About this Blog

"Ordinary People" is something of an intentional misnomer. I live and work with Palestinians practicing nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation. They are doing things that are hardly "ordinary": committing themselves to active nonviolence and to loving their enemies -- following the commands of One who was anything but ordinary. And yet, the Palestinians with whom I work are also very ordinary -- they are not some kind of spiritual superheroes/superheroines who do things most folks can't do. They are simply ordinary people daily committing themselves to living a higher calling -- a calling of love and active nonviolence.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Exhibit A: Israeli Settlers Throw Stones at Palestinian Shepherds

Sometimes the Israeli occupation of Palestine is simply too difficult for me to capture in words. So I develop a (two month!) long writing block, trying to decide on what to say and how to communicate well to those far away. Recently my team posted a new video on YouTube, documenting Israeli settlers throwing stones at Palestinian shepherds.

So, this is one example of what a settler attack looks like:


People around the world can watch a settler attack on Palestinian shepherds. This video shows the images. What the video cannot capture the daily hardship, the act of being repeatedly pushed off one's land. It does not demonstrate the fear, the uncertainty of what will happen next when settlers appear: they may simply yell and shout or they may shoot at the shepherds' flock. Or they may throw stones and injure people or sheep.

The video also cannot capture the courage and endurance of the Palestinian community here in the South Hebron Hills: the daily nonviolent resistance, the commitment to remain on one's land no matter what the cost.
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