Today marked the fifth day of our Pilgrimage in the Holy Land. This is hard to believe for me because of the sheer volume of ground we’ve covered, the number of beautiful people we’ve met, and the overall amount of learning that’s been done. A lot of that learning has been done with heavy hearts as we have continued to dive deeper into the struggle the occupation is forcing upon the Palestinian people. And so today, after a particularly heavy day yesterday in Hebron, I think we were all a little relieved to hop in the bus and head to the Old City of Jerusalem and play good old fashioned tourists.

This was the difference, for me, between my experience at Al Aqsa Mosque (and the Dome of the Rock – a visually stunning piece of architecture) and The Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Mosques, had no crowds of people taking pictures (except for us #AmericanTourists), there were no lines of people waiting in line to see the third most holy place in the Muslim religion, to see holy pillars and blessed stones; no, at the Mosques there was prayer. People came to talk to G-d, to find peace within themselves.

The church was quite the opposite experience. Everyone waited in line to take a picture of a holy monument and continued on to the next. As a place of artistic expression, the churches were absolutely stunning, but there was a void. There was an utter lack of praise or worship. What is a Church without these things? Can a church be a false idol in itself? These were the questions I pondered as a dodged out of the way of a photograph I knew would be taken home as evidence of the profound religious experience that didn’t seem to be happening.

I left the church a little frustrated with the madness of it all, and wishing we’d have been able to spend more time in the Mosque. Sitting in the Church of All Nations later in the afternoon, where there were no tour guides allowed to preach, it occurred to me that the grandiose exterior- the physical beauty – was attracting so many, and, like a bug to a bright light, we are drawn in – but to what effect?

It’s a little funny what can happen when we focus more on the spiritual than the religious – when we sacrifice our ego, our perceptions of sanctity, our desire for what we want, or what we think we deserve. It’s funny what can happen when we set idolatrous religion aside and look within ourselves. Take it from a Jewish Christian who found peace in a Muslim Mosque. Sometimes when you take a moment to forget all that and just talk to G-d, he just might talk back. And he might bring a sliver of peace with him.

Salaam/Shalom/ Peace be with you.

-Daniel Duquette

PS. I could have talked about Dalia for ages; I’d recommend checking out her website and letting that speak in ways brevity wouldn’t allow me.

http://www.friendsofopenhouse.co.il/story-of-the-house/

As the calls for prayers were blasted from the minarets at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, someone said “there is a Norwegian over there”. Since I can’t resist an opportunity to speak my native tongue, I went over and introduced myself. He said he was a Norwegian Kurd who was in Hebron working for TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron). His family had immigrated to Norway 40 years ago, so he still spoke Arabic. We were standing by the checkpoint at the mosque gate and he was documenting the detention of a young Palestinian man at the checkpoint who had been detained for 3 hours. The role of his organization is to document infractions against the Palestinians and bring them to the attention of the Israeli government and Palestinian Authority. TIPH consists of representatives from the Scandinavian countries, Switzerland, Italy and Turkey.

From Hebron we went to the Tent of Nations. We were greeted by Daher Nassar and guided to a cave where a lovely lunch had been prepared for us. I felt immediately at home since on the wall right by me was written in Swedish: “Fred, rättvisa och skapelsens bevarande” (Peace, rights and the preservation of the creation). The Tent of Nations is on a 100 acre farm owned by the Nassar family. Daher’s sister Amal spoke to us after lunch about the history of the farm. Her grandparents, Palestinian Christians, had bought the land 100 years ago. The lived in caves on the land, which they still do. The grandparents had had the wherewithal to register the farm first with the Ottoman empire, then with the British Commonweath and also with Jordan, etc. When in 1991 the Jewish settlers tried to kick them off the land, they had their ownership documented and went to court. They have been in count since that day, but cannot be removed although several tries have been made. In the 90s, 300 trees were bulldozed and in 2014, 1500 trees were destroyed just before the fruit harvest.

Each time the family has refused to give up, once standing for 10 days in front of Caterpillars; but as Amal said: ”Don’t meet evil with evil. Keep hope alive. Plant new trees.” I’m proud to say that my name will be on one of the newly planted trees!! The message of hope that Amal gave us was very powerful. She told about meeting a Jewish woman from the settlement nearby and invited her home. She told to her about the message in the Jewish bible to get to know your neighbors. The woman was so impressed she brought her husband to hear the message too!!

Our last stop of the day was at the very impressive Christian school, the Hope Secondary School in Beit Jala, which was started by the Mennonites. There Christian and Muslim children from Bethlehem attend classes together, some of them even living at the school.

Hope School quilt

After getting back to our hotel we heard a very strong message from an Israeli young man, Yigal Elhanan, and a Palestinian Christian man, George Sa’adeh. They belonged to Parent’s Circle, an organization bringing bereaved families together to get support from each other after having lost a family member by the hands of the “other” side.

In spite of their differences, and after having lost a sister (Yigal), and a daughter,(George), they sat together and told their stories. Their witness of forgiveness was incredible. The strong message I heard was for us Americans to put pressure on Israel to end the occupation.

~ Ann-Sofie Dean

Hearing the stories from a human rights worker in the Old City of Hebron will be etched in my memory for a long time.  One of her main job duties is accompanying young Palestinian children on their way to school as they go through Israeli police check points.  Otherwise, the children might be questioned, intimidated, detained, or taken to jail.

Child in a refugee camp

Other dangers might include tear gas, skunk water, stun grenades, or rubber coated steel bullets.  Seeing pictures and watching videos of these events made them very real.  Hearing that Hebron is a test site for various types of Israeli weapons was stunning.  But the presence of the human rights worker and the “sumud” of the Palestinians (persistence in continuing to live in Hebron) give hope for the future.

Our group also got to experience, on a small scale, the daily happenings in Hebron.  While viewing the city from a rooftop, we were being stared at by an Israeli army soldier from the next rooftop.  While walking through the narrow streets of the market, we moved to the side as a group of teenage army boys and girls marched by. In order to visit the mosque, we had to go through a chilling checkpoint ourselves.

Before visiting Hebron, our guide told us the world really doesn’t know what happens in Hebron every day – in his words, “what happens in Hebron stays in Hebron”. This may be the media’s mission, but our mission is to “come and learn, go and tell” the real story to the rest of the world.  And be loud.

~ Bob Garrison