A Letter to the teens who are coming to Israel on Wednesday

Chanichim,

Shalom, shalom from up north in Karmiel, Israel!  Michelle, here, enjoying the peaceful beauty that is the Holy Land after a one week seminar with junior staff (madrichim) from all over Israel and North America, as we worked to make sure your Diller summer is the best one yet.  

However, not all is as peaceful in other parts of Israel - including our partner city of Tel Aviv - and rather than skip over those details and sugar coat your upcoming trip as one of mindless tourism and unacknowledgement of the current situation, I want to give you the real details.  One of the pillars of the Diller Teen Fellows is Israel, and  Israel has a lot to it.  Only here - rak po - do you drink chocolate milk from a bag.  Only here does lush greenery grow in the midst of the scorching hot desert sand.  And only here do I feel so safe despite the current circumstances.  

My first two days in Israel for the 2014 Israel Summer Seminar were spent in the Negev in Sde Boker.  It was just North Americans planning what was to be Kennes - the North American version of Congress.  The schedule was set so that after two days in Sde Boker, we’d head out to Jerusalem to meet the Israeli Junior Staff and commence the planning of Congress.  Before we even reached Sde Boker, we relocated our original plan of Jerusalem to another city in the Negev, Mitzpe Ramon, due to the recent escalation in the former. On our second day in Sde Boker,  we heard two sirens. They were for rockets about 25 kilometers away...which is far away and would not have endangered us. Yes, it was different and weird and felt a little scary at first. Will this happen all the time? Does this mean war? What's next? Dramatic thoughts flew into my mind and rightfully so because truth is, I've never experienced such a thing. But it was fascinating for me, too. I got to experience the Israeli experience and get a little glimpse of what Israelis in some of our Diller cities endure daily. 

The next hour, we got news that we were heading out and moving from our newly relocated city of Mitzpe Ramon to Tiberius to meet the Israelis because of potential rocket threats. Frankly, I was a little crushed at first. I, along with the other North American JCs, wondered if every time there was a rocket or a potential rocket threat, we would have to be relocated. The answer was yes, and I thought about Tel Aviv and their safety and where community week would be and whether or not the LA fellows would come and whether or not Diller would happen - and so many thoughts filled my mind of worst case scenarios, but ultimately Diller was doing its job to keep us safe and my outlook has completely changed, for I know that the safety of our Dillers is ultimately most important.

The next week was spent in Tiberius doing programming for Congress, siren-free, along with a plethora of other youth travel groups stretching from there in LA to Mexico and England.  Being with Israelis during this week was probably one of the most eye-opening experiences I’ve ever had.  I won’t lie and say that the topic of missiles never came up and all was blissful and splendid, because that’s not really what happened.  But what happened was even better, in my opinion.  I got to be with teens straight from Be’er Sheva and Ashkelon and other cities from all over Israel and discuss with them the nuts and bolts of the current situation.  I was able to ask them questions about how life is like and get information straight from the source.  They told me of their experiences, their fears of back home, their daily life, etc.  It wasn’t a skewed perspective, it was fresh and real and raw.  

And beautiful...because this is what Diller is all about.  The touristy side of Israel can be seen with any Israel travel group.  But only in Diller do I have the opportunity to spend two weeks living and working with Israelis and North Americans and really immerse myself in their lifestyle.  We all know that Diller will be keeping us safe.  We are receiving hourly updates from the Israel Experience, whilst also being equipped with our very own security guard.  Like you noticed with Jerusalem/Mitzpe Ramon, one siren and we are out.  Diller won’t be doing anything that will jeopardize our safety whatsoever, even if that includes relocating Community Week in Tel Aviv and other communities and cancelling Kennes in Sde Boker.  Since my time in Sde Boker on that second day, I have not heard a single siren.  I’m not unaware of the situation, and I’m not keeping my eyes closed to the reality of Israel right now while I am up north, but instead I’m soaking it all in as I slowly grasp a fragment of the Israeli lifestyle.  And I’m doing so from a distance.  

Not once during my time here have I been in legitimate fear because I know what quality hands I am in during this trip.  Rather,  I have been filled with pride.  People were questioning my decision to go to Israel - including my parents.  I had so many people questioning me that I even wondered if I should be here right now.  But I have erased those thoughts out of my head...why worry when I know I will be fine?  Why not take advantage of this situation and embrace it with open arms and actually get into it?  We are in a time when Israel needs our help more than ever.  Anti-semitism exists and anti-zionism is a growing problem.  There is so much misinformation out there regarding Gaza and Hamas and Palestine and sometimes the only people who can really speak on behalf of that is those who are there, including myself and hopefully all of you next week.  I am personally really passionate about the cause of Israel and supporting a homeland for the Jewish people, and I feel so empowered to be here right now and witness everything rather than seeing it from afar on the news.  I can come back to Los Angeles stronger, enlightened and ready to act as a sort of ambassador for the Jewish people.  I can speak of my experiences and know that I am spreading the truth that will combat the false information out there.  And to me this is amazing and cool and wonderful and so exciting for me...I am essentially a part of history in the making and how awesome is that?

I go on Facebook right now and see posts from the IDF and StandWithUs flooding my news feed. It looks scary from the outside looking in.  And I am in no way disregarding what is happening in the more dangerous parts of Israel, but the truth of the matter is that Israel is in the hotbed of the Middle East. But the other truth of the matter is that I am not exposed to that reality because of the program I am on, and neither am I sheltered from it.  I was talking with a fellow fellow from last year’s Tel Aviv cohort last night.  I wanted to know how it is in Tel Aviv.  Is what the IDF wrote on Facebook true?  Are you okay?  Does life stop when a siren goes off?  Yes, what the IDF writes on Facebook is true.  But everything is also okay.  Just because it is true that x number of rockets were fired, it does not mean that life stops. There is this blessed machinery/BFFL/ultimate bro Israelis call the Iron Dome, which shoots down missiles that are headed towards populated areas by some magical force of science.  And it does wonders.  He told me to imagine what Israel would have looked like after this past month without the Iron Dome.  It would’ve been shattered and destroyed and possibly non-existent. So, though Israel’s reality may not seem so intense in certain areas while on the  inside, the facts are true and perhaps it's  those who are in Israel in my position who have the skewed point of view. After all, missiles are fired constantly and lives are in danger.  But everything changes based on your perspective and what side of the curtain you’re standing on.  Thus, I ask you to not just read these social media posts that are everywhere you look, but rather also talk to your friends on the other side of the globe in Tel Aviv and other places in Israel.  Understand the statistics and the facts, but also ask about how it feels to be in it, embracing the good, the bad and the ugly.*

So, Cohort 7 of the Los Angeles Diller Teen Fellows, this concludes my letter to you.  I shared my experiences with you all for you to do what you’d like with them.  I can only hope that I opened your mind to a different side of the story that you may not be hearing.  The side of someone who entered as a tourist with the thought of Israel as a beautiful haven, stayed as a tourist and learned of the side of Israel that was not-so-perfect of a haven, and will be leaving as a tourist empowered and ready to inform others of the perfect and the imperfect.  Take what I say with a grain of salt, however.  Know that I have not seen it all, and will not see it all because simply it is not safe.  Know that I only speak on behalf of my experiences with the intention of sharing what I have seen and what I have taken from that, not with the intention of offending others who may not share my point of view.

And also know that I care about each and every one of you and hope to see you this Wednesday, here, in the Land of Milk and Honey for a sweet, sweet summer.

B’ahava,

Michelle Banayan

*Once again, I know that this only pertains to certain parts of Israel that do not receive as frequent rocket threats.  There are other areas in which life does stop when a siren goes off, and in no way do I mean to ignore those areas or undermine them.