Church in Bethlehem

Yesterday was my first time helping with the Palestinian kids at a Paidia event. They played several games and activities on the soccer field, a lot of them involving problem solving and figuring out how to work together to accomplish something.

This morning we went to a church in Bethlehem. The service was in Arabic, but they had headphones for us with the English translation. The basic style of the service felt very Western, much more so than the last Arabic church service I went to, which was at a Sudanese church in Clarkston, GA.

Peace,

Jon

The View from Our Porch

An Interesting Conversation with a New Friend

Well, we made it to Poland and then to Israel and now to the West Bank. It was a long trip and I can't believe I am actually here on the other side of the world from where I've always been before. One of the most interesting things so far was a conversation with someone at the Chopin Airport in Warsaw. I wrote the story of this conversation in my journal, but Michael already wrote most of what I was going to say in his last post, with his perspectives on it, of course.

I will add a little bit, though. After seeing the monuments in Poland and going to the Jewish ghetto that was destroyed by the Nazis and studying some over the last months about the history of the Jews in Europe and the holocaust, it was moving to talk to an older Jewish gentleman at the airport who was born in Poland and left when he was 8 because of the war. An American Jewish girl, Hannah, who we also met at the airport said her grandfather has his tattooed number on his arm from Auschwitz. I try to wrap my mind around the fact that this isn't just history for many people, but life experience. Hannah said that the holocaust museums and memorials are especially hard for her, because she is so aware that it could have easily been her there.

We didn't dwell on that topic for very long at the airport and asked each other what we are doing in Israel. She is spending the summer here learning Arabic from someone in Israel. I told her where we were going and asked her if she'd ever been to the Palestinian territories. She said she has been to the West Bank, or the other side of the green line, which, she informed me, is part of Israel, it is not Palestinian territory.

(The "green line" was formed in 1948 when the land West of it became the new state of Israel and the land East of it was occupied by the country Jordan. In the 1967 Six Day War Israel occupied the land between the green line and the River Jordan, an area that is known as the West Bank. Today many Palestinians refer to this as the Occupied Territory. Many Israelis call it the Administered Territory and some, like Hannah, claim it is simply a part of Israel.)

As she pointed out, there are now Jews living in the West Bank in settlements. Palestinians often say these are colonies, Jews, like Hannah, often say they are just towns. As Michael said, Hannah had issues with many of our terms even though we never said, "occupied territories" or "Jewish colonies" or mentioned "the wall."

Even though she had some quite different perspectives from us, I enjoyed talking to someone who is quite knowledgeable about the situation, even if her knowledge seems somewhat one-sided and she thinks a lot of things, people, and places don't actually exist. For example, in addition to their being no Palestinian territories and no Jewish settlements, there is not a Palestinian people (she meant that they are simply Arabs and therefore belong in Arab lands, not in Palestine) and there are no such thing as Messianic Jews (there could be Christians of Jewish descent, but she said you can be either Christian or Jew, never both.)

We talked a couple hours at the airport and became friends quite quickly. When we thought there were going to be quite a few empty seats on the plane, she even wanted us to come sit with her. I respect her wanting to learn Arabic and understand that she sees the language barrier as a big problem for Israelis and Arabs. I think there are a lot of other, even bigger barriers, though. It is such a segregated place. Most Israelis will never truly see and meet the walled-in Palestinians. But I guess that's OK. After all, they don't really exist anyway.

A Non-Existent People

"How long will you be over there?" a new acquaintance Hannah asked as we all sat at the gate waiting to board our flight to Tel Aviv from Warsaw.  Jon and I had returned to the airport around 6pm, which was just a tad early for our scheduled 11pm departure.  We had taken a good long nap at the gate, and when we awoke, we were greeted by a fresh young face, Hannah. She had just finished her sophomore year of college in the States and was traveling to Israel to visit some cousins and study Arabic for three months.  And she was Jewish.

"Just two months," Jon replied.
"OK. Where will you be?"
"In the West Bank, living in the Palestinian territories," remarked Jon, not intending to be confrontational.  But, as I have learned when discussing this conflict, because it is a political conflict, most every comment is also political, and is often rather charged.
"Well, the West Bank is in Israel," she calmly but sternly correctly.  Jon and I glanced at each other.  We now knew, for the most part, the position Hannah would be arguing if the conversation drifted into a debate.  Without speaking to each other, Jon and I seemed to agree, though, not to create too big a scene by throwing out accusation after accusation or fact after fact.  Not only did we not want to assume we had the credentials to do such, but we also did not want to be overly offensive or confrontational with our new friend.  Additionally, we had just met a Polish Jew who survived the war who was sitting very close by.  Offending his appreciation for Israel was not on our To-Do list.

Our conversation with Hannah turned into a worthwhile discussion.  We were all very cordial with one another, agreeing to disagree when integrity would not allow us to compromise our position for politeness' sake.  We learned some of her story.  She was from New Jersey, studying Philosophy in Annapolis.  She was quite articulate and thoughtful, defending her case for Israel in eloquent ways.  Her grandfather had numbers tattooed on his forearm, bearing testimony to the suffering he experienced in the Auschwitz death camp.  Whether or not she was adequately informed on the reality of the conflict on the ground, she has much reason, in terms of family history, to desire a homeland for the Jewish people.  But, I thought, perhaps she does not realize the cost of such a dream.

We did not spend the whole two hours of our conversation discussing the political situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories, though.  We ventured into more cheery subjects of language study, travel, college, et al.  But eventually, the dialogue wandered back to a place of disagreements.

"What all are you going to be doing there?" Having told us a while back what she was going to do, I suppose she thought it polite to inquire as to our journey's purpose.  Once again, ol' Jon had to stir up stormy waters with his apparently highly controversial statements:
"We will be working with mentally disabled Palestinian children and engaging with youth in a kind of summer camp experience."
"Well, unfortunately," she began, with a somewhat patronizing tone, "there are a lot of places in the world that need help."  Her tone and look seemed to be suggesting that perhaps we were not using our time to serve in the most appropriate of places.
"I agree," Jon replied gently, "but you gotta start somewhere.  We will start with the Palestinians."
"Well," Hannah's voice had a slightly hesitant, warning sound to it, "I'm not really sure there is a Palestinian people."  Jon and I both sat up at that comment.  She continued, "Now, don't get me wrong, I am usually very determined to call a people whatever they want to be called.  But, to call someone Palestinian is just misleading."

We probed into this loaded statement to discover how she was making such a claim.  She went on to say that the people that call themselves "Palestinian" are simply Arab.  To call them Palestinian is to suggest they belong to Palestine, which as she was clear about it, does not and (I'm sure she would argue and hope) will not exist.  They are "simply Arab."  As Jon and I tried to deconstruct her assertion later, we realized that this claim was a crucial one for her to make.  In order to promote the idea of a ethnically exclusive Jewish nation-state, one must delegitimize  the belonging the Palestinian people feel to the land.  One must dissolve their need to be here.  By drastically simplifying the Palestinians to the label of "Arab," the Palestinians then no longer have any ties to historic Palestine.  They can find a home wherever other Arab people are.  They are all the same.  I didn't ask her, but I would assume, under that same logic, she could not call the indigenous people of North America "Native Americans" or even "American Indians."  To do that, suggests they have some legitimate claim to this land, which I suppose every good American colonizer would have to vehemently debate.    

Hannah said she had been to the West Bank before (well, actually she didn't even want to call it that. She simply referred to the area as "over the Green Line").  Jon pointedly asked if her time spent "over the Green Line" was only spent in the Jewish settlements of her friends and relatives.  After correcting his use of the term "settlement," she then answered "yes."  I then made a humble suggestion: "Next time you go to the West Bank, you might try visiting a Palestinian town. You will hear a very different story down in the valleys than you will in the hilltop settlements."  I think she acquiesced simply for the sake of moving on in the conversation.

The experience talking with Hannah was beneficial.  For both Jon and me, it provided us with the opportunity to dialogue about an extremely controversial situation with someone who did not agree with us and try to do so amiably.  We all walked away friends with lots of waves (and even a few blown kisses from her...), and now had food for thought.  I am grateful that she upset my sympathies.

After a two hour journey from Tel Aviv, we got off a bus just outside of Jerusalem and walked to the checkpoint that marks the crossing from Israel into the occupied territories.  Shamefully, our American passports got us through in about 30 seconds while a couple hundred Palestinian men were lined up, waiting to get through so they could go to their jobs in Jerusalem.  They have to do this every day and often spend hours waiting to get through, and then we as foreigners show up for the first time and walk through in under a minute. Many things not right about that. (I will blog more about this later on.) With heads hanging low in shame of our unwarranted and ironic privilege, we walked into Bethlehem and caught a taxi to the hotel where we were meeting Rachel, our contact through Paidia.

We are moved into our apartment in Beit Sahour and trying to recover from jet lag.  We will be getting acquainted with the town over the weekend and preparing to start work on Monday with a people that actually don't exist...

Shalom, Salaam,
Michael

P.S. The pictures above are from Warsaw.  From top to bottom: a side street with leading down to the river, a pillar in a church that contains the heart of Chopin, the Old Town Market Square, and Jon taking his shift navigating our way through the Jewish ghetto.

T - 24 hours

It's time.  Tonight I fly out from my home in Fort Worth, Texas and begin my summer journey in Chicago.  After spending tonight in the home of my uncle and aunt, my comrade Jon and I will depart from O'Hare tomorrow at 1700 hours. Our journey takes us overnight to Warsaw, Poland where we have a 13 hour layover, and then onto Tel Aviv, Israel, arriving on Thursday at 3am. The journey will be tiring, to say the least.

I have been hoping for this trip for a good while, ever since my brother worked as a journalist with two friends in Ramallah during the summer of 2008.  The specific plans for this summer began over Christmas. I had been planning to travel to Germany to continue my study of the German language.  Over the Christmas break, however, I decided I wanted to spend my summer serving in a place of great need. Due to my family's history in the Middle East, Israel/Palestine was the clear choice.  I did not want to go alone, so I contact my college buddy Jon who had studied the Israeli-Palestinian conflict thoroughly during his college years. I wrote him via facebook chat and asked if he would be interested in going to Palestine this summer.  Immediately, he responded with "YES!!!!!" And so, after a semester of planning and talking, and the recruiting of another good college friend Paul, we find ourselves here, on the eve of our departure.

I am a inundated with an assortment of feelings right now.  Excitement. Anticipation. Nervousness. Intrigue. Responsibility. Dread. Disquietude. Peace.  I have traveled much before, seeing close to 30 countries, but this is the first time I have traveled without my family or outside of a program.  It's just me, Jon, and Paul...and I am the only one who has been to the area.  So, naturally, I feel the stakes are a bit higher for this journey.  But deep down, I know all will go well.  I love the land.  I love the guys with whom I'm traveling.  I love the people who inhabit these oppressed lands.  And I love to travel.  Overall, I think I can say that excitement is strongest.

Paul is in the UK with his brother and grandparents as we speak and will not be arriving to Israel until June 15.  Jon and I, though, will begin work at the Al-Basma Center and Paidia one week from today.  These two places will be our areas of concentration this summer.  Both these organizations are located in Beit Sahour, a small town connected with Bethlehem in which the three of us will be living.  Al-Basma is a center that takes in developmentally disabled individuals who have been outcast by their families and teaches them special skills so that these human beings can regain the humanity that was denied them.  They are able to contribute to society by making beautiful notebooks out of recycled paper, making recycled sawdust fuel, beautiful embroideries on the loom, and other crafts.  These individuals are assisted by women of the three main religions of the land: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.  All come from different faith perspectives, but have united under a common vocation: loving the loveless.  They give homes to the homeless and hope to the hopeless.  We will be learning from these beautiful people and, with the amazing women who work there despite paltry pay due to extremely difficult times, try to bring joy and hope to the lives of these outcasts, these marginalized of the marginalized.  My brother, who worked here extensively during the seven months he lived in the area from August 2009 on, said he has not seen a place that so encapsulates the kingdom of God like the Al-Basma Center.

Paidia is an organization that teaches conflict resolution and leadership skills to the area's youth through recreational activities, such as high ropes courses.  The staff at Paidia have graciously given us a very wonderful price for an apartment for the summer due to our willingness to volunteer with them part-time.  We will be staying in a building that houses a number of the Paidia staff, and I am anticipating building close relationships with those people during our two months on the ground.  Frankly, I am still somewhat unfamiliar with all that Paidia is, but I expect to gain more insight as the summer progresses.

So, in short, this is a summer to learn.  I do not want to speak of the other two guys, though I feel that they would agree with the following reflections, but my expectations for these coming months are simple.  My intent is not to teach, evangelize, or civilize.  I want to serve, in whatever way I can.  I am going to Palestine to be humbled and changed by the immense love that comes from a broken, hurting people.  I believe that at the core of the Gospel are invitations from Jesus to our task as followers of Christ, embracers of God's global Community, and participators in the in-breaking of the Kingdom: We are called to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to visit the imprisoned, the comfort the sick, to revive the despaired.  I believe we follow Jesus on his path to the cross through self-sacrificial love and then participate with Christ in bringing Resurrection to the world.  In a land that is dying, both literally and metaphorically, I hope to help breathe new life into those few with whom I commune.  I believe this is my task, now and for the rest of my life.

Thank you now to those who will be following Jon's, Paul's, and my journey via this blog.  This is a communal blog, so all three of us will be posting our thoughts on here.  At the bottom of each post will be the name of whoever wrote it, so that you know whose thoughts you are reading.  Your support is greatly appreciated.

Grace and Peace,
Michael        

Pre-Departure Reflection from Jon

Hello, this is the blog that Mike and Paul and I will be using to chronicle our trip and keep all of you updated on what is going on with us in the West Bank. I can't promise how often we will be updating it, but we will as we get the chance. It is hard to believe that it is only 2 and a half weeks until Mike and I will be leaving.

All three of us will be contributing to this blog, with our own varied perspectives, opinions, backgrounds, and interests. Hopefully our differences will complement each other in our writing as well as work this summer. I find it interesting that the three of us have studied three different areas in college: history, Bible, and political science--and the land of Palestine has had great influence on all three of those, for sure.

Before we leave, I would like to briefly lay out some of my reasons and hopes for this trip. For most of my life I have been very interested in the history and especially the biblical history of the Middle East. For the past few years I have also been particularly interested in the recent history of Palestine and Israel and in the Arab-Israeli conflict and even more specifically the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Both the Jews and the Palestinians have too often been victims of suffering and of hatred. They have a very rich history, but often a troubled history as well. At this point the Palestinians are especially suffering, from poverty, restricted movements, water shortages, racism, etc. I hope to learn from, work with, and live with a beautiful, broken people and hopefully to be a part in some way of the healing and reconciliation that has already begun. Truly, God is with the vulnerable and the poor.

Peace, shalom, salaam,
Jon

P.S. I would also like to say to anyone who is at all interested in Israel or Palestine or the Middle East or history or politics or religion, I would recommend Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour as a great introduction to the recent history of Palestine. It very interesting, easy-to-read, informative, and balanced.