A few thoughts on my experience in Palestine and Israel

Eep! So long since I've posted. December is a busy month.

First, a few notes on recent events:

1) Palestine won the vote at the United Nations to be a non-member observer state. Hooray.

2) Canada was one of nine countries that did not vote in Palestine's favour. Not our finest moment, if you ask me. Jeffrey Simpson wrote an interesting column in the Globe and Mail on Canada's Middle East / Israel policy.

Okay, now back to my trip. I wanted to leave you with a few concluding thoughts. I gave a presentation at my church in September and concluded that I was left with emotions of incredulity, anger, awe, and hope.

- Incredulity to hear of some of the things that are going on in the West Bank and Gaza - things that we don't hear about, that aren't being addressed.
- Anger - How can we stand by as this happens to people every day? Why aren't we more critical of injustice?
- Awe of those who remain, who continue to work for peace, to push for their human rights despite the major forces that are working against them.
- Hope that peace will come, that we will be able to work with the similarities between people as opposed to differences.

So that's that, then. My experiences this past summer continue to influence me and the way I hear the news, the way I see the conflict. No doubt there will be future posts as my thoughts are challenged so much that they must be put into words... but I think I'll take a bit of a break for Christmas :).

May your days this December (and always!) be filled with hope, peace, joy, and love.

Bethlehem Prayer

by The Very Rev. D. Giuliano, 

former Moderator of the United Church of Canada

O Mystery as grand as the universe

O Mighty Force of all creation,

O Power beyond all our power,

You have come to us as an infant:

Vulnerable, fragile, beautiful.

You have come to us in the midst of poverty, powerlessness and longing.

Come again, O Promiser of Peace.

Come again to the city of your birth mired in fear, oppression and injustice.

Come again, where bullet holes still pock the walls of Sanctuary.

Come again, where Children dream of homes they have never seen.

Come again, where a single key or the number 194 cry out again of forced journey to Bethlehem.

Be born again in the camps.

Be born again in stables and homes.

Be born again in many cities and languages.

Be born again among nations.

Be born again in places of injustice.

Be born again a promise of hope, a sign of love and joy to the world.

Be born again in our hearts, that we too might be called Makers of peace and Children of God.

Amen.

July 16 - Coming home

As I mentioned, the alarm was set for 3:15 am on the 16th so that we would have enough time to get to Tel Aviv and through airport security. I didn't get all that much sleep that night... which was too bad, because the day of travel lasted for about 30 hours, as I recall.

It wasn't too hard to get up that early, and we went to wait by the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem's Old City for our ride to the airport. We saw an impromptu checkpoint on our way to Tel Aviv. We didn't get stopped, but it was just another sign of the control held over people in the area (at 4 in the morning!).

So, I'm sure you've heard that Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv is renowned for its high levels of security. We had a briefing about the airport during the Sabeel conference, so we knew what to be prepared for... which calmed our nerves (slightly). The first stop is a security check even before you get into the airport - we were asked where we were headed, and got through without any trouble.

Once we got inside, we were asked many more questions - what we had done in the area, how we knew each other, whether or not we were given any gifts, etc. I thought we had pretty standard (read: boring) answers to all of these questions, but we still rated as 5s on their security scale (1-6, where 1 is low and 6 is high). So we were saved from a strip search, but our bags were unpacked before us as the security people scanned through our stuff (bags, of course, full of dirty clothes that had been worn in 40C+ heat... I do not envy the person who had to go through them...)

I had some books that I had purchased from Sabeel in my bag, so I guess this raised some more flags - I was then asked how long I had spent in various cities in the West Bank. I then had an escort to the British Airways desk and then to the metal detectors. Nice. When we got our 5s, stickers with bar codes were stuck on our passports - these were scanned at every stage of the process.

It all went okay, but it was a bit... unnerving. Just to have someone going through your things, to be questioned for the books that you are reading, to be asked whether you spent a lot of time in Palestine. And this is what I, as a foreign citizen, was faced with. I have heard that it is much more difficult for Palestinians (those Palestinians who are allowed to use the airport, that is. Many must travel through Jordan).

The rest of security was fairly normal (metal detector scans, etc.), just a little more in-depth and strict when compared with airports in Canada. I found myself wondering if all of these extra security measures were necessary... Fear can be a powerful force.

The flights home were uneventful - just long. We had some time at Heathrow for a delicious noodle lunch and some time to purchase British treats like McVitie's digestive cookies (sorry, biscuits) with caramel (yum!). Janelle abandoned me at the Toronto airport while I waited for my flight home to Ottawa.

I had, up until this point in my trip, avoided any Facebook or email activity that could have raised suspicions at Ben Gurion Airport (we had been told that, if you raise enough flags, they might ask to see your social media accounts), so my journal at this point records: "Am enjoying friending pro-peace friends and orgs on Facebook while I'm waiting for the plane to board. Free speech is a glorious thing."

I'll post again soon about some of my overall reflections about the trip, but this brings the actual travelogue part of my blog to a close. And I did it before Christmas! Before Advent, even! Woot. Thanks for sticking with me, friends.

July 15 - our last day in Jerusalem

Okay... so several months after my actual trip and (a few) fewer months since I started this blog, I am finally at the last full day of our trip! Slow and steady wins the race.

We worshipped at St. Andrew's Jerusalem in the morning. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Janelle and I had already visited the church, but it was nice to have the opportunity to experience worship there. And honestly, it could have been a Presbyterian church in Canada (or Scotland, I imagine). It was nice, after a week and a bit of different experiences, to be in a setting so familiar.

Goodbyes to other conference participants started right after worship. Those of us who had later flights walked back to the Old City and went for lunch at a restaurant that had falafel, lemonade with mint, and a beautiful view. All staples of the Jerusalem experience :). We did a bit of shopping in the market that afternoon; our bartering skills got Janelle a lovely scarf as a souvenir. And, obviously, there was time for ice cream.

Back at the hotel, we packed up our stuff, watched horrible movies and BBC news, and played Countdown Crazy 8s. (If you don't know it, this game is made specifically to pass time. It has no other purpose.) We were definitely ready to come home at this point.

We had a nice dinner with those conference participants who were still left (we had bid a few others adieu over the course of the afternoon), played more cards, and took one more walk through the Old City to the Damascus Gate. It was a lovely evening.

We got to bed around 10:00 pm that night in order to be prepared for our 3:15 am (!) wake-up call. But more about that, and our experience at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, another day.

For now, let's continue to keep the people of Israel and Palestine in our prayers. There is violence that is affecting everyone in that area; let us pray for peace. This is part of one of my favourite hymns in The Presbyterian Church in Canada's hymn book (and not just because it was written by my aunt!), and I think it is a particularly appropriate prayer right now:

We lay our broken world in sorrow at your feet,

Haunted by hunger, war, and fear, oppressed by power and hate.

We bring our broken towns, our neighbours hurt and bruised;

You show us how old pain and wounds for new life can be used.

We bring our broken selves, confused, closed and tired;

Then through your gift of healing grace, new purpose is inspired. 

 O Spirit, on us breathe with life and strength anew;

find in us love, and hope, and trust, and lift us up to you.

Anna Briggs 

Beer as creative resistance

My cool dad alerted me to this cool video about Taybeh Beer. We had the opportunity to visit this brewery when we were there in July. Not sure I agree with Nadim Khoury that beer is healthy, but it is neat to see how good it is for this community. Unfortunately, I don't think the beer is available in Canada (yet!).

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Gaza

My heart is saddened by the violence in Gaza. Today especially, peace seems particularly far away. From Sabeel:

Sovereign God of justice and peace, our hearts are broken once again by this week's escalation of violence in Gaza. Please bring about a just peace between the two sides. Lord, we mourn everyone killed in the attacks, especially lamenting the loss of several children. We cry out that the lives of these people are not dispensable, but are valuable beyond measure. We beg you, God, to calm the senseless storm of violence, and move politicians to make real and diligent progress toward peace. Lord, in your mercy...

July 14 - Nazareth, the Galilee and Jerusalem

My central memory of this day is, unfortunately, the heat. It was so. very. hot. We're talking 50C. There was a bit of wind at times, but it was hot too. Janelle and I decided that we can now say that we know what it is like to be in a clothes dryer.

Mosaics at Basilica

It was a good day, of course, full of more interesting and thought-provoking things. We started at the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth - the site where (supposedly) the angel told Mary that she was going to have a baby. The building is beautiful - it includes images of Mary and Jesus that have been sent from countries from around the world. So interesting to see all the different interpretations - how we all put Jesus and Mary in our own settings. The Canadian contribution was... not my favourite of the day. But it is unique! So there's that. We had some time for reflection at the Basilica, and it was a lovely setting to sit, walk, consider the things I'd seen over the past week.

Canada's contribution... I know I'm no photographer, but still...

front of the Basilica. Photo: Sabeel

We then visited the nearby Synagogue Church. It is said that this is where Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah and then told the gathered congregation that that scripture was being fulfilled there today. And then they wanted to throw him off a cliff. We had a lovely worship service there, though.

Worship in the Synagogue Church. Photo: Sabeel

Off to the Galilee after that - when the heat really started to kick in. We drove through Cana (of water turning to wine fame), heading to the Church of the Primacy of Peter. We had one of our first glimpses of the Sea of Galilee here - where Jesus recruited disciples, calmed the storm and walked on water. Not quite what I had pictured in my mind... the day we were there, cottagers were out on the jet skis and motor boats. Imagine having a cottage on the Sea of Galilee?!?

We had lunch on the Mount of the Beatitudes, the site of another famous J.C. public speaking engagement. There is a lovely church and a beautiful garden there, looking over the sea. Again, the parallels between Jesus time and today were very evident - thinking of those in the region who mourn, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who are peacemakers.

Church on the Mount of the Beatitudes

Our final stop in the Galilee was Capernaum. A church there is said to be near the home of Peter, and there were ruins of synagogue that contained stones that would have been there 2000 years ago. When so much has changed since that time, it is interesting to see what is still left. We didn't stay long here (see above note re: heat).

We had a really nice drive back to Jerusalem, part of which was along the sea. Lots of tourists and Israeli flags at beach resorts along the way. Back in Jerusalem's Old City, we had our last debriefing session that evening on the hotel roof - sharing our favourite and not-so-favourite things from the week (in the midst of the Muslim call to prayer and a light show at the nearby Tower of David museum).

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

A setback... and reason to keep working for peace

Beit Arabiya, the house that had been demolished five times that we helped (in a very minor way) to re-build in July, has been demolished for a sixth time. There are many emotions going through me - anger, sadness, frustration, incredulity, discouragement. I wonder what it was like for the family when the soldiers came to demolish their home. I wonder where Arabiya, Salim and their children are going to sleep tonight, where their kids are doing their homework, where they're sharing meals together. Home is such an essential part of health.

Photo: ICAHD

Photo: ICAHD

As the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions says, "Beit Arabiya poses a challenge to everyone who believes that law and human rights should be the basis of our collective life, not power or violence." Work for peace must continue.

Arabiya and Salim. Photo: ICAHD

July 13 - To Nazareth, with some stops along the way...

We left Taybeh in the morning and headed to the Jordan River to see the spot where Jesus had been baptized. Lots of Israeli flags around the baptismal site, and fences warning you of mines. Lovely. We had a nice time of reflection down at the water, then asked a soldier nearby to take a photo (hoping that he would put down his gun to take the picture... no such luck... prompting one participant to request that he shoot the photo, not the gun...). The river, at this point at least, is quite narrow, with Jordan (the country) just on the other side.

We then headed to the Dead Sea for a float. It was pretty neat - when I would try to put my feet on the bottom, my body would just not do what I have come to expect it to do in water. We did the mud thing too, just like we were supposed to... But I had managed, somehow, to get water in my eyes by this point - not too pleasant - so I got out to rinse in non-salty water. A few of us, instead, had a nice, relaxing float in a chlorinated kiddie pool. Kind of weird when the chlorinated pool is the refreshing, cool option...

We had a nice lunch in Jericho and saw the tree where, supposedly, Zaccheus climbed up to see Jesus. There were some people from Ramallah who were travelling with us but who could not continue with us at this point to Nazareth. They were not able to get permits (Nazareth is in Israel), so had to turn around and head back to Ramallah. The realities of the occupation for residents of the West Bank.

The drive to Nazareth that afternoon was lovely - we watched the scenery change from desert to more agricultural land. And because we crossed the "border" between the West Bank and Israel, we had another walk through the bus by a few soldiers.

When we arrived in Nazareth, we went up to the top of Mount Precipice, off of which, it is said, the people of Nazareth were ready to throw Jesus when he returned to the city. It was a beautiful view of the city.

Our meeting with Jafar Farah, the Director of Mossawa ("equality") Centre that works to promote equality for the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, gave us an interesting look at a group of people we had yet to consider in our trip - people who live in Israel, but who are Arab-Palestinian. Identity is an interesting question, Jafar told us - he lives in Israel, but is he Israeli? What does that mean? The occupation poses challenges for this group of people as well - they are cut off from family members and friends who live in the West Bank, and are not always afforded access to holy places. When asked about whether the solution lies with one or two states, Jafar cited the examples of Switzerland, Spain and Belgium. There need to be balances to run the country.

Jafar also gave us a quick tour of a new tv studio that will be dedicated in Arabic broadcasting in the area.

Another day full of activity, ideas and reflection.

I'm gonna lay down my sword and shield, down by the riverside

Down by the riverside, down by the riverside

I'm gonna lay down by sword and shield, down by the riverside

Ain't gonna study war no more 

In solidarity

So much going on, so many causes, so little time to blog. But I did want to bring your attention to a person and a group of people who are, right now, in the thick of working for a more just world.

You might recall that I met Moriel Rothman when I was in the Middle East earlier this year. Moriel was born in Israel, raised in the US and then returned to Israel. His number has come up, so to speak, in the draft to serve in the Israeli Defence Forces, and he is refusing. His blog is detailing his experiences (though it is being written by others while Moriel is being detained). I would encourage you to check out his blog - some amazing thoughts on non-violence, and so inspiring to see someone stand up for love and peace.

Secondly... last weekend, I attended KAIROS' intergenerational gathering called Re: Generate. (Remember Bev Oda? Yes, that KAIROS.) We heard over the weekend from members of an Aboriginal community in Barrier Lake, Quebec. The land which this community calls home is currently being clear-cut by Resolute Forest Products, and these community members are doing all they can to reclaim their land and their lives. There are many ways you can stand with the Algonquin people - writing letters, signing petitions, bearing witness to what is going on.

All around, I am inspired by those who are willing to put almost everything at risk to stand up for what is right. The least I can do is stand in solidarity with them, bringing attention to their causes.

UPDATE!

And one more to add... A good friend of mine is currently working in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She posted this article on Facebook yesterday about a doctor with whom she is working there. Dr. Mukwege provides desperately-needed health care to tens of thousands of women (many of whom are victims of sexual violence), and advocates for women's rights and peace in his troubled land. And yesterday...

On the evening of 25 October 2012 around 19:00, four armed men, not in uniform, entered Dr. Denis Mukwege’s house in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The armed men forced Dr. Mukwege’s two daughters and their friend at gunpoint to sit silently on the floor until he returned home. On his arrival, roughly half an hour later, one of the armed men opened the gate and forced Dr. Mukwege out of the vehicle and demanded he hand over his keys. The security guard on duty ran out shouting to intervene and was shot and killed. The armed men fired the remaining bullets at Dr. Mukwege, who threw himself on the ground narrowly avoiding the gunfire. The men then fled in Dr. Mukwege’s vehicle, which they quickly abandoned before hijacking another vehicle.  The identity of the armed men and their current location is unknown. 

Another example of someone working for justice in the midst of unimaginable obstacles. Perhaps, if nothing else, a letter to your MP or our dear Minister of Foreign Affairs is in order? Canada should speak out loudly against violence like this (particularly since our PM was just there talking about sexual violence...).

July 12 - a day in Taybeh

This was such a wonderful day of our trip. We started in the morning with a visit to the town's Catholic church. After hearing a bit about the church from the priest, we went outside to witness the beginning of a vacation Bible school. Tons of kids around, with youth leading actions and dance moves at the front. Quite fun! We didn't know the first few, so had to follow along with the kids... but you'll be glad to know that the Macarena and the Chicken Dance are universal.

The priest then took us on a tour of the Parable House - a 300 year-old house that the church uses to teach people about the parables. The priest showed us examples of things that occur in parables but that might be a bit far from our every day realities. The part I found the most interesting, though, was the lower room in the house. This was where the animals would have stayed, and it was explained to us that this was probably similar to the building in which Jesus was born - the family would have lived upstairs, but made space for Mary and Joseph down below with the animals. Cool.

Wonderful Palestinian hospitality never ceased to amaze me, and we finished our time at the Catholic church with drinks, cookies, and a peace dove carved out of olive wood for each of us - so that we too could be reminded to work for peace.

Our group then split up to go to the houses of a few different families in the town. And then we had a cooking lesson! Very fun. The family I visited with a few others had a lovely home and we had a great morning. We cored little eggplants and zucchini, then stuffed them with rice, spices, tomatoes and beef. The dish took a long time to cook, so we passed the time with tea, fruit, and Arabic music videos. Good times. And when it was ready, it was delicious!

We then had a *very* special treat in getting to see the Taybeh Brewery. Very cool. And I was able to bring home a nice Taybeh Beer beer glass for a certain father who enjoys a nice cold one now and again.

Back to the hotel, then, for a bit of free time. I wrote in my journal: "The setting of the guest house here is idyllic. I am sitting on our huge balcony - terrace, really - in the shade, lots of wind, looking out over hills, olive trees, the Dead Sea. Perfect."

We heard, later that afternoon, from Jean Zaru, a Quaker Palestinian woman and one of the founding members of Sabeel. She spoke to us about faith, women and the occupation. While women in the West Bank face inequality from many different perspectives, Jean told us that she is inspired by the truth that we are all equal, made in God's image.

We had an interesting activity that evening - a lectio divina. This is, briefly, where you take a piece of scripture and meditate on it. We used the graffiti we had seen on the wall the morning before as our scripture - we were each to pick one bit of graffiti and then share some of our reflections on that piece with the group. I chose, "I was just following orders." It raised many interesting questions for me... Who wrote this - an Israeli or a Palestinian? Feelings of guilt in this conflict could be very entwined - if an Israeli wrote it, perhaps they were feeling guilty for things they had done while serving in the military. If a Palestinian, maybe they felt bad for not being braver, for leaving a house that was about to be demolished or something. It follows that liberation and freedom would be entwined. The occupation affects both sides in a negative way, I think, so ending it would bring freedom to liberty to so many.

For your reading pleasure...

A blog post from another participant in the Sabeel conference that I attended this summer. Sam writes about non-violent resistance, and the clear example we saw at the Tent of Nations. (My earlier musings on the Tent of Nations are here.)

Questions from Laura I - Faith and politics

Every once in a while, I fancy myself an academic. Not in the go-into-debt-write-papers-get-a-degree sense of the term... more so the pose-random-overarching-questions-just-to-have-an-interesting-conversation sense.

So I've been thinking about a few recently. The first set are about faith and politics. Separately but also related. Jeffrey Simpson made some comments about this in the Globe and Mail last week. A few interesting thoughts from this:

• religion is a powerful force in the Conservative Party of Canada (Simpson's evidence: recent vote in the House of Commons on abortion)
• some churches campaign vigorously against abortion
• other foreign policy positions of the current government are popular with evangelical churches
• evangelical churches are growing, "traditional" Protestant denominations are shrinking
• "Social Gospelers" are "all but extinct in the modern NDP"
• Evangelicals support the current government both financially and with votes

So here are my rambling, disorganized questions on which I will base my PhD someday (or at least occupy a dinner's worth of conversation):

1. Why are "traditional" Protestant denominations losing members and evangelical churches growing? Is it because of their politics that people get involved in evangelical churches?

2. Why are evangelical churches more politically active than traditional Protestant churches? Are Protestant churches afraid of scaring people away from their already-dwindling numbers? Is it like Joe Biden - we believe things but we are not going to force them on anyone else? Separation of church and state?

3. Is all of this related to the lack of overtly religious people in the NDP? What happened to the "Social Gospelers"?

4. For those churches that do choose to be politically active, why abortion? Why same sex marriage? Why not poverty, homelessness, inequality, the environment, etc.?

5. What about other faiths? What do they think about the interaction between faith and politics?

Leave some thoughts, pose more questions, discuss amongst yourselves, live into your faux academic-ness. :)

and even more July 11 - Ramallah and Taybeh

After our morning at the wall and with Sabeel, we headed to Ramallah. I wrote in my journal, "This felt like a real big city, where people live and work. It was neat to see that." We had free time in Ramallah and split off into smaller groups... I obviously chose the group that was prioritizing sampling Ramallah's renowned ice cream. (remember how ice cream is usually tops for me?) We visited Baladna - recommended by several of the Palestinians in the group - and it did not disappoint.

We also went to see two churches in Ramallah, and then to a shady patio for a cold drink (I know... rough afternoon). We stayed there for awhile and chatted - it was a perfect way to spend an afternoon. On the way back to the bus, we stopped in to a store to look for a bathing suit for someone who had forgotten hers (stay tuned for stories of the Dead Sea!). Like grocery stores, it is always cool to see what shops are like in a different country.

When we were finished in Ramallah, we headed to Taybeh. It was a beautiful drive through the West Bank countryside - rocky hills and valleys. Not like anything I've ever seen before. And lots of olive trees. Beautiful.

We stayed in a guest house in Taybeh with beautiful big, windy balconies where we could look out over the town and the fields of olive trees. We met one of the priests from the town, who told us a bit about Taybeh. The town is the only Christian town in the West Bank - other faiths are not excluded, it's just that there are no mosques or synagogues in the town. About 1500 people live there. The town is surrounded by settlements, but they have not had too many issues with settlers coming in. Two other notable things about Taybeh: it is mentioned in the Bible - after Lazarus' resurrection, Jesus came to Taybeh. (Taybeh used to be called Ephraim.) Also interesting - there is a successful brewery in the town. Only in the all-Christian town would you find such a thing... :) But more about that another day.

Taybeh

Trying, to no avail, to find the wifi signal

olive trees

And now for something a little different... Happy Thanksgiving!

I noticed yesterday, to my dismay, that #100ThingsIHate was trending on Twitter in Canada. While this kind of cynicism normally drives me up the wall, it seemed particularly ridiculous on Thanksgiving weekend. There is so much to be thankful for. Seriously.

So I set out to tweet #100ThingsILove. It didn't start a trend, unfortunately, but it was a good exercise for me to think about what I'm thankful for. Here is my list (in no particular order):

more July 11 - Christians in Palestine

The morning of July 11 was a time to think about Christians living in Palestine and where they fit into what we were seeing. The Christian population in the region has shrunk considerably in the past few years - it is now down to less than 2%. Many Christians have been able to immigrate because they have a strong educational background; this is because churches often have schools attached.

Photo: J. Yanishewski

We started the day at Sabeel's office in Jerusalem. We heard the story of Rev. Sari Ateek, the son of Rev. Naim Ateek, Sabeel's founder. Sari now serves a congregation near Washington, DC, but he shared with us that day what it was like growing up in Haifa and Jerusalem, and experiencing the occupation. He remembers the intifada when he was in school, and told us about the beginnings of suicide bombings, a few years before he graduated from high school. With the conflict at this whole new level, he went to the United States for college.

We talked about the fact that this conflict is made even more complicated and difficult by the fact that it isn't just politics - there is a strong religious element. Sari talked about the difficulties with the education system in the region - the different sides of the conflict have their versions of history, and that is the information that is provided to school children. He mentioned the situation of Israelis in particular, and how they often don't hear any of the other versions of history until they enter college - after they have completed high school and their mandatory military service.

Sari expressed his hope to us that there would be a strong Palestinian leader in the near future - someone who could get all Palestinians to renounce violence so that Israel would no longer be able to use security as the rationale behind their actions in the West Bank. While I'm not sure that that would solve everything, it would certainly help.

"One night, we went to sleep in Palestine and woke up in Israel."

We also heard from Cedar Duaibis, an amazing woman who helped to found Sabeel. She lived through the Nakba in 1948, so told us her family's story. Her family was living in Haifa, but they fled to Nazareth in 1948. She described Haifa as being, "on fire." She described how people fleeing left their keys with neighbours so that plants could be watered while they were gone - everyone thought that they would return. Those coming into Haifa found tables set for dinner, hot food, bath tubs running - people fled with just the clothes on their backs. Eventually Nazareth was taken over as well. Cedar said, "One night, we went to sleep in Palestine and woke up in Israel."

Cedar described for us then the advent of Palestinian Liberation Theology. During the Nakba, the Bible was being used as a source of oppression - it was described as the deed of the Jewish people to the land. So Palestinian Christians started questioning - they were trying to live by the Bible, to live faithful lives... and yet it was being used to oppress them. How could this be God's plan? People stopped coming to church - they were not able to listen to the readings that were being used against them. For Cedar and many other Palestinian Christians, this internal conflict with her faith was more difficult than the one surrounding her.

"There is good news in the Bible for everyone - even Palestinians."

Photo: J. Yanishewski

Rev. Naim Ateek, the founder of Sabeel, found that churches were providing social services to those in need, but were not discussing theology. He said, "There is good news in the Bible for everyone - even Palestinians." While the basis of liberation theology in Latin America focused more on poverty, Rev. Ateek focused on injustice. He set out to answer these questions of Palestinians by reading the Bible through Palestinian eyes. This work was published in Rev. Ateek's book, Justice and Only Justice: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation. Sabeel was founded to put Palestinian Liberation Theology into practice. The Center runs programs to help Christians draw on their faith when working for justice and reconciliation.

July 11 - Graffiti on the wall

We started the day at the wall, walking along the West Bank side in Bethlehem to see the graffiti. A beautiful form of creative resistance. We saw expressions of hope, anger, peace, love. Many pictures are included below (you can click on the images to make them bigger).

After our walk, we went through the checkpoint again, this time singing a modified version of "O Come, All Ye Faithful." Another art form as creative resistance. Love it.

While we were going through, we observed one old man who had trouble walking on his own going through the checkpoint. He had someone else assisting him for much of the walk through the checkpoint - which was a considerable distance for someone who obviously had difficulty walking - but was on his own for the turnstiles. No accessibility accommodations, that's for sure. I gained a whole new understanding of the checkpoints that morning - how inconvenient they are for those who cross every day to go to work or school, but also how crossing them can be next to impossible for some...

O come all ye faithful, those who care for justice,

O look ye, o look ye at Bethlehem

Come and behold it, under occupation

O come let's not ignore it, O come let's not ignore it

O come let's not ignore it - tell the world.

Sing all ye people, sing in indignation,

Be with the citizens of Bethlehem

Sing out for justice, freedom from oppression

O come let's not ignore it, O come let's not ignore it

O come let's not ignore it - tell the world.

Deborah Maccoby, Just Peace UK 2002