My contacts with Palestinians developed through teachers from MECA. They described the most difficult parts of the [second] intifada to me. I felt that something was happening outside as well as inside me. At the time, there was a sense of ties being severed; I felt it in my society. I remember my mother said, "How can you bring Arabs to your house in such times?" We sat up nights talking about what was happening in East Jerusalem and in the Territories. They used to come several times a week. During the intifada's first months, when we tried to understand what was going on, they were my interpreters.
In February 2001, I joined friends who helped found Ta'ayush in Jerusalem at a demonstration in the village of Rantis to move a blockade. We were a large group of around 200 people and we managed to push back the blockade. The next day, [the army] came and put up large concrete blocks to prevent any access. I think that, by and large, this symbolizes my political involvement. It was simple yet active. I found myself part of Ta'ayush in Jerusalem. I went to the Southern Hebron Hills with Rabbis for Human Rights, and it was a very powerful experience. Like anyone who visits, I saw this was the heart of the conflict. These are the weakest people, the most unfortunate, who suffer from the settlers and the army.
I joined Ta'ayush, and the first activity I took part in was in South Hebron in September 2001; after that, I was very active in Ta'ayush. I was part of the leading group in the South Hebron Committee. We visited the area at least once a week, made phone calls and organized activities and demonstrations. To a lesser extent, I was part of the separation fence protests. I began to protest the separation fence's Jerusalem and Bethlehem sections. Every demonstration was significant to me. I was among 400 Israelis who met and marched with people in Bethlehem. That was the largest demonstration based on the aim just to meet, with no intention of dismantling or preventing anything. The soldiers met us on horseback, armed with whips and batons and people were injured.
These were very significant experiences for me. I was one of the organizers and participated in the political debates. That was my political education. I participated in political conversations, listened to other Palestinians and Jews and formulated my views. I felt a change in me. I was to the Right in this group in the sense that I thought we could talk to settlers without fighting them - that not everything should be anti- this or anti- that, that we shouldn't be against the State, that we aren't anarchists. I am on the verge of being a Zionist in the sense that I view Zionism as it I believe it should be and not as it is today and how it is affecting the Palestinian people.