Land, the crux

As we follow the sheep out to pasture, the valley and hills spread out below us. The eastern sky is red giving way to sunrise. We pass through rows planted to grape, papaya, and olive. The sheep nibble on what looks like bare soil, finding bits of nourishment this harsh environment offers.

A settler arrives to man a guard post which is there to protect the illegal settlement. The guard post actually marks an expansion of the area of the illegal settlement. The expansion was not bought by or given to the illegal settlement; it is land just taken. 

As daylight illuminates the ground, we can see the scattered irrigation lines, evidence of a destructive attack by the settlers to drive the farmer off the land. In the daylight, I can now see that the rows of grape, olives, and papaya are mostly dying from lack of water which was the intent of destroying the irrigation system.

My anger at contemplating the destruction of the irrigation system is interrupted by the sight of some soldiers arriving over the hill. As they approach us, they are joined by another military group. They demand IDs from everyone even though we are on the farmer's private land. They even demand ID from the farmer who they know by name. Demanding ID is not benign. Just days ago, two internationals were arrested and deported on trumped-up charges starting with demanding IDs. 

As the sun gets hot, we follow the sheep back. I see all this as the face of the daily illegal taking of land from the Palestinians. Land that has been theirs for generations. Land that is being taken, by harassment and force, to expand Israeli settlements that are illegal.

Peace Cairns

I wake up in the West Bank on October 7th, 2024. It is suggested that there will be an increase in violence, especially by settler colonists who have no regard for the Palestinian people or anyone who supports them.

When confronted by Israeli soldiers, I look into their eyes, as friendly as I can. I want to look within them to see the part of them that still has humanity. Some of them actually gaze back at me. Most of them deflect their eyes away and do not want to spend any time looking at me.

I am beginning to get a sense of what nonviolent accompaniment is all about. For me, it is transforming the decades upon decades of rage and anger I have towards the killing machine, and finding my deeper inner power.

I have started what many may see as a silly project; I am creating stone cairns where I can in Palestine. I consider my stacks of rocks as way-markers on the path to peace. I attempt to infuse them with the sense of a “one state solution” where people live together in relative peace.

I am trying to hold that energy rather than succumb to the fear of the reality that I see before me. I do not reject what I see, I choose to see beyond.

Day of the Migrants and Refugees

 

 On Saturday, August 28, 2024, many Catholics around the world  celebrated the 110th Day of the Migrant and Refugee. I was part of the planning committee for the Detroit, Michigan, celebration at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral but was not going to be able to experience it because of coming to Palestine for this peace team.

When I arrived at Ecce Homo Convent in Jerusalem I was delighted to be invited to a sister celebration at the Notre Dame Center of Jerusalem. A mass in many languages, traditional national costumes and the message of “God walks with his people” were components of both celebrations a half a world away.

 

Having the universal experience of great love and concern for marginalized people was heartwarming and inspiring. It’s the same as coming here to work with Palestinians who have been oppressed. I look forward to being immersed with beautiful people and standing with them in Solidarity.

Check-In From Palestine

Hello from Ramallah, Palestine.

We are a team of eight proponents of peace, six on the ground and two in the US supporting our outreach efforts. We have our individual unique stories, and a united goal of peace for Palestine.

witness4peacepalestine is our handle and can be found across numerous platforms.

After training for three months online, we finally met in person earlier this week for additional, on the ground training at Ecce Homo Convent in the Old City of Jerusalem. Our team believes in peace and wants to witness life in Palestine in this time of war. What is daily life like? What is the mood? How does one thrive in the midst of war? Can joy be found?

When we walked in Jerusalem, we saw quiet streets, and gaping spaces across the Temple Mount. There are very few visitors to the Dome of the Rock, the Wailing Wall, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

We enjoyed dinner at a restaurant that previous to October 7, 2023, had 28 employees. Today, only the owner prepares the food, cooks, serves, cleans, and welcomes guests. The owner told us, “Since my father opened this restaurant in 1979, my family has served many important people including you now.” As an aside, one of those important people is Jimmy Carter, American President, who turns 100 years old today.

This morning we traveled by bus from Jerusalem to Ramallah. We arrived at a guest house for volunteers and will be trained along with other internationals that have come to provide peaceful accompaniment. 

After two days of training, a decision will be made about where we serve. We only go where we are invited and we take the lead from our Palestinian hosts. Our team will blog regularly and provide a snapshot of the reality of daily living for people expressing their dignity in an apartheid society.

We have already served as a peaceful presence. We smile and look each person in the eye, greeting them with good morning or Allah Salam, the source of peace. We have compassionate and energetic encounters in the streets. People in Israel and Palestine are surprised to see American citizens traveling here during a time of orchestrated violence. Today, a Palestinian Professor of Political Science helped us select olive oil for the rooming house. He was delighted to interact with us and to discuss US politics.

Yesterday in Jerusalem, we were shopping at a Palestinian book shop. Again, the owner wanted to discuss US politics. Who would we vote for? Where is peace on the political agenda? What is our experience? It is humiliating to be a US citizen, knowing that we represent war and destruction.

Two people on our team are members of the organization, Veterans for Peace; these two men were drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. Thanks be to God that these men survived and are able to stand against war and for peace. The burden on the hearts and souls of soldiers creates a life-long smolder of regret.

Each of us is here for our own reasons, however, we are united in our desire to take personal action in support of peace. Follow us on our journey as we train, engage and witness.

We are Witness for Peace in Palestine 

1. A

Our Perspective on the Conflict in Palestine/Israel

The Current Crisis between Israel and Hamas

 The violence since the first week of October 2023 has been heart-wrenching and breathtaking. More than a thousand Israelis and guests of Israel (mostly non-combatant civilians) were killed, and more than 200 were taken hostage in the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.  Immediately following that attack, more than 11,000 Palestinians, the vast majority civilian - including more than 6,000 children - have been killed by Israeli military airstrikes and attacks.  Tens of thousands more have been injured.  Water sources have been destroyed and hospitals and other critical infrastructure in Gaza have been rendered unusable.  Attacks by armed settlers and Israeli military forces in the West Bank are on the rise. Both the Hamas and Israeli attacks have shown a brazen disregard for international law and norms of human decency.  The Israeli military has killed more journalists and United Nations workers than any other recorded conflict.  The Israeli/Palestinian conflict has long been a spiral of violence, which was accelerating before October 7, 2023 and now threatens to engulf the Middle East region.  As a peace and justice organization, we call for an end to the violence, and call for the processes that encourage all people in the region to recognize their shared humanity and the right to peace with justice.

 DATA UPDATE – Oct. 3, 2024

Meta Peace Team’s Perspective on the Conflict in Palestine/Israel

•  We recognize the right of both Palestinians and Israelis to live in justice, peace, and security.
•  We do not advocate any particular solution to the crisis but support a just solution agreed upon by both Palestinians and Israelis.
•  We support an end to violence by all parties in all forms so that peace can take root.
•  We recognize the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people.
•  We reject all forms of religious hatred and racism that may manifest themselves in this crisis, whether the source is an ally or an opponent.
•  We recognize the Occupation of Palestine as an act of ongoing violence that must end for peace to come to fruition in the region.
•  We recognize the daily humiliations and restrictions that Palestinians experience at the hands of armed settlers and the Israeli Military (IDF) as a form of violence.
•  We recognize the pain, terror, and long-term psychological distress that the attacks on innocent civilians inflict on the Israeli people as their own form of violence.
•  We recognize the pain, terror, and long-term psychological distress that home demolitions, land confiscation, and attacks on innocent civilians inflict on the Palestinian people as their own form of violence.
•  We recognize the pain - emotional and physical - caused by military service in the Occupied Territories by Israeli soldiers as a form of violence.
•  We support international law and the United Nation Resolutions regarding the right of return, opposing the existence of Israel’s “security wall”, and opposing Israeli settlements in Palestine. 
•  We recognize the role of the US government in perpetuating and shoring up this violence through economic and military support.
•  We recognize that our own (U.S.) history of colonialism and genocide of the indigenous peoples of the Americas impacts the way we view the realities of Palestine and Israel.
•  We recognize the generational trauma experienced by the people in the region has implications for generations to come, and needs to be addressed if there is to be healing.
•  We recognize the anguish of parents raising children in the midst of this conflict and the need to instill hope for the future.
•  We recognize and affirm nonviolence as a way of life and as a powerful, strategic tactic that can serve a central role in the resolution of the conflict over the occupation of Palestine and security for Israel.

 

West Bank Team Cancelation

The MPT International Team Committee regretfully decided to cancel the October trip to the West Bank because of uncertainty about the delta variant and the increase in covid hospitalizations. Israel has been slow to open its borders to tourists and it still seems that a two week quarantine is needed upon arrival. If that were still to be the case in October, it would cut greatly into a month long deployment which would be prohibitive; or even worse, Israel could decide not to allow entry to people from the US because of our high rates of covid cases. Due to such uncertainties, we did not think it would be a good idea to give the team the go-ahead to start making flight arrangements. 

The team of five had already started the mandatory team training. We are now providing that as a weekly two hour session on Zoom rather than requiring all team members to come to Michigan for a week of face-to-face training. This allowed a team member from Cameroon to be on this team. In the time that we've been doing the Zoom team training together we have seen that this is a very strong team. Now, all five team members hope to be able to join the April team as long as their lives permit and perhaps we will be able to recruit a few more team members by then. 

If you are interested in joining our next scheduled Peace Team to the West Bank call 517-489-2607 or visit https://www.metapeaceteam.org/international-peace-teams

What does a burning car mean?

burned cars

burned cars in forground.  The terrorists came from the ilegal Israeli settlement at top of hill.

No one likes to see a car on fire. Imagine that the flaming car is right next to your house. And imagine it happens in the middle of the night when you think your family is safely asleep.  And the attackers came into your door yard to start the fire.  Bad as that is, it takes on an entirely new feeling when graffiti is sprayed on the wall saying “We will return.” This was not part of some organized crime scene.  This is what innocent Palestinians face when they simply continue to live their ancestral life in their own village after an Israeli settlement is built near them. 

In this case the attacking Israeli settlers came from the Yitzahar Settlement. They sneaked down under the cover of night to terrorize the village of Urif. These attackers were determined enough to climb down more than a kilometer of steep cactusy hillside just to spread their venom of hate.

When we arrived, some 24 hours after the fire had been put out, there was a group of women gathered around the remains of the cars.  As they shared their feelings among themselves, my eye was drawn by the obvious heat, power, and destruction displayed by the burnt out remains of the cars.

The residents of Urif have faced years and years of attacks. I personally have witnessed attacks in Urif for 5 years - from stealing live stock, attacking the boys school while school was in session, to the use of fire and tear gas. The village has been attacked so many times with tear gas that one enterprising teenager had a business collecting the spent teargas shells for scrap metal.

To deliver a message of threat and hate attacks like this do not have to come from everyone in the illegal Israeli settlement, just one or two individuals.  It does not have to happen every day, or every week, or every month to create a terrorized life in the community. It just has to happen enough that the fear and threat feel omnipresent.  Especially when the terrorists take time to sign their work with the Star of David and the message “We will return.” 

We will return

Slow motion attack on Asair al Qibliya

The village of Asair al Qibliya clings to the west slope of the mountain. It is so steep it feels like every step you take is either up or down. Like many old Palestinian villages the history and the structures go back to Roman and Ottoman times.

People wanted us to see how the illegal Israeli settlement of Shalhevet Farm was encroaching on the the village of Asair al Qibliya.  The word encroach disguises what is actually happening - attack or displacement might be more accurate expressions. My first clue that the encroaching settlement buildings were not some benign encroachment came when I realized that the reason our driver had turned the car around and backed up the hill was so he could be prepare for a hasty escape if the settlers attacked us.  Even with the car headed down hill away from the settlement the driver cautiously stopped his car several houses before the end of the street. When we got out of the car the new settler buildings stood out against the horizon, only a thousand feet or so up the hill.

Actually these Israeli settler buildings are an “outpost” not a “settlement.”  Technically the Israeli “settlements” are communities that are in violation of international humanitarian law but that are recognized by the Israeli government.  On the other hand the “outposts” are in violation of both international and Israeli law. Outposts are the efforts of zealous advocates of settlement expansion who just take other people's land.  Their strategy is to take Palestinian land by just building and living on it.  They know that if called the IOA will not arrest them for violating the law, but instead will defend them and their illegal seizing of Palestinian land.

Back to the reality on the ground in Asair la Qibliya. Between the top of the village and the outpost was a stone structure from which a blue and white flag was flying in the gentile breeze.  This had been the spring that supplied water to the village, but the outpost residents had stopped the water flowing from the spring to the village and would not let anyone go up the hill to restore the flow of water.  So instead of using their own spring water the village residents had to have water brought in by tuck. 

We saw this insidious slow but steady illegal forcing Palestinian off their land take many forms. But in Asir al Qibliya the settlers used denying people access to water, physically threatening their well being, and just occupying their land to squeeze the village.

You can see he road in forground, the spring is the gray area, right center behind tree, the outpost buildings are against sky

Looking out overAsair al Qibliya

 

Water access as a tool

In the morning occupying Israeli soldiers arrived in the Palestinian village of Bardala with excavation equipment and a team of contractors.  Soon they had water gushing from water lines and the village's water shut off.

It was no mistake. It was not a construction project. It was a destruction project. They cut up and removed 2000 feet of 6” steel municipal water pipe. They ripped up plastic water lines on private property and piled it in the road.  They dug up streets.  And all the while 20 soldiers, guns at ready, held that part of town including a major intersection and a bridge in a “security perimeter”, denying access to vehicles or pedestrians and generally threatening the residents.

The soldiers and contractors claimed this was all justified because the village has been stealing water.  Of course there was no explanation why a simple court case and fine would not have resolved the issue rather than sealing private and public pipes, cutting off the water, and generally terrorizing the community.  All this was a shock to me - I have run a municipal water system where people stole water and didn't pay their bills. We, the officials, would have been behind bars if we had done anything close to this. And rightfully so.

The village residents said Mekorot (the Israeli government water company) had taken over their municipal well guaranteeing them 250 cu meters of water. This was way more water than the village needed or used, but was less than their well produced. In 2006 Mekorot starting cutting back on the water going to village allowing them less and less. Now it only allows the village 62 cu meters. During the same time Bradala has gown from 200-300 to 3,000 people and with the day workers during working hours the village supplies water to 5,000 people.

Restricting the water that is allowed to flow

While Mekorot restricts water in Bardala its water lines carry water from Bardala's 4 water wells to supply to the illegal Israeli settlements of Mehola, Sdemot Mehola, Nahaf Rottem, Maskiyyat, and 4 military bases.

With their wells and traditional springs taken over by Israel's Mekorot Company the native Palestinians resorted to building rain water collection facilities, water conservation projects, and rain water storage tanks; only to have them destroyed by the Occupying Israeli Army - repeatedly. The justification for destroying them seems to always be that they do not have the proper Israeli issued permits.  But the UN says Israel denies 97% Palestinian permit allocations in theJordan Valley.  Where as near by the illegal Israeli settlements have no problem getting permits or water.

There is a bigger picture than just the water lines in Bardala.  It involves water access throughout the Jordan Valley in Palestine. A pattern of restricting water for the native Palestinians and giving water to the illegal Israeli settlements and their imported residents.

As a result the illegal Israeli settlements have green lawns, swimming pools, and lush thousand acre irrigated farms. Whereas in the Palestinian villages water is always at risk. Crops are limited by water availability. Goat and sheep herds are limited by water availability. Palestinian farmer Khalid Ahmad Ali Fahamni puts it simply, If there is no water there is no farming.

Meanwhile no one knows the future of Bardala. With their water mains ripped up and they only have about 3 days supply of water for their herds and crops.

Fifteen Kilometers from the Sea

          Everyone in the city of Tulkarem seems to have a sea story. Of not being able to go to the sea. Just 15 kilometers from the Mediterranean, on the border between the West Bank and Israel, Tulkarem is as close to the sea as its residents can get. From the outskirts of the city you can see Netanya, the Israeli seaside town which many Palestinians remember visiting as children. But since 2002, in response to the Second Intifada (popular uprising) access to Netanya has been denied. “I have forgotten how to swim,” one man complained to us. Another said that now that his wife has turned 50, she can go to Netanya without breaking Israeli law, but even though he is 55—the legal age for men—he can’t, because of a five-year jail sentence he served in his twenties for student activism. Israeli treatment of Palestinians is often brutal, but sometimes it can be as elegantly cruel as a stiletto wound; imagine having to tell your child, in the blazing heat of a West Bank summer, that she can’t go to the sea! The people of Tulkarem who inspired me are as elegant in their defiance of the occupation as Israel is in its cruelty.

          The first thing you notice about Hassan (not his real name) are his movie star good looks. For those who remember Dr. Zhivago, he evokes a taller, leaner Omar Sharif. Then there is his stride. For an activist, it’s decidedly non-purposeful. Lounging down the street, he has the air of someone with all the time in the world. But Hassan is leader of the International Solidarity Movement, the organization with the biggest, strongest, and most vocal presence in the West Bank. He turns unruly young people who bring all their issues with them to Palestine into effective advocates for human rights. As founder of the Society of Social Work Committees in Tulkarem, he coordinates efforts to help the city’s homeless and disabled. His secret? Charm, of course, but to say that Hassan is charming is like saying that LeBron James plays pretty good basketball. His eyes dance when he is talking with you, his voice is soothing—I  heard him scold one of his Palestinian volunteers for not using English in a tone more appropriate, I thought, for comforting the boy. But all this is superficial. What makes Hassan compelling is that when you are with him you have the sense of being in the presence of a free human being.  

          Like virtually all the activists we have met in Palestine, Hassan has spent time in jail. He showed us pictures of him and his wife at their engagement party, then mentioned that the next day he had to go to jail for 11 months. “It was a cheap engagement!”  Before meeting his wife, he had been a political prisoner for 5 years. “For the first year it is difficult, but then it becomes a life,” he shrugged, “there is always work to do.” I thought of Daniel Berrigan saying to me once that inside or outside prison, it was the ministry that was important. And then I realized the source of Hassan’s freedom. He has let go of his private dreams and ambitions and has surrendered himself to “the work” –ending the occupation of his beloved country. When you do that, you live beyond fear, beyond pettiness, caught up in the power of a love that embraces us all. As I grumble about how my hair looks in the West Bank heat or how it’s been three days since I’ve taken a shower, thinking about Hassan makes me gasp with admiration.

          Another inspiration in Tulkarem was a whole group of people, an artist’s collective, founded in 2003 under the hopeful name of Dar Qandeel, or Lighthouse.  The building they rent is from the Ottoman period, with elaborate stone work, high ceilings and a patio in the rear with flowering trees and a chicken coop. As we headed to our meeting on the patio, we passed paintings, sculptures, posters, and banners (“Evolution begins with R”) all created by the young people who take classes at the studio. Officially an NGO sponsored by the Anna Lindh Foundation, Dar Qandeel  “believes in the power and enlightenment that culture and arts can bring to the people as an instrument to foster social changes and peace.” http://www.annalindhfoundation.org/members/dar-qandeel-arts-and-culture

Three staff members and a cadre of volunteers teach painting, digital arts, music, dance, sculpture, and taekwondo after school and during the summer holiday. While we drank tea or coffee in little cups, a young man (nominated for the TV show, Arabs Got Talent, from Tulkarem, his friends told us) performed magic tricks and another demonstrated the traditional dance ( dabka.)  

          As we went around the circle, which included a Tulkarem native back with his family after 35 years in Saudi Arabia, you could feel the openness of the place (they are proud of teaching “mixed” or coed classes) and the gentle spirit I always associate with artists. But then one of the speakers got angry as he listed all the injustices done to farmers in the area by the occupation. Israel controls imports and exports, he explained. Palestinians grow the best oranges and lemons, but they’re not allowed to sell them in Israel, whereas Israel floods Palestinian markets with their produce. Now farmers who can’t make a profit are forced to work as day-laborers in Israel. As he went on an on, I was moved by his passion. Once again I could see that beneath the surface of these warm, hospitable people who joke and laugh easily is a fierce attachment to their land, which is based not on ideology—as the Israelis’ is—but on generations of working it to sustain themselves. Where are they to go if they are pushed off their land? How can Israel do to the Palestinians what has been done to them down through the centuries? As I ponder these questions, I realize that the Palestinian people and their cry for justice have worked their way into my heart. And I will never again take a trip to the ocean for granted.