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It is the year 2002. Waves of Palestinian suicide bombers flood Israel in coffee shops, malls, buses, hotels, and nightclubs. Hundreds of civilians are wounded and killed. Insraelis feel insecure; demand their government to take more militant actions against the Palestiniaisn. The dominant feelings are of fear, despair, patriotism and hatred directed to Arabs.
Rivka* (age 42), a Jewish-Israeli journalist, has been politically active in anti-Zionist groups since her twenties, vehemently supporting the Palestinian struggle for independence. Over the past few years, during the Intifada, she has been active in a radical leftist group that supplies food and medical aid to Palestinian villages under siege. This political group also demonstrates against the Israeli army's and government's violation of Palestinian human rights. Rivka affirms the right of every Palestinian to return to his or her homeland, even if that means that Palestinians will be the majority in Israel. She claims that it is the Israeli government that should be held responsible for terrorist attacks. Some of her Jewish-Israeli colleagues resent her opinions:
Although most of my colleagues vote for Zionist parties that support the peace process, they cannot possibly understand how I still show empathy to the Palestinians after suicide attacks. I tell them about the Palestinian suffering in the occupied territories and all sorts of horrible scenes I have seen with my own eyes, but that just makes them more furious.