By Brenda Mehos

Marker at the Tent of Nations entrance

Monday was a tough day.  That is when I started having a real emotional reaction to what I was seeing and hearing here on the West Bank.

Daher Nassar of the Tent of Nations and Usama Nicola talk with our group about Daher’s farm

We visited the Tent of Nations where we heard from the owner Daher Nassar about his 21 year legal struggle with Israel to keep his families farm and he has remained so hopeful and positive in spite of all the road blocks, harassment, and poverty caused by the occupation.   I felt anger.

We visited the souk in Hebron and saw where parts of their market have been walled off with barbed wire and now empty or occupied by settlers.  We saw the  wire over parts of the souk near the Jewish areas to protect shoppers from the bricks and trash they have thrown down into the market.  I felt uncomfortable and angry again.  The hope here was in the “welcomes” people said to us after asking where we were from.

We ate a delicious meal in a Palestinian families home that is right next to one of the walled off sections to Palestinians.  This mans son was a beaten by some of the neighboring settlers and spent months in the hospital recovering.  Our host still makes an effort to know his Jewish neighbors who are friendly and invites them over for food and coffee.   I felt anger and awe.

Finally we had a taste of going through a check point with a gun aimed at our head by a bored a Israeli guard on our way to the tomb of the Patriarchs.   Several in our group reached out to a guard and talked to him when he asked where we were from and did we know John Denver?  I felt some fear and then hope again with the gift of humor.

Soldiers at checkpoints point guns at us… and are sometimes friendly.

Fear, anger, sadness all such negative emotions but what I did hear and see from the people I’m meeting is their great hope which makes me hopeful.