Welcome. My name is brant rosen. Im the rabbi esthetic chicago and a member of the chicago chapter of jewish voice for peace. Two of the cosponsors of evenings program. Id like to first thank and honor our events primary sponsor, rights watch. As im sure many of you may know of Nathan Thrall appearances have been canceled recently. And the fact that we are here at all this evening is due the principles and quite the courage of rw and our good friends here at temple. Please, lets show some appreciation to those who made this evening possible. Were gathering together this evening. As we all know as a horrific tragedy continues to unfold in gaza and israel. Im tempted to say that when program was first scheduled, none of us could imagined the terrible circumstances in which we now find ourselves. But im not so sure thats completely true. Palestinians, their allies and numerous human organizations, including Human Rights Watch have long been sounding the alarm that israel has been subjecting palestinians for decades to a Apartheid Regime of occupation over and over, been warned that there could violence, even cataclysmic violence, if israel was not held, account. And now, tragically, that moment has arrived over the past. The horror of this violence has unfolded. And many of us have been asking how could it have come to this . And while our program this evening does focus specifically on the terrible ongoing violence in gaza, id submit that the book about to discuss and highlight in its way offers important insight into the current moment. On the surface, you could say that a day in the life of salama is a story of a tragedy that befalls one palestine. He and Family Living under Israeli Occupation just one story among so many. But as nathans book demonstrates so powerfully if we truly seek to understand israels oppressive architecture of occupation, we must first and foremost understand its impact on everyday. On parents and children, on husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, on Community Members who live a system of structural violence every day. An oppressive occupation that thwarts attempts to live their lives simply every turn. As we all know, there is a Cottage Industry of books, articles and think pieces that analyze israels occupation. But in its microcosmic way. I believe this book about this one jerusalem tragedy helps us gain a much and more valuable understanding than most books youll find on subject. Those you who have read the book undoubtedly know what i mean. In short order, nathan allows us an intimate perspective into abeds reality, his daily struggle, and ultimately his unbearable heartbreak. And in the end, we away with a deep and invaluable not just of his life, but of so many palestinians like him. And yes, we begin understand how it all could have come to this. Ive always felt that if we are ever to find our way forward through the tragic injustices that have gripped israel palestine for far long, it will only happen by summoning up our deepest reservoir, empathy for our collective humanity in the current when such a goal seems more painfully remote than ever, it will be books and, testimonies such as this that will point the way forward for us. All this to say. Im grateful to nathan for his book to the sponsors of our program for making tonight possible and to all of you for being here tonight. Ive been asked to let you know where the exits are. They back here and over there helpfully, marked by the signs that say exit and i have also been asked that our conversation this evening, it should go without saying. I will abide by our guidelines of civil discourse. We are all here not necessarily to completely agree with one another, but to share with one another and be open to one another and to hear one another and to express ourselves honestly and openly and ultimately and truly be open to what Nathan Thrall has to teach us. So with no ado, i will step down and i would like to turn things over to my good friend and comrade dr. Barbara ransby. If you like. Thank you, brant, and thank you for your exemplary leadership, which is always an inspiration to all of us. Thank you all for coming out on a monday night to have this conversation. Us. We gather tonight as are dropping on gaza. The subject of this book nathans book takes us into a conversation about the region about politics, about whats right and wrong in this moment. But it does it in a very special way. And im going to introduce both of my interlocutors here, omar shakir and and Nathan Thrall. But i want to say, as a preface you know, many of us have been gripped and strained and stressed and in in tears about the situation, palestine and israel since october and on College Campuses where i teach, where many of my colleagues teach, its been very difficult to have conversations and been very painful, emotional exchange. And its almost like rational discourse has taken a backseat to what side one is on. I feel like this offers an opportunity to wade in, to walk in, to lead with our hearts, to open hearts, to learning about the experiences of palestinians in occupied palestine. But doing it in a way that invites into our largest humanity. And so im i met nathan actually reading an article that he wrote that was a prelude to the book, and i didnt know him. I, you know, didnt know anyone who knew him. And i wrote him an email and he responded and a year or so later, the book came out. He asked me to to moderate this. As it turns out, we have many friends and comrades and colleagues in common. But but that openness, i think, is reflected in how this book is written. So im looking forward this conversation. And let me just introduce the two people ill be talking to. So Nathan Thrall is an and a journalist, obviously, the author of a day in the life of ahmed salama anatomy of a jerusalem tragedy, but also has published in the New York Times magazine. The guardian the london review of books in new york, review of books and was for a decade. The director at the International Crisis group of the arab israeli project. He also taught at bard college, originally from california, but now living in jerusalem. Our second speaker is omar shakir and omar serves as the israel and palestine director at the Human Rights Watch. He investigates human rights abuses in israel, the west bank and gaza, and has authored several major reports. In 2021, a report a threshold crossed, which is a 200 page report with graphic illustrations that give a kind of context and background to the to the occupation and to the situation we see in palestine, particularly in gaza right now. So i want to start with, nathan and, youll have opportunity to ask questions the end, but i want to start, nathan and just ask you about your choice to write this book. You could have written this story, you know, with a number of entry points, but you chose this particular family, the story of a father, the tragedy that befell his son and its family. And then you introduce us to many, many other issues and and provocations. So why this story and what is a journey been like for you . And welcome to chicago. Thank you. Thank you, barbara. Thank you all for coming. So, you know, this story, there are a number of different ways to answer that question. One of them is a more emotional answer, which is that, you know, i live in jerusalem and my work for the International Crisis group took, me to the west bank. You know, nearly every day. And as i would drive north from from my apartment close to the walls of the old city. I would pass by a walled enclave that contained within many residents of jerusalem the had to main communities within it. The shuafat refugee camp and the town of anata. And this community was surrounded by walls on three sides. A 26 foot tall, gray wall. The separation barrier. And on the fourth side was a different kind of wall which is the wall, route 43, 70 more famously known, the apartheid road, a segregated road with traffic for israelis on side, traffic for palestinians on the and a giant wall running through the middle of it. And you have. 130,000 People Living in this very densely populated walled enclave without a single atm, without lanes in their streets, without sidewalks without playgrounds, and a great many of them are paying municipal to the city of jerusalem and getting almost no services so much that people are forced to burn trash in their streets in the middle of the day and night. And all this is sitting in plain view just underneath the manicured grounds of the Hebrew University of jerusalem, israels most prestigious university, and from the Hebrew University of jerusalem, mount scopus, you can look down and, you can see this walled enclave and you can see checkpoint through which parents are forced to send their children to school or to go to their jobs. The other element that the parents in this community face is a shortage of classrooms. There were at the time the accident that as at the center, the book, they were doing double shifts in the schools just in order to be able to to teach the students. So i would pass by walled ghetto and hardly pay any mind. I would pass by it on a weekly, sometimes daily basis. And i dont think i was alone in ignoring it. The whole landscape of this place is there are walls everywhere, there are segregation everywhere. It wasnt something that i dwelled on. And after this tragedy occurred where a bus full of kindergartner was from this community was struck by giant semitrailer wheeler and the bus flipped over and caught fire. Six children died. One teacher. And of this is happening just on the other side of this wall where there there is a of deliberate neglect. There is a neglect. Israel. There is. An inability of the Palestinian Authority to enter municipal jerusalem or area c, where the took place. Thats than 60 of the west bank. That is under full Israeli Security control. And. And so the people who are left to deal with this accident were the palestinians who live this state of neglect. On the other side of the wall and after the accident took place, i couldnt stop thinking about the parents and children and teachers who are affected by it. And i started when i decided to write the book, decided to reach out to everybody. I possibly could who was in one way or another connected to the crash from the settler who founded the settlement next, where the accident took place, to one of the teachers bystander who heroically rescued dozens of children. Some of the social workers at the israeli hospital and so one answer to the question is that i was was moved by story of this accident, how it emblematic of the total neglect of these hundreds of thousands of people on the other side of the wall. And i should say that also through through to enter these areas even within municipal jerusalem you know the Emergency Services require and an escort by the israeli army or security forces. And so the the fact that the israelis secure Emergency Services didnt arrive for a very long time was not unique to this accident. Thats something that has happened many times in these areas on the other side of the wall and i saw the story, the ability to tell the larger story of israel through the jewish and palestinian characters. But i to say that there is a different way of answering that question, which is that i also was driven to tell a story of something that occurs every day all over the world. I really didnt want to focus on something could be exceptional ized to focus on something that would be the more natural subject for a work of journalism. A war in gaza, an invasion of janine, suicide bombing. What i really was wanted was to show people what this system was, that these people live under and what it feels like viscerally to live within that system and my frustration for a years and working for the International Crisis group and doing the kinds of journalism that i was doing was that whole world would Pay Attention to this issue. When theres a war in gaza, when theres a spike in violence and, everybody would call for calm and i wanted to show what that calm looked like. I wanted to us to address calm, to understand that that calm was not actually calm, but was at deeply oppressive system. And that entailed a great deal of violence that produced violence and turned. And i wanted us to Pay Attention to that system so we are not only horrified when we see something. The war in gaza, but that were also horrified that war ends. You know, the everyday violence. Yeah. And i want to invite you and omar to talk a little bit more about what that looks like. I was i dont know. Many people here have visited israel, palestine. How many visited occupied palestine . Yeah. So. So, you know, i went in 2011 with an indigenous feminist color delegation and on our delegation was a woman who had grown up on an indian here. So she described woman had grown up in the jim crow south and a woman who had grown up in apartheid south africa and what we saw resonated for all of them resonated for me in terms of the harassment and violence that was pretty routine and that our palestinian saw as pretty, pretty routine life under occupation, going through checkpoints, agents being, you know, harassed, just trying to go about your business. So what do we learn as readers in following of its dilemmas dilemma on that tragic day for, him as a dad looking for his child and you know, we get we get a sense of what that wall represents, what what occupation represents. And what that violence is about. So you want describe it a little bit more. And then, omar, i want to invite u. N. Because you document it with a lot of ahmed salama. But tell us more. Yeah. So, you know, the book tells the story of abid salama. Its called a day in the life of abid salama, but its actually about more than just a day its the life of abid salama and its the life of some of the other characters in this book. And one of the themes, i mean, we see in what transpires on that day, how abid learns of the accident, he rushes to the accident site, how he goes through, passes a checkpoint, get to the accident site and tries to flag down Israeli Soldiers who refuse to give him ride up to to the bus. How he arrives at scene of the accident and all of the kids have been removed. And he asks this crowd where are the kids. And hes told that some of them went to jerusalem hospitals, some of them went to the military base just a minute up the road. Some of them went to ramallah hospital, some even went to nablus. And he himself has a green west bank id, which doesnt him to go to most of the places that were named. Certainly cant go to the israeli military. Thats a minute up the road. He cant go to hospitals in East Jerusalem or in west jerusalem where he is told the kids are located. So he goes to ramallah and and in ramallah, we follow him attempting to find his son and, sending his relatives. You know, these in the same you have people who have green ids, have people who have the blue jerusalem that does allow you to enter jerusalem. So he sends a relative to go to the jerusalem hospital and look for his son and following more than 36 hours of his life, we see the system in which hes in trapped and how it works and what it actually means to be a green a blue id holder on the worst day of your life. And but what i wanted to say is that, you know, i think a deeper theme of the book is the degree to which the system reaches the most intimate details of these peoples. And so when we learn of abeds back story, we learn that at one point he married, he chose a marriage partner based on the color her id because he was at risk of losing his job, a higher paying job in jerusalem like other fellow green id holders. And he chose a marriage partner just for the chance to get him himself, get a blue i. D. And able to retain his job and, work in jerusalem and provide for his family. And there are many other examples. The book of of that degree of control. Mm hmm. Talking green ids and blue ids. Youre sharing that, mike, with your friends. They share, but i want to ask omar. You know, youre the report youve done a number of reports, but the report in 2021 is particularly compelling and relevant now. And just hearing talk about that level of segregation reminds me of i mean, one of my big periods of activism was the Antiapartheid Movement and hearing about the pass laws and knowing that peoples lives were regulated, you know, down to the minute detail by, you know, whether they were, you know, had their past and what their past said they could do, where they could go, they could live, etc. So. So tell us about why, you know, the regime in israel now is labeled apartheid. Absolutely. Let me start by saying what an honor is to be on my friend nathan. And i always tell people, if you read one, i mean, best thing ive read in years and im not just this because hes next to me is this book. So i highly encourage everybody to read it. And i think part the reason why its so powerful is it it in narrative form lays out the daily reality of palestinians living under israeli rule. People in moments like today. Think about the hot violence of carnage, slaughter, bloodshed, which is a part of the palestinian experience. But its the cold violence of structural repression that the machinery of which has been operating for decades, that nathans book powerfully speaks to. So let me start with the west bank, with what nathan laid out and sort of put in a little bit of human rights context and then sort of step back to to your question. The first thing to understand about the west bank is you have two population groups that live virtually side by side. You have excluding even East Jerusalem. You have nearly half a million jewish israelis settlers who are living in settlements. Settlements are war crimes under International Humanitarian law because of the transfer of one civilian population to territory acquired by war or occupied by war, living side by side around, you know, 2. 5 million palestinians. Now, these two people, they might live across the street as they do in some areas, theyre governed different bodies of law. Okay.