By Bev Henkel

Three days of getting to know each other, 3 days of meeting the “other.” How open have I been to meeting, listening and respecting the “other” at home and as I travel in Israel/Palestine?

Our day began with a buffet breakfast after which we left in a bus for Hebron. Katie began our day with several reminders: Blessed are the Peacemakers and Love your Neighbors as yourself. After a time of silent reflection Katie closed praying, “open us to visions we have never known.”

This day would be full of experiencing the unknown. Our first stop was at the last remaining Ka9iyah (scarf) factory in Palestine. As a weaver I was overwhelmed and overjoyed to see 9-10 large fly shuttle looms warped and weaving scarves. The warp and weft was line sewing thread with 25-36 ends per inch. Men checked the machines and retied new warp as needed. Beautiful colors and patterns.

Last Kufiyah factory in the West Bank

We then continued into Hebron to the Souk (market) where we walked to the Christian Peacemakers building.

Experiencing the result of Pilgrims of Ibillin and Joan Deming’s relationships with Christian Peacemakers we were met by Art, a volunteer from Toronto, Canada. He shared the importance of an International presence in Hebron. Their work with children includes a pre-school and walking older children to school and back home after school. There is an Israeli military presence in Hebron that can make it difficult for these Palestinian children to get to school. This is one of the “realities on the ground” in Hebron. Another is the violence from Israeli settlers. An adult International trained in non-violence and conflict resolution is vital here.

We then walked to the Abrahamic Mosque. Shoes off, cape with hood on for women so our heads were covered, we entered to be at the place where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah are buried beneath this Mosque in a tunnel grave.

We walked back through the souk to Al-Basha Restaurant near a glass factory. We visited this glass factory and watched as men blew beautiful items which were sold in the store.

We now drove as close to Tent of Nations as we could get, walked in to the gate to be treated by “We Refuse to Be Enemies.”

Daoud Nassar and Usama Nicola

The Nassar family has been on this land since 1916. They are a Christian Palestinian family. Their farm is now surrounded by 5 Israeli Settlements or Colonies. They have limited water, no electricity until solar was installed recently by International friends. Here again we heard from Daher as he gave us a tour, and was in a cave while his brother Daoud told their family story: Summer camps for children, International visitors and volunteers. He graciously shared of their faith that is the foundation of their perseverance. I was struck by the following:

• Tell folks to come here and visit, even if they only walk to the gate and then go home.
• An International presence is making a difference.
• We refuse to be enemies. Violence only produces more violence.
• Blessed are the Peacemakers, not the Peace talkers.
• You have an opportunity to begin a relationship with the people we met today. Their stories are worth hearing.

Use a search engine to find:

1. Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). You can sign up for a weekly report with photos. Easy to read.
2. Tent of Nations. You can learn in dept of their work and commitment to “Refuse to be Enemies.”

By Beth Nelson

Children play on the Wi’am playground while we learned the basic Occupation “facts on the ground” from Usama and Zoughbi.

We began at Wi’am Center in Bethlehem, where we heard from Zoughbi Zoughbi, its founder and director. In short, his message was about finding and creating beauty and giving hope in spite of challenges facing the Palestinians. The center is literally next to an Israeli guard tower, where armed soldiers keep watch over the area. It was quite a contrast.

Children in Aida Refugee Camp were also busy being children.

From Wi’am, we walked around the Aida Refugee Camp. As we passed through the streets, children approached us with smiles on their faces, some even requesting we take their pictures. Our guide led us to the Seraj Library and to the Al Rowwad Center. Both places appeared to be refuges within the camp. These are places where young people can go and do things that kids their ages should be doing…playing, dancing, doing, doing, doing. It was evident that the staff and the young people take pride in these places of refuge.

The third place we visited was Hope Secondary School in Beit Jala. What was striking was the evidence of a Christ-centered education. While the student population is about half Muslim (the other half being Christian), this Christian school appears to be a success story. The director shared with us about the school offering “a second chance” to students who might not have any such hope elsewhere. How uplifting!

Laila and Khader from Hope School, along with Joan and George from Pilgrims.

Our final visit of the day was to the International Center of Bethlehem. Here we learned about the Diyar Consortium. A detail that sums up the hope and resilience is that lovely stained glass ornaments are fashioned of shards from windows that have been broken by bullets and bombs. Good things are happening at this place.

Let us pray that God’s hand is at work in bringing hope to the oppressed of Palestine. Perhaps He will bring about a miracle and soften hearts so that all His children can live together in peace “…the wolf will dwell with the lamb…” (Isaiah 11:6)

By Grace Baldridge

This is the view from our hotel in Bethlehem. I am so taken with our temporary home. Bethlehem truly is a little town and has small town charm.  Our hosts are gracious and fed us a delicious meal. We had chicken, rice, five kinds of cold salads, soup, potatoes, fish, and of course Pita bread.

Our journey here was full of delay. Nothing was out of the ordinary, just broken computers at customs and Sukkot traffic on our drive from Tel Aviv to Bethlehem. Jerusalem was packed.

One can’t get by without thinking of Mary and Joseph on their own trip to Bethlehem to be counted in the census. They had to have been delayed by any number of issues, but perhaps not by a faulty computer.

The disparity of Jerusalem and Bethlehem is stark. I suspect it was as well in the old days because of the grandeur of Jerusalem versus a little town like Bethlehem.

(I only have about 5 hours of experience here so I’m not making any huge comparisons.)

What I do know is the way I feel when I look out over the same places Mary saw from atop her galant steed (“she called me a steed!” Sorry- Shrek reference). I can’t help but have a storybook view. But I know better. That’s not the whole tale.

The division here may look different today, but it’s still there just like it was when Herod was governor.

All anyone wants is to be safe and sound with the people we love. That will never change. It seems impossible for me or anyone else to remember that. We want to grab for more… even at the expense of others.

This is the world God loves: It’s broken pieces still shattered even after 2000 plus years of knowing God in Christ. And it made love known here… in this little town.