Our Final Program

Our last meeting was held at the Israel government office of Foreign Affairs. Here we are standing outside shivering while we await approval of official entry. We had to turn in our passports in order to be given Visitors' passes and were not allowed to take our cameras into the meeting. Once inside, however, the meeting was truly amazing.

We met with Daniel Taub, Head of the Legislative Department of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Our last speaker, Mr. Taub was as well-informed, articulate and responsive as anyone we've met on this tour. He spoke of wishing to be (and imagining that indeed they would be) in a very different place at this point than the one at which the country is. The spiral that has occurred since the breakdown of talks with Arafat in 2000, through the unexpected violence following the unilateral disengagement from Gaza in the summer 2006 after the Hamas takeover in that region, up to the Israeli incursion into the Gaza strip this past week, is disappointing, but not stopping the attempt at negotiations.

Taub made several statements, among them that while there is no partner on the Palestinian side that can ensure an agreement is positively implemented, that will not stop their attempt to work toward peace; that the current Israeli policy is one of distinction - that is, they are trying to identify and work with those in the Palestinian government that are moderate; that their approach is to continue the process begun with Roadmap to Peace; and to conduct negotiations now rather than wait until a government is in place that can implement decisions. He also argued that the conflict is not territory-based, as is shown in what happened when Israel unilaterally left Gaza and gave the territory back, but is instead a moderate/extremist conflict.
It would logically be in Israel's best interests for the Palestinians to have a positive national identity. But all attempts by Israel (and indeed the world community - Palestine has received more international aid per capita than any other nation in the world) have been thwarted by extremists.

This does not leave a lot of hope for either side, but I guess if I can find some, it is in the individuals we have met and in Daniel Taub himself and others like him, working against all odds for all to have a decent way of life in his country.

Immigration and Absorption

That afternoon, we visited an Ulpan - one of 33 centers nationwide whose purpose is to help young immigrants to Israel integrate into society. For the nominal fee of 1400 shekels (~$400 U.S.), they are housed and fed for 5 months, during which they study Hebrew five hours a day, five days a week. They also build relationships with other young immigrants from all over the world. We met five of the students currently at Ulpon Etzion - Max from Westchester County in NY, Fernanda from Brazil, Aurelie from Paris, France, Izel from Istanbul, Turkey and Talia from the Ukraine. These young people without exception felt that Israel is their home in a way that they didn't connect with their country of birth, and were looking forward to their new lives in Israel.

I thought the concept of the Ulpan - helping those who come from other native countries and cultures to immigrate and enter into their society of choice was fascinating. Imagine what a boon it would be if were able to figure a way out to do something similar in the U.S.? Then the people arriving would bring not only their own language and culture, but would become invested in the "American Culture and Way" in their first months here. How much more valuable they would be in the workforce to start out with a minimum of two languages and relationships built across cultural lines... Obviously, this is a much more manageable proposition with a nation the size of Rhode Island, but it's still a great idea.

Sabeel

Our next stop was Sabeel, an organization whose stated mission, according to its official website, is "to develop a spirituality based on love, justice, peace, nonviolence, liberation and reconciliation for the different national and faith communities." We met with the founder, a Palestinian-Anglican priest, Naim Ateek, who spoke about his longing for justice in Palestine. The PC(USA) supports Sabeel and many of our members were looking forward to this meeting, which we had specially requested. I confess, however, that I was very disappointed with Rev. Ateek's presentation, which used the right words, but was so angry in tone and unwilling to hear any viewpoint other than his own. We've met so many people during this trip who are looking for a win/win situation, but Rev. Ateek did not strike me as one of them. He seemed only able to hear about "justice" in relation to his side of the story and unable to see or hear anyone else's point of view. He is the only person that I've met in my time here (including those not on the official docket) that is still imagining a "one-state solution" - an answer whose time, I believe, is past. I kept remembering one of our presenters during the past week remarking that the Israelis and the Palestinians are both peoples who are suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. While I do not have credentials to make a diagnosis, this certainly seems to me to be the case with Rev. Ateek's perspective.

Our Last Morning

It's been a whirlwind trip that just didn't stop - we've gotten a lot to eat and not as much sleep as I'd like, but there just wasn't anything I would have wanted to miss. Our last morning was just as full as every one previous. First we went to the Augusta Victoria Hospital located in East Jerusalem, where we met Drs. Tawfiq Nasser and Jacob Assaf. Dr. Nasser is a Palestinian-Christian and Dr. Assaf an Israeli-Jew (whose actual hospital affiliation is with Hadassah in West Jerusalem). These two men were without a doubt the most inspiring of all that we've met. Dr. Nasser is the CEO of Augusta Victoria and in addition to running the hospital itself, he is committed (along with Dr. Assaf) to bringing quality health care to the Palestinians in the occupied territories. In addition to bringing mammograms and other important screenings to the Palestinian people (actually, bringing the Palestinian people to AV to be screened - including making bus arrangements that allow them dignity in the midst of the difficult border issues), they are training Palestinian doctors and sending them back into the territories to work with the people, thus providing them with both skills and opportunities for leadership. Their whole goal is to develop a win/win strategy, something that they do not see happening with the American political leadership. They agreed that what they are doing with and through the AV Hospital is not only providing great health benefits to the people, but perhaps the personal connections forged are even more important. It was a wonderful meeting, particularly after spending more than a week seeing and hearing about all the difficult aspects of the situation - and living in and through the developments along and within the Gaza Strip.

The Wailing Wall

When we had finished the tour beneath the wall, we came back out and had the opportunity to pray at the wall. The wall is separated into a Women's Side and a Men's Side, so I went to the Women's. First I wrote on a piece of paper all the people that Iwanted to pray for: Anna Gross and Les & Galda Gallagher and Edna Dein and Ruth Ulrich who are homebound and I send a sermon CD to every week and of course, my daughter, Grace and the Presbyterian Church of Sweet Hollow and Rose Spatarella and Bill Wansor who've both just come out of the hospital and Sara Verma who's going off to college and more. Then I went down and laid my head and hands upon the stones and prayed and prayed and prayed for everyone on the list and more and most of all for peace, peace, peace, peace, peace.

When you walk away from the wall, you walk backwards, so as not to turn your back on God and it was the most incredible thing to be walking backwards slowly at first, but then faster and to trust that everyone who is coming in to pray will look out for you and you won't run into anything, but will be safe and cared for. If only every person in the Middle East could take as much care with each other as they do in their holy places, there would be no problems here.

Underneath the Western Wall

After shopping, we all met at the Western Wall to go beneath the city where there is a current archeological dig going on. It was one of the best parts of the trip - and the closest that I felt to a "holy" place in all our travels. We were so blessed to have our amazing Aharon guiding us through the site as he shared stories of how Herod had the stones finished and which stone was the closest that we can get to where the Holy of Holies was (Marc is touching the stone in the picture shown here).

Free Time in the Old City

Finally, it was Sunday and we were to have an hour or two free in the Old City to shop. Because of the bombing that is going on between Israel and the Gaza Strip, the Christian and Muslim quarters of the City were closed for shopping - like a protest. And the city was FULL of soldiers, I mean FULL. They all were about 20 years old and had machine guns hanging over their backs. I saw at least 8 platoons (I think that's what you call a group of 12-15 soldiers) in and around the city as we went in to go shopping. The Jewish quarter was still open and that's where everybody else went to shop, but not I. I wanted to buy Christian stuff (a new home communion set and a stole from Jerusalem) and I wanted to buy it from Christians and so I went by myself to the Christian quarter to see if I could find any shops open. It was deserted. I mean TOTALLY. The streets which are really like covered cobblestoned alleys, were completely shut up, like wide lockers and no one was in them except I turned one corner and saw two soldiers keeping watch. Eventually I got into the center of the Christian quarter and there was one street vendor - a young boy really - who was open and I bought a little sesame candy-type brick from him. And then I found one shop where the owner was doing repairs inside and I went in and had a long talk with him about the situation and the two-state solution and why he doesn't emigrate and all sorts of stuff. His name was George Maizer and he was really nice, if a bit frustrated and angry about how he is treated as an Arab and on behalf of his predominantly Muslim friends. Here are shots of soldiers and the empty, empty streets and George and me in his shop.