Dr. Shaul Gabbay was born and raised in Tel Aviv. The son of Jewish Arab refugees, his coming of age in Israel filled him with a sense of belonging and pride. Gabbay is the former executive director of the Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver; he recently partnered with Dr. Aman Kazak to write the book "One Land Two Stories," available March 1.
The book examines the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the perspectives of Gabbay, an Israeli Jew, and Kazak, a Palestinian Muslim. The two tell their individual stories side-by-side, giving readers a unique and in-depth look into the history of the conflict.
Gabbay will be in Beaver Creek tonight in a Vail Symposium sponsored program, where he will share both his own and Kazak's stories from the book, talk about their unlikely partnership, and how peace between two people of very different backgrounds is quite possible. Gabbay recently took the time to answer a few questions for the Vail Daily.
Vail Daily: What was it like growing up in Tel Aviv?
Shaul Gabbay: The memories from my childhood are full of beautiful experiences — I grew up a block from the beach, in a city that was rapidly growing and developing during that time. I grew up in the '70s and '80s, in the wake of the creation of the Jewish state; most of the people we knew were of the older generation and were from other countries, some even with numbers on their hands — survivors of the Holocaust. Those in my generation, the first generation to be born and raised in Israel, were called Sabra. Together we represented the gathering of Jews for the first time all in one place, after more than 2,500 years of exile. It was the first time in so many years where we had our own military and our own leadership. In many ways it was a very exciting time, but there were always existential threats, the surrounding Arab countries threatened to attack, the tribulation of the Six-Day War, and the fear of a second Holocaust.
VD: How did you come to partner with Dr. Aman Kazak, a Palestinian Muslim, to set aside your obvious differences, to write "One Land Two Stories?"
SG: Aman and I met in Denver through mutual friends when I was the executive director of the Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. Aman is also a professor of Middle Eastern studies at the University of Colorado. We had many discussions, and many very heated arguments, but we also had the mutual agreement of getting to peace despite our different ideas, and a mutual desire to teach our students that peace is possible. We even realized that we were one block away from each other in the Lebanon War, me as a Commander in the Israeli Defense Forces, Aman as a refugee, so you can see the nature of our opposing perspectives. That realization brought us to the conclusion that we had come together here for a reason and we had a task to complete, that we have a responsibility to teach our students our stories and that peace is possible despite our differences. So we began teaching a class together; the book was born out of needing a text for the class.
VD: What is the most important thing you hope to teach your students, and your readers?
SG: The most important thing we can provide to a student, the one thing a student will never forget, is that he has witnessed an Israeli and a Palestinian working together and respecting one another, despite their disagreements.
There are two key words to learn from the book, miracle and makba; the miracle was, for the Jewish people, the creation of a Jewish state, and the makba, the disaster, that state created for the Palestinians. In "One Land Two Stories" both sides are literally written down side-by-side, making it impossible to avoid one side or another. It's a powerful thing. The most important contribution of this book is that once people are aware of both sides and understand the deep rift between the two people, they can then begin accepting the other side. And from there begin to gain greater understanding into the nature of any conflict.
VD: Do you think it's possible for others on opposite sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to come together to promote peace and educate as you and Dr. Kazak have? Are there any other examples of this happening?
SG: I don't know of any other educators in this country working together as we have, nor do I know of another book like this one, but I know of many Israelis and Palestinians who are friends and many who work together on various projects. It's not always easy and it's no easy task writing a book. Aman and I are not in a harmonious kumbaya situation, we disagree, but we prove it's possible to work together, to respect one another, and to achieve peace despite our differences.
VD: Do you think peace is possible in your homeland? Where does the key to resolution lie?
SG: Peace isn't possible, it's inevitable. It's just a question of when. There are approximately 10 million people in that region, they're not going anywhere, and they face very real challenges relating to energy, water, pollution and the environment. They have to create a better life for their children and for future generations, and to do that they will have to learn to live with each other. It could take five years, it could take 10 years, but there are too many real challenges that have to be tackled together as a region. They will have to work together and they will need help in order to do so, likely from the international community.