May 4, 2015
I watched a young, tan Israeli woman in a tank top walk out of a recording studio to be replaced by two girls wearing matching hijabs walk in.
Her show was about music in English, Hebrew and Arabic. The Palestinian girls come once a week for training how to have their own talk show. They talked about love and boyfriends.
A place without borders: All for Peace Radio.
I spoke with Nassar, the man who ensures that the radio runs smoothly on air; he has worked here for 9 years. He told me that the best radio shows are about people. About humanness. Put politics aside, just look at the people.
Meanwhile, we monitored the studio where Mossi Raz, Meretz politician and co-founder of the radio station and Nadia, a Palestinian woman from East Jerusalem and blogger, recorded their show.
They discussed the failure of the Oslo peace process, the recent elections, the changing societies, the miscommunication between the languages, their own similarities. They talked about the 67 years of occupation, and I heard fatigue in their voices. Exhaustion and uncertainty of where it will go and how it will continue, but without any answer as to how it will end. Their show is on weekly and in English.
I've begun volunteering here and am preparing my own radio show based on the concept behind my photography project: "Country of Contradictions." The show will feature the moments of overlap and nuances in the experience of living in this place by focusing on the people and the places that do not fall on one side of a border or another.
Stay tuned! And don't touch that dial. 📻📻
You can listen online to All For Peace Radio at www.allforpeace.org or in the West Bank at 107.2FM. You can check out Nadia's blog here.
As always, a lot is going on here. There have been 2 very large demonstrations against police brutality against the Ethiopians and Africans living here. Two nights ago in Tel aviv, thousands of people showed up and succeeded in shutting down the main highways for many hours as they marched to the pinnacle of protests in Tel Aviv: Rabin Square. Framed by images that provoke a sense of déjà-vu of Baltimore and Ferguson, the call that black lives matter is being chanted here in Tel Aviv and in Jerusalem. For further reporting and personal accounts of the current situation see here and here.
And, Breaking the Silence just published their report with soldier testimonies of what happened in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge. Incredibly important reading. Here in English, here in Hebrew.