Sunday in rural West Bank

Today we went to a village of 2,000 in the West Bank and worshipped with three different churches: Greek Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical. I was able to attend to Greek Orthodox service and although the words were all in Arabic, the beauty of the symbols and people spoke clearly. It was also amazing to learn that the church is one of the oldest in the Holy Land.

After services ended we all met back at the Orthodox church and listened to the Abouna, Arabic for Reverend father. He told us about his life in the small town and the experiences of his flock living under occupation. His heart was clear: We love the Jewish people of Israel, but we suffer under the government's policies of oppression. Later in the day we learned about how those policies include the government pumping water off the Palestinian land (which is internationally recognized) and into Israel and then sold back to Palestinians at a rate much higher than it is sold to Israelis.

The heart of Jesus could not have been more clear in the Abouna: Jesus calls us to love all people at all times.

Next we met with the Catholic Abouna who told us more about his experience and perspective on the occupation. We spoke over lunch and then were taken to a small micro-enterprise in town that is supported by our host organization. This small business allows the young men of the town to bolster the economy and make a positive contribution to the village and surrounding areas. Many of us bought their product and can't wait to try it out.

Some of the young men then took us to see the settlement that is being built on their land. The olive tree that is their livelihood has been uprooted and the old main road connecting this village to others has been blocked. We could see the bulldozers and other massive equipment creating the new settlement. As we sat near the remaining olive trees we were told that even though these tress are on their land the people are only allowed to gather the olives for two hours a day during harvest time. The government claims this is for security reasons.

We saw many more people and had many more conversations today, but they are too many to recount.

I will say that the most amazing statistic I heard today was that tens of thousands of Palestinians make their way across the wall (which in some places is a wire fence) every day. They do this to go to work and provide for their families. The question is then: How can someone claim the separation wall is the reason for success in preventing suicide bombings? The more likely explanation is that Palestinian leadership called for an end in terrorism seeing that it was not successful and only brought them more suffering. The call for an end to suicide bombings was officially stated in 2005. The wall has been going up since 2002 and is not yet finished. The bombings did not begin a significant decrease until the call for an end to this type of violence occurred within the Palestinian people. Is this a wall of protection or a wall of intimidation?

Note: These are questions posed by the writer and are not official statements of the ECCC. The vague nature of this post is intentional in order to not cause un-intended consequences for the people we met.