Peacemaking

Standing Witness on Eid al Adha 

My teammate Jan and I were out on the street by 6:30am.  When we got to the mosque gate at the far end of the Old City, there were a crowd of men, women, and children waiting to get through a locked turnstile, a metal detector, a second turnstile, the scrutiny of the Israeli border police, another metal detector and more scrutiny from police before entering the Ibrahimi Mosque for the first prayers of the Eid. 

Turning back after waiting for a few minutes for the turnstile to be unlocked, we encountered a patrol of Israeli soldiers spread across the alley, stopping Palestinian men, checking their ID's, ordering them to open their jackets to show they had nothing hidden beneath them. 

Jan observed the soldiers in the alley; I moved back to the mosque gate where the border police unlocked the turnstile to let one or two people through at a time, then maybe a flow of people, then back down to a few - no rhyme or reason.  Some of the men were visibly angry that the soldiers had stopped them on their way to pray at the Ibrahimi Mosque, and angry that the police had locked down the turnstile. 

The longer this went on, the angrier some people got.  Some gestured towards me in frustration, others greeted me or nodded in acknowledgment.  As the call to prayer continued, the men delayed at the mosque gate started chanting "Allahu Akbar!"  The chant reverberated in the confining spaces of the low vault under which I stood.  "God is great!" 

I cannot tell you how angry I felt standing there, how impotent I felt to effect any positive difference, how I struggled not to cry.  This was one of the ten days of the year during which the Ibrahimi Mosque/Cave of Machpelah is open only to the Muslim community, during which they can stand and move and pray throughout the whole of that great space. 

This is the day upon which Abraham was called by God to sacrifice his son. 

How many more days will the Palestinian community be called upon to sacrifice their freedoms to the Israeli occupation? 

I do not know.  What I know in the depths of my being is that it was another great privilege and honor to stand witness to the steadfastness of the Palestinian community. 

Hebron
19 December 2007

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