“Jerusalem Women Speak” Tour Bios
27 August 2003
“Jerusalem Women Speak” Tour Bios
Jerusalem Women Speak: Three Women, Three Faiths, One Shared Vision
Jewish Israeli Participant
Yehudit Keshet
Yehudit Keshet, 60, is a writer, artist, activist, and community leader. An observant Jew, she is the daughter of Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany in 1939. She was born in South Wales in 1943 and in 1958 left home to be a “pioneer” in Israel. She also has lived in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. West Jerusalem became her permanent residence in 1974.
In her “retirement,” Ms. Keshet co-founded Checkpoint Watch, a women’s human rights group committed to opposing Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The group’s members conduct twice-daily observations at Israeli military and police checkpoints and subsequently document and report their observations.
With regard to why she founded the organization, Ms. Keshet writes, “When I first learned about the Holocaust I used to say, ‘If I had been there, as a German, I would have spoken out, protested. I wouldn’t have let it happen.’ Now, in far different circumstances, we are witnessing the persecution and collective punishment of a whole people, the Palestinians, how can I betray them and not speak out?”
Ms. Keshet earned degrees in social anthropology in the UK and in Canada. In her professional life, Ms. Keshet has worked as the Coordinator of a study program for overseas students at Hebrew Union College, as Overseas Outreach Coordinator at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, and as Coordinator of Community Outreach at the Israel Institute of Talmudic Publications. Her current affiliations include the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, and Bat Shalom of the Jerusalem Link.
In 1984, Ms. Keshet founded The Tradition Center, a cooperative, multi-cultural puppet theater that works with sources common to Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions to provide entertainment and conduct workshops for children. The Center was part of a larger project under the auspices of the Israel Institute of Talmudic Publications and undertaken for the purpose of promoting religious-secular dialogue in Israel and abroad.
Ms. Keshet is currently on sabbatical at Lancaster University in England, where she is writing a book and speaking to various groups about her experiences with Checkpoint Watch. She will also spend time in Israel this summer working with Checkpoint Watch because, she says, “You cannot stand aside and see injustice and suffering… In most cases, the situation would have been worse had we not been there. There is tremendous power in witnessing, recording, and speaking out about what we see and experience.”
Suicide bombings have struck closely to her. A colleague’s sister was killed by one such attack. Regarding the resolution of the conflict she writes, “I believe the only lasting solution can come when Israel recognizes the equal rights of Palestinians to self-determination, statehood, and dignity.”
Muslim Palestinian Participant
Zleikha Muhtaseb
Zleikha Muhtaseb, 41, is a dedicated community activist who was born in the West Bank’s Old City of Hebron. Ms. Muhtaseb still lives in Hebron, where her family has lived for over nine generations. In 1948 her family’s land to the south of Hebron was seized by Israel as a result of Israel’s expansion from 57 percent to 78 percent of partitioned Palestine.
Her father disappeared in 1967 when Israeli soldiers shot at him and others as they were crossing back into the West Bank from importing and exporting goods to Amman, Jordan.
Ms. Muhtaseb has four brothers, nine nieces, and 11 nephews. One of her brothers, a carpenter, has been forced to close his workshop for the past two years because of the curfew imposed on the Old City. During this time, he spent his life savings on supporting his family. At the beginning of the current intifada, a group of rioting settlers threw rocks at the car in which her brother and nephew were traveling, injuring the young boy’s left arm.
Ms. Muhtaseb studied English at Hebron University and obtained a BA in English Literature in 1985. She worked for over 12 years as an English teacher in Hebron and equally as long as a translator. Ms. Muhtaseb documented violations of human rights in Hebron for Human Rights Watch from September through December 2000. She also worked with Save the Children and various other NGOs in the West Bank. Ms. Muhtaseb is currently working with the Christian Peacemaker Team for the sixth continuous year as a translator and interviewer.
Ms. Muhtaseb’s main interest is promoting the education of women and children. Since February of 2003, she has organized and operated a program in conjunction with the YMCA called “The Social Psychological Support” program. For the first four months of its existence, meetings were held in her brother’s house in the Old City of Hebron due to the restriction of movement placed upon Palestinians. Ms. Muhtaseb believes that this program greatly benefits mothers and children by providing them with an important outlet for the stress and depression which arises from the daily violence they experience.
Ms. Muhtaseb also started a center for social development that will offer more formal educational programs in the Old City after restrictions are lifted. A course in First Aid for 30 women in co-operation with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society is being planned. In addition, literacy classes for both women and men will hopefully be offered soon. She is also helping to coordinate a summer program for school children which will provide remedial classes for students who missed school as a result of the curfew in the Old City of Hebron. Recreational activities such as painting, crafts, and scientific field trips will be available. Ms. Muhtaseb’s ambition is to “have a big place where I can bring all children, no matter who they are or what they are, to learn and play together as human beings.”
With regard to the conflict, Ms. Muhtaseb views the U.S. position as extremely influential. She writes, “The U.S., as a sponsor of the peace process, should stop its unlimited support of Israel and should treat both sides of the conflict equally.”
Christian Palestinian Participant
Mai J. Nassar
Mai J. Nassar, 43, was born and raised in the West Bank town of Beit Jala where her family lived for centuries. In the 1948 war Ms. Nassar’s family fled Beit Jala for Jordan. They returned to their land several years later but, following the 1967 war, parts of it were confiscated for building Jewish settlements. Her immediate family (her mother, three brothers, one sister) and 17 nieces and nephews still live in the West Bank. Much of her extended family is now in Latin America or Jordan as a result of the wars and intifadas.
During the past three years, Ms. Nassar’s home in Beit Jala has been bombarded several times during battles between the Gilo settlement and Beit Jala. She and her family managed to avoid physical harm during these skirmishes, but many of their material goods were lost.
Ms. Nassar obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Jordan in Amman in 1982. She then earned a Master of Arts degree in English Language Teaching from the University of Warwick in Coventry, United Kingdom in 1986. She specializes in teaching English as a foreign language and currently works at Bethlehem University, where she has been a professor of English for more than 13 years.
Daily trips between Bethlehem and Beit Jala enable Ms. Nassar to see how the occupation and renewed fighting are devastating both the Palestinian people and their economy. Tourism in Bethlehem has decreased dramatically and Palestinian workers frequently are not allowed to enter Israel to work. Closures and the poor economy leave Ms. Nassar’s students with very few options. She says, “The young generation is the one [that] suffers most.”
In 1995, Ms. Nassar came to the United States where she participated in the Professional Development Program in English Language Teaching for Educators (PRODELT) at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. PRODELT was an intensive workshop sponsored by the United States Information Agency. Six Israeli and six Palestinian educators worked closely together in the United States for a period of one month, focusing their efforts on effective methods of teaching English as a foreign language. Ms. Nassar says the most significant outcome of this experience was “form[ing] normal relationships with Israelis.”
From 1996-1998, Ms. Nassar took part in another exchange program in conjunction with George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. This project explored the possibility of implementing an undergraduate-level Conflict Analysis and Resolution program at the University of Bethlehem. Ms. Nassar, along with other faculty members from Bethlehem University, met with administrators and faculty from George Mason University’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR) for one month each summer during the three-year period.
Ms. Nassar believes that innovative education is the key to broadening the horizons of the next generation. She writes, “We need different types of education for both groups [Israeli and Palestinian] in order to make both accept and adjust to having their two states live peacefully on one land.”
