March 2007
Dear Family and Friends,
Spring greetings from Jerusalem!
We invite you to celebrate with us this month as we complete
our first year of service here in Jerusalem! The time has flown
by in many respects. We are humbled and thankful for the many
blessings that we have been afforded, especially our relationships
to network members, their model of commitment, and their tenacity
in the face of the many hurdles that confront them, both in their
personal and professional lives. We feel that we have grown substantially
together in our affection and support for one another as well
as our focus on the root causes of hunger in Palestine.
In February the network put the finishing touches on our first
strategic plan and budget for the next twelve months of activities.
It centers on the ramifications of growing isolation, which can
be witnessed in dramatically decreased tourism, production and
sales of handicrafts, as well as women’s and workers’
rights. Several research projects and workshops are planned to
further equip the network members to undertake strategic programs
to address the issues and provide economic empowerment to the
community.
On the last day of our strategic planning and budgeting conference
in Jericho, a couple of the network members received calls warning
them of demonstrations taking place that heightened Israeli security
and triggered the closure of a number of checkpoints into the
West Bank and created numerous additional flying (impromptu) checkpoints
in and around Jerusalem. Perhaps you saw news coverage of the
demonstrations against the Israeli excavations that were begun
under the Al Aqsa Mosque compound (part of the Temple Mount) in
the Old City.
The Israeli government claims only to be strengthening a deteriorating
walkway. The Palestinian community demonstrated because the site
is supposed to have joint custodianship by Israelis and Palestinians,
and the Palestinians were not consulted. The Muslims feel the
excavations will undermine the compound.
It was too late to avoid the gathering tensions, so some of the
network members were forced to drive further north to Ramallah
(the opposite direction) in order to link up with another road
going south to Bethlehem to reach home. This added much more travel
time to an already exhausting day. On the other hand, we arrived
home in Jerusalem safely and began work on the Presbyterian Hunger
Program’s grant proposal form, which was due in a few days.
The following morning Michele awoke early to get groceries with
a friend. As they were standing in the checkout line, warning
calls started arriving on both friends’ phones: skirmishes
had broken out in the Old City, and those calling wanted to know
where they were shopping! Luckily they were about ten minutes
from home and north of the city. However, even by the time they
made their way home they encountered three flying checkpoints.
Stopping for a moment to overlook the city from the Mount of
Olives, they could see the columns of smoke rising from the mosque
area, but also along Salah ad-Din street, the main East Jerusalem
commerce district. Popping sounds were audible from the shooting
of rubber-coated steel bullets, teargas canisters, and stun grenades.
After Michele’s arrival home, we were thrown into a beehive
of phone calls and activity as we watched the television coverage
to see the unfolding scenes in the city. Friends who live in the
Old City area evacuated up to our area at the Lutheran World Federation
campus, which has a couple of guesthouses where they could stay,
and soon we all gathered to talk, support one another, and watch
the media coverage.
Before long, we could hear the sound of ambulances carrying wounded
Palestinians to a hospital a couple of blocks from our house.
We were thankful when nightfall brought a tense quiet to the city,
but the following morning a new element to the confrontation unfolded.
Setting up flying checkpoints at both ends of the street in front
of our apartment, Israeli soldiers began entering the neighborhood
to arrest injured and hospitalized demonstration participants.
To protest this action and make their incursion more difficult,
Palestinians moved dumpsters into the street, filled them and
the street with tires and lit them on fire to block it off. It
wasn’t long before confrontations escalated and we found
ourselves in the middle of flying stun grenades and teargas canisters
whose arching white smoke trails hung above our apartment. It
was impossible to stay inside the house, as the acrid taste and
smell of teargas was overwhelming.
We spent the rest of that day on the other side of the Lutheran
World Federation campus, which was away from the skirmishes. By
this time, we hadn’t been able to work for the better part
of two days, and the deadline for our proposal was looming. We
decided to try and go back home that night, and although we could
still smell the teargas we were able to sleep at home and renew
our efforts on the proposal the next morning.
The mayor of Jerusalem eventually called a halt to the excavations
(for the time being), and although high security alerts remain
in effect daily, we have slowly been able to move more freely
around the city again.
While this was only a small incident in the vast reservoir of
calamity that our friends face daily here, it drove home a conversation
our network had after war broke out in Lebanon about the inability
to concentrate and accomplish anything in the midst of crisis.
We can all relate to those feelings when we think of our reactions
to crises that we’ve endured within our own lives—deaths,
accidents, and other unexpected events. Yet the element that sets
a people under occupation apart is that they live in that state,
on the edge, expectant, preparing for the next onslaught, without
reprieve. This is why we came to serve, and sometimes in our own
helplessness, it means standing beside others simply as companions
in solidarity, committed to prayer on their behalf.
A second reason for rejoicing is that this month we will celebrate
twenty years of service in the mission field. This journey has
been and continues to be a profound one. The words of “Here
I am Lord,” which was sung at our commissioning, continue
to ring in our ears:
Here I am Lord,
Is it I Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night.
I will go Lord, if you lead me.
I will hold your people in my heart.
Grace and Peace,
The Finseths
The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
185 |
