2/25 (posted late because we were exhausted!)
The Friday before we left for the Holy Land, I met up with the Stewart girls from FUMC; Fiona, 9, and Colleen, 7. They are definitely theologians in the making. We have tea, cookies, and theology sessions on a regular basis, and this time was no different. I told them that I was getting ready to leave for Israel and Palestine, to learn more about the places where Jesus was born and lived and other places in the Bible. Somehow we got on the topic of the Separation Wall that divides (and controls) the borders of the Palestinians in the West Bank.
Fiona, the Bible scholar says, “Hey! Is it a wall like in the story of Joshua? Where was that wall again?”
“Jericho,” I said.
“Didn’t they blow horns and the walls came falling down?” Fiona asks.
The Great Wall of China was built to keep the invaders out of the cities; now it is considered one of the 7 Wonders of the World. The Berlin Wall was constructed to divide Germany into East and West; the wall came down in 1989. Those are some familiar walls we know, but why do so few people talk about the walls separating Israelis and Palestinians?
Walls were a big theme for me today.
We started our day at Herodian, an excavated palace built by King Herod the Great.
After passing through and alongside the separation walls, we arrived to the 2000+ year old palace built just a few years before Jesus was born. What beautiful ruins…and those WALLS! The entire mountain on which the palace was built—along with it’s towering protective walls was moved, stone by stone, by Herod’s slaves. This enormous structure, and its walls were built to demonstrate power and authority to the people. These walls kept out his enemies (Herod was not very well-liked…remember, he’s the guy in the Bible that wanted to kill all the newborns and was so ruthless, he was even known to have killed several of his own children and wives.)
Walls.
Our next stop was to the Tent of Nations; a 100-acre farm that has belonged to a Palestinian family for generations. They have been resisting displacement by surrounding Israeli settlers and have turned their struggle into a center for peace and non-violent resistance. Daoud, the visionary leader, shared his family’s story of owning the land, but always being in a constant state of vigilance and non-violent defense.
Someone from Daoud’s family must be on the land at all times, for fear of losing their land. Last Christmas Eve, as the family attended Christmas Eve services in neighboring Bethlehem, the family was surprised to return to an Israeli bulldozer clearing a path for a road through their land. Even still, the sign beside their front gate reads: “We refuse to be enemies.”
As we were leaving Daoud’s farm, we only then noticed the pile of boulders and rubble blocking the front entrance onto Daoud’s farm…a WALL that he purposely erected to stop the Israeli bulldozers from entering and destroying his family’s property.
Walls.
Our final stop for the day was at Al-Arub Refugee Camp. We visited the Women’s Cooperative in the Refugee Camp and they shared with us their frustration of their situation and virtual “imprisonment” living in the refugee camps for the last 50 years.
But it was the children, born and raised in the camps that touched me the most. I befriended a 12 year-old boy, named Salman who show us around and gave me an intensive lesson in Arabic.
As we were leaving the stone barrier at the entrance of the refugee camp, Salman says to our group, “Wait, wait, wait,” and looked hesitantly across the street at the Israeli guard station and barbed wire that surrounds the camp. He wants to say good-bye, but isn’t sure if it’s safe to cross the stone barrier to send us off.
Walls.
These walls made me so angry. So frustrated. So sad for the oppression and displacement of people who just want to be able to live like everyone else…without walls. As I process these feelings and what we can do to stop these Human Rights violations, I think about what little sister, Colleen said before I left for this Holy Land trip; “Pastor Allison, if Joshua could make those walls fall down in Jericho in the old days, why can’t someone just blow their horns to make those walls fall down now?”
Indeed... and from the mouths of babes!
