Hopeful Palestine

A shop in the Old City of Jerusalem features the slogan “Peace in the Middle East.” Immediately following is a big fat question mark and about four little cartoon men hysterically laughing. They mock my passions, my devotions, and my time spent in the Israel/Palestine. After of month of life in Bethlehem, behind the wall that is encircling the West Bank, I still have hope. Please don’t laugh at my dream of peace in the Middle East; it is not childish, foolish, or impossible. It is neither naïve or uneducated. It is real.

Hope for peace was my sanity during a month of tough realities and impossibilities. God made it very clear that I was supposed to live in Palestine for a short time this summer; spring quarter 2008 I had engaged an independent study of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict which led me to understand that I needed to go and see it for myself. So on August 17th I showed up in Bethlehem to work for a nonviolent education center, live with a Palestinian family, study Arabic, and tour the country. My main motivation for doing this was to learn. I went as a student and had no other expectation then to observe reality and get my nose out of books and news reports which seemed shallow and partial.

Living with Palestinians exposed me to an endless supply of primary source testimonies of what life truly is like in the West Bank and Israel. Every family I met shared stories of how negatively the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank, which started in 1967, has ruined or negatively affected their everyday happiness and quality of life. One woman, Claire, is living in a house surrounded on three sides by a 20ft tall wall, on the ancient road out of Bethlehem. During the Second Intifada in 2000, soldiers raided her home in the middle of the night on several occasions. Her family was too afraid to leave their house, and they lived without water and electricity for six weeks before someone helped. Her youngest child is severely traumatized by the memory of soldiers, yelling, guns, and gunfire; he asks his young mother everyday when they will be able to move to America. But I don’t look at Claire and her family and see hopelessness. I see a family who is powerlessly struggling, but when I looked into Claire’s tear-filled eyes and heard her trembling voice recount the nightmarish life she has had, I know she harbors no hate, anger, bitterness, or ill will towards her Israeli neighbors. Claire repeated, “this is just my suffering and that is ok.” I see a family whose oldest daughter is brilliant, and is being educated in North Africa. A family whose biggest concern is the future of their little shop, not hung up on the past and what is owed to them. They are deeply wounded people, but they are hopeful people.

Outside of Bethlehem and outside of the West Bank there is a country not filled with soldiers, checkpoints, walls, and refugee camps. Israel is a beautiful country, a truly promised land. Since 1948, when Israel achieved independence, the Jewish-Israeli citizens have committed themselves to building a viable nation. Now Israel has an incredible high tech industry, the land is fertile and lush, tourism is still thriving, and they developed a modern government, important allies, and a world class military. They chose Hebrew (an ancient language no nation spoke anymore) as their national language and had everyone learn it, and this worked; now everything is done in Hebrew! There are too many wonderful achievements to name. What is not clearly represented in Israel is the price at which all of this came for the Palestinians. Another wellspring of hope for me was meeting with people in the little but growing movement that is working to educate Jewish Israelis on the truth behind Palestinian history. B’Tselem and ICAHD are just two Jewish organizations striving towards justice for the Palestinians and demanding that their own government change harsh policies towards the native Palestinians. ICHAD focuses on the unjust policy of house demolition, and B’Tselem investigates and reports human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza. These are good people working towards justice and righteousness.

There are a lot of stories I could tell to show how bad and horrible it is over in Israel/Palestine. There is an intense amount of fear that controls society, and I truly believe it is fear that dictates Israelis’ actions towards Palestinians and Palestinians’ actions towards Israelis. The fear is oppressive and took a lot out of me in just the one month that I lived in its environment. If somehow, someway the fear can be replaced with understanding or even a little sense of curiosity, peace would be only a figurative stone’s throw away. But this is the best news of all! Fear is something that our God and our Savior has given us victory over! Ultimately, my hope was fresh each day because I strongly believe that Jesus Christ is on the side of peace and justice. The Middle East is not hopeless. Don’t believe me? Ask God. He has a thing or two to say about his beloved children on both sides of the wall.

By: KM PSE 2008