When Peace Replaced Trust With Fear

In the late 1970s, my parents had Israeli friends who represented something deeply human and often forgotten in today’s narratives. They were ordinary people. They had friendships that crossed every line the world now insists are unbridgeable. Jews, Christians, Arabs, Muslims. It did not matter. They visited each other, celebrated together, and supported one another in ways that reflected genuine coexistence rather than political slogans.

Among those friendships were people living in Ramallah. Visits were frequent, warm, and natural. When one of their Arab friends needed help building a small home in the garden for a son, my parents’ Israeli friends contributed financially. Not out of obligation, but out of kindness. A mitzvah. A simple act of generosity between friends.

Then came 1980. A wedding invitation in Ramallah. A joyful occasion, or at least it was supposed to be.

But something had shifted.

The atmosphere in the room was no longer what it had been. There was tension, subtle at first, but unmistakable. The same people who had once welcomed this Jewish family now looked at them differently. Suspicion replaced warmth. Silence replaced familiarity. And then, without warning,........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)