Peacemaking

 Not Worth a Visit

"Sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims as the burial-place of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Hebron is notable for the superb wall that Herod the Great (37-4BC) built around the Cave of Machpelah (Haram el-Khalil).  The ancient city was on Jebel er-Rumeideh, across the valley from the haram. Excavations (not worth a visit) show occupation from about 2000BC.  There Abraham bargained for the cave in which he, his sons, and their wives were to be buried; there David reigned for seven and a half years before moving to Jerusalem; and there his son Absalom raised the standard of rebellion." 

-Jerome Murphy-O'Connor

On Saturday we went up the hill above our apartment to Tel Rumeida to visit a Palestinian family whose house sits next to the Israeli settlement of Tel Rumeida.  We did not take the main road because it runs by the Israeli settlement to the front gate of the house, which is blocked by the Israeli military.  The family has to walk in the other direction across the hilly fields to Qarantina, a neighborhood of Hebron, where they can get a shared taxi or pick up one of the family cars.  The Israeli military have forbidden them to take the principle road down the hill past the Israeli settlement to Bab iZaweyyah, the major crossroads to get to other parts of town.  This road ends at the intersection of Duboyya Street and Shuhada Street - forbidden to Palestinians - and at an Israeli military checkpoint.  There are other ways up the hill.  Walk up Shuhada Street past the Israeli settlement of Beit Hadassah and up the rough steps to Qurtuba School.  Take the high path to the school and walk behind it to a metal gate to a house, go through their yard, and then climb through agricultural fields and up a couple of hills to reach the house from the back side.  Or cross Shuhada Street closer to our apartment, walk a little way up a paved road and then take wide steps through the Muslim cemetery and then cut across some fields and up another hill to the back of the house.  If this sounds confusing, it is.  It is perfectly clear to me after going over the same ground over the last three days.  I feel rather like the goats and sheep we encountered yesterday on our way down in the ease with which I negotiated the hills today.  All the ways are problematic.  The family can go only through Qarantina.  Shuhada Street is open only to Jews although CPT, as internationals, is sometimes allowed to walk on it.

On Sunday we went to a birthday party.  Because our friends had told us they were not permitted to go out their gate down the road, we decided to go up the road and through the gate.  We got there without challenge from the Israeli military.  There were the double-decker caravans I remembered from previous visits.  There was the new apartment building housing the Israeli settlers.  There were the excavations (not worth a visit).  There was the Palestinian home in which settlers are squatting.  There was the neighbor's house with an iron grill from street level to flat roof to protect it from the settlers.  There was the military base which prevents these neighbors from visiting one another.  Some settlers greeted us by throwing eggs from the roof of the new apartment building.  One egg hit a teammate.  There were two Israeli water tankers blocking the gate.  And then, we discovered the gate was not welded shut and was not locked, and we walked into our friends' garden.

The grape leaves were ready to be picked to make stuffed grape leaves. Earlier in the week, the Israeli settlers next door had thrown stones at the birthday honoree as he attempted to spray the grape vines.  The end of the small vineyard closest to the settlement was covered with settlers' garbage they had thrown over the wall.  The roses were beautiful.

We had lemonade and two birthday cakes - one we'd bought and carried with us and one made by the honoree's sister. We sat with three generations of the family, from 4 months old to 75 years old.  We heard stories of how the honoree's grandfather had a Palestinian Jewish business partner before the 1929 massacre of Jews in Hebron, how the Jewish partner worked on Friday and the Muslim partner on Saturday, and how the Palestinian Muslim family sheltered Jews from the Arabs who came into Hebron to kill Jews in 1929.  We watched the children delight in the balloons we brought and blew up.  We listened to tales of the family's steadfastness in the face of harassment and assaults by their Israeli settler neighbors.  We listened to the honoree 's commitment to non-violence in the face of daily violence from their neighbors.

Not worth a visit?  It was an honor.

Monday 25 April 2005

I head to Jerusalem tomorrow for the Holy Fire course at St. George's College.  Things are problematic in Hebron as we are in the middle of Pesach with lots of visitors coming to spend time with the settlers and to pray at the Cave of Machpelah.  CPT Hebron  does have a yahoo group to which you can subscribe if you want to read the updates and releases and reflections. Please keep the people of Tel Rumeida in your prayers as they face the dedication of the new building at the Israeli settlement tomorrow.  It may mean no movement at all for the Palestinians.

Peace,

Donna

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