October 7, 2008

Dear Friends and Family,

Fall greetings from Jerusalem! Summer sped by in a blur in part because we traveled to the United States for a combined Joining Hands/Peacemaking conference and then traveled to the Greater Atlanta Presbytery for another conference and sharing with our sister network about the network in Palestine.

It is odd how quickly our reality adapts to the new environment when leaving our place of residence. Once entering the safety and comfort of the United States, with no conscious effort we quickly adjusted to the absence of soldiers, checkpoints, and roadblocks, which Israel maintains are necessary for its security. No one was being pulled from the crowd to have their documents checked, and we didn’t have to wonder how many people around us wouldn’t make it home tonight, the victims of denied entry or one of countless incidents where someone is abruptly arrested and disappears into the black hole of the Israeli Occupation’s administrative detention system.

Rana and Zoughbi share about life in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Yet when our network colleagues Rana Qumsiyeh (YWCA) and Zoughbi Zoughbi (Wi’am) arrived for the conference and began sharing about life in the occupied Palestinian Territories, it was suddenly driven home, just how polar life really is in these two countries.

Even more curious was the reaction the people at our speaking events. Looks of surprise and often dismay swept across faces when they began to take in the reality of life under occupation for Rana and Zoughbi.

For instance, recycling is a common activity in the United States and something to which Americans can easily relate. Yet the notion of recycling took on a whole new definition when Zoughbi spoke of the aquifers that have been pirated (part of Israel’s “matrix of control”), leaving West Bankers to pay five times as much for their water while receiving only a quarter (70 liters per person per day) of the Israeli per-person consumption (280). This is well below the World Health Organization’s minimum daily requirement (100). In the United States, we use 600 liters per person per day. Recycling means drinking a small portion of their ration of water, then using the rest to first bathe, recycling it next to clean the house, and finally watering their plants with what is left and hoping to clean sidewalks of dirt and dust in the process.

Rana, who lives in Beit Sahour (a suburb of Bethlehem), must pass through the Bethlehem checkpoint every day to get to her job at the YWCA in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem. She said her dream is to be able to drive her car to work (without the checkpoint it would be a fifteen-minute drive), but to date she never has been able to because her car is illegal in Jerusalem. Worse yet, she refers to herself as a modern day Cinderella because she must obtain a work permit from the Israeli government to enter Jerusalem (renewable every three months after expiration, which causes her to miss work days). The permit allows her to be in the city only until 7:00 p.m. She’ll be arrested if she overstays. She can’t shop for groceries, meet friends for a drink, or visit anyone (let alone a Prince!) after work without being mindful of her curfew.

These are but small illustrations of the restrictions and injustices with which those under occupation live. It’s not until our awareness is raised that we come to realize just how people half a world away suffer abuse of their rights.

But there is some “good news.” Many Israelis understand that their government’s policies are ultimately harming Israel—and the Israeli Peace Movement (especially) is working tirelessly to promote justice for all.

While visiting the United States, Rana and Zoughbi were perceived as "the other" by our fellow Americans. Yet they too were willing to walk beside those they came to visit who experience a plight of a different kind—that they lack awareness about whom our neighbor is, the neighbor that the Bible calls us to love as ourselves.

Rana and Zoughbi crossed the ocean in a different direction but with an objective similar to ours: they sought to accompany Americans in our plight, that is, a lack of awareness about who the Bible calls us to love as ourselves—our neighbors.

With greater technology and globalization it seems that we are quickly moving from our isolated and more individual cultural realities toward a broader advanced and collective reality around the globe. This draws us back to the Biblical question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Our answer is “yes,” because it is the very place where Christians’ passion to be doers of the word  and the predicament of those in need intersect.

Rana and Zoughbi spoke on National Public Radio during our stay in Atlanta. One of the questions that came up was what people could do to learn more and help. We all agree that greater education is an important element. We encourage you to check out news sources such as BBC broadcasts; read online Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, Al Jazeera. Or check out the activities of groups like the Israeli B’tselem, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – OCHA, or Alternative Information Center – AIC. These sources will provide information we don’t get from U.S. media.

We thank God for you as always for your wonderful and caring support that gives us encouragement and fuel for the journey!

May God bless and keep you,

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 328