In
a Jerusalem market, views are hardening toward Palestinians
Trudy
Rubin – November 5, 2000 – The Philadelphia Inquirer
JERUSALEM
- At the Mahane Yehuda market, a couple of hours before the
car bomb exploded on Thursday, you could already see how Israel's
relationship to the Palestinians is imploding.
Merchants in this warren of narrow streets and covered alleys
between low, old stone houses, in the heart of Jerusalem,
sell produce, meat, fish and anything you could want for Shabbat
dinner. The market is legendary for the hard-nosed Jews of
Arab descent who man the stalls. And for the bombs that go
off whenever some radical Arab group wants to send an anti-peace
message.
The Israeli friend who went with me said, "Let's go early.
At a time like this, you can never tell." Indeed, the
place was astonishingly uncrowded for the week's biggest shopping
day - Thursday. And at first the market seemed to reflect
all the old stereotypes about Arab-hating merchants.
Along a low tin fence on a side street were plastered 20 feet
of freshly printed signs proclaiming in Hebrew "Kahane
is Right," a reference to the late Rabbi Meir Kahane,
who advocated deporting all the Arabs from the West Bank and
Gaza, and whose Kach party was banned in Israel as racist.
When we stopped into the Levy brothers' tiny storefront sweets
and wine store, their buddy Benny, whose father escaped to
Israel from Iraq, exploded at the idea of continuing negotiations
with Yasir Arafat. "It's all absolute bull and lies,"
he shouted. "How many times can you believe this guy?"
Then, more softly, with the shaking anger of a man betrayed,
he added, "I'm Likud [the Israeli center-right party],
but I actually voted for [Prime Minister Ehud] Barak because
I thought there was a way to peace. I was for negotiations
before all this violence.
"I would have accepted a Palestinian state, but not now.
The Palestinians broke all the bridges."
His buddy, store owner Arieh Levy, nodded in agreement. "Me,
too. I'm Likud, but last time I voted Barak because he talked
a good game of peace." Now, Levy said, he thought there
was "no chance of negotiating with the Palestinians."
But he had thought differently six weeks ago.
This is not the Mahane Yehuda I used to know, where anyone
who spoke of peace with the Palestinians would be jeered through
the alleys. I heard similar tales of gradual changes of heart
over and over - with many strong exceptions - throughout the
market.
If the merchants of Mahane Yehuda had so shifted their views
over the last few years, one can easily grasp the sea change
in Israelis' thinking about the Palestinians during the Oslo
process. This market represents the hard core, where merchants
used to pride themselves on talking tough about dealing with
the Arabs (even though most merchants have longtime Palestinian
workers who are essential to the market's operation). The
turnaround of men like Benny and Arieh Levy is why Barak got
elected and why polls still showed more than 60 percent supporting
the peace process shortly after the violence started.
But the tide has been drifting backward over the last six
weeks. And the shift in Mahane Yehuda - even before the bombing
- means that Israeli support for a Camp David deal has vanished.
So what's the new buzzword in Mahane Yehuda? It is separation.
I heard it from Moshe Levy (no relationship to Arieh), who
says he had decided, before the violence, that the best idea
was to have two states, Palestine and Israel. But now, as
he tucked pickles, onions, tomatoes and fries into a pita
and falafel sandwich at his corner stand, he said the past
weeks have proven that "you can't trust them." He
says, "If we gave them a sovereign state, they would
want to get rid of us."
So Levy has once again changed his thinking. "No coexistence,"
he said. "Not now. Let's draw a line between us. I want
separation, them there, us here, we keep Jerusalem."
Levy doesn't mean Palestinian statehood - just walling off
Palestinians from Jews.
What about the Jewish settlements dotted all over the West
Bank, which mix up Jewish and Arab populations ? "Let
the government take the people out of there. If this fighting
is going to go on and the army has to risk lives to protect
the settlers, then get them out of there."
Levy, mind you, is a dyed-in-the-wool Likud-nik, a member
of the party that used to stand for Greater Israel and against
giving up settlements. Is he now a bellwether for a new trend?
Maybe. The idea of "separation" is being discussed
by all parts of the political spectrum.
If Moshe Levy's willingness to dismantle settlements represents
another shift in Israeli thinking, "separation"
may become the policy of the future.
I think it will be almost impossible to achieve it, because
the Israeli territory and economy are so intertwined with
the Palestinians. But after the latest Mahane Yehuda bomb,
the merchants of the market will no doubt find it very appealing.
