Pat's Palestine Blog 9

This is a late posting of Pat Devlin's final letter from the West Bank. Pat has been sharing her experiences as a member of the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). Here she reports on a visit to Bethlehem


Walled in

Last week I was able to spend a couple of days with our team in Bethlehem visiting some of the families and projects there.

As you approach Bethlehem , long before you reach Manger Square, the view is dominated by the wall, the separation barrier which Israel started constructing in 2002 in response to the violence of the second intifada. When completed, the barrier will stretch for 703km In 2009 nearly 60% was completed. In many places it is a fence with vehicle barriers and a 60m exclusion zone around it. But round Bethlehem and East Jerusalem it is an 8m high concrete wall. The International Court of Justice ruled that the barrier was illegal in 2004, but Israel kept building.

We visited a Catholic family whose house is surrounded on three sides by the wall, because they have the misfortune to be in the area where the wall makes a loop to include Rachel’s tomb. Before the wall was built, the Anastase family had a thriving shop selling Bethlehem crafts and ran a popular guest house. Now they are struggling to make a small income by selling on the internet and they had their first guests for many years(the brother of one of our Bethlehem team).

One solution for families cut off from their normal livelihood is to seek a permit to work in Israel, but at what cost! I joined the Bethlehem team at 4.30am on Wednesday morning as they made their way to monitor the Bethlehem checkpoint

(checkpoint 300). Men working in the Israeli construction industry start to queue here at 3 am. The gates at the checkpoint are supposed to open at 5am, and the humanitarian gate was supposed to offer unrestricted access for women, the elderly, the sick and internationals. Two of us wormed our way to the front of the umanitarian line, while a third EA made her way down the exit line to observe what happened as people came through the gate. At 5.30am there was still no movement.

We were being jostled by men who had joined the humanitarian line in the hope of getting through to the other side of the gate via a hole in the corrugated roof. I began to feel faint. I was offered the option of fighting my way back through the line to get out, but I knew I wouldn’t make it. Someone gave me their place where there was more air and I was thinking - this is the line for the sick and the elderly ! Finally at 5.50am the turnstiles began to move. Once on the other side of the turnstile IDs are checked, the men in the humanitarian line without the appropriate permit are sent back to join the other line.

The rest begin the run through the warehouse-like structure which leads to the metal detector and airport style procedure. Then, there is the handprint and electronic ID check before finally emerging to catch a bus or works minibus into Israel. We emerge to meet the Israeli women from Machsom Watch who monitor the checkpoint from the Israeli side but the men who are very irrate by this time get to them first to tell them what a bad morning it is. We share a cup of coffee with the Machsom Watch women and then start to make our way back through the checkpoint to meet our fellow EA at the other end. It’s after 7am now and more women are coming through. I’m told many of them are teachers, but they get the same treatment from the young Israeli soldiers. By 8 am the queue has gone and around 2,000 Palestinians have made their way to their daily work in Israel.

On a more hopeful note I would now like to talk about two projects which are trying to find a peaceful, more sustainable way forward. Near the wall we visited the Sumud Story House ‘The sumud (steadfastness) programme supports education in values, culture, and identity. The programme aims to build a cadre of Palestinian youth, women and educators, aware of their Palestinian (inter) religious and cultural sources of inspiration and able to develop a strong value based message summarised in the Arab concept of ‘sumud’ This programme is supported by Pax Christi International. We sat with a very lively group of young Palestinian Christian Women as they engaged in a version of what we would call the pastoral cycle. This took place in a room furnished with traditional drapes and Arab couches, with framed versions of the women’s very moving stories hung on the walls. While the stories were very challenging the dynamic spirit of the women was infectious.

Travelling south from the city of Bethlehem, we arrived at another project with a vision rooted in the Palestinian ‘sumud’ to stay on the land. Daoud Nasser’s grandfather bought a large plot of land in a beautiful location in 1916. He and his two sons farmed this land living in the natural caves there. Daoud grew up there, but it is now surrounded by Israeli settlements and the Israeli’s desperately want this land which has been registered to the Nasser family for over 100 years In 1991, the Israeli government declared the whole area state property. The Nasser family contested this and the case is still under debate in the High Court. The latest development is the serving of a demolition order for various structures on the land eg animal shelters, toilets, tents etc.

Daoud’s response has been to develop what he calls The Tent of Nations at the centre of the land. Here he runs programmes for young Palestinians to help them to reconnect to the land and their heritage. He also welcomes young people from all over the world, some to work as volunteers on the land and in the centre, others to participate in youth conferences and exchange programmes. A tree planting programme brings the local community and internationals together as a sign of hope and solidarity and simple solutions to power and irrigation demonstrate how to sustain agriculture in a dry climate. One of the caves is now used for creative worship and it is obvious that the Tent of Nations both arises from and is sustained by the Christian faith of the Nasser family.

Another more traditional institution offering opportunities to young Muslim and Christian Palestinians alike is Bethlehem University. Started by the De la Salle brothers it remains essentially a catholic institution, but genuinely open to all. It too suffered during the 2nd intifada and one of its new buildings was shelled by the Israeli military before it could be used. Thankfully this building is now in full use, housing the library and a Palestinian heritage centre. I was welcomed by Nasra, a friend of Geoff Miller. She is director of events and facilities and her duties have included welcoming Bishop Martin Wharton with members of Newcastle Diocese and the Holy Land Coordination Committee of European and North American Roman Catholic Bishops. I hope that they, like me, had the opportunity to witness both the suffering and the potential of Bethlehem and its people.

Pat's Palestine Blog 8

Pat Devlin shares more of her experiences as a member of the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). In this posting she gives a flavour of the many Israeli human rights groups who are working for justice and want a better society for both Israeli's and Palestinians

A view from the other side

During our training week, our midterm week and in the course of our work we have meet a number of Israeli Human Rights groups. In the absence of any statistical analysis, our impression had been that there are broadly 3 groups in Israel: a minority of more or less aggressive Zionists, a majority group for whom it is easier to accept the security narrative and not to know too much about the terms of the occupation of the West Bank and a minority of very committed human rights groups, who think the occupation of the West Bank has very negative effects on both Israeli and Palestinian Society and who are actively involved in challenging human rights abuses on a daily basis. In this news sheet I will take a brief look at the work and our contact with some of these groups.

Machsom Watch

This is a group of Israeli women, many of them grandmothers, who since 2001 have organised themselves to monitor the checkpoints, which control the entry of Palestinians into Israel, but also control the movement of Palestinians around the West Bank and they also monitor the Military Courts which deal with detained Palestinians, many of whom are young boys arrested on suspicion of stone throwing and appearing without legal representation. Machsom Watch estimate that there are currently 40 permanent checkpoints in the West Bank At the big checkpoints like Qualandyia in the north and checkpoint 300 near Bethlehem in the south, where thousands of people start queuing from 4am in the morning to reach their work, university or hospital appointment, women from Machsom Watch monitor the Israeli side and EAPPI team members monitor the Palestinian side. They watch for human rights abuses: humiliating or aggressive behaviour on the part of the soldiers, protracted delays, late opening of gates etc. We call them if we see unusual delays or aggressive searching at the traffic checkpoint near us. They have direct access to the Israeli District Coordinating Officer and are admitted to the Military Courts and other places, where non Israelis cannot gain access

Breaking the Silence is an organization of veteran Israeli soldiers that collects testimonies of soldiers who served in the Occupied Territories during the Second Intifadah and Gaza. Soldiers who serve in the Territories are witness to, and participate in military actions which change them immensely and the way they are ordered to treat Palestinians often conflicts with their Jewish ethical upbringing at home. While this reality which is known to Israeli soldiers and commanders exists in Israel's back yard, Israeli society continues to turn a blind eye, and to deny that which happens in its name. Discharged soldiers who return to civilian life discover the gap between the reality which they encountered in the Territories , and the silence which they encounter at home. Since 2004, Breaking the Silence has collected testimonies from over 650 soldiers who have served in the teritorries since the beginning of the second Intifadah. The collectors of the testimonies are veteran combatants themeselves. Every soldier who gives a testimony to Breaking the Silence knows the aims of the organization and the interview. ‘We demand accountability regarding Israel's military actions in the Occupied territories perpetrated by us and in our name.’ The testimonies are published in booklets and on the web site www.shovrimshtika.org They give talks both within Israel and overseas and they organize alternative tours of Hebron and the South Hebron Hills. We heard from our Hebron team that the Breaking the Silence leader of the last tour was arrested for his pains

New Profile was founded in 1998 by parents whose children did not want to serve in the Israeli military Working from a feminist perspective they not only support young ‘refusniks’, but also work to reduce the militarised nature of Israel’s government, society and culture. Rutti Hiller, a founder member, told us that she had two girls then four boys. Her 2 girls went to the military without question, but when her first boy reached 16yrs, he was very clear that he did not want to go to the military. She and her husband agreed to support him, provided they did everything together and he stayed out of jail. But he appeared before the conscience tribunal 3 times and each time his case failed. Then they had to go to the United States to find a lawyer willing to take his case to the High Court. Eventually he was released after 3 years of hearings. However orthodox Jews are allowed exemption from military service and the number of exemptions has grown from 400 to 30,000

Women in Black started in Jerusalem in 1988 at the time of the first intifada and it is worthy of note that some of the early members were holocaust survivors. The tactic and focus were very simple: to stand in a public place at a regular time, dressed in black, carrying placards saying ‘End the Occupation’(of the Palestinian Territories). The demonstrations quickly spread to other Israeli cities and were later adopted by other countries for other causes eg at the time of the Iraq war. Ann (my friendfrom Ireland) and myself joined the Jerusalem demonstration on the last Friday in April. It now takes place on a busy roundabout in West Jerusalem, apparently chosen for its proximity to the prime minister’s residence. Yes there was a fair amount of abuse shouted from passing vehicles and pedestrians, but there was also significant support. I was joined by a young Druze man who had served in the military, but was now teaching philosophy to both Israeli and Palestinian children in West and East Jerusalem

Rabbis for Human Rights was also formed in 1988 with the aim of embodying the Torah ideal of being keepers of the law of justice and righteousness. It has a membership of 180 rabbis from all denominations of Judaism. They do not take positions in relation to the big political picture, but attempt to apply the Torah to human rights issues. The team for the West Bank and East Jerusalem includes 4 lawyers and a Palestinian fieldworker, who covers about 30 villages. The work in East Jerusalem is focussed on contesting threatened demolitions in the name of Judaisation. In the villages in the north here it is very much about exposing settler violence

Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) is a non-violent, direct-action group originally established to oppose and resist Israeli demolition of Palestinian houses in the Occupied Territories, by physically sitting in front of bulldozers and mobilizing activists to help with rebuilding. Their familiarity with realities "on the ground" gives them frequent contacts with diplomats, fact-finding missions, the public and the media. ICAHD aids Palestinians in filing police claims, in dealing with the Israeli authorities, in arranging and subsidizing legal assistance. ICAHD took us on our tour of Jerusalem when we first arrived and explained the housing crisis to us. Our Jerusalem team work closely with them

Other Voice This is a slightly different organization and the one which perhaps made the strongest impression on us. During our mid term week, we visited Sderot, the Israeli town which just over a year ago was always in the news because of its vulnerability to rockets being fired to Gaza. Sderot, which is just about 3 kilometres from Gaza, is a very multi cultural city with over 10,000 immigrants from the Caucasian region. We travelled there to meet with members of an urban kibbuz , 100 of whom had formed this organization called Other Voice. Nomika, one of the founder members told us what life was like, when 6-10 rockets were being launched into the city every day. Taking the children to school or doing daily shopping was a nerve racking experience. All the bus shelters were turned into emergency bomb/rocket shelters and now almost every house has a strong ‘rocket’ resistant room, where the family can take shelter. But, she said , about a year before, the invasion of Gaza, she began to realize what it was doing to her as a person to have fear and security as her daily diet.

With the help of therapy and with other like minded people she decided to make another voice heard. At first they just wanted to give themselves an identity, not wholly based on security concerns. But, soon they found they wanted to make contact with the people in Gaza. In former times it had been common for the people of Sderot to visit the beach in Gaza and they wanted to re establish neighbourly relations. They started by speaking on the phone to people in Gaza and they managed to maintain this relationship throughout the invasion, enquiring after each others safety – replacing fear with empathy. Nomika wrote a diary called ‘Not in my name – not for my security’. She said she was willing to become the public enemy, but found she had support from all round the world. Now, times are much quieter and despite the siege of Gaza, they have managed to organize day meetings with people from Gaza coming to Sderot. Much of their work has focused on young people and they have been able to receive young people from other parts of the world too. It seemed like a real, if small, sign of hope arising from such a difficult situation.

Retiring ministers

What is there about the Church in Wales? They've made the headlines in every news bulletin today (May 16th) because they've asked their congregations to pray for more priests - on the grounds, we are told, that 25% of them are retiring in the next ten years.

I'm not sure that maths is my strong point, but I'm thinking it out like this. Get a young man or woman trained as quick as the system allows, and ordain them straight out of college, and what is the most you get out of them? Surely a ministry of just about 40 years? (All right, increased retirement ages will add a little bit there.) But most of our entrants are well on in years - they're second career people. I can't believe it's any different for Anglicans in Wales. Say you were getting an average of 25 years service per ordinand (an optimistic statistic), this means you have a complete turn over every 25 years and so expect to lose a quarter of your clergy every six or seven years. If it takes ten years as the Welsh are claiming for a quarter to see retirement, the parishes are more likely to be praying for them to go.

Compare and contrast with the URC - and I think the Methodists are in much the same situation. I can promise you things are very much worse. And so far as our synod is concerned, of the 28 fulltime stipendiary ministers (not CRCWs) currently deployed among us, I think exactly half of us are coming up to retirement age in the next five years.

Does anyone know how to get on the news next Sunday?

Pat's Palestine Blog 7

Pat Devlin shares more of her experiences as a member of the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). She says “This is a more complicated posting but it does show that the devil is very often in the quite crazy detail here. If you're short of time, skip the first bit and go straight to the village stories.”

Area C

What is Area C and how did it arise?

· Areas A, B and C were a result of the ill-fated Oslo Agreements of the 1990s.

· A map showing areas A, B and C is attached. Palestinian cities and the Palestinian Authority (PA) holds responsibility for both civil and security matters here

o Area B includes smaller Palestinian towns and villages is under Palestinian civil control but joint Israeli/Palestinian security control

o Area A&B together comprise 38% of the West Bank territory

o Area C is divided into two categories. A) Areas designated by Israel for settlements or military use only, where Palestinian building or construction is totally forbidden. B) Areas, where planning restrictions make any Palestinian building or construction virtually impossible while settlements are expanded and new ones started. The latter areas contain many of the smaller Israeli settlements and roads, and is contiguous. Area C is under total Israeli control—civil and security and comprises 62% of the West Bank territory

· This division was intended as a temporary arrangement: the 1995 agreement setting these areas up was a transitory step in what were expected to be continued negotiations which would (among other things) gradually transfer control of Area C to the Palestinian Authority (PA) by 1999. However negotiations became stalemated during Netanyahu's previous period as Prime Minister and collapsed altogether in 2000.

· In effect Israel now treats Area C as though it is Israeli territory—62% of the West Bank!

· According to the UN, the division of the West Bank into Areas A, B, and C has not altered the status of the entirety of the West Bank as occupied territory.

· More than 400 Palestinians villages have part of their built up area in Area C, and 150 are entirely located in Area C. It is estimated that 150,000 Palestinians live in Area C.

· Many Palestinian villages in our area are designated Area B but are surrounded by Area C and this is quite common. Lower Yanoun is Area B, but Upper Yanoun is Area C. Madama is in Area B, but its water spring is in Area C

This is all very complicated: why does it matter?

It has a huge impact on the daily life of Palestinians.

· Construction of any kind in Area C, be it a private home, an animal shelter or a donor-funded infrastructure project, requires approval by the Israel Civil Administration (ICA) which is under the authority of the Israeli Ministry of Defence. This approval will in almost all cases be refused or, at best, long delayed.

· Existing houses: Demolition orders are placed on houses that have stood for many years but that Israel now deems to be in Area C.

· Infrastructure projects: major projects such as construction or expansion of schools or medical clinics and shelters or the rehabilitation of water infrastructure all require communities, NGOs or international funders to go through a lengthy and complex permit application process to the ICA. Approval is not guaranteed.

· Water is hugely important in what is a relatively dry area, and, apart from household and industrial consumption is used by both Israeli and Palestinian farmers for irrigation of many crops. Using the powers of an Israeli Military Order of 1967 that requires permits for all water structures, Israel monitors and intervenes to control all water related activities in Area C, hindering many villages from improving their water supplies. Palestinians consume on average 50litres per capita per day, while the World Health Organisation recommends 150 litres per capita per day Many of the communities which find themselves, now wholly in Area C live under constant threat of demolition.

We visit three such communities in and around the Jordan Valley

Tawayel is the nearest of these villages and can be seen from the tomb of Nun (Joshua’s father) Tawayel is built on land under the jurisdiction of Aqraba, our nearest large village which is in Area A, wholly under Palestinian control, Tawayel’s new (4 years old) school is in area B, but all the other buildings of the 21 families in the village are in area C and have a demolition order on them These orders have been frozen since March 2009, but the 5 most recent demolition orders are still in Beit El ‘court’ .

Khirbet Tana is a remote village to the east of Yanoun, but to reach it by road and dirt track involves taking a round about route via Nablus. About 35 families live in this location which was chosen because of the natural spring which provides water all year round. This unfortunate village and its school were demolished by the Israeli Army before 2005 and again in January 2010. The families are currently living in tents without insulation against the cold or heat. The school has just been rebuilt by the local municipality of Beit Furik But already the school and two other dwellings have received orders to stop building and two demolition orders have been issued yet again. These villagers also had to present at Beit El ‘court’. An Italian NGO is willing to rebuild the village and Beit Furik lawyers are currently trying to obtain pre 1967 land deeds from Jordan to assist in the struggle to get the necessary permits just to continue their very simple way of life in their long chosen location.

When we visit the village we meet with the indomitable Farisa who can recount the many struggles of the community over the years, from the British right up to present day harassment from the settlers and Israeli Army. Her one request, when we last visited, was for a sewing machine so that she and other women could make clothes and hangings for their tents. Thanks to the generosity of friends this was something much simpler to help with, in contrast to achieving long term sustainability for the community.

Ein al Hilwe – a community in crisis On April 26th the settlement of Maskiyot in the Jordan Valley pitched a tent just a few metres away from the first tent of the Palestian shepherd community of Ein al Hilwe There are just 7 families living in the community scattered across the valley. One family has 2 tents and the second tent is less than 10 metres away from the tent erected by the settlers from Maskiyot This second tent has now been given over as a meeting tent for those supporting the community. There were about 15 men and one woman gathered in this tent when we arrived just after 9am. We were greeted by Arif Daraghmeh of the PNA and one of the mayors of a neighbouring community and I was introduced to Jessica Street from the Jordan Valley Solidarity Group. Jessica lives in Brighton, which is twinned with Tubas one of the main towns in the Jordan Valley. She said there had been about 70 supporters of the Palestinian community in the tent for much of the night.

Unlike most of the settlers in the Jordan Valley who are farmers taking advantage of the fertile land and economic incentives to settle there, the Maskiyot settlers are Zionists who settled in the Jordan valley after being expelled from Gaza over one year ago. There were about 5 armed young men in the settler tent with 2 dogs, when we arrived. They seemed to have a rota for being in the tent, and at lunchtime a woman and children and two older men arrived and began a religious meeting in the settler tent. We were told that at night there was a bigger number 20+ and they played very loud music until 4am and Israeli soldiers had also been there the previous evening.

We spoke to some of the men who lived in the community, who told us water was their main problem. The spring is on the other side of the road near the settlement and is difficult to access. The P.A. have only brought water to them since the Settler’s tent arrived. The P.A. said it was difficult as the vehicles are often turned back or confiscated by the army and they have to pay to get them back. The other issues raised by the community were: lack of grazing for the sheep because they are surrounded by settlements; the lack of an ambulance to take sick people to hospital and concern about access to school for the children There is only one very overcrowded bus which charges to take the children to school. At the moment the older children are out with the sheep because the men cannot leave the village due to the settler threat .

Fathy, the coordinator of the Jordan Valley Solidarity Group arrived with a solar panel, but there seemed to be some difficulty in fitting it up (there is no electricity) He explained that they have a project planned to pipe water to the community but need to raise more money. They have about 50% thanks to a private American Donor. He said he did not know how the situation with the settlers would develop because nothing like this had happened in the Jordan Valley before. He was keen to get a rota of internationals developed, who would provide a protective presence for the community .

Mid morning people arrived with lots of Palestinian flags which almost covered the meeting tent. Then the big delegation arrived. The Palestinian minister for Settlements with the ‘Governor’ of Tubas plus press, TV and many more - over 100 people There were speeches in the tent The man who owned the land was present with his title deeds. The Israeli army arrived to ‘protect’ the settlers. At one point the Palestinians moved to the front of the Settlers tent and things became quite confrontational for a short time, after which the army lined up on the side of the settler’s tent facing the Palestinian tent.

The next day the army presented papers ordering both tents to be removed. Although the Palestinians had refused to unilaterally remove their tent, which had been there all along, they agreed to joint removal, because the community of Ein al Hilwe did not want any trouble. After all their priority was to get the basic services and facilities, which we all take for granted, but which are denied them because they find themselves in the ubiquitous Area C

Pat's Palestine Blog 6

Pat Devlin shares more of her experiences as a member of the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).

Occupation writ large in Hebron

Think wartime films of occupied France and you will capture something of the atmosphere of central Hebron. Even after a month here it was quite a shocking experience during my two day visit to our team in Hebron.

The Oslo Accord of 1995 divided the West Bank into 3 zones

• Area A Wholly under Palestinian control (this includes most of the Palestinian cities)
• Area B Joint control: Palestinian civil administration, Joint Palestinian/Israeli ‘security’
• Area C Wholly under Israeli military control ( this includes many Palestinian rural communities – more of this another time)

Unlike other Palestinian cities, Hebron is divided into H1 under Palestinian control and H2 under Israeli military control. H2 includes much of the city centre and old city as well as the mosque and synagogue housing the tombs of the patriarchs. The reason for this is that in Hebron the Israeli settlements are in the centre of the city.

As you approach the city centre the road forks. The left fork leads into the old city and the right fork leads to a pedestrian military checkpoint with metal detectors and if you pass though successfully, you find yourself in the infamous Shuhada street. This was once the main shopping street of the Palestinian city, but now it’s like a ghost town. If you are a Palestinian (or even an international during the time I was there) you are only allowed to walk the first 200yds of the street before being halted by another military post, just before the Jewish school and central settlement. This is precisely where the Palestinian girls must climb the stairs to the Cordoba school and for the Hebron team one of their main tasks is watching the girls safely in and out of the school, because in the past they have had to run the gauntlet of stone throwing settlers as they came down the stairs from school. On the day I was there, the school had an open day and the contrast between the normal excitement of the pupils as each class lined up to perform their part of the show was a testimony to the Palestinian determination to continue with as normal a life a life as possible despite the abnormal context of their lives.

From the school we were able to walk by the houses on the hillside below the Tal Rumeida settlement and we saw how the settlers had cut through the trunks of the vines growing in the gardens and heard of their violence even towards the children living in those houses. Descending from the hillside we entered the Old City where some of the walkways have overhead wire mesh to prevent the settlers tipping their waste onto the Palestinian traders and customers below.

In the Old City we met Nahla at her handicraft stall. She is the aunt of two boys who were arrested after the disturbances when Netanyahu announced that the site of the tombs of the patriarchs would become a Jewish heritage sight. Nahla’s sister Leyla had sent the boys to buy bread, but they were detained accused of stone throwing and the 15yr old had now been in prison in Tulkarem in the north of the country for some weeks. That morning they had heard that he was to be released, but only after falsely admitting to stone throwing and the 15yr old would have to find his way from Tulkarem right down to Hebron with only 15 shekels in his pocket. We hoped our team in Tulkarem would be able to help.

We continued on our way through the Old City until we reached the military checkpoint and turnstile leading to the Mosque and Synagogue housing the tombs of the patriarchs. Having passed through the turnstile we had to go through an airport style checking system before entering the Mosque. The underground tombs were actually sealed up by the crusaders before they left, so what you see is something like giant tabernacles erected on the ground above the tombs. Abraham’s tomb can be seen both from the mosque and the synagogue. We moved on to the synagogue, where a young Israeli told us: “It’s better that they can’t come here and we can’t go there, that way we don’t fight – not that I want to fight and I don’t think those other guys want to fight either – it’s the big guys that want to fight!”

The next day we returned with a watching brief, as over 800 Palestinians made their way through the elaborate security checks to Friday prayers in the mosque. Identity papers were taken from about 15 young Palestinian men and they had to wait after prayers until the Israeli military were ready to return their papers to them . Later we took tea with a Palestinian shopkeeper, whose premises are just opposite the mosque and synagogue. He told us the Israelis had offered him large sums of money for his property, because they want exclusive occupancy of this important area, but so far like many Palestinians he has quietly resisted.

Thursday: An Absent God

Ray Anglesea reflects on this particuar day of the week

As a self supporting minister formerly operating in the knock-about world of daily work I am relieved that Thursday is not generally regarded as a Holy Day, a significant religious day of the week. It was on a Thursday, in the hurly-burly of the Jerusalem suburb, Bethany, Jesus took leave of his disciples. After he had blessed his disciples his resurrected body was carried up to heaven without even a hint of a goodbye to his disciples. Like the nursery rhyme - Jesus /Thursday’s child has......“far to go.” In the all consuming interests of our working and family lives Jesus absents himself from our earthly life on a Thursday. On that Thursday in particular – a significant event took place on an ordinary working day. “I could never get the hang of Thursdays,” said the character, Arthur Dent, from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. “Thursday! it’s too gruesome,” said Holly Golightly, in Breakfast in Tiffany’s.

Our life as human beings presents us with many occasions when we have to say good-bye, perhaps not all of them on a Thursday, and not all of them as we might have wished them to be if the ordering of our lives were in our power. Some of us over the years have had to say good-bye to loved ones, through death and bereavement, divorce and separation; some of us have had to say good bye to local church communities which we have come to know and love; some of us have had to say good-bye to ways of seeing ourselves. It was on Thursday my son married his beautiful bride; it was on a Thursday that I said goodbye to a way of life that had been my life blood for three decades and more. In the haste to get forms completed, a Plan B was not in place, a back- up church job was not offered, an offer of a living and a stipend not made. Legions of angels or the equivalent of the ecclesiastical cavalry did not come and rescue me from my depressed and miserable encampment (which rather surprised my working colleagues) to spread soothing Tinkerbelle dust around. There were no Superman tricks.

But for that, at least, I was pleased, thankful and relieved. Stipendiary ministry is not the refuge of the unemployed. I soon began to loathe conversations with friends who would say “What is God saying to me in this situation?” as if one could distinguish between a God who can arrange a new possibility from a God who could have arranged a redundancy? I too was irritated with employed friends who appeared not to care, the classic empty one-liner “you are in my prayers,” and then the brush off. Over the last few months I have come to realise that a self supporting ministry is not, at heart, only about how ministry is exercised in the daily patterns of daily working life, or on Sundays either within or outside local mission partnerships. It is a way of life. For whether one is employed or unemployed that vocational ministry of the self supporting minister is forever shaping one’s outlook and understanding of oneself and of the church. That thought, from a self supporting minister who was retiring from ministry, offered some practical and intellectual consolation and support.

And so like my recent experience of redundancy in my professional life (who ever heard of an unemployed cleric?), only too often for our taste and comfort, goodbyes are wrenched from us, often out of control, out of our power, occasions even of pain and bitterness. And so it is with the disappeared Christ. When Christ is absent we try to bring him back with all manners of minister-craft and pleading. We reach out to that cloud where he sits in glory. And while he sits “at the Father’s right hand in glory everlasting” earthquakes destroy our cities, volcanic ash hangs over Britain like an ill-omen disrupting travel journeys and causes economic chaos, famine reduces life to a scramble for survival, and debating politicians fight over every scrap of election territory. Where is God’s power in all this – in the unemployed masses, the hungry and homeless, the ravaged people of Haiti, the butchered people of Rwanda, the bereft people of Poland? It seems, apparently, life can go on apart from God, and we can go on, quite easily, without God. If Christ is ascended, if Christ is absent what are we doing in church, in our local mission partnerships? Why praise God when he has removed himself from the world?

I can imagine Heaven’s fanfare trumpets did blow on that first Ascension Thursday to welcome home the returning Christ in a cloud-like tent of meeting, to be reunited with his prodigal Father. But to make sense of that upward mystery perhaps it is easier for us earth-bound creatures to invert the story of the Ascension and ask “how is God who absented himself made present in our world? Perhaps the writer to the Ephesians gives us the hint of the answer. “He that descended is He who also ascended far above all heavens, that He might fill all things” Ephesians 4 v10.

But the word ascended implies that he also descended to the lowest level, down to the very earth. That means God is present where he cannot be present – in the depths of hell, the abyss of despair. God’s presence is not just in the sacred places of our churches and cathedrals where dedicated coal-black dressed silk stoled stipendiary ministers fuss over God’s train (which filled the temple, Isaiah 6 v1) and where they faithfully serve, but also where God is most absent: in the pit, in the mire, in the squalid mess of humanity outside the church where Christ was crucified in an unfenced and unadorned place, the place where self supporting minsters ply their renewing ministerial craft of hope without Geneva robes, candles and crucifixes, prayer and hymnbooks and polished brass vases full of Tesco’s two-bags-for-the-price-of-one, lilies. For in that place, that is where God’s glory is to be found (Isaiah 6 v3). In the meaningless struggle of existence, God has been present.

And it is in this world, “filled with his glory,” that he exalts the wretched of the earth. He lifts them from the depths to the heights, and he raises the poor and the unemployed, the destitute and the powerless from the dust. He champions the poor and rescues them from their misery. It is the proud who are abased and the humbled exalted, the rich who are impoverished and the poor enriched; the well fed who are sent empty away and the hungry filled with good things. That is our hope. There is no place however remote from which he is absent, neither is there a situation, however desperate, which he does not share with us. And he is there making transformation in his glorious world, not just on Thursdays but the remaining days of the week too.

St Leo, that great Italian Doctor of the Church, in one of the earliest Ascension sermons said that in the life of the church “what was visible in the person of our redeemer is now represented in the mysteries.” In every communion service we are lifted up to the heavenly places and sustained in love. Confined in a cell in Beirut a priest took “a bit of stale bread hoarded from a scanty meal.” “Once again” wrote Terry Anderson, journalist and hostage*, a sharer in that communion service, “Christ’s promise is fulfilled. The miracle is real.” Out of that and all such darkness, the way lies open to heaven; for the Lord has ascended that he might fill all things.

Revd Ray Anglesea

April 2010

*Terry Anderson was an American journalist taken hostage in Beirut in 1985 by Hezbollah Shiite Muslims in an attempt to drive U.S. military forces from Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War. The longest known held hostage, he spent 6 years and 9 months in captivity. Anderson was released on 4th December 1991. He was reported as saying he had forgiven his captors.

Pat's Palestine Blog 5

Pat Devlin shares some more everyday experiences as a member of the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).

Yanoun

On Saturday we experienced what our presence in Yanoun is all about. Just after 1pm there was a loud banging on the door. Our neighbour had come to tell us that settlers, from the Itamar Settlement, above us, were coming into the village.

We watched as a growing number of young Israeli men (19 in all ) made their way to the village well. Rashed, the mayor, suggested we could go down and try to talk to them. This was not easy. There was a language barrier, but attitude was a much bigger barrier. They were intent on going down into the well to swim and nothing we could say about contaminating people’s drinking water would make any difference. As far as they were concerned, this is their country and they will do as they like in it. This was followed by some fairly insulting stuff about Arabs in general and ourselves as ‘foreign visitors’ As is normal here, two of them were armed, but there was never any threat of the arms being used, just a bit of pebble throwing at one point We stayed with them, hoping they would not do any damage while we were present and eventually they made their way up through the village and left.

About an hour later, a small number of them returned, but 3 Israeli army vehicles arrived at the same time, probably as a result of the phone calls made by Rashed and myself to the Palestinian DCO, the UN and Rabbis for Human Rights. They didn’t seem too interested in our version of events and when we showed them, where 6 of the young men had climbed down to swim in the well, the comment of the officer in charge was “Brave Kids”! However their presence deterred the young settlers from returning and the villagers were able to get on with the main business of the day – a wedding celebration!

Burin

Burin has suffered a lot over the last few years. Crops were burnt by settlers from the Bracha Settlement in the summers of 2008 and 2009. From September 09 to February 10 a total of 296 olive trees were cut down and destroyed by settlers.

There are two families who are completely cut off from the village by the roads serving the settlements. When we visited one of these families last week, we also met a physician and psychologist from Medecins sans Frontiers. They told us there is a big need for psychological support as people try to adjust to their reduced circumstances, lack of opportunity and severely restricted movement. This family now have so little land left to them by the settlers that they only have twenty sheep and they are unable to tend their olive trees safely. The Palestinian government are considering making a small payment to help families who have lost so much to the settlements, but the mother of the family tells us “ we would rather have more sheep.”

Meaning then we could make our own living. Normally the families would support themselves by selling sheep’s milk, cheese and yoghurt and making olive oil, as well as having small crops of wheat and vegetables. At the village centre we met the leader of the newly formed farmers association, who told us they are now planting, cultivating and harvesting their land in groups of 20-30, so that they will not be so vulnerable to the settlers “in shaa’allah” or “God willing” as they always add.

Asira

In 2008 Asira suffered a very serious attack by over 100 settlers from the Yizhar Settlement and it’s outposts which are very close to the village and there have been repeated incidents since then. We visited the last house in the village which was built by the owners before the settlement outposts appeared on the hill behind them. The house is now defaced by bullet holes and settlers’ graffiti. This is not a poor family and in other circumstances it would be the site of an exclusive hotel, with its breathtaking views of the surrounding hills and valleys. Instead a mother of 4 young children says she would be living in fear of the next attack, if it wasn’t for the strong support of the villagers who only a few days before had seen the settlers approaching her house before she was aware of them and they had come up the hill to protect herself and the children That same day she was awaiting a visit from a psychologist who was coming, through the school in the village, to offer support to her eldest son.

Madama

Madama is a large village which is flanked on one side by the Yizahar settlement and on the other side by the Bracha settlement. Madama had always depended on the natural Ben Shira spring for its water supply. But in June 2009 the water was no longer flowing from the spring to the holding tank under the mosque in the village which had supplied the village with water. The village was forced to make alternative arrangements, buying the water they needed from a tanker supplied by the municipality, who in turn were purchasing the water from an Israeli company. Villagers were spending between 400- 600 shekels a month Eventually, investigations in the company of the Palestinian DCO and the Palestinian Water Company revealed that the well house built by the villagers to pipe the spring water to the village had been deliberately damaged and the strong suspicion was the deed had been done by settlers from Yizahar settlement which overlooks the spring.

The villagers hope to get permission and a military escort to enable them to repair the well house, but this will always be a vulnerable source of water, now the settlement and its outposts are so near The Palestinian Water Company backed by US Aid are investigating the possibility of connecting the village to the Palestinian Water Company’s supply. But, just to carry out the initial land survey on the opposite hill below the Bracha settlement has required 2 permits and a military escort.

So, our snapshots begin and end with stories of water – a free gift – essential for all life and growth, but so easily manipulated as a weapon in an unequal political conflict over land .