IT WAS Sarah calling to Hagar. It was Mohammed,
Jesus and Isaac.
Peninsula Jews and Palestinians gathered for "A
Celebration of Freedom for All the Children of
Abraham, Hagar and Sarah.''
The Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue Group
held a spring dinner in a San Mateo deli owned by
Palestinian members Nahida and Adham Salem.
On ceremonial plates were items of the cycle of life,
including gobbets of powdery chocolate that
represented earth and sprouts that symbolized grass.
Participants read parts from a script representing
Jews and Palestinians. They dipped herbs in salt
water and ate the sweet charoset.
For some, tears welled during this reading in rich,
cultural accents by two women:
Palestinian: "I am calling you, oh Sarah. This is your
sister Hagar. . . . Here is my son, Ismael, . . . We
share the sons of Abraham, two peoples, one tribe.''
Jew: "Oh yes, I am your Sarah. . . . But it wasn't 'til
my Isaac lay under the knife that I recognized your
peril. . . . We will not survive as strangers. We must
speak each other's name.''
Both: "We must hear the prayers. . . . That all of our
children may call this land their home.''
Since the first meeting in 1992, the group has met 85
times in a Jewish-Palestinian living-room dialogue.
It is a public peace project, says Len Traubman, a
Jewish pediatric dentist, who, with his wife, Libby,
was a founder.
"We are continuing to learn to transform strangers
into friends and enemies into partners,'' he said.
"It is wonderful provided you can multiply it by
1,000,'' said Gabriel Salomon of the University of
Haifa, who is temporarily at Stanford University.
"The more you have, the more the grass-roots
movement is felt,'' he said.
Also from the campus was Linda Gradstein, National
Public Radio correspondent in Jerusalem, who is on
leave as a Knight Fellow at Stanford.
"I think the only way the peace process will work is
if people learn to listen and respect the other side,''
she said.
"Israelis look at Palestinians and see suicide
bombers and Palestinians look at Israelis and see
soldiers who have occupied what they see as their
land.''
Elias Botto of San Mateo, who is a Christian
Palestinian born in Jerusalem, believes the meetings
help. "It is a place where I can express my feelings
to a group of people who are willing to listen to my
feelings and grievances,'' he said.
"Our hope is that this coexistence will spill beyond
these four walls and will go to the greater people.''
June and Wally Levin of Hillsborough are Jewish.
Wallace Levin is an Orthodox Jew.
"I personally never knew many people of Arab
heritage before,'' said Wally Levin, ``and I have
enjoyed knowing them. They haven't changed my
opinion, but I always believed there needed to be a
Palestinian state. I was worried before and I am still
worried about the survival of the state of Israel.''
Said his wife, June: "It takes two to make a war, two
to make love and two to make peace. There is guilt
on both sides.''
The dinner ended, but people remained talking and
laughing. The big picture is a mystery, but the small
picture looks good.
As George Elhihi, a Palestinian Christian who lives
in Santa Clara said: "We are all the sons of
Abraham.''