Hebron: Another Round of Clouds of Witnesses
Remember those tapes that keep playing in your head?
I'm doing a decent job of erasing some of the unhealthy ones. Yet other
sorts of tapes refuse to be erased. One is from the Letter to the Hebrews:
"Therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
also lay aside every weight and sin that clings so closely, and let us run
with perseverance the race that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:1).
CPTer Tom Fox has joined that great cloud of
witnesses. My formal support group is a part of that great cloud of
witnesses. All who pray for the Hebron team and for me in my work on the
team are part of that great cloud of witnesses.
The main street in Hebron running from west to east is
Shuhada Street. In Arabic, "shuhada" means witness or martyr. Once a major
Palestinian shopping and residential street, it is now open only to Israeli
vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The shop doors are welded shut and the
homes above them are empty except for two or three Palestinian families who
still manage to live there. They enter and exit from the back of their
homes, sometimes going over a roof or down a ladder to get to street level,
unable to go out their front doors onto Shuhada Street. They steadfastly
refuse to leave their homes. They are part of this great cloud of
witnesses.
Earlier this week, an Israeli settler followed five of
us down Shuhada Street in his car. He pulled over to the curb in front of
us, got out with a fancy camera in his hands and began snapping pictures of
us. When he had finished, he said, "Why don't you go to Iraq where they
know what to do with people like you?" He had an American accent. He, too,
is a part of this great cloud of witnesses.
The next day I was accompanying a Volunteers-in-Mission
group from the Methodist Church. As we walked down Shuhada Street, three
Israeli settler women blocked our way. In their imperfect English, they
called us "holocaust friends" and suggested we should go back with the
terrorists (Arabs). They, too, are a part of this great cloud of witnesses.
The Israeli soldiers declined to let us pass on down
the street. As we turned to head back the way we came, we met the
headmistress of Qurtuba School, which sits across from the Israeli
settlement enclave Beit Hadassah. She and her teachers and students
frequently face harassment or violence from the Israeli settlers and
soldiers. She stands at the Duboyya Street checkpoint at the head of the
street every day waiting for her teachers and students to get through. She
confronts the soldiers staffing the checkpoint when there is a delay or
harassment. She is the last person to leave the school at the end of the
school day. She is a part of this great cloud of witnesses.
The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews invites us "to
run with perseverance the race that is set before us." CPT runs this race
each day we encounter the people along Shuhada Street in their fear and
anger, in their steadfastness and faith. It is an honor and a privilege to
be a part of this race.
1 April 2006
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