Pictures

Here are a few pictures from Hebron & At-Tuwani. I'll try to add more there on my next day with internet-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/angelapalestine/

No More of This!

I moved to At-Tuwani last Thursday, June 15. There is no internet there. But I get a day or 2 off every 7-10(ish) days. So I’ll try to write something during those days off. CPT has an apartment in Yatta, a town not too far from Tuwani (I don’t know the miles- I know it is a 25 minute walk and then a 15 minute taxi ride.). We come to Yatta for a shower and internet on an off day. I just had 2 wonderful and relaxing days off. I spent all day yesterday at a spring outside of Jerusalem with a good Israeli friend of mine, with whom I volunteered at an AIDS orphanage in Ethiopia. Now I’m in Yatta for the night. When people go on “days off,” they usually return with world news, fruits, peanut butter, and other treats.

Last Friday a teammate returned from days off in Yatta with news of a bombing in Basra, Iraq, of dead soldiers, and of a “state of emergency” in Baghdad. After hearing the world news that she shared, I walked up a hill to sit under “the big tree,” amidst the beauty of At-Tuwani and to try to remember that there is a good God- A God who sustains hope and life amidst the despair and death in Iraq, and the injustice and imprisonment in Palestine.

I love the village of At-Tuwani though I do still want to be in Iraq … But I learned that I will not be going to Iraq this summer. Two women from CPT went on a short trip to northern Iraq a couple of weeks ago. Now no CPTers are in Iraq, but they are looking to send a small experienced team in again. The team will be CPTers with Iraqi residency because it is becoming close to impossible for us to get visas. Because I have neither a lot of experience nor a visa, I will not be able to go to Iraq this summer. It’s frustrating to hear news from Iraq and not be there with people.

I keep wondering how many more people have to die before we realize what a terrible, terrible mess we have made in Iraq. When will we learn that more guns and more bombs will not bring peace to Iraq or security to the U.S.?

In Iraq, coalition forces hold over 14,000 people in prison. According to the Red Cross, 70-90% of these detainees have no charges (not to mention that the U.S. has no authority to imprison people in an occupied country- therefore making 100% of Iraqi detainees without legitimate charges). There is no way that actions such as these by the U.S. help U.S. security. Actions like these make people all over the world legitimately hate us.

When I was in Baghdad last June we met with a man at the Iraqi Assistance Center in the fortified Green Zone. He told us that they used to track detainees by a name, number and crime. But they had stopped using the category of crime because “most of them are not real anyway.” Can you imagine a whole society terrorized by the threat of prison- specifically the threat of brutal prison where many have been tortured and some killed? People are taken from their homes and families because of their gender, race, and/or location. Families often do not know the whereabouts of those detained for months or years. Most detainees are innocent sons, husbands, and brothers. About 70-90% have NO charges against them. This is completely illegal and immoral.

Families who have suffered through sanctions are now struggling to survive in a country ravaged by urban warfare. Many Iraqis have fled, causing Iraq to lose large numbers of workers- doctors, teachers, etc. Others cannot get to work because of bombs and checkpoints. Last summer several Iraqi people told us that they wanted the U.S. occupation to end, but they were afraid that if the U.S. left there would be civil war. Others simply wanted the U.S. to leave immediately. The U.S. did not leave and now, a year later, the headlines read “At Least 26 Killed in Iraqi Violence,” “Iraqis Call State of Emergency in Baghdad,” and “Deadly Street Battles Prompt Daytime Baghdad Curfew.”

Over 2,500 U.S. troops have died and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, mostly civilians. We invaded Iraq in the name of democracy, freedom, security and even in the name of Jesus. But we have not brought democracy or freedom. We have brought death, captivity and civil war. And I find it difficult to fathom that the God who dwelt among us as Jesus, and who dwells among us now, condones such bloodshed.

How can we kill in the name of Jesus? In the name of a man who, while being executed, prayed, “Father, forgive them…” A man who preached turning the other cheek, love of enemy, and unconditional forgiveness… a man who, when his own disciple defended him by cutting off the ear of one who came to arrest him, Jesus healed his enemy’s ear and reprimanded his disciple saying, “No more of this!”…”Put away your sword.” (Luke 22 & Matt 26)

If we wish to act in the name of Jesus in the world, I wonder why we do not try living as Jesus lived- selflessly, justly, and honestly.

While sitting under the stars, sipping mint tea in a village meeting in At-Tuwani last week I started giggling. My teammate looked at me funny so I turned to her and said, “So this is a what a meeting of terrorists is like, huh?” She smiled & sarcastically said, “I guess so. I guess this is what the U.S. and Israel are searching for”- a group of Arab men sipping tea and discussing the stars, water shortages, and the possibility of using their land and keeping their homes.

Often when we ask the Israeli soldiers why they are in the village or why they are preventing shepherds from watering their sheep or why they are detaining young children on their way to school, a common answer is, “We are looking for terrorists.” One of the villagers said that once when a soldier asked him about the location of terrorist activity, he paused, thought about the meaning of terrorism, and then said, “I think they live in Havat Ma’on,” the illegal Israeli settlement nearest Tuwani.

Settlers in Havat Ma’on have poisoned the village’s drinking water and grass, causing many sheep (the villagers' livelihood) to die. The sheep that did not die could not be sold because neighboring towns heard of the poisoning and would not buy Tuwani products. This winter a settler entered the village and began shooting a machine gun. Thankfully, no one was hurt. Almost daily the settlers prevent shepherds from using Palestinian land and water cisterns. Despite these acts of terror, it is the Palestinian shepherds and farmers who are labeled “terrorists.”

It seems that our understandings are twisted. We can open a dictionary, read the meanings of democracy, freedom, security, and terrorism, and see that the definitions and many of our claims do not match. We can look at the outcome of the Palestinian democratic elections and see that it is not democracy that the U.S. or Israel wants. Palestinians democratically elected Hamas. We can look at the horrendous prison “system” in Iraq and see that the U.S. is not overly concerned with the freedom of the Iraqi people. If we want security, we should not make more enemies by abusing and killing people. And if we are looking for terrorists, we should look to all who use unlawful and extreme abuse and violence. Perhaps we need to rethink the question that the Israeli soldiers are always asking, “Who are the terrorists?” Who is illegally detaining and imprisoning people? Who is killing hundreds of thousands of people in the world? And Who is making money from it? Who are the terrorists? And, is all of this really in the name of God? or is Jesus still crying out, “No more of this! Put away your sword.”?

A Glimpse at Hebron

I'm moving from Hebron to At-Tuwani on Thursday. Tuwani is a small village in the south Hebron hills where CPT has a team. I've been meaning to share a little bit about the history of Hebron... Here is a bit before I leave Hebron. I was lazy- so a lot of this information was typed up by another CPTer a while back. It is in italics.

Hebron is an amazing city full of history. I love walking the streets and paths with my teammate John. He knows the buildings and the history well and he loves this place. He always says things like, “Just think, it’s likely that Abraham and Sarah walked this same path.” Or, “Rebekah probably drew her water from this spring.”

We can see Machpelah (Genesis 23), or the “tomb of the patriarchs (the mosque/synagogue where Sarah, Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah are reportedly buried) from our roof and we walk past the tomb each day. (it’s odd that it is called the “tomb of the patriarchs” since the tomb was originally for Sarah, the matriarch…)

Hebron is one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in the world… Herod the Great built a wall around the Cave of Machpelah, the tomb of the Patriarchs, portions of which are still visible. A church was built on top of Herod's structure during the Byzantine period. The building was later converted to a Mosque during the Arab conquest in 638, re-converted by the Crusaders into a church in 1100, and reconverted into a mosque under the Mamluk Turks in 1260.

In the 1500's, Jews fleeing from the Inquisitions in Europe founded the Jewish Quarter in Hebron. (Incidentally, Muslims fleeing from Spain for the same reason also settled in Hebron around this time. One can see the Spanish influence lingering in certain place names, such as Al Andalus mall and Cordoba school.) In the early twentieth century, the Jewish community swelled when hundreds of Hasidim from Poland came to study there.

From all reports, it appears that the Jewish and Arab communities lived in peace...

The 1929 massacre in the Jewish quarter continues to live as a recent memory in the minds of both Jews and Arabs in Hebron. At least 67 men, women and children were hacked to death by an Arab mob. Almost 400 residents of the Jewish quarter, however, were saved by their Arab neighbors. (Presently a group of Jewish families who lived in Hebron pre-1929 are speaking out against the illegal Israeli settlements and military abuses that take place against Palestinians in Hebron.)

CPT talked to an old man in Hebron who was 13 at the time of the Hebron massacre. He had served as a "shabbos goy" to a family living in the community (i.e. he came into the house to turn the lights on and off on during the Sabbath.) On the morning of the massacre, he watched British soldiers among the Arab mob open the gates and tell the mob to "get the Jews."

Hebronites claim that the mob was entirely composed of people from outside Hebron.

In 1931, 31 Jewish families returned to Hebron and re-established the community. In 1936 the British evacuated them, saying they feared another massacre.

In April of 1968, Rabbi Moshe Levinger and a band of armed settlers, posing as Swiss tourists, took over the only hotel in Hebron and stated that they did not intend to leave. To appease them, the army gave them an abandoned military camp on the outskirts of Hebron. This site became the first settlement here, the settlement of Kiryat Arba (which is now a very large Israeli settlement right outside of Hebron).

Now there are 4 other settlements actually inside the city of Hebron. These numbers are not exact- but there are around 140,000 Palestinians in the city of Hebron and around 500 Israeli settlers inside the city of Hebron, in the 4 settlements (Avraham Avinu, Beit Romano, Beit Hadassah, and Tel Rumeida), as well as a couple thousand Israeli soldiers.

We walk by Avraham Avinu settlement each day as we leave the Old City of Hebron. The Israeli settlers throw their trash out their windows and into the souq, the Palestinian market. Here is a picture of the nets on which Palestinians in the Old City rely to keep the settlers’ garbage out of the stores and streets. One can see everything from furniture to beer bottles to dirty Kleenex overhead as one heads to school, work, or worship. Very lovely….

In February 1994, the settler Dr. Baruch Goldstein entered the Ibrahimi mosque and massacred 29 Muslim men and boys as they prayed on the last Friday in Ramadan. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) shot more in the demonstrations that followed. A large monument to Baruch Goldstein, "the martyr," lies near the entrance of Kiryat Arba in Meir Kahane park. (Goldstein was beaten to death with a fire extinguisher by two men in the mosque. The Israeli Defense Force shot them.) Some Jewish Israelis come there to pray.

(Here a Palestinian man prays inside the mosque by the tomb of Abraham.)

In response, the army put all Palestinians in Hebron under curfew for two months, but allowed the settlers to roam the streets freely. By the time our Christian Peacemaker Team arrived here in 1995, Palestinians expressed as much bitterness about the collective punishment as they did about the massacre. Curfew means that all Palestinians had to be inside their homes by a certain hour and sometimes for days at a time. Curfews prevented people from working, going to school, seeing family, worshipping together, and even buying food.

(A child walks to school through a checkpoint as a CPT delegate watches.)

Today the 4 settlements remain inside the city and the settlement of Kiryat Arba remains outside of Hebron. The main road by the Old City of Hebron that passes by the tomb is called Shuhada St. This street used to be lined with Palestinian shops and homes. Many Palestinians still live in the homes but they cannot get out of their front doors because they have been welded shut. Only Israeli settlers are allowed on the main road. Palestinians must take longer, inconvenient routes. The Palestinian shops on Shuhada St are almost all closed. The front doors to Palestinian homes on Shuhada St are vandalized by settlers. Our next door neighbor has had her window broken twice in the last 2 weeks. Israeli settlers walking down Shuhada St at night throw stones at her windows. if they fail to actually break a window, the settlers succeed in keeping our neighbor awake. It is harder and harder for Palestinians in the Old City (where the CPT apartment is) to get our of the Old City. It is like a giant prison. There are turnstiles and barbed wire and checkpoints at the openings. Some paths have been blocked off by the military.
Hebron has problems similar to many inner city situations combined with the issues of a place under occupation.

Water and Hospitals

Friday, June 2, the delegation spent the day in At-Tuwani, the other place that CPT-Hebron works. Tuwani is a beautiful village. Many of the residents live in caves that their families have lived in for hundreds of years. As we walked through the village, I whispered, “Wow… It’s so peaceful here…” Children were playing, people were visiting with each other, and there were no other sounds except nature. It did not take long to shatter my view of peaceful Tuwani. Our guide, another CPTer, pointed out the nearby Ma’on settlement and the military outposts. As we walked back, a military jeep with armed men stopped us.
(picture of an olive tree that the village of Tuwani planted in memory of Tom Fox.)

There is a water shortage in Tuwani and in most (all?) of Palestine. Most homes try to keep a water reserve because Israel cuts of the Palestinian water supply during the dry summer months. Yet we were told that the Israeli settlers’ water supplies are never turned off.

Friday night we all stayed in Palestinian homes. I stayed in Bet Ummar (the town where we accompanied the farmers to their fields a few weeks ago). We stayed with a beautiful family. They have 3 children- ages 10, 8 and 5. The youngest daughter is a talented dancer with incredible rhythm. Every time that she hears music, she begins doing Palestinian dances. She and her two older brothers keep begging their parents to bring them to the nearby Dead Sea. However, Palestinians are not allowed to go to the Dead Sea. Only Israelis and foreigners may go. The mother said sadly, “What do I tell my children?” The mother said that sometimes they try to make a small pool of water for their children instead of the sea, but now "there is no water for Palestinian children." One of the other delegates said that this mother’s lament reminded her of Martin Luther King Jr’s laments for his children in a segregated society where they were refused certain rights because of their skin color.

Saturday a group of Palestinian men decided to take trucks up to their well and pump water for the village of Suseya. The well is on Palestinian land but sometimes they are attacked by settlers or harassed by soldiers when they go to get water. They asked CPT and Tay'ush, a joint Palestinian/Israeli group, to accompany them to the well. We just sat by while they pumped and the soldiers watched. Then when we got ready to leave, the soldiers followed us. It was kind of ridiculous to watch the large military vehicles rolling down the road at our walking pace. what a waste of their time… (picture of an Israeli volunteer from Tay'ush talking to the soldiers & police)

It was an extremely hot day & we were not drinking enough water. We turned off the road and into an olive grove to go sit in the shade under a villager’s tent. The soldiers began yelling at us that we could not go that way. Of course there was no reason that we could not go that way. Two soldiers jumped out of the vehicle & came after us. One was very angry. We insisted that we could sit in the shade and that we could sit under this tent. The soldiers followed us to the tent. The Palestinian woman of the house invited the soldiers into the tent as well. The soldiers decided to remain in the sun. The woman made coffee for us, and her young son offered the first cups to the two soldiers. The soldiers refused. We waited for a little less than an hour and then two taxis came to get us and the soldiers left.

After we left the Palestinian men were able to make two more trips to pump water.

That night one of the delegation members was sick. During the course of the night several others became ill. By the morning half of the delegation was very sick. They were all very dehydrated and perhaps had food poisoning as well. 6 delegation members ended up with IVs and 1 of them had to stay the night in the hospital. I’ve spent the past 3 days accompanying people in & out of the hospital. Most of those who were sick are feeling much better and are in the process of returning home right now. One of the sick delegates is still pretty ill but plans to leave for the airport in a few hours. Please pray that they all will have safe travels home and speedy recoveries. Thank you for your prayers!

The care at the hospital was amazing. The doctors and nurses (like the teachers) have not been paid in over 3 months (since aid to Palestine has been cut). The hospital, like most places here, is in an economic bind. Yet we had to convince the doctor to let us pay for the delegate's IV today. The doctor was insisting that he wanted to treat the delegate for free “for God and for [his] brother.”

CPT itself does not provide material aid, but if any of you wish to support that hospital in Jerusalem (Augusta Victoria) or the Charitable Hospital here in Hebron (which is also in great need) by sending supplies or donations, I can send you their contact information… just let me know... The hospital in Hebron said that they are in need of “disposables,” things like gloves, syringes, medicines.