Somalia RPCV Burton Unger writes: 'The Good Fence'



"I fear for Avi, a Jewish resident of Haifa, at whose house I have stayed several times. Avi owns an automobile repair shop in the part of Haifa that has suffered repeated shelling. Avi is keeping the place open to provide work for his employees, both Jewish and Arab. At least two dozen residents of Haifa, Jewish and Arab, have already died. I fear for Avi's employees and I fear for Avi's son, an officer in the Israeli Army."

Somalia RPCV Burton Unger writes: 'The Good Fence'

Unger: 'The Good Fence'

By Burton Unger

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Caption: Ten-year-old Israeli Mike Kamiv, collects parts of a Hezbollah rocket which hit the building where he lives with his family, after returning to their apartment in the city of Haifa, northern Israel, Thursday Aug. 17, 2006. Life began returning to normal in northern Israel after a U.N. cease-fire in Lebanon took effect Monday. Hezbollah fired nearly 4,000 rockets at Israel during 34 days of fighting, including several medium-range missiles that for the first time hit Israel's third-largest city, Haifa. Photo: AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen

Kfar Gil'adi.

I awoke to hear that name from my bedside clock radio. It was the name of a place in Israel where a missile, presumably fired by the Hezbollah, had landed, killing at least 10 Israeli soldiers in a field.

It was also a place where my family and I had spent a few nights a quarter-of-a-century ago, a quieter time.

In 1981, my wife attended an International Women's Studies meeting in Haifa, and our teenage daughters and I came along. There was a tour that was associated with the conference, and on one of the first nights we stopped at Kfar Gil'adi, a pretty kibbutz near the Lebanese border. We had dinner at the kibbutz guest house and then went to see a concert by a visiting Zulu chorus from South Africa. The music was excellent, but by intermission time the jet-lagged Unger family was more than ready to call it a day. We left the kibbutz concert hall, heading, I thought, for the guest house. Within a couple of hundred feet, I realized that we were lost.

There were three women walking on the road ahead of us, and we quickly caught up with them. But they did not speak English or Hebrew, and I became apprehensive. One of them must have read my face in the dark because she said, "Parlez-vous Francais?" followed quickly by "Nous sommes Libonais."

Oh, my God, I thought. We've wandered across the border into Lebanon and we are in deep trouble.

But her French was much better than mine and she explained that they worked in the dining room of the kibbutz. They invited us to follow them back to the guest house, not very far away. The next morning they greeted us at breakfast and we all smiled at the story of the lost tourists. Later I learned that the border in that area was known as "The Good Fence," because Lebanese, cut off from Beirut by that country's civil war, would routinely come into Israel for employment, shopping and medical care. Now the good fence has become an ugly coil of razor wire.

I didn't think to record the names of the women who helped us, and now I am sorry. I wonder if they are still alive, if the current fighting has caused them to leave the area, or if they or their children have suffered. I fear for them.

I also fear for Tony and Ibrahim, two Lebanese teachers who worked in Baidoa, Somalia, at the same time I was stationed there in the Peace Corps. We played Scrabble together, and I marveled at their ability to beat me in what was their third language. Would their English skills protect them from an Israeli bomb?

I fear for Avi, a Jewish resident of Haifa, at whose house I have stayed several times. Avi owns an automobile repair shop in the part of Haifa that has suffered repeated shelling. Avi is keeping the place open to provide work for his employees, both Jewish and Arab. At least two dozen residents of Haifa, Jewish and Arab, have already died. I fear for Avi's employees and I fear for Avi's son, an officer in the Israeli Army.

Death counts are impersonal. But when the killing affects people and places one knows, the emotions become deep and fraught with fear.

Is there no way to stop this madness?

Burton Unger lives on Newport Road. This letter was sent in before the cease-fire.

When this story was posted in September 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:




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The Peace Corps Library The Peace Corps Library is now available online with over 40,000 index entries in 500 categories. Looking for a Returned Volunteer? Check our RPCV Directory or leave a message on our Bulletin Board. New: Sign up to receive our free Monthly Magazine by email, research the History of the Peace Corps, or sign up for a daily news summary of Peace Corps stories. FAQ: Visit our FAQ for more information about PCOL.

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