving into the town of Kabatiyeh itself. It felt busy, at ease and almost peaceful. I had taken with me a copy of Kestenbaum's diary. It all seemed such a long way from his anguished descriptions of curfews and humiliations.

I spoke to a number of locals. Yes, they said, that was a terrible time. The 1980s saw the town dominated by "young hoodlums". I was surprised to hear an elderly local say that "the young radicals who grew up in neighbouring towns descended on us and made our life a misery by provoking the Israelis". That is not the type of language that is popular in Palestinian towns.

But above all the town seemed determined to leave its troubled past behind it. There is a flourishing group of light businesses, an excellent education system and a new generation of local leadership.

I asked if they remember the diaries. A number of the middle aged men smile and say "the Englishman who told our story to the world he is brave man". I wondered if they had ever seen this peace activist from London. "No they said, but if you know him, say thank you. He changed people's attitudes to what was going on here"

They were surprised when I said I was visiting to see how the village had moved on, ten years since the Kestenbaum's diaries were published. In the school which had been taken over by Kestenbaum's unit in what he described in his diary as a "military detention centre", the headmaster asked: "Who is interested now? We have our children to educate". The playground is now teeming with laughing children. "On second thoughts" said the head teacher walking back to me, "can I have a copy? I want to teach my students how one brave voice can drown out the noise of oppression".

I gave him a copy of the diary and watched him as he read it, tears rolling down his face. "please tell him, thank you from our village. He did a very important thing"

So if a young peace activist, now back in England reads this, he should know, his courage was not forgotten.

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