On October 31, 2006 I will return to Israel and Palestine for my fourth visit since June 2005. I will be a member of Sabeel's 6th International Conference and Reality Tour through the West Bank to meet, learn from and then be an advocate for the Forgotten Faithful: Palestinian Christians.
Since 1948, the Christian population of the land we call Holy has gone from 20% of the total population, to less than 1.3% and continues to shrink fast. The reasons are many, to name a few: The Occupation, The illegal Wall which grabs their land and water and divides families, lack of economic opportunity, the daily humiliation at checkpoints with the denial of the basic human right of free movement, and home demolitions without reason or compensation.
"We really are only but actors in a play. When we wake up to that, and become an active participant in the human drama and pursue justice, things must change because injustice is unsustainable."-Jeff Halper, Founder ICAHD/Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, during the Celebrating Nonviolent Resistance Conference, in Bethlehem 12/27-30/05.
I first met Jeff Halper on December 22, 2005 in his office around the corner from the Burger King in West Jerusalem. His physical presence, lush beard and warm humor put me in mind of a cross between Jerry Garcia and Santa Clause. When he told me he grew up in Hibbing, Minnesota and actually knew Dylan when he was still Zimmerman,[and although I was there to learn of ICAHD]I could not resist asking a few questions about Bob. Bob is five years older than Jeff who remembers Bob, "As always quiet, reserved and normal. He came to my high school graduation. His dad had wanted Bob to be a Dr. but later admitted: 'How was I to know he would become Leonard Bernstein?'"
Jeff moved from the USA in 1973 to Israel and in 1997 established ICAHD/, "It was at the time when the Oslo peace plan collapsed and the occupation reasserted itself. Many Israeli peace activists began asking Palestinians what the best way to engage with each other was and the answer was blowing in the wind: 'STOP the home demolitions!'
"Since 1967 the Israeli government has destroyed over 2,000 Palestinian homes. 95% of the cases have nothing to do with security. All these homes are on Palestinian private property. The Israeli government will not grant permits for them to build on their own land, and in reality are quietly transferring the Palestinians administratively from the land. They make conditions so intolerable that the Palestinians give up and leave and this is exactly what they are after. Not only do the Palestinians receive no warning when their homes are to be destroyed they are fined $1,500.00!
"I'll get a call at 5 AM from a Palestinian telling me the bulldozers have arrived and we activists go out and engage in civil disobedience by standing up to the bulldozers.
"We also raise funds to rebuild these homes right where they had been before. The reasons for the demolitions are: for The Wall, to establish illegal settlements, build roads and because the Israeli government wants to keep Palestinians confined to the islands [areas A and B] in the West Bank and so Palestinian land remain under the control of the Israeli government."
"The Israeli government just does not want to take responsibility and the USA government ignores the situation. Do you know why Israel does not want to become America's 51st state? Because then they would have only two senators!
"Look, Christ was all about justice and love, Jesus was no magician and his message has been lost by Christian Zionists who want Armageddon. They have taken Jesus' teachings and turned them into a travesty by justifying the occupation."
Exactly!
And Christ was never a Christian, that term was not even coined until a generation after Christ walked the earth. Christ was a radical social justice revolutionary Palestinian road warrior and devout Jew who challenged the job security of the Temple Authorities and upset the status quo of the occupying forces of the Roman Empire.
2,000 years ago trouble makers and insurgents against the Empire were crucified all the time, so any follower of Jesus knew that if they really followed Christ, chances were good, that they would be crucified too.
The first generations of follower's of Christ were called followers of The Way. The Way being the way Christ taught one should be, the code one should live by, ethics, morality and philosophy which he summed up in The Golden Rule: treat others as you wish to be treated.
Jesus was also the first person to claim that God was not just 'out there' but already within the heart of everyone and so intimate, as to be Father and also an equal. Christ taught the radical good news that one's own heart/conscience/inner voice is required to follow where God leads one. If one truly desires to love and serve God, one will be led to what ever that something is, that one was created to attend too.
During my journeys into Israel and Palestine, I have met secularists, atheists, and devout people of all faiths who actively follow the ethics of Christ, but not many of them accept Jesus as God.
As I prepare for my fourth trip to Israel and Palestine Nov. 1-14, 2006 by reflecting back on past trips, I ask you dear reader for positive thoughts and if you pray, please send up a prayer to accompany me as I go to be a witness to and reporter of life for all of Gods children in occupied territory.
