Letter from Palestine, 7. Journey for Justice.
17th October 2004
Dear friends!
Now I have wondered a long time what to write. The situation is not that I am in lack of subjects. It is rather the opposite, after a week with Journey for Justice and long days with strong experiences every day. I try to get help from my diary and the pictures and articles at the website of the EJY. There have been many impressions, not only for the participants who have been here one week, but also for me who should be more used to the situation after one and a half month.
At first I want to say that it has been a very nice week. It gives inspiration to meet so many committed people, and it is a pleasure to get to know them more. In addition to the 14 Danish and seven Norwegian, we had a participant from Panama who is an Intern in the World Alliance of YMCAs in Geneva and one from South Africa who is an Intern in Sri Lanka YMCA. Several Palestinian youth were also there, and then we were the international volunteers here, Steve from UK, Solomuzi from South Africa and Nathan from USA who are all in YMCA, and Einar S. and I from Norway in YWCA.
I was not very much involved in the planning before the week started, but I had managed to get the task of organising evening devotions and be one of two main photographers. Because of other programme in the evenings, we did not have devotions every day. But the days we had it, at least I experienced that there was a good spirit and a chance to reflect on the day’s happenings. To use the shepherds’ grotto as a frame also made a good atmosphere. Most of my pictures are in Beit Sahour, while I am now back in Jerusalem. So I have just picked a few of the pictures from the EJY website, which I found good for illustrating this week’s letter.
We had evaluation groups on Friday, talking about what made the most impression on us. Many of us mentioned the trip to Hebron. We were there on Monday, after a lecture on the wall. Hebron is an extreme version of the conflict in miniature. We were accompanied by a few Palestinians, and they were as shocked as us foreigners. The situation was worse than it had been when they had the chance to go there years ago. Hebron is an important city both for Judaism, Christianity and Islam, because of the tomb of Abraham which is there. The city is on the West Bank, south of Jerusalem. It has 140 000 Arab inhabitants. In addition there are about 450 Jewish settlers in the city. The settlers in Hebron are among the most extreme and militant. They carry weapon and are looked after by 5000 soldiers. We heard several stories about Palestinian school children who were accompanied by international observers to have the chance to go to school and home again. Also with these accompaniers it was a risk of being attacked by settler children who were encouraged by their parents to throw stones on the Palestinian children.
The Old City in Hebron, earlier having many shops and being crowded by people, is now almost empty. People do not dear to walk the streets as they are afraid of the settlers. The settlers have occupied several houses and sometimes throw garbage and stones on the people walking in the streets. Many shopkeepers have closed their shops, they do not have enough income. One of the Norwegian participants bought a few old post cards, an important happening for the old shopkeeper, making his day brighter. It is mostly old family members living in the Old City. They try to keep the family house from the occupation, while families with children live outside where it is safer. We were taken around the Old City of some impressing women from CPT (Christian Peacemaker Team). The military presence was clear, the city was closed many places, and there were borders where the Palestinians were allowed to move and not. We also visited TIPH (Temporary International Presence in the city of Hebron). One of the Norwegian leaders, Marianne, who has worked with TIPH for one year, had many stories to tell about the places we passed.
From Hebron we went on to Efrata, a Jewish settlement, illegal according to international law, in the West Bank between Hebron and Jerusalem. We had a meeting with a spokesman for the settlement. He had emigrated from USA 20 years ago. He claimed that the climate was what made him settle in Efrata in stead of in a city in Israel, at the same time he found it important that many Jews lived in this central area. He explained and answered our questions. The most unbelievable was perhaps that our Palestinian friends were allowed to join. Who of them would have believed that they would ever enter a settlement? It was not an easy or comfortable meeting for them. I am impressed how quiet they managed to sit while listening to the settler telling about his right to this land, a right the Palestinians clearly did not have. I still have problems to understand what he actually thought and believed. It seemed that he thought that the Palestinians had come to the area after Israel was established and the Jews had brought technology and development. The big question I have now is if these settlers just don’t have knowledge or if they know well about their discrimination. He seemed to be so naive, but I can’t understand that he believed all what he said.
This was one day of the programme of a whole week. So it could become a quite long letter. But hoping you read what I write, I try to limit to this length. Those who are really interested can find the programme, pictures and articles by the participants on http://www.ej-ymca.org/site/journeyforjustice.cfm.
Greetings from Hanne.
Dear friends!
Now I have wondered a long time what to write. The situation is not that I am in lack of subjects. It is rather the opposite, after a week with Journey for Justice and long days with strong experiences every day. I try to get help from my diary and the pictures and articles at the website of the EJY. There have been many impressions, not only for the participants who have been here one week, but also for me who should be more used to the situation after one and a half month.
At first I want to say that it has been a very nice week. It gives inspiration to meet so many committed people, and it is a pleasure to get to know them more. In addition to the 14 Danish and seven Norwegian, we had a participant from Panama who is an Intern in the World Alliance of YMCAs in Geneva and one from South Africa who is an Intern in Sri Lanka YMCA. Several Palestinian youth were also there, and then we were the international volunteers here, Steve from UK, Solomuzi from South Africa and Nathan from USA who are all in YMCA, and Einar S. and I from Norway in YWCA.
I was not very much involved in the planning before the week started, but I had managed to get the task of organising evening devotions and be one of two main photographers. Because of other programme in the evenings, we did not have devotions every day. But the days we had it, at least I experienced that there was a good spirit and a chance to reflect on the day’s happenings. To use the shepherds’ grotto as a frame also made a good atmosphere. Most of my pictures are in Beit Sahour, while I am now back in Jerusalem. So I have just picked a few of the pictures from the EJY website, which I found good for illustrating this week’s letter.
We had evaluation groups on Friday, talking about what made the most impression on us. Many of us mentioned the trip to Hebron. We were there on Monday, after a lecture on the wall. Hebron is an extreme version of the conflict in miniature. We were accompanied by a few Palestinians, and they were as shocked as us foreigners. The situation was worse than it had been when they had the chance to go there years ago. Hebron is an important city both for Judaism, Christianity and Islam, because of the tomb of Abraham which is there. The city is on the West Bank, south of Jerusalem. It has 140 000 Arab inhabitants. In addition there are about 450 Jewish settlers in the city. The settlers in Hebron are among the most extreme and militant. They carry weapon and are looked after by 5000 soldiers. We heard several stories about Palestinian school children who were accompanied by international observers to have the chance to go to school and home again. Also with these accompaniers it was a risk of being attacked by settler children who were encouraged by their parents to throw stones on the Palestinian children.
The Old City in Hebron, earlier having many shops and being crowded by people, is now almost empty. People do not dear to walk the streets as they are afraid of the settlers. The settlers have occupied several houses and sometimes throw garbage and stones on the people walking in the streets. Many shopkeepers have closed their shops, they do not have enough income. One of the Norwegian participants bought a few old post cards, an important happening for the old shopkeeper, making his day brighter. It is mostly old family members living in the Old City. They try to keep the family house from the occupation, while families with children live outside where it is safer. We were taken around the Old City of some impressing women from CPT (Christian Peacemaker Team). The military presence was clear, the city was closed many places, and there were borders where the Palestinians were allowed to move and not. We also visited TIPH (Temporary International Presence in the city of Hebron). One of the Norwegian leaders, Marianne, who has worked with TIPH for one year, had many stories to tell about the places we passed.
From Hebron we went on to Efrata, a Jewish settlement, illegal according to international law, in the West Bank between Hebron and Jerusalem. We had a meeting with a spokesman for the settlement. He had emigrated from USA 20 years ago. He claimed that the climate was what made him settle in Efrata in stead of in a city in Israel, at the same time he found it important that many Jews lived in this central area. He explained and answered our questions. The most unbelievable was perhaps that our Palestinian friends were allowed to join. Who of them would have believed that they would ever enter a settlement? It was not an easy or comfortable meeting for them. I am impressed how quiet they managed to sit while listening to the settler telling about his right to this land, a right the Palestinians clearly did not have. I still have problems to understand what he actually thought and believed. It seemed that he thought that the Palestinians had come to the area after Israel was established and the Jews had brought technology and development. The big question I have now is if these settlers just don’t have knowledge or if they know well about their discrimination. He seemed to be so naive, but I can’t understand that he believed all what he said.
This was one day of the programme of a whole week. So it could become a quite long letter. But hoping you read what I write, I try to limit to this length. Those who are really interested can find the programme, pictures and articles by the participants on http://www.ej-ymca.org/site/journeyforjustice.cfm.
Greetings from Hanne.
posted by Hanne at 1:55 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home