Journaling: Hope and Despair - Seven Weeks In

Rebecca Sullum, Co-Director of Kids4Peace Jerusalem
July 31, 2014

"Rebecca, How are you? How is Kids4Peace been managing during this very difficult summer. My hopes and prayers are with you.”

Every day, friends from around the world reach out to me. They want to hear how I am and how my Kids4Peace community is coping during this very violent time.

This post is an attempt to share with you how a Jewish Israeli Zionist who is also mother, wife, peace activist, is coping. I want to share my insights as Co-Director of Kids4Peace, where I engage daily with hundreds of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish, Palestinian and Israeli families.

Six weeks have passed by since the kidnapping of the 3 Israeli youth, Gilad, Naftali and Eyal, in Gush Etzion on June 12. Since that morning, I can no longer answer the question “How are you?” It is just too complicated. 

My cousin studied at Yeshiva (Jewish religious boys school) with two of the kidnapped youth. Friday morning when it had become clear that the 3 boys had been kidnapped, my sisters and their daughters spent the morning picking berries in Gush Etzion, just a few kilometers from the location of the kidnapping. I wasn’t there. My husband Itai requested that I do not pick berries in occupied Palestinian territory, since weeks earlier the IDF detained Palestinian girls for picking cherries on their way to school. Itai thought that it would be too ironic, too cruel, to exercise my freedom in a way that even Palestinian girls can’t act freely. So I spent the Friday morning at home. As the Shabbat approached and the youth were nowhere to be found, I fell into despair that lasted for 18 days. (continued)