The unusual gathering March 29 in the Ramallah office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was ignored by the Israeli media despite its importance. At the height of the ongoing intifada, several dozen Israelis of Sephardic (Middle Eastern) origin came to the Palestinian leader’s headquarters, the Muqata, to talk about cooperation and peace.
Abbas went out of his way to make their visit pleasant. He told his guests that he listens to the late Moshe Eliyahu, the Syrian-born Israeli poet and lyricist (1919-1994). “We, Arabs, have a lot in common with the Arab Jews,” Abbas said. “Language, history, culture, art, music … if we reach a peace agreement, Israel’s relations with 57 Arab and Muslim states will be normalized and Israeli society will have an opportunity to live in stability with its neighbors, without fences and isolation.”