Last Friday morning started out just fine. Excited about our upcoming weekend trip to Tiberias and Nazareth, my roommates and I woke up full of excitement and expectations of the weekend to come. Selfishly, I was excited for the sense of escape the weekend would bring...I love Palestine and it is wonderful to be here, but I also wanted a weekend where I would not have to constantly be aware of so much pain and suffering. So we headed out at 9:15 and made our way to the Gilo walking checkpoint in Bethlehem. Usually this checkpoint is not very busy, but on this day, there were people lined up outside, waiting to get through security. Some people were shoving and shouting and pushing their way through the line, but the majority of people were just laughing it off nonchalantly, like this was something to be expected. We waited in this line for 30 minutes, listening to soldiers shouting, "One by one!" in Arabic. Once we made it through this line, we thought we were in the clear, only to find crowds of people waiting in the next line to pass through security and the metal detector. It was chaotic and there were soldiers parading the catwalks above, shouting and pointing their guns at the people below. A fellow foreigner came up to us and asked if we would like to share a taxi to go through a different checkpoint. She had lived here for 3 years before as a tour guide, so we followed her, only to find out that the soldiers were not too keen about letting us through that checkpoint, meaning we would have to travel unnecessarily to a checkpoint in a different city. So we went back to see if the lines had died down at all. Unfortunately, they had not.
The 3 of us stood there in disbelief, watching the Palestinians being herded, pushed, and shoved. The soldiers had shut down 2 of the gates, leaving only 2 open for hundreds of people. When I asked one of the Palestinians why it was so busy, he explained that most of the people waiting were going to pray at the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Friday is the holy day for Muslims, and many Muslims are onlyallowed into Jerusalem on Fridays to pray. It made me furious that the soldiers were making people wait hours upon hours in the first place, and even more furious that they were preventing them from praying. Someone had once described the process of the checkpoints as similar to herding cattle. This image is strikingly accurate. Standing to the side and watching the Palestinians contained in such a small place, fighting to move forward, brought tears to my eyes. I felt almost guilty crying, especially since I am a tourist and am given so many privileges compared to them. They are the ones who have to experience all of this, while I merely stand to the side, carrying my American passport. A few people asked why we didn't just leave and go to the other checkpoint. The answer we gave them was essentially if they couldn't pass through the checkpoint, why should we be able to? I think they were shocked by this answer, because none of them said a word after that. This was an experience of true accompaniment. It was a peaceful way for us to publicly announce our solidarity with the Palestinians and to "walk a mile in their shoes," as much as we could.
I think one of the most memorable experiences of the morning for me was a conversation I had with a Palestinian woman. As I was standing off to the side, fighting back tears, she came over to me and greeted me. We spoke in Arabic, and I exhausted pretty much all of the vocabulary I had. When I asked her how she was doing, she said, "Ilhamdullalah." "Thank God." I am still amazed at the use of this phrase...even when it seems like there is nothing to thank God for in a situation, people still emphatically use this phrase...and they mean it too. There is nothing fake or sarcastic about it, it is genuine. We saw eachother again in the line to get through security, and everyone time our gaze met, we both smiled. From then on it was an unspoken bond.
3 hours later, we boarded the bus to our destination, feeling drained, frustrated, and helpless. Having hoped to escape the situation for the weekend, I realized that my desire was impossible. I can't escape from this...from this point on in my life, I will never be able to forget Palestine or put it on the back burner in my mind. Nor do I want to. It is my responsibility to remember these people and this country, and it is my privilege to be able to tell their stories.

Hebron

Last Sunday, Marta and I were invited by a friend to visit Hebron, the largest city in the West Bank, which is located 30 Kilometers south of Jerusalem. It is the second biggest commerical center of Palestine and has religious significance for Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. Abraham's Mosque is located here, which included the tombs of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebeccah, and Jacob and Leah. Some also believe that Adam and Eve are buried here. Therefore, the religious signifiance to these 3 faiths is undeniable. Unfortunately, this has created problems between Palestinians and Israeli settlers living in Hebron, both of whom think they have rights to this holy place. Hebron is divided into 2 sectors, H1 and H2. H1 is under full Palestinian control, while H2 remains under Israeli control to protect the Jewish settlers living there. In the H2 sector, there are 4 Israeli soldiers for every one Jewish settler living there. In addition, the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) has armed each settler with weapons to "protect" themselves against the Palestinians. Hebron is a place where much violence has occurred and it continues to be a conflicted area. This was apparent, as we walked through the streets of the Soukh (the market). A once bustling area, the market is now nearly desolate, with only a handful of stores still open. As I looked above, I was disgusted to see that the storeowners were forced to put a net above their stores to protect themselves from the trash and junk the Jewish Settlers throw down at them. I have even heard stories of settlers throwing hot water down onto the vendors. This type of nonsensical violence is so frustrating and so impossible to understand.
Khalil, our friend, was excited to give us a tour of Hebron and to show us Abraham's Mosque, mentioned above. Unfortunately, this required going through a checkpoint, which was time consuming and unfair. Why should Palestinians have to go through a checkpoint to visit a holy site which is on their own land? Why should anyone, for that matter, have to do that? The first time we tried getting through, the soldiers refused us because it was the time of prayer for Muslims. This was very frustrating for Khalil, as he only wanted to show us around his city, and the soldiers were making it complicated. Luckily, we were able to come back later and see the Mosque, which was beautiful. While there, we started talking with a man who was present during the 1994 Massacre in Abraham's Mosque. On February 25, 1994, when over 800 Muslims were present at the Mosque for their Dawn prayer, the first of their 5 prayers during the day, Dr. Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish American Zionist, entered at the back of the Mosque and threw a hand grenade into the crowd of worshippers. He then opened fire, killing more than 29 people and injuring more than 125. The man who we were talking to had not only been present at the Mosque this day...he was also shot in the arm, and his son, who came to the scene to see if his father was ok, was shot and killed. When he was telling this story, he kept saying "hamdullalah" ("Thanks be to God") and I was amazed at how he could say this. Even though he had experienced this tragedy, he was able to keep praising God. Throughout this story I was fighting back tears...I just could not believe how cruel and inhumane Goldstein was, and the scary thing is that some people commemmorate this day and go to his tombstone on each anniversary of the massacre to celebrate what Goldstein did. How could anyone celebrate something so tragic? How could anyone believe that killing Muslims, whose only crime was being in the Mosque at that time, was worthy of celebration?
Needless to say, my time in Hebron was full of ups and downs. It is a fascinating city, both for religous and commercial purposes. However, it is also a city fraught with conflict and violence. The landscape is beautiful, but it is also laden with Israeli checkpoints and soldiers with guns. The people are warm and friendly, but there is an unmistakable sense of anger and frustration with the situation.
The day ended well, with a trip to Khalil's village, 30 minutes outside of Hebron. His family showed us Palestinian hospitality and welcomed us with open arms into their house and into their lives. These people put a face to the "conflict" that we hear about. I will never be able to look at the Palestinian/Israeli conflict in the same way as I was before living here...I have learned so much from the people I have met, and I am so grateful for each of those experiences. Seeing and experiencing all of this is really hard sometimes, but it is a necessary part of learning and living here.

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called Children of God

Last Thursday, as the Lutheran Church here and around the world was preparing for Reformation celebrations, and as people at home were preparing for the exciting holiday of Halloween, I attended a candlelight peace march to the Wall in Bethlehem. Preceding the march was a 2 hour long service, mostly in Arabic and German, commemmorating the 125th Anniversary of Reformation Lutheran Church in Beit Jala. This service was attended by many, including the first woman bishop of Germany, the President of the ELCJHL (Evangelical Lutheran Churches in Jordan and the Holy Land), a Jewish Rabbi, and pastors and priests of many different Christian churches around the area. Although I could not understand much of what was said, the overall atmosphere of the room was exciting. Everyone was wearing their Palestine scarves and everyone was there for the same purpose...to celebrate the work of this church and to celebrate Palestine and come together to pray for peace. One of the speakers mentioned the Be-Attitudes in Matthew, and the part that particularly struck me was the one that I used for the title of this post. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called Children of God." Peace is a word that is used often here, usually in a longing manner. What does peace in this area of the world look like? I imagine that the majority of people living here would not be able to answer that question. But services like this, where Christians and Jews alike felt free to voice their hopes for peace, give me hope for a better future for Palestine and Israel.
The church service was followed by a candlelight march to the wall, a nonviolent means of resistance and a way to show our accompaniment with the Palestinians. It was an emotional experience for me, to see thousands of people walking together peacefully, all hoping for a new day to come. It reminded me of Psalm 18:29, which had been mentioned in the service: "...with my God I can scale a wall."As I watched three young boys climb onto eachother's shoulders and place the Palestinian flag in the crevices of the Wall, I was reminded of the fact that God is way bigger than this will.
Unfortunately, after I returned home, I received a call from a friend asking me if I had gotten home safely, as Israeli soldiers had come to the area and started shooting. This definitely put an ironic twist to the peace march. I would have liked to end this blog on a completely positive and hopeful note, but the truth is that many nonviolent forms of resistance end in a violent reaction by the Israeli soldiers. It is unfair and doesn't make any sense, but this gives us more reason to pray for peace, in this area and also in other parts of the world that need hope.