"Joy! How are you?"

We received a call a few days ago from a Palestinian friend who lives in a nearby village. He was passing through At-Tuwani on his way home with his family (his wife, adolescent daughter, and two very young children, who were riding with him on his donkey.) For them, the journey home is dangerous, because they must pass in view of the Israeli settlement of Ma’on and the illegal Israeli settlement outpost* of Havat Ma’on. Israeli settlers might attack, harass, throw stones, or shoot at Palestinians passing this way. (Incidentally, the man who called us on this particular day was Shanti. A few months ago, settlers shot at him and his flocks in a valley not too far from where he and his family was going to walk. I wrote about his experience in my previous post, “Shanti’s Shot Sheep”.)

So Shanti called to ask us to accompany his family and himself on their way home. Away we all went, joking, laughing, and having little races along the way. We walked approximately a third of the way without incident. Then Shanti asked us to stand on a hill nearby and watch as they continued home; if we saw settlers coming their way, we were to call them to let them know.

Not long after they left us, we saw a car traveling from the illegal Israeli settlement outpost of Havat Ma’on in the direction of Shanti and his family.

I was standing next to my teammate, Joy, who called Shanti to tell him settlers were on their way. I could hear most of their conversation, which went something like this:

Joy: There are settlers.
Shanti: Where?
Joy: On the road. Going to where you are.
Shanti: Ok. (In the background, people saying, “Quickly, quickly!” and “Run!”) By the way, who is this?
Joy: This is Joy.
Shanti: Joy! How are you?

As he and his family were running (for their safety, possibly for their lives), Shanti was genuinely interested in Joy’s well being.

Shanti and his family arrived home safely, thank God. When Joy called him to see if they made it home, his wife insisted on speaking with Joy. She, too, very sincerely inquired after Joy’s welfare (never mind having just run home with her children and husband, fearing for their safety.)

These sorts of things – the constant threat of people following, harassing, or attacking other people – shouldn’t happen to anyone. But to know this happens regularly to such lovely people, so deeply committed to nonviolence and concerned for the people around them (even as they themselves are running for safety) somehow makes this unjust situation worse. To know that in the States, people believe the lie that Palestinians equals terrorists, when nothing is farther from the truth – it seems an unthinkable, racist crime.

“Joy, how are you?” Such a genuine, other-centered question in the midst of so much violence. It is a question I’ll never forget.

*According to the Geneva Conventions, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and numerous United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Settlement outposts are illegal according to Israeli law.

Christian Peacemaker Teams announces publication of "118 Days," book detailing Iraq hostage crisis

Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) has announced the 5 June 2008 release of 118 Days: Christian Peacemaker Teams held hostage in Iraq, a book about the hostage crisis endured by the organization and its team members in Iraq, beginning in November 2005. Editor Tricia Gates Brown has compiled chapters written by members of CPT and CPT sympathizers actively involved with securing the release of Harmeet Singh Sooden, Jim Loney, Tom Fox, and Norman Kember, as well as by family, friends, and others whom the crisis profoundly affected.

"These honest and sobering reflections help all of us committed to the work of peace better understand the world in which we live. I hope this book will be widely read," writes theologian Stanley Hauerwas.

The book contains first-hand accounts of what led the four men to Baghdad, where their paths crossed with armed militants who did not understand their mission. It also provides insight into the daily lives of CPT delegations and teams, who risk all on their path to peace. The chapters weave a story of hope, friendship, fear, courage, and forgiveness, describing the daily sacrifices of the four hostages. In particular, readers will understand better the rich, textured life of Tom Fox, a CPTer who found a new calling late in life, leaving behind his careers in music and organic grocery retail to die in the streets of Baghdad. His bullet-ridden body was found two weeks before his colleagues were freed from captivity.

"God created us to form the human family. The Christian Peacemakers went to Iraq to help build that family. They went to work with their sisters and brothers for justice and peace. They are an example for Christians everywhere in their commitment to the Lord's ministry of reconciliation," Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote after reading 118 Days.

Visit http://www.cpt.org/118days to learn more, purchase a copy, and help spread the news!

Israeli military again blocks main access road in South Hebron Hills

At 11:00 a.m. on 5 June 2008, the Israeli military again blocked the road between At-Tuwani and Yatta. A bulldozer massed a six-foot-high mound spanning the width of the road, using concrete slabs, boulders, and earth. Several villages in the South Hebron Hills are again cut off from secondary schools, hospitals, and basic supplies such as water, firewood, and animal feed, because this road provides the primary vehicle access to Yatta, the region’s economic hub.

The new roadblock expands a pile placed by the Israeli army on 28 May. It is the largest in a series of obstructions erected over the past three months. Unlike previous roadblocks, the new blockage not only prevents vehicle access, but also traffic by foot and donkey. (Recently, closures and rising fuel prices have forced increasing numbers of Palestinians to use donkeys for travel throughout the Palestinian Territories.)

The road between At-Tuwani and Yatta is the main artery for the supply of water to the South Hebron Hills, currently experiencing a severe drought. According to Palestinian residents of the area, roadblocks have doubled the commercial price of water. A U.N. worker reported that this roadblock will increase by thirty percent the cost of transporting essential water aid to the area.


For photos go to http://cpt.org/gallery/Israeli-military-erect-roadblock-on-5th-June%2C-2008

Update

So a lot has happened during two months of my personal blogging black hole. (Oops.) One of the big changes being that I am now at Christian Peacemaker Team's (CPT) project in At-Tuwani, a tiny Palestinian village of approximately 100-150 people. Some of my previous posts ("A Little Girl's Story" and "Shanti's Shot Sheep") have been a little about the absolutely amazing, fantastic Palestinians living there.

Anyway, more about At-Tuwani in the posts to come -- I live in the most fantastic village ever!

A Little Girl’s Story

by CPTer Maureen Jack

6 April 2008

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There is a little Palestinian girl called Maha* who lives next door to us. She is six and bright as a button. We like her a lot, which is just as well as she loves to spend time with us. She likes doing things like helping us to clean the floor or rinse our hair when we wash it. Also, she helps us with our Arabic. She is an exacting teacher and our efforts to pronounce words correctly often meet with a firm ‘No.’ But she is patient, and when she speaks to us her Arabic is slow and clear. She has taken us to visit her mother and be served tea with bread and freshly-made butter. Sometimes we spend less time with her than she would wish, because we have to accompany shepherds with their sheep and goats. So three days ago she asked two of us to go with her and her mother with their flock of sheep. On our way out of the village we bumped into her mother who told us that the sheep were safely tucked up at their house and were staying there for the rest of the day. We await Maha’s next strategy with interest!

So, Maha is a sturdy, resourceful little girl. But a few days ago she was terrified. My teammate Jessica and I saw her set off with her younger sister and an adult relative. They were going to Yatta (a nearby city) for the day and Maha was very excited. They headed off to cross the Israeli road to walk on the Palestinian track to Yatta. Suddenly Maha was running back towards us in tears, crying, ‘Miriam, Miriam!’ (This is what some of the younger children call me.) A car was sitting beside the turn-off to Yatta and an Israeli man was outside speaking on his phone. Maha’s words tumbled out among her tears and all we could make out was ‘Settlers!’ She gripped my hand tightly as we walked with them across the road and saw them off on their way to Yatta.

Now, I don’t know whether the men in the car were settlers or simply Israelis driving from Jerusalem to Beersheva.. Maybe Maha’s fears were not justified. But they were understandable. In the last few days adult Israeli settlers have thrown stones at her schoolmates as they played in their own garden area; they have assaulted the father and grandfather of one of her classmates; and a settler and his three sons have chased after and yelled at her schoolmates as Israeli soldiers escorted them home from school.

Maha is a great kid. I’m sad and angry that she was scared yesterday. If you knew her you would be too.

* not her real name

Shanti's Shot Sheep

One of the shepherds here in the South Hebron Hills reminds me of a prophet from biblical times. I’ll call him Shanti, and he is a Palestinian shepherd from a village near At-Tuwani. His beard is dark and bushy, his hair wild.

And, like the prophets, he is fearless in nonviolent witness of truth to the Powers that Be.

On Wednesday, 26 March, Shanti was grazing his sheep in the Mashaha Valley. Settlers in the illegal Israeli settlement outpost of Havat Ma’on frequently harass Palestinian shepherds as they graze their sheep in this area. On this particular day, while his flock grazed, Israeli settlers shot two of his sheep and a billy goat.

For over six hours, Shanti told and re-told his story, with relentless passion and animation. To Israeli police; to Israeli military; to the Israeli police (again); to armed Israeli settler security agents (who were suspiciously vague about their identities and their interest with Shanti’s shot sheep.)

A few times, standing near an unsuspecting Israeli soldier, he would launch into his story (whether the soldier wanted to hear it or not!) As Shanti recounted the violence done to his flock, soldiers shifted uncomfortably or became very interested in the rocky ground beneath them. Shanti’s story rendered soldiers defenseless. Their guns and army gear could not protect them from the truth of his account.His persistence in telling the story of the violence done to his flock was powerfully reminiscent of the of the fearless and truthful witness of the biblical prophets’ speaking Truth to Power.

The next day, in response to the shooting, Palestinians from around the South Hebron Hills came together to graze in the valley where settlers had shot Shanti’s sheep. Shepherds, sheep, and goats dotted the valley and the hills in the Meshaha valley.

Despite the trauma of the day before Shanti joined them. Of all the shepherds in the valley, Shanti was the shepherd grazing his sheep nearest to the illegal Havat Ma’on settlement outpost, nearest to the risk of danger and attack from settlers. Like the prophets of old, on that day (and in the days that have followed), Shanti put himself in a place of danger in an act of nonviolent resistance.

The Palestinians here in At-Tuwani and the surrounding villages are my mentors on my journey of nonviolent response to structures and situations of oppression and injustice. Shanti’s fierce courage and persistence in response to violence around him nurtures me. To me, he is like a modern-day prophet, stepping out of the pages of the biblical witness.

For photos, visit CPT At-Tuwani's photo album.

"Way of the Cross, in Occupied Palestine" Continued

Happy Easter Monday! In a stroke of liturgical backwardness, I wanted to link readers to the rest of CPT Palestine's "Way of the Cross, in Occupied Palestine". Posted there are each of the fourteen Stations of the Cross, with reflections on those stations from life in Palestine.

Apologies that I'm posting this link *after* Lent. Life here has been very busy for the past couple of months.