I really enjoy my stay in Israel. For several reasons, some of them are private (climate, food, liberal, European atmosphere, etc.). But besides, I have a steep learning curve. Until now, when I visited Israel, I went straight to the West Bank or to Gaza to do work there. I never really had the chance to experience the Israeli Israel. It is so difficult to find the political correct words - and there aren't any which would suit both sides. When people talk about Palestine in Ramallah, they mean the entire territory of Israel, West Bank and Gaza (even if they are moderate). In Israel, some people distinguish now between Israel and Palestine, but not all.

For me, to reduce complexity, Palestine is West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, and Israel is the rest.

Sometimes, I seem to know more about Palestine when I am in Israel and about Israel, when I am in Palestine and vice versa. At least in Israel, people do ask me, how it looks like at the other side. Well, very, very few Israelis except soldiers and settlers have been to Palestine lately, while at least those Palestinians who have an Israeli passport or those who work for international agencies, go to Israel. However, their perspective is very much determined by their specific filters. In a way understandable.

If you are still following, you might understand that I am totally lost in complexity. Which doesn't stop here at all. As a German, I add some specific ascpects to the complexity. For example, it was quite unexpected for me to hear the German anthem loudly played at the beach, when the soccer match between Austria and Germany was shown on a big screen. It was equally unexpected that some Israelis gave applaus when Michael Ballack scored. It makes me feel very humble to experience how much most of the Israelis have made their peace with Germany and Germans. I don't feel any resentments. Believe me, there is much more to digest than I can put down here. I am happy that I am not forced to take sides.

On Sunday, I visited the Israeli Complexity and Human Systems group, organized by Benny, who I met three years ago at the SoL meeting in Vienna. What an exciting group of physicians, mathematicians, biologists, social scientists and what have you! Pure intellectuality - I felt very much at home. This group meets regularly to discuss issues of complexity. Sunday it was about boundaries and borders - what a subject! We were given some good input about cellular and other physiological / physical borders before we went into small group discussions.

Difficult to summarize what we said. But I started to understand that boundaries are nothing than mental concepts. "I stepped over your boundary," is nothing than my perception of another persons border. Even borders between states are nothing than mental maps - somtimes expressed physically. People knew the borders of territorities long before they started to mark them with stones. And then again - borders are just a transitional state. They are conceived in people's minds, expressed, and then torn down again.

Look at Europe: we all know the national borders and we respect them, so we don't need to mark them any more.

Look at the Berlin wall: In the moment people didn't feel the border anymore, it fell. And it fell so quickly; the Government of East Germany didn't need to dismantle it, the citizens did the work.

How much do I hope that Palestinians and Israelis, North and South Koreans or US Amercians and Mexicans are able do the same with their ugly walls.

Photo: from Tal Bright's photostream on Flickr (Creative Commons licensed)