(Author: David Saks, Vol. 65 #1, Pesach 2020)
The downside of Israel’s hotels being so full throughout the year, Reeva Forman quips, is that it is no longer possible to obtain from them the discounted rates that were available to her tour groups a few years ago. Indeed, Israel today is thankfully very different from what it was back in November 2002, when she and fifty others were in the country to take part in the inaugural ‘Israel Now’ tour she had organised. The post-Oslo terror war launched by the Palestinians two years previously was then at its height, and empty hotels, restaurants and parking lots provided stark testimony to how much it had hit Israel’s tourism industry.
The harm to Israel was not just economic, but psychological as well. The Israeli people felt alone, even abandoned, during what was a particularly traumatic time for them. Not only were terrorist attacks, actual and planned, having to be dealt with on a daily basis, but the mood of the world at large was turning increasingly ugly in the way it viewed the Jewish State.
Reeva Forman’s long career in Jewish communal service had not until then being particularly Israelfocused. Like most South African Jews, she cared deeply for Israel, had visited it and contributed as a matter of course to Zionist causes, but had not actually been active on local Zionist platforms. Now, motivated by a deep-seated need to learn for herself what was happening rather than rely on perennially biased media reports and at the same time to convey a message of support to the Israeli people, she came to a decision that would both change her own life and introduce a dynamic new dimension to the relationship between Israel and South African Jewry.
What the situation called for, Forman realised, was for the creation of a vehicle through which local supporters of Israel could show solidarity with the embattled Israeli people, combined with a focused programme enabling them at the same time to learn at first hand what was happening in the region. These twin aims – solidarity and education – were what underpinned the rationale for the first-ever Israel Now tour from South Africa that she put together. Fifty people divided roughly equally between Johannesburg and Cape Town participated, in some cases with the assistance of sponsors. The tour was regarded as a resounding success. The group met with a range of political and civil society leaders, academics and opinion makers representing a broad range of political views and visited various important sites throughout the country, thereby returning considerably better informed about the complexities of the conflict and the challenges Israel faced.
Their just being there, moreover, had been greatly appreciated, something constantly conveyed to them by the Israelis with whom they met.
The first Israel Now tour was conceived as a oneoff vehicle through which South African Jews could show their solidarity with Israel by actually being there at a time when tourists were generally staying away and also find out from Israelis themselves rather than from slanted media reports what was happening there. Instead, it had demonstrated that there was an ongoing need for visits of this kind, both for Israel and for Jews in South Africa (as well as for non-Jewish supporters of Israel, a number of whom would take part in later tours). Soon after her return, Forman was planning a follow-up trip, which eventually took place in May the following year. Since then, every calendar year has included at least one Israel Now tour. Forman, in addition to her position on the SA Jewish Board of Deputies (Gauteng Council), also sits on the SA Zionist Federation Executive, holding the Israel Now portfolio.
Showing solidarity is no longer as pressing a need as before, although it remains a significant motivating factor. In 2008, for example, the main focus of the programme was to participate in Israel’s 60th anniversary celebrations. The largest group yet, comprising 80 people, were able to share the joy and pride of the Israeli people countrywide in marking sixty years of growth and achievement.
Learning about Israel, its relationship with its neighbours and the ongoing quest for peace in the region remains as important as ever. The tour programme itself has evolved as the situation on the ground in the Middle East has changed. Thus, the November 2007 programme focused on Israel’s relationship with its neighbours, featuring amongst other things a first-ever visit to Jordan, as guests of the Jordanian government’s agricultural division. Here, they learned about joint Israeli-Jordanian projects such as the Jewish National Fund’s working with its Jordanian counterparts in combating the fruit fly problem. Last November, the itinerary included a day trip to Turkey to meet the Jewish community and its leadership. It had been both inspiring and fascinating, says Forman, to have made contact with another Diaspora community, one that in addition to its rich and venerable history had such strong historic ties to Israel.
Jordan and Israel have, of course, been at peace for nearly twenty years now, and there is extensive cooperation between the two countries. What Forman finds particularly inspiring is the still little known extent of Israeli-Palestinian cooperation in the West Bank that has emerged in recent years. There are, she notes, a remarkable number of NGOs, Jewish and non-Jewish, working across the board to pave a way to peaceful co-existence. With political developments at the leadership level having reached a stalemate, people were beginning to focus on what was happening on the ground. Israelis and Jews around the world were putting considerable funds and expertise into development projects, thereby sharing in and helping stimulate the current economic boom in the West Bank. In its upcoming tour in May, the Israel Now tour group will visit Ramallah for the first time to see these encouraging developments for themselves and meet with Jewish people working there.
The most important focus of the next tour will be how Israel is grappling with the position of minority groups within the State itself. Today, even more than the Palestinian relationship, this is an issue that particularly concerns Israelis. Six days of the tour will take place in Jerusalem, which is a particular area of concern at present. Other important centres that will be visited are S’derot on the Gaza border, the Arab-Jewish Centre for Peace in Tel Aviv, the Golan Heights and the Gush Etzion community across the Green Line. There will also be archaeological tours in Jerusalem given by the renowned Israeli archaeologist Dan Bahat and a visit to Yad Vashem.
Forman concludes that what was ultimately so inspiring about visiting Israel was to see manifested in so many ways the goodness of the Jewish heart looking to do good to those less fortunate.
Those wishing to learn more about currently planned and future Israel Now tours can contact Reeva Forman at reeva@intekom.co.za.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
South African Jews show their support for Israel at a solidarity rally in Johannesburg, 2006
David Saks is Associate Director of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies and Editor of Jewish Affairs.
