Aviv Wasserman is the founder and director of the Lod Foundation. The foundation was established to restore Lod’s past glory and help it fulfill its untapped potential as a multi-ethnic city. An ancient city, today Lod is home to Muslims, Christians and Jews. The Foundation’s vision is for Lod to serve as a model for coexistence within both Israel and for the entire Middle East. Aviv has a BA in Law and Political Science from Tel Aviv University and is a lawyer with a Masters in Social Policy Planning. He is the founder and chairman of the management committee of the Socio-Economic College and was appointed head of the Human Rights Department of the Ramat Gan Law School.
1. What makes Lod unique?
Lod is unique mainly because of the enormous gap (probably the biggest in Israel) between the current everyday reality and its potential. On the one hand, Lod is one of Israel’s poorest mixed Arab-Jewish cities. It suffers from huge problems of poverty, crime, violence, low self esteem and despair. On the other hand, it is situated right at the heart of Israel, only 15 minutes’ drive from cosmopolitan Tel Aviv and 5 minutes’ drive from Israel’s only international airport. It is the oldest city in Israel with a history of no less than 8000 years of consecutive inhabitation- more than Jerusalem and Jaffa, and is holy to Islam, as it was the first Islamic capital of the region and to the Christians, given the fact the St. George, the famous dragon slayer, is buried in a church which is considered one of the Christian world’s five holiest sites worldwide. It is also of great significance to the Jews, as it was the place of teaching of great scholars and rabbis, such as Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Eliezer and was called for many years, “Hamishne Le’Yerushalaim” (second only to Jerusalem). Lod of today is also home to a beautiful mosaic of people, Jews and Arabs, of different backgrounds.
2. What brought you to your position as the director of the Lod Community Foundation? In other words, why you and why Lod?
I was called to help the city by the current appointed mayor, Ilan Harari, at 2007. At the time, I was completing my master’s degree at the London School of Economics and considering beginning doctoral studies. I recognized the city’s potential and moved to live in Lod. Once there, and due to the fact the municipality could not finance the establishment of the new foundation, Ilan and I decided that the foundation would be an independent entity which would in fact belong to “the people of the city” and not be under the responsibility and authority of the municipality. My wife, Ruth, was working at the time as the foreign policy advisor for President Shimon Peres. Shortly after we got married, Ruth became very involved in the city and its activities and soon became the foundation’s co-director.
3. How can Lod serve as a model for Jewish-Arab cooperation throughout Israel and the Middle East?
For Palestinians, Lod is one of the biggest symbols of their “naqba,” or disaster of 1948. For Israelis it is undoubtedly a symbol of independence and liberation. Its 75,000 inhabitants are divided into more or less a third Arabs and two-thirds Jews. Among the former, there is a large community of Bedouins, and smaller urban Muslim and Christian communities. Amidst the Jews there are communities of Georgians, Indians, Russians, Ethiopians, Moroccans and more. In other words, this city houses a wonderful mosaic of people and is in fact a microcosm of Israel. We feel that if a success story of a multicultural society can be shown in one mixed city, it may be emulated in other mixed cities throughout Israel and make an impact on the country and the region as a whole. Our aim is not to improve the lives of one community over another but rather to develop the city in a manner which is beneficial to all of its inhabitants.
4. What are the greatest challenges facing cooperation and coexistence in the city and in Israel as a whole? What is your vision for Israel’s future?
Given the political situation in the region and the great variety of the different communities in the city itself, it is currently a collection of rather conservative communities, which in a sense are segregated from one another. The more complex the external and regional political situation becomes, the more entrenched each community becomes in its own traditions and narratives, making it more difficult to overcome differences and cooperate for the benefit of the city as a whole.
For Jews throughout the centuries, Israel has been the epitome of nationhood and the home of the Jewish people. For the Palestinians, their aspiration for self-determination is a clear and internationally recognized right. We believe that the tremendous disappointment that is rife throughout the region, given the countless failures of leaders in the region and abroad to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict, affects the energy and enthusiasm of Israeli citizens – Jews and Arabs- to believe and lead change in the region. The potential exists and must not be forsaken. The natural leadership amidst people of various communities also exists and should be nourished and encouraged. Thus, we hope to make the city of Lod a not too large model to become unmanageable, yet one that is big enough to make a serious impact on the national and regional level. It can be a model of emulation for the potential embodied in the mutual work of Jews and Arabs to make a difference for the benefit of both nations who inhabit this land.
