SPOTLIGHT: For An Israeli in America, Hope for Peace Is Not Yet Lost

Dror Heymann is an Israeli sculptor and artist living in New York as a permanent US resident with his American wife and children.

“I'm a sculptor that runs projects for architects, sculptural projects, more specialty work,” he told The Goshen News. For one of his projects, he spent several years in Bethlehem, CT, a world away from Bethlehem, Israel, where he once served as a medic in the Israel Defense Forces.

Born in 1975 into a family he describes as “extremely liberal”, Dror grew up in Jerusalem, attending schools that he said focused on “integration between different groups in Israel and between Jews and Arabs as well.” His parents were both liberal activists.

“One of my first memories from childhood was washing my face from tear gas at a demonstration to get out of the Lebanon war,” he said.

How old were you?

“Maybe seven.”

That's young. That also suggests a very different political reality than is portrayed in the media.

“Yeah. I think most people don't understand the politics in Israel at all.”

In Israel “we have two larger blocs that are close to 50-50, like in America, but you have a bunch of smaller parties that become extremely powerful,” effectively determining which party is going to rule, Dror explained.

It takes 61 of the 120 seats in the country’s Knesset, its Parliament, to form a ruling majority. A major party might win 50 seats outright, but then has to form a coalition with one or more minor parties to get to at least 61.

“The Orthodox community is getting a lot of leverage because… their population doubles every generation... and they basically have the leverage to decide which party is gonna’ rule.” That support typically carries conditions, such as support for religious agenda items.

“A lot of [things that are] polarized and problematic in Israel are because of minority groups that don’t really reflect the general public,” he explained.

As a young man, Dror witnessed the realities of peacemaking efforts in the Palestinian conflict. When the Oslo Accords were signed in the mid-1990’s, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) recognized the State of Israel, while Israel recognized the PLO as the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people, forming the Palestinian Authority that self-governs portions of the West Bank today.

“I was in Gaza and Bethlehem at the time of the Oslo Accords,” Dror told us. “And part of it was to escort the trucks that brought weapons to the Palestinian police... We were in Gaza, we gave them the trucks of guns, and within a day, they were aiming the guns at me. And within two weeks, we needed to deal with ambushes, and my commanding officer got shot in the head.”

“And after,” he continued, “there was the Engineer”. “Between ‘94 and ‘95, the engineer… Yahya Ayyash, (chief bomb-maker for Hamas), was blowing up buses… and I think that created a foundation for the more radical Israeli far right to change the government in Israel, to believe less that peace can happen.”

After his year in Gaza, Dror served in a medical unit near Jerusalem. He briefly mentioned recovering bodies from buses blown up by suicide bombers. Heymann sees the assassination of Israeli peacemaker Yitzhak Rabin by an orthodox right-wing extremist in 1995 as having similar objectives to the violence committed by Palestinian extremists.

“There [are] forces that don't want peace and aren't willing to compromise, and live on the concept of conflict.”

Dror believes the media have only made things worse. He sees Arab media as both propaganda aimed at the West, and a tool for indoctrination of Arab children. “In 2006, Hamas TV stations inside Gaza, [ran] TV programs for kids, of Mickey Mouse talking to the kids, [saying] how it's good to slaughter Jews and to set up a suicide vest. So you know what kind of information their kids get, and after 15 years, they grow up to be adults and they become murderers.”

Facebook found nothing wrong with this antisemitic post, when reported by Heymann.

What should be done now?

“I would like to see something different. Somebody needs to change the narrative. I think Netanyahu should definitely step out soon and not compete in the next election... he's too polarizing a figure. And I think in terms of Gaza, I would like to see a free trade zone on the border… create factories there and let people work for their own future... I heard some talk of taking all the concrete rubble and creating a big marina from it, from the buildings that got destroyed, bring it to the ocean. Maybe even creating an airport with it.”

“On the Israeli side, I think a lot can be done. It's not mandatory for graduating high school to be able to speak Arabic. And I think that's a mistake.”

“At the same time, I think they should demand that the UN organizations work for peace... UNRWA never held any meetings between groups of Arab and Israeli kids.”

“Something fundamentally needs to change... And some of it is the Palestinians need… to drop terrorism and start nation-building.”

Why do you think the West has turned against Israel?

“There is a lot of misinformation. For a lot of different agendas. It's become extremely popular to ride the wave: anti-Israeli, anti-Jewish. You get a lot of followers and clicks and that [raises] a lot of money.”

You're talking about the premiums that platforms like YouTube pay to people who create content that gets a lot of views?

“Yes. X, YouTube, Instagram.”

“Some people just get caught up in it. A lot of things don’t help either, a lot of different ideas or concepts that people associate with it.”

He refers to extreme conspiracy theories, like blaming the assassination of JFK and the 9/11 attacks on Israel. Dror has responded to several antisemitic posts on social media, and is now bombarded with hateful propaganda. He has also received personal threats. Facebook has repeatedly ruled antisemitic posts he reported didn’t violate their community standards. In Heymann’s view, Facebook has no community standards.

“It's become acceptable, you know, and people are already forgetting that this type of propaganda, it's what started horrible things in history. It seems to me like the conversation has gotten worse and now… it's really coming down to people rejecting the concept that Israel has a right to exist... They claim that it's a nefarious state that controls America...”

“Forget that Israel was in negotiation, willing to give up the Golan Heights for peace, that Israel gave the Palestinian Authority weapons and Gaza to be self-governing… and we got the second Intifada. In 2005, close to 60 suicide bombers in one year… And then they cry about the big walls and the checkpoints.”

“When I was in the army around Bethlehem, before we gave it to the Palestinian Authority, there were no walls. … All those big concrete fences that you [see] now, are because of the wave of suicide bombing and shooting.”

You mentioned horrible things that happened in history and shared a photograph of yourself, kneeling beside a bronze plaque on a street in Berlin, a memorial to people from that street who were deported to the death camps. I see the name Charlotte Heymann. Was that your grandmother?

“No, it was the sister of my grandfather. She was a kindergarten teacher and she was sent with her kindergarten to Auschwitz.”

Forbes Magazine, in its most recent listing of the happiest countries in the world, ranked Israel as #8, well ahead of the United States (#23). Why, with bombs falling on them, are Israelis so happy?

“I think it's many reasons. I think there’s a certain sense of purpose, people are a little bit more down to earth, are living in a community...”

“I think in general, the difficulties [make us] become a little bit more immune to regular problems… When something difficult happens, you don't really sink into it. You just deal with it…it's almost like a fighter that can take punches, like it doesn't really hurt you anymore. It's part of the job.”

“But there are a lot of other things that make the country special… other things that lift you up… other things that are happening and fulfill you.”

Is there a final thought you would like to share?

“I wish there will be peace one day,” he answered, quickly adding: “In my lifetime.”