What's on My Nightstand?

As I prepare to spend three months in the Holy Land, I find books that first came to my attention as a result of my 2008 trip are back on my nightstand – along with new discoveries!   For those of you who would like to read more about what one author calls “the situation,”  here are a few of my favourites:

Father Elias Chacour, author of Blood Brothers

The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan – More than one person has told me that, if you are only going to read one book on this subject, The Lemon Tree is that book.  Readers who come to the subject with different perspectives generally agree that the presentation is “fair and balanced” in the truest sense of that term.  Tolan is an NPR reporter who initially interviewed Dalia and Bashir on the air before writing their story, an unflinchingly honest look from both Israeli and Palestinian perspectives.

Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour – Chacour is a Melkite priest, who runs an integrated (Christian/Muslim/Jewish) school near Nazareth.  Blood Brothers is the story of his early childhood, his evacuation from his native village in the 1947 “Nakba,” and how his relationships with his Jewish neighbors turned him into a world-renowned peacemaker.

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter – Carter was subjected to a lot of criticism for using the term “apartheid” in his book title, but the term has become much more widespread since this book was first released (in 2006) and now even many Israelis use this word to describe the conditions attributable to the Wall, particularly in the West Bank.  Nobel winner Carter cares deeply about this subject and has done much to further peace in this troubled area.

It’s Easier to Reach Heaven than the End of the Street by Emma Williams – This is my bedtime reading  at present.  Williams is a British doctor, married to a UN worker, who lived in Jerusalem for several years before, during and after the Second Intifada (2000).   She writes about raising her children in the midst of the chaos of those times, and about her interactions with Palestinians and Israelis in their respective struggles with “the situation.”  The forward of the book promises that it “will help outside observers to understand better the people of both sides and their struggles.”  I’m finding it eminently readable!

The General’s Son by Miko Peled – Peled’s father was a famous Israeli general during the 1967 “Six Days” War.  Shortly afterward, he retired from military service to become a professor of Arab literature – and a pacifist.  Miko writes about his own journey from service in an “elite” branch of the Israeli army to “peacenik,” balancing his life as a martial arts instructor in San Diego with peace missions to his birthplace.

I’m sharing other titles you may find of interest below – and if you come across something you think I should read, please let me know!

BOOKS:

• Fatal Embrace Mark Braverman     
• The Israel Lobby by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt
• Palestinian Memories by Alex Awad
• Overcoming Zionism by Joel Kovel
• The Forgotten Faithful ed. by Naim Ateek, Cedar Duaybis and Maurine Tobin
• Blessed are the Peacemakers by Audeh and Pat Rantisi
• The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ian Pappe
• Occupied With Nonviolence by Jean Zaru
• Israel-Palestine, a (United Methodist Women) Mission Study for 2007-2008 by Stephen Goldstein 

PERIODICALS:

• Washington Reports  (http://www.wrmea.org/) – monthly magazine on the news from the Middle-East that you won’t read in the “mainstream” press
• Cornerstone – publication of Ecumenical liberation theology organization Sabeel (www.sabeel.org)

Love - and Fear

On my very first Volunteer in Mission trip (Guatemala – 1998), several people asked why I was going.  I didn’t have a very good answer.  I just felt that I was being called – that this was something I needed to do!  While in Guatemala, our team leader, Larry Monk, gave a sermon in which he addressed that same question.  His answer – and one that I think could be adapted to mission activities across the globe was, “I came to say with my hands what I couldn’t put into words.”

As I tell people about my upcoming mission work in Palestine/Israel, I am often asked the same question – usually followed by some variation of, “Aren’t you worried about your safety?  Isn’t that a dangerous place to go?”  My answer to the first question is the same as it was 14 years ago – I’m going because I need to be there; this is the way I feel I can make a difference.  And I will be “speaking with my hands,” whether holding a pen, a camera or a Bible.

Israeli soldiers in Old City of Jerusalem

As for the second question, it honestly has not crossed my mind to be fearful.  Fear comes from facing the unknown – and nothing about where I am going or what I will be doing is “unknown” to me.  I have been in Palestine/Israel twice – three times if you count my “tourist trip” in the early 1990s.  I’ve been in the West Bank; I’ve met Palestinians and Israelis as individuals - and they are people just like me.  Perhaps they are a bit more fearful than I am – but I think that is because the “other” is an unknown to them - most have not had the opportunity to cross the barriers that divide them and learn to know each other as individuals.  I am also not fearful because I know that I will not be there alone.  Not only will I be supported by friends, family, EAPPI , and my church family, but I know that God will be with me every step of the way. 

Since I started writing this piece, fear has shown its face in places as far apart as a shopping mall in Oregon and a school in Connecticut.  Neither was a place that would have evoked any thought of fear – until last week, when the unspeakable came home.  It was a feeling we had after 9/11, a feeling that we thought we’d buried, until it happened again – and again!  And now the unknown lurks in the familiar – and maybe it helps us all to stop and remember.  We are all God’s children; we are bound in love – and should not be separated by fear.

Oh Little Town of Bethlehem...

As the soothing sounds of holiday music fill my home, I find myself thinking about Bethlehem – the “little town” of song and scripture, and the modern city of walls and restrictions.  What Christian hasn’t listened to the words of this popular hymn and formed a mental picture: the rustic inn that had no room, the stable, the animals, that star? 

But it’s far more difficult (both logistically and emotionally) to view the reality that is Bethlehem today.  First, there is the Wall around it – 30 feet high of reinforced concrete with checkpoints and armed soldiers to control ingress and egress.  The Wall doesn’t follow any natural border, but meanders its way around that part of Bethlehem that the Israelis have decided that they don’t want – yet anyway!  It cuts a swath around Rachel’s Tomb, so Jewish tourists can make that pilgrimage without having to go through checkpoints (thus completely cutting off access by Palestinian Christian and Muslim pilgrims to a place that is also of religious significance to them).

And there are the tracks still rutting the streets 11 years after Israeli tanks rolled into town on yet another mission to destroy and punish.  (Locals say that they won’t re-pave the roads because the tracks improve traction when the hilly streets are icy – a not infrequent occurrence in wintertime!)

Let’s pay a visit to the Church of the Nativity during this, the imputed month of Jesus’ birth.  Before you step inside, take note of the bullet holes in the exterior wall – “souvenirs” of the heavy shelling aimed at Palestinians seeking refuge in this holy place during the 2001 siege.  Even a statue in the church’s courtyard bears bullet marks.

And you say you’d like to visit the church – to see the place where Jesus (according to tradition) lay?  No problem!  These days, the Israeli tour busses are happy to drive through the checkpoints (no “security” issues for them!), and deposit tourists at the church for a brief visit.  But if you’d like to wander the streets and check out the shops and cafes – forget it.  You will be told it “isn’t safe” to wander the streets – that the “Arab terrorists” may attack at any time.  The real reason, of course, is that they don’t want you to discover that the Palestinians who live in Bethlehem and work in the local businesses are people like the rest of us – with hopes, fears, joys and sorrows. 

And now, in the wake of the good news that the UN has approved Palestine’s bid for “observer” status, comes the latest blow to Bethlehem – The Israeli government is moving forward with plans for a development (i.e. “settlement”) that would separate the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem from Jerusalem – thus preventing the possibility of a viable, contiguous Palestinian state!  Most of the world, including the United States, has a long history of opposing this development, and it is widely viewed as the Israeli “punishment” to the Palestinians for their successful UN bid.

So, when you hear that carol, or see a star, or think about that baby in the manger, please pray for that little town of Bethlehem – and for all the beleaguered people who continue to live under occupation and oppression!

Rock of Ages

The first time I heard the term “living stones,” was when I visited the Holy Land with a Methodist study group in 2008.  Elias Chacour (renowned Melkite priest and author of “Blood Brothers” and other works) introduced himself to our group as a “living stone,” a direct descendent of Christ’s original disciples from 2,000 years ago.  

When I returned this past October, I kept hearing the phrase – and even seeing it displayed on t-shirts in Jerusalem’s Old City.  What many people don’t know about the Holy Land is that it has an active, vibrant, though very small, Christian population and, indeed, many of these Christians can trace their roots back 2,000 years.

When Israel was given statehood in 1948, the phrase “a country without people for a people without a country” was bandied about as justification for awarding the homeless Jews this particular piece of real estate.  Those already living there – Christian and Muslim Palestinians – were discounted as insignificant, in numbers and in power.  History has proven the error of this particular train of thought.  Although the Palestinians were evicted from their land (some of which had been held by their families since the time of the Ottoman Empire), they remain a part of the landscape.  Those who have lived in exile since 1948 still have roots deep in their native land – whether they are still living in Palestine/Israel or have re-located to other countries.

The increased fighting we have witnessed in the past few weeks has its roots in this exile – in the Palestinian’s wish to be free from the oppression of occupation and of the Israeli’s wish to claim all of the land that they believe the United Nations – and God – intended for them to have.

Jerimiah 29 advises the exiled people of Jerusalem, “Build houses and make yourselves at home.  Put in gardens and eat what grows in that country.  Marry and have children…Make yourselves at home there and work for the country’s welfare.”  When I heard that scripture read in church recently, I was thinking of how that message might apply to the present-day Palestinians:  “Build houses…” – and the Israeli bulldozers will knock them down.  “Put in gardens…” and crazed settlers will set fire to them and/or pull up the crop to plant their own.  “Marry and have children” – sure, but where will those children live when the price of building on to your home is to have that home destroyed?  “…work for the country’s welfare” – a noble sentiment, but one that requires super-human effort from a beat-down, forgotten people.

The Christian population of the West Bank is something less than 2% of the entire population.  In Israel proper, it is as high as 20% in some areas, much less in others.  The “living stones” are diminishing – and many Christians in the Western hemisphere don’t even realize that they ever existed – much less that they exist still.

Is this a reason to be concerned?  What will happen to the Christian “holy land” when it is depopulated of the native Christians?  And what about those Evangelical Christians who believe that the return of all Jewish people to the Holy Land must occur before the “rapture” can take place?  How do they affect the landscape?

Like most who care about Palestine/Israel – as a place, as people, as a part of the landscape for all three “Abramic” religions, I don’t have any answers.  But I do have lots of questions…

Daniel in the Lions' Den

As many of you know, I spent the last two weeks (Oct. 24 – Nov. 10) in the Holy Land, on a “witness tour” with Sabeel, an ecumenical organization that preaches “liberation theology” and practices what it preaches through education and grass-roots programs.  There are so many stories I could tell of the varied people and organizations in this land who are working for peace, but I promised to share a story that I call “Daniel in the Lions’ Den,” so I will start there.

Daniel was a young Jewish man (his yarmulke was a dead giveaway!), who approached our group when we were in Hebron, just outside the old city in a small “neutral” area, accessible to both Jews and “Arabs” (rare, especially in Hebron, I might add!).  He listened attentively as our Palestinian guide told us about a program to restore historic buildings in the Old City (that had been damaged or destroyed to expand a road to serve Jewish tourists to the historic temple).  Several in our group noticed him and spoke to him; we ended up inviting him to join us on a  short ride into the Hebron hills, where we were to visit a Bedouin village under demolition orders.

Initially he expressed fear about joining a “lions’ den” of some 25 Christian grandparents going into “enemy territory,” but apparently curiosity overcame fear and he and his bicycle boarded our bus.  We were all impressed by his good looks and soft-spoken demeanor, and were delighted when he took the microphone and proceeded to tell us about his own background.  (He was an Israeli Jew of Australian parentage, from Tel Aviv, on leave from Army duty because of an injury.) 

He also shared his beliefs – many of which, we were surprised to hear, agreed with ours about the urgent need for peace in the Middle East.  He spoke of an Arab-Israeli “Australian Football” team that he had participated in, and of how that had given him the opportunity to meet Palestinians as equals and form friendships with them.

Of course, there were areas of disagreement as well and our Palestinian guide, Omar, debated him on several issues.  When we dropped him off at a nearby settlement, many of us where hopeful that Daniel had heard and seen some things that would open his eyes as to the “on the ground” reality of the land he occupied.

Later, questions were raised by some group members.  Was Daniel a “plant” by the Israeli army to “infiltrate” us with the “truth” as seen through their eyes?  Did the football team he mentioned even exist?  (A later Google search confirmed that it did.)  Or was he just a young adult, searching for his own truths?  We’ll never know – but we’ll also never forget that afternoon.  And we all prayed that Daniel, and others like him, will continue his search for the truth?