You can change your opinions after reading a book, under the influence of friends or a relationship, but also when traveling to other countries. Food, products on markets, or sounds and smells have an impact. I find it relatively easy to describe the influence of observable aspects. You may feel overwhelmed by beauty in scenery, animals, or in people and even their language. I like Italy, because of the amazing scenery and architecture, the lovely and healthy food, the well-dressed, good looking people. I like the sound of spoken Italian. You may dislike another country for those very same reasons. You may find the people too fat, the streets dirty, the water undrinkable or the language ugly. First impressions like these remain strong, even when you notice later that also those countries possess their own beauty. I have learned not to discard a country for such factors and give it another chance for appreciation.
Something else I learned from travel is that local color is a diversion, a reason to spend a vacation in a country, but not the factor that creates a bond. People and the things they do or say create (or break) the bond between me and a country. Some visits to other countries proved to be life changing events, even when it was only once. I’ve lived and worked abroad twice, in England and Germany, which were important experiences. I wouldn’t mind to go back to England, it was a stimulating place to me. Maybe even to Germany. Yet a real life changing event was my only visit to Israel.
A friend of mine had followed a summer course at Bir Zeit University, the Palestinian University on the occupied West Bank. That is twenty three years ago now. She has a partly Jewish background, but didn’t want to visit Jewish communities. She felt that Israel was an apartheid state, in reality. I remember, a year later, how I suddenly made the plan to visit Israel. I took up on her advice to visit Palestinian communities instead of Jewish ones. I had a great time: students from all over the world were received in holiday camps all over Israel, in Palestinian villages and towns, like Nazareth. We did vacation work, listened to speeches, had guided tours around the local sites, and more. I was impressed with the hospitality, Jerusalem, Arabic culture, architecture and markets. The country with its gentle weather conditions that reminded me of Italy was an easy place to be. I was pleased with Jewish people who connected with Palestinians. As for this latter aspect, I remember how I thought: so it is possible. People of both communities do talk with each other. The individual is not necessarily a voice for the group. Nevertheless, I felt I had to agree with the thought of Israel as an apartheid state. I remember I ventilated this last observation back home. It led my father to reveal his own background for the first time. It didn’t surprise me much, because it explained some of the wartime stories I had heard before. Those were a dominating topic in my parents’ youth stories. At that moment it didn’t interest me a lot. Later it annoyed me and I thought that it’s important to be open about your background, even when there’s nothing wrong with it. You can’t hide who you are and shouldn’t try, because how can you be anything else but yourself. This was a smaller learning moment.
The bigger learning moment was something apparently small: the call to prayer from the many Israeli mosques. I remember how I thought: ‘they can’t be that much oppressed, if it’s allowed to make this noise’. Here it’s not allowed, to mention something. I remember something else. I felt called to prayer. It called for an interest in Islam. Two years later I accepted that faith. I never regretted that, but it’s role in my life has changed over the years. However, my proceeds on that road would deserve a story of its own. @HM