A full closure of the West Bank has been imposed by the Israelis and has been effect since Friday. What that means to us is that no West Bank ID holder (i.e. all the men who queue to go to work in the morning) cannot pass through the CP, hence no CP watch. What is good for us is rather catastrophic for Bethlehemites, no work, no money and possibly no job! Remember Ameen, the morning coffee seller who supports his family, extended family and assorted others - I told you about him earlier – tough time for him with no coffee selling!
We aren’t quite off-the-hook because the Bible College Conference is in town and we meet groups of about 20 participants each morning at 6 a.m. to escort them through the CP. For the pleasure of getting up early and picking up groups from the lobby of Intercontinental Hotel, we were invited by the Sabeel organizer to stay and have breakfast in a wonderful dining room overlooking the grand swimming pool, as posh as a ***** in our world. Truth be told, she didn’t invite us, I invited myself and my colleagues. Actually, Abraham, one of the conference participants, said that he valued the work we do here and would like to pay for our breakfasts but it turned out his offer was not needed because it was a huge buffet style breakfast and no one even noticed us. Now, my colleagues and I are fighting over who will go tomorrow and Wednesday on the chance we’ll get another free breakfast. The ‘juxtaposition of incongruous elements’ (as Robert would say) is stunning with the backdrop of Aida Refugee Camp immediately behind the Intercontinental. I wish I could get up high enough on one of the surrounding buildings to get this picture but I can’t, so just visualize it.
The conference speakers and sessions are also open to us and those of us who are so inclined have been attending. I have attended two sessions (not necessarily because I was so inclined but it was an oasis of cool out of the 30C heat!): The Bible, Israel and the Church: Challenging Zionism, Anti-Semitism and Replacement Theology presented by Stephen Sizer and Evangelicals and Islam presented by Colin Chapman and Brother Andrew. Brother Andrew was nicknamed God’s Smuggler for smuggling Bibles to Communist countries at the height of the Cold war. He was a joy to listen to! You can goggle any these people if you care to know more about them.
This morning’s CP tour for the conference participants was cancelled due to increasing tension in Bethlehem and Jerusalem, and actually all throughout the West Bank over holy sites in Jerusalem. Military presence is on every street corner, sirens wailing, Palestinian teenagers throwing rocks. We had an early morning phone call Samira Alshaer, the Principal of a girl’s school in Tu’qua village to request that we go there immediately because the military was throwing tear gas at the children as they went to school. Apparently, some of the teenage boys from the boys school across the highway had thrown rocks at the military hummers and the IDF responded with tear gas. We spoke to one of the young girls, Nariman Sulimann, who had had an M16 or whatever those guns are called, pointed at the side of her head. She was still physically shaking when we spoke to her. Samira told us they have a social worker who can assist students like Nariman who have been traumatized by the military, however, she is only in the school twice a week and today was not one of the days. We promised to return to Tu’qua tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. to monitor the situation as the kids go to school. Today, we got there after the fact! Even Eli, our driver, was a shaken by some choice words one of the soldiers shouted at him as we got in his taxi.
When we got back to town, Eli took us to the Intercontinental to take in more of the conference. There was quite a disturbance of teenagers throwing rocks at the Wall which cuts into Bethlehem to preserve Rachel’s tomb on the Israeli side. Because Bethlehem is Area A, the Palestinian Authority army dudes arrived to disperse the young men, which they did without the use of tear gas, or sound bombs. The Israeli’s declared Rachel’s tomb and the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron as Israeli heritage sites last week – just one more irritant for the Palestinians. It has been 5 days of closure now – the first closures, other than for Jewish holidays, in many months. The popular belief here is that the Israeli’s are pressuring or squeezing the Palestinians into reacting with a Third Intifada so they can then say, “look at those terrorists” and justify more oppression.
Our staff in Jerusalem become very protective of us when there is unrest in the West Bank. They want to know where we are at all times and who is in the placement and who is out on days off or whatever. One of my colleagues, Phil, is enjoying days off by the Sea of Gallillee right now and we have two visitors from other placements with us. It is quite a task to keep track of all 24 of us from Group 34 and add to that Group 35 – another 24 newbbies - are currently arriving in Jerusalem. I do not envy the EAPPI staff!
On Sunday, we travelled back to Hebron with Hamed, our UNOCHA contact, that’s the Humanitarian Affairs branch of the UN. We visited the Bedouin village of Um Al Kher which is the most vulnerable community in the South Hebron Hills. The people of the village all live in tents with the exception of one concrete block house, and 2 concrete structures which house toilets. All structures, with the exception of the one house, have demolition orders on them, meaning that at any time the military may come and flatten their tents and toilets. The settlement of Karmel is expanding and encroaching on the land of Um Al Kher. The Bedouins have actual paperwork to support the fact that they own the land, which is very unusual for a Bedouin community. The electrical poles carrying electricity to Karmel on one side and a settlement chicken farm on the other side pass on Palestinian land. This would not be so bad except that the Palestinians are not allowed to hook into the power source. So near and yet so far!
While there, we met two Israeli physicists who sympathize with the plight of the community (and other vulnerable Palestinian communities) and volunteer their time and expertise to work with Palestinians in setting up solar panels to bring electrical power to the people of Um Al Kher. Very impressive men! The first and third from the right are Israeli and the second and fourth are Palestinian.
Although there are no ongoing open hostilities between the villagers and the settlers, there are flare-ups from time to time when a donkey doesn’t seem to know the border between the communities and inadvertently gets into the settlement. Other villages in the South Hebron Hills such as Suseya, Al Twani and Tubas have benefitted from the constant presence of the international community, EAPPI and Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPTs), to name a couple. Hamed said that he fears that it is too late for these Bedouins and they will be forced to give up their way of life and have to move the Yatta, a Palestinians city, not too far away. Of course, by our standards, that may not be such a bad move but because they would be forced to do so, it would be very sad. After many cups of lukewarm sugared tea and amazing hospitality, we had the usual hair-raising ride back to Bethlehem with Hamed’s cousin. My strategy is to sit as far back in the vehicle as possible, close my eyes and hope for the best.
Phil and Muriel relaxing in our hosts tent.
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