Reflections from Ramallah, Taybeh, and Beit Sahour
Friday night we were the guests of a synagogue in West Jerusalem. It was beautiful to see the room full of Jewish families honoring God in song, reading, silence, and prayer. It was clear they intended nobody any harm; they just wanted to raise their families in the faith and traditions of their ancestors. It was a reminder that the struggle here is not about people. It's not about Jews versus Palestinians or vice versa. It's not about choosing who the good guys and bad guys are, as our media so often portrays it (and sadly, as our religious leaders so often do as well). The struggle here is about people being held in various forms bondage - both occupiers and the occupied each in their own ways, and everyone needs liberation.
This is a theme we keep hearing from both Christian and Muslim Palestinians, and I'm sure we'll hear it from many Israelis in the coming days as well - "We don't want you to take sides, us versus them. That will just expand the conflict. We we want you to stand for justice and peace, and work with God and with others to help us achieve justice and peace here."
People aren't the enemy. Rather, it's harmful ideologies and world views and narratives that rule and exert power in and through people's lives. Paul called these forces "principalities and powers," and they really do possess people and cause them to do terrible things they would never do in their right minds. When hateful and dehumanizing ideologies take control, both victimizers and victims are dehumanized.
In contrast, when people are liberated, when they refuse to conform to this world and instead are transformed by the renewing of their minds, when they surrender to the Spirit of God, when they seek first God's dream and God's justice, beautiful things happen. Today we saw many of those beautiful things alongside the razor wire and segregation walls.
Next to the ugliness of occupation, we've seen the beauty of God's Spirit at work ... shining in a Quaker Palestinian woman activist, glowing in a Franciscan Catholic priest, warm in an Eastern Orthodox family, radiant in a Muslim volunteer at a refugee center, sparkling in two professors - one Muslim and one Christian, who team teach college students about religion. In the land where Jesus walked and worked, there are many Christ-like people still walking and working ... in conditions not unlike those of the first century in many ways.
We're also experiencing God's Spirit working in and among our little group of pilgrims. At times, we've all felt anger. At other times, depression and cynicism, and a good bit of exhaustion and overwhelmed-ness too. But tonight, we're all staying in the homes of Palestinian families, and I imagine our friends are feeling what Grace and I are feeling: the love and presence of God fueling hope, like olive oil fueling a lit wick in a lamp. It's not an instant hope of quick fixes, like fake coffee in a styrofoam cup. It's a fresh-ground, slow-brewed hope that can be translated into action. Just being here is part of that action - listening, learning, thinking, observing, reflecting.
0 Comments4 Minutes
Some views from Palestine
These paintings by Banksy turn up on the segregation wall, gas station walls, the sides of buildings - each with a message that opens a window into life here.
A different message from Lady Liberty ...
Nonviolent resistance ...
Hope for change ...
Today our little band of pilgrims leaves Bethlehem and goes to Nazareth, from the place Jesus was born to where he grew up. Tonight we will sleep in the homes of Palestinian Christians and Muslims ...
0 Comments1 Minute
Guest Blog from Mike Todd: Day 3 in Palestine
Mike's story below is a perfect example of our experience here, and his conclusion deserves reflection among all our friends back home. (Sorry we left you behind, Mike!)
+++++
I'm always torn when I travel. I never blog much, preferring to engage fully in what is going on. But at the same time I know that if I don't capture the moment I'll probably lose a lot of it. Here's a quick snapshot of part of my day yesterday.
I've already mentioned that there are several Banksy's around the West Bank. Yesterday we stopped to get some photos of the one below, which ironically I have posted before, never knowing where the original was located. It's on the side of a gas station in Beth Sahour, just down the road from Bethlehem. Unfortunately the gas trucks didn't cooperate and the image was partially blocked, but we managed to swarm over the area and take several photos anyway.
My new friend Becca and I were the last two taking photos, down behind the truck you can see below. Everyone else finished up and boarded the bus. Assuming everyone was on board, they left. Imagine our surprise as Becca and I rounded the corner to find an empty parking lot! I looked to the three or four guys in front of the station and motioned as if to say, "Where are they?" The pointed down the road, waved, then smiled and shrugged their shoulders. Everyone broke out laughing. As we contemplated our next move, a car leaving the gas station pulled up, and the driver said to us, "They've left you. Jump in."
Becca and I looked at each other and jumped in. The irony didn't escape either of us. The prevailing tourist dogma tells you not to get off the bus because your life is in danger. At this point in our trip we knew better.
It turns out our new friend Nasar is from Toronto but was here visiting relatives. We all assumed we would catch the bus on the road. When we didn't, Nasar suggested we go to Nativity Square to see if we could find the group. We didn't. We talked as he drove us around Bethlehem looking either for the bus, or our next stop, which we vaguely remembered. Nasar got on the phone and called his cousin who knew where the center was, and five minutes later we were there. I asked Nasar if I could give him some gas money, to which he replied, "Don't insult me." We took a photo of our new friend, shook hands, and parted ways.
This may seem like a minor thing, but it symbolic of what we have encountered here. The narrative we are exposed to back home tells us this is a dangerous place, that simply to be here is risky. It goes without saying that the narrative says don't get into cars with strangers, that every Palestinian is a danger. This is not true. It seems the intent of this narrative is to keep us from coming, from seeing, and from abandoning the wrong story we have been told.
0 Comments4 Minutes
Countdown Day 17
Here's a recent interview with God Complex Radio ... I think you'll enjoy it.
Today's quote:
As I allowed Genesis, Exodus, and Isaiah – rather than Plato, Aristotle, and Caesar – to set the stage for the biblical narrative, what emerged dazzled me: a beautiful, powerful, gritty story that resonates with, gives meaning to, and continues to unfold in the life and teaching of Jesus. And this story invites our participation as well, not as pawns on the squares of a cosmic chessboard, but as creative protagonists and junior partners with God in the story of creation. (47)
From A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith (available February 9, 2010)
0 Comments1 Minute
More from the West Bank –
What a day it was today. Halfway through, many in our group of twenty felt that we couldn't take much more. We've heard heart-shattering stories of Palestinians being arrested without cause, tortured, humiliated, re-arrested, retortured ... told quietly and calmly by people who experienced these things first hand.
But what is especially powerful - and what keeps us from being overwhelmed with cynicism or anger - is the lack of hatred among the Palestinians we are meeting with - both Christians and Muslims. Again and again we hear the word "non-violent" and we see a desire not for revenge or even isolation ... but for reconciliation. To my surprise (based on expectations from the US media), I haven't met a single Palestinian who wants a two-state solution. They want to live in peace with Israelis. They want Jews, Muslims, and Christians to learn to live together as neighbors. One Palestinian scholar said it like this: "I want to live in a nation that respects basic human rights for everyone." A fellow in a refugee camp said, "I want to have Jewish neighbors so we can relate as equals, as human beings, not as guards and prisoners.... We have been victimized, but we never want to be victimizers." More on this later ...
Greg Barrett (author of The Gospel of Father Joe) who guest-blogged yesterday) adds this story:
An isolated but telling scene (for me) from the troubled Holy Land:
We were running late on Thursday for a lecture/interview with a Chicago-born Israeli settler, Ardie, at his synagogue in the West Bank’s Jewish-only “occupied” Ephrata Settlement. Our Palestinian tour guide, Ibrahim, glanced at his watch and looked concerned.
“Should I phone Ardie and let him know?” our host asked Ibrahim.
Ibrahim nodded yes-yes. “Please. That would be the polite thing to do.”
Twenty minutes later Ibrahim listened respectfully while Ardie disputed this idea of “occupied” territory. “For whatever reason God gave this land as a keepsake to the people of Israel,” Ardie said, citing the Torah. “That’s what I believe.” He glanced over at Ibrahim, who sat quietly and ten feet away. “So kill me. Not really!” Ardie said, shrugging, laughing, still looking at Ibrahim.
For forty-five minutes Ibrahim listened to Ardie and he never stirred, never interrupted. Even as Ardie chose insulting adjectives to describe the Palestinian territories pre-1948 — “This area was like a truck stop … a Howard Johnson’s. This was a HoJo of the world” — Ibrahim showed no reaction.
I later complimented Ibrahim on his incredible restraint. He shrugged. “It was Ardie’s floor. He and I — someday — can sit down and have dinner together.”
That quiet but gracious attitude is inspiring and frankly shocking ... unlike anything I've seen anywhere else. We in the US have been given a terribly false impression - from the media, from political leaders, and from many Christian and Jewish leaders as well. All of us who are here in Palestine are now witnesses to realities we can't be silent about in the future.
0 Comments4 Minutes