Delegation sees the situation in Palestine and Israel first-hand.
By Bob Gross

In January, On Earth Peace and Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) sponsored a delegation to Palestine and Israel. Sixteen people took the opportunity to see the situation and learn from Israelis and Palestinians first-hand. Three-fourths of the delegates were members of the Church of the Brethren. The group was led by Bob Gross, co-executive director of On Earth Peace, who kept a journal during the trip. This article is based on excerpts from his journal.

"Jan. 4: Soon I'll be leaving for the airport. I should arrive in Tel Aviv on Thursday. I'll go directly to Hebron to join up with the CPT team there. There is one CPT team in Hebron and one in At-tuwani, a village south of Hebron. I'll spend the weekend with the CPT teams, and then go to Jerusalem, Hebron, and Bethlehem to make final arrangements for the delegation.

"Jan. 6: After two days of traveling, I arrived at At-tuwani to find a very sad sight: during the night, settlers from the nearby Israeli settlement of Maon had hacked all the branches off a grove of more than 100 olive trees. The trees should survive, but won't bear again for about five years. Amazing how stoic the Palestinian farmers are. `God is good,' they say.

"Jan. 13: The delegation arrived safely today.... We are settled at a hostel in the Old City of Jerusalem. We'll begin tomorrow with a tour to see the effects of the occupation and the separation wall in the area in and around Jerusalem.

"Jan. 17: This delegation is working together with grace, resilience, and good sense. We just returned from two days in Bethlehem. We met with organizations working with children in peacemaking, with refugees, with land and water rights under the Israeli occupation, and with nonviolent direct action organizing and training. We were the overnight guests of a family in the huge refugee camp near Bethlehem. We enjoyed their hospitality and heard a few of their stories. These are inspiring people. Living under a crushing occupation, trying to find a way to live and raise their children, trying to build a society with so many obstacles placed in their way, yet somehow they seem to maintain hope and purpose.

"Bethlehem, with its neighboring towns of Beit Sahour and Beit Jala, for centuries were predominately Christian. Now, under occupation and with `The Wall' beginning to wrap around them, these towns are losing their Christian population. In Palestine, Christians tend to be a little better off educationally and economically, and to have international connections, so it is easier for them to leave the country. More Christians are leaving the Holy Land. The Bethlehem district is now less than 40 percent Christian, and Palestine as a whole is about 2 percent.

"Jan. 20: Now we are based in the CPT office and apartment in Hebron. We spent one day in At-tuwani, learning about life in a 500-year-old village of 150 people, constantly harrassed and occasionally attacked by extremist settlers from the settlement built next to the village in 1982. Four members of our delegation are spending additional time there. They will help the farmers plow their fields near the settlement by providing an international presence as they work.

"Yesterday we saw the work of the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee, which has restored and repaired hundreds of homes and shops in the old city to keep this besieged and heavily occupied part of the city from being abandoned, and offering incentives to homeowners, renters, and shopkeepers to stay. In addition to learning from speakers and organizations, we also learned a great deal by visiting families in the area, eating with them, and hearing their stories. We are also experiencing travel in occupied Palestine: transferring from one bus or taxi to another, walking over roadblocks, showing our passports to heavily armed soldiers at checkpoints.

"Jan. 24: While in Jerusalem we have met with a number of Israeli groups, including rabbis, persons who have lost family members to the violence here, and Israeli conscientious objectors. Many people say that without an end to the occupation, Israel can never expect to have peace and security. The delegation departed for home today, concluding its time together with a closing meeting and a final Middle Eastern meal together.

"Jan. 30: The recent elections for members of the Palestinian national assembly resulted in a surprise victory for the Hamas party. Even Hamas did not expect it. This should help them move more into the mainstream of Palestinian political life, building on their long experience as a religious, social-service organization working at the grassroots.

"It's interesting that the Hamas we hear about in the news back home is not like the real organization here. While there is a splinter group that has carried out violent attacks, the primary organization is concerned with education, housing, and the basic needs of the people. The fact that there have been no attacks from Hamas in over a year seems to be evidence of a turn toward constructive political engagement.

"I will be leaving tomorrow. It has been good to work here, but I am glad to be going home."

--Bob Gross is co-executive director of On Earth Peace, an Annual Conference-reportable agency of the Church of the Brethren with ministries in peacemaking and reconciliation.

Source: 3/3/2006 Newsline
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