Grassroots International

Alice Rothchild has recently written about the deep roots of Avigdor Leiberman's rise in Israeli politics, and draws attention to the similarities between Israel's policies towards its minorities and our own history in that arena.

Alice is a longtime friend and supporter of Grassroots International; a doctor; an author; and a passionate voice for justice and peace in Palestine-Israel. Her book Broken Promises, Broken Dreams: Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience explores, in a very personal way, the trauma faced by Jews and Arabs in Israel-Palestine.

Since returning from Gaza where I went on a Grassroots International program trip that coincided with the International Women's Delegation co-sponsored by Code Pink, Grassroots International and others, I am finding it very difficult to write.  I sit at night staring blankly at my more than a hundred pages of notes and find the personal testimonies from the War too horrific to have actually happened or to exist between the pages of my beat-up notebooks.  I spend hours sorting through thousands of photographs and stop every now and then to remind myself that the images are part of my recent experience and responsibility now and not some archives from Sabra or Shatila or Jenin or Beirut that somehow made their way onto my hard drive.