Today, on our UJC-fact finding mission, we spent the morning in a Bedouin tent listening as a Bedouin Israeli talked of her struggles to gain what she called basic opportunities and rights in Israel.
The hot desert heat beat down on the tent we sat in, and our contingent consumed bottles of water just to stay with the conversation. But this was a stop where Jewish and Arab cooperation, especially when it comes to the rights of women in Arab society in the Negev, are supported through projects that get help from Baltimore’s own Meyerhoff Foundation.
From our trip to the tent, we met ambitious young Ethiopian ninth graders who are already taking college level courses in the sciences.
And finally, we stopped at a school where high school children are given a certified after-school course in computer operations and repair. They will most certainly find work in the army and after college in the computer field.
When this is over, I will come back to Baltimore with new names and new stories to tell about. But in one 72-hour period, we ostensibly saw Israel at war in Sderot and Ashkelon and then a building, constructing Israel in the Negev. The contrasts were amazing.
Finally, we met Israeli small businessmen who were given grants to go ahead and accomplish their dreams, be it raising fish farms to providing ambulance services. Again, the growing Israel, not the victim Israel.