Several members of the European Parliament arrived in Efrat Wednesday for a tour and a discussion in the Efrat Local Council.
The meeting was part of ongoing outreach activities led by Efrat Mayor Oded Revivi in cooperation with external parties, and with the goal of weakening the automatic resistance to the Settlement Movement in Israel.
During the tour, the members of Parliament were surprised to learn about the shared traffic on the roads. The concept of apartheid was instantly removed from the table as soon as they saw and understood that the lives of Arabs and Jews are intertwined, and that Efrat has active and positive relationships with its neighbors in the surrounding Arab villages.
Later, Revivi shared with them that, "Inside Efrat there is an olive grove owned by a Palestinian. We watch over this vineyard. Palestinian family members come regularly to take care of it, and they are often helped by the Jewish residents of Efrat."
"The members of Parliament, who came from different countries, wanted to learn about the place of women, both in general society and in religious society, about women's involvement in politics and leadership, about coexistence, and also about the consequences of the election results," Revivi said.
He continued, "The purpose of the tours we host is to raise questions among the members of Parliament, to encourage them to stop imagining Judea and Samaria as a war zone, to show them the common way of life that we have created here."
Revivi believes that, "These friendly meetings, our willingness to open the door for them, and our honest answers significantly reduce resistance and demonic stigmas towards the Settlement Movement. We could only begin the real discussion about the challenges in the region after the visit, because we first needed to remove fears and stigmas."