Property demolition

On our first weekend in Jayyous, our EA team house was visited by Abdul Kareem Saadi, who is Coordinator for B’tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, in our area. At his invitation, my fellow EA, Patricia, and I joined him in visiting and interviewing the heads of two families who have received orders for the demolition of structures on their property.

Demolition orders are not unusual here, but the effect they have on the Palestinian population is may not be widely known among Americans. A very brief bit of history…

The 1967 War between Israel, Jordan, Syria and Egypt, also commonly referred to as “the Six-Day War,” left Israel the occupying power in the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem, and the territory known as the West Bank (of the Jordan River) – the latter territory that had been annexed to Jordan following the declaration of the independent State of Israel in 1948. The northern West Bank town of Jayyous, where our EA team is placed, exists in territory that has been occupied for over 40 years. Its residents are not citizens of Israel, and they are subject to Israeli military control. The 1993 Oslo Accords provided for a Palestinian Authority (PA) to govern the internal affairs of the West Bank and Gaza for a presumed transitional period, and divided the West Bank into three areas:
· In Area A (which includes the major West Bank towns), the Palestinian Authority has control over both civil and security affairs
· Iin Area B (which includes the smaller towns and villages), the PA has civil control, security is in the hands of the Israelis
· In Area C (which includes 60% of the land of the West Bank), the Israelis retain full civil and security control.

In none of these areas do the Palestinians control their own borders. Area C includes all Israeli settlements (more about that to come), and lands declared by the Israeli government to be “security zones” or “closed military zones.” Area C territory frequently runs around and between places designated A or B, meaning that people traveling from one place to another are subject to military control, checkpoints, permits, designated roads and other travel restrictions even to get to work, go shopping, go to school, or (and a lot more about this to come) even to reach and work their own farmland. And, we have discovered, the Area C boundaries are not always clear to those who live or work in and around them.

Patricia and I joined Abdul Khareem on visits to Abdul Rohman Mohammed Saleem and his son, and Naeef Abdul Khaladi Chalan along with some family members and a friend. They both live in the town of Azzun, a farming area not far from Jayyous, where we live. Both had built structures on their property within the past three years; the Israelis now claim that the property is located in Area C, thus no new Palestinian structures may be built and these must be demolished. Both received summonses on July 13, ordering them to the civil administration headquarters on August 6, when they received demolition orders for their buildings. They were given August 20 as a date for appeals, involving a lawyer’s services and documentation that includes proof that they own the land, a certification by the Azzun municipality, a survey report by an Israeli engineer, among other papers. (Mr. Saleem, at Mr. Abdul Kareem’s request, brought out his file of paperwork, dating from the July 13 summons – it was fatter than my Master’s thesis.)

Abdul Rohman Mohammed Saleem, right, and his son demonstrate use of new feeding and watering equipment in their chicken barn, now slated for demolition. Photo by Patricia Carswell

Abdul Rohman Mohammed Saleem, married and the father of eight children, was formerly a nurse, now is a schoolteacher in Azzun. In 2000, he bought a piece of property from another Palestinian, and two or three years ago completed a storage shed on the land. Over two years, he saved from his teaching salary approximately NIS100,000 (New Israeli Shekels), the equivalent of about $25,000 US-- a substantial sum here, but an investment in his family’s future security -- to construct a 400-square meter housing-feeding-watering-sales facility with the capacity for raising 3,000 chicks. He finished construction last June. He purchased, raised and sold his first crop of chicks.

Then came the summons, with the order to demolish both the storage shed and the new chicken barn. Reasons for such orders are not always given here, but, in this case, according to Abdul Kareem, Mr. Saleem has been told that his land is now designated Area C, thus both security and civil administration are Israel’s, meaning that no new Palestinian construction is permitted. As we sat in a circle in Mr. Saleem’s empty barn, he pointed toward the storage shed and said, “I built that two or three years ago, and nobody said anything to me. And now….” He looked around his barn, his new enterprise, his investment, shrugged his shoulders and sighed.

Top, Naeef Abdul Khaladi Chalan stands in front of his carob tree. Bottom, the shed in question. Photos by Patricia Carswell

Naeef Abdul Khaladi Chalan, 55-year-old father of four, owns and operates a stone quarry in Azzun. Five years ago, he bought two dunums of land (1 dunum = slightly more than ¼ acre) across the road from his quarry. He and his family planted a small vegetable garden and built a tiny shed that is used for storage and also furnished with bunk beds and a few supplies for open air cooking. As we sat under his carob tree (from which he picked and invited us to taste the pods of fresh carob) he spoke about his children and grandchildren playing on the property, and how he and his wife sat there to enjoy the cool of the evening. The tiny shed is the object of the demolition order.

Both men went to the civil administration, accompanied by Abdul Kareem, on August 20. Their appeals were postponed.

Perhaps these two brief stories do not sound shocking as isolated incidents. After all, construction requires construction permits, doesn’t it? – which can be a laborious process, as anyone who’s ever built an addition to a home well knows.

But there is a reason why a human rights worker is interviewing these families and recording this information. In the Occupied Palestinian Territories, construction by Palestinians is a matter for Israeli control, and the Israeli military have the authority to determine how property here, including private property, is used. These two stories are examples of thousands of cases where people have been forced to give up structures on their own property, in many cases actual homes in which they and their families may have lived for years. Acquiring permits in the first place is a lengthy, complex and costly process, and there is no guarantee that going through it will result in either permission to build or protection from future demolition. The process has less to do with things like building codes or zoning, and everything to do with control of the population.
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I was sent by the Common Board of Global Ministries of the United Church of Christ (UCC) and the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, and Church World Service, to participate in the World Council of Churches’ (WCC’s) Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views contained herein are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of the Common Board of Global Ministries, the UCC or the WCC. If you would like to publish the information contained here or disseminate it further, please first contact the EAPPI Coordination (eappi-co@jrol.com) for permission. Thank you.

Theological Reflection

During our days of Ecumenical Accompaniment orientation in Jerusalem, each of our six teams were asked to make brief reflections on our experiences at the beginning of each day. Pasted below is my contribution.

The previous day, we had had a challenging presentation from a member of "Breaking the Silence," a project of a group of ex-soldiers with the Israeli Defense Force who discovered, in conversation with each other, that they shared troubling memories of their experiences in enforcing the occupation of the Palestinian Territories. They began by setting up a photo exhibition, and now have published printed recollections and concerns from former soldiers throughout Israel. And on that same day, we also had met with the Rt. Rev. Munib Younan, Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, at his offices in Jerusalem. These two presentations sparked the following reflections on my part:



I Kings 19:3-15a
3 Elijah was afraid [a] and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, LORD," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." 5 Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep.
All at once an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat." 6 He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.
7 The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you." 8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 There he went into a cave and spent the night.
The LORD Appears to Elijah
And the word of the LORD came to him: "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
10 He replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."
11 The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by."
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper [and the newest English translation says, “a sound like pure silence.] 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" 14 He replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."
15 The LORD said to him, "Go back the way you came,….

Matthew 19:35-40
35Then [the disciples] led the donkey to Jesus. They put some of their clothes on its back and helped Jesus get on. 36And as he rode along, the people spread clothes on the road in front of him. 37When Jesus was starting down the Mount of Olives, his large crowd of disciples were happy and praised God because of all the miracles they had seen. 38They shouted,
"Blessed is the king who comes
in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven
and glory to God."
39Some Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, make your disciples stop shouting!"
40But Jesus answered, "If they keep quiet, these stones will start shouting."


In our first introductions last week, when we each told a little about ourselves and our goals for our experience as an EA, I said that I think my most personal goal is to “find my voice.” … to be able to speak to others with very different experiences and opinions, particularly, American Jews, without being defensive, and in ways that build relationships, rather than undermining them.

To move from silence, to speech….

Breaking the silence….

For Elijah, life was terrifying; he was so sure that he was the last and only faithful member of God’s community, the rest had been killed, and he would be killed too. He had given up and run away. And God pushed him, and pushed him. God gave him food, and a place to sleep, and kept saying, “Elijah, what are you doing here?” Elijah was a slow learner. God had to keep after him for a long time, and finally, when nothing else would work, God manifested God’s holy being directly to him. In a newer translation than the one I read, the “gentle whisper” is more accurately translated as: “something like the sound of pure silence.” And after that silence, God spoke again, very softly, and said, “Elijah, what are you doing here?” And when Elijah protested again that he was running for his life, God said, “Go back….” Go back to your own people and do the work. Go back to your own people, and tell the truth.

Yesterday Bishop Younan reminded us what this struggle we’re engaged in, in our way, as EA’s, is about. It is about justice, and that’s all it’s about. It’s not about religion. It’s not about ancient histories of oppression. It’s not about the Holocaust. It’s not about guilt. It’s about justice and injustice, and nothing more.

He said to us that when he comes to meetings and conferences in Europe and the US, and they sit down together to try to talk about resolving “the problem in the Holy Land,” he says, “Are we speaking the same language?” Are we telling the same story? Are we talking about the injustice? Because that’s all he is interested in talking about. That’s all there is.

In our Christian story, when Jesus was paraded into Jerusalem on a donkey, his disciples and supporters shouted that a new life is possible. Here it is! Don’t get distracted, just take hold of it. And when the powers that be asked Jesus if the shouters could be shut up, he said, “If they keep silent, the very stones of the street will shout.” The truth cannot be suppressed. Sooner or later, it will be unavoidable.

Part of my own American Christian experience is this spiritual from the African-American tradition that we sing:

I’m so busy praising my Jesus,
I’m so busy praising my Jesus,
I’m so busy praising my Jesus --
If I don’t praise him
Rocks are gonna cry out,
Rocks are gonna cry out --
Ain’t got time to die.

Not only will the truth not be suppressed. It will strengthen us. It will keep us going. 'Ain’t got time to die….'


******
I was sent by the Common Board of Global Ministries of the United Church of Christ (UCC) and the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, and Church World Service, to participate in the World Council of Churches’ (WCC’s) Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views contained herein are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of the Common Board of Global Ministries, the UCC or the WCC. If you would like to publish the information contained here or disseminate it further, please first contact the EAPPI Coordination (eappi-co@jrol.com) for permission. Thank you.
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Follow up

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I am a minister of the United Church of Christ (UCC), sent by the Common Board of Global Ministries of the UCC and the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, and by Church World Service, as an Ecumenical Accompanier serving on the World Council of Churches’ (WCC’s) Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views contained herein are personal to me and do not necessarily reflect those of the UCC, the Common Board of Global Ministries, Church World Service, or the WCC. If you would like to publish the information contained here (including posting on a website), or distribute it further, please first contact info@eappi-us.org or the EAPPI Communications Officer, for permission. Thank you.
******

Those of you who read my earlier post of a news article in The Jerusalem Post, about the candlelight vigil our EA group attended in Jerusalem last week, may be interested in the following letter from Arik Ascherman , director of Rabbis for Human Rights, who was arrested at the vigil:

On Tuesday evening we helped organize a candlelight solidarity vigil opposite the Sheikh Jarakh homes where Palestians were evicted and settlers were allowed in. As many of you know, I was arrested there, the 36th person to be arrested since the evictions of the Hanoun and Ghawi families (Including 2 women from the RHR staff.) The situation leaves me angry and worried, because we are talking about a serious threat to Israeli democracy. Some of the arrests were “justified,” even though we don’t think that the police should have been there evicting families to begin with. However, the only crime of many of those arrested was their inability to accept the injustice done to the El-Kurd, Ghawi and Hanoun families.

When I decide to engage in civil disobedience I know that I am likely to get arrested. In certain tense situations, I know that things are likely to get out of control, even if nobody on either side was necessarily planning arrests. However, here the police, instead of fulfilling their duty to protect the rights at the heart of democracy, have in a very calculated way been attempting to cut short and stifle peaceful protest. Under the cover of preserving public order, their goal has been to prevent expressions of solidarity or advocacy for these Palestinian families. The courts are also complicit in this when they reward the police with restraining orders as a condition for release, making it all the more difficult to organize.

What happened? The vigil was quiet and there was a heavy police presence. I was helping the police and consulting with them, in order that participants would honor the police request not to block streets. We didn’t want to give the police an excuse for stopping the vigil. After an hour at the Hanoun family’s house, we wanted to go to the Ghawi home. A police officer told us that we could not walk down the alley taking us to the Ghawi home, and directed us to take another longer route. Neither he nor anybody else said in any fashion that we could not walk along the longer route. At that moment a few officers called me from the other side of the road. I figured that they wanted to talk to me about some detail or other, and began to cross the street. A number of officers quickly surrounded me, some pulling me by the arms and others pushing me from behind. There were regular police, border guards and at least one plains clothes officer. When I asked what was going on and what my status was, I was told that I was detained and that I would be arrested if I didn’t come with them to the police car. When I asked, “Why,” it was clear from their words and their tone that they had been waiting for the opportunity to arrest me. They said that the moment that we had begun to move we were holding an unauthorized march and that I was inciting people to participate in an illegal activity. I laid down on the sidewalk, and told them that I would not resist arrest but would not cooperate. Many tactics were used to draw out my arrest and incarceration for 22.5 hours, and I was given a 7 day restraining order keeping me out of Sheikh Jarakh (The police wanted 30 days, and we would have appealed even the 7 days if we could have received a court date in time.) I won’t go into details regarding the curses and kicks I received from officers(I have lodged a complaint with the Unit for the Investigation of Police), the fact that somehow the rumor was spread among right wing prisoners that I had attacked police officers, etc., because the real story is not about me personally. It should be superfluous to say that the connection between the police account of events and what actually happened was tenuous at best.

It is important to point out that in my 14 years directing RHR I have seen the security forces at their worst and at their best. It is human nature and almost unavoidable that they identify more with their fellow Israelis than Palestinians. However, in all these 14 years I have never seen collusion between police and settlers like we have seen from the “Shalem” police station in Silwan over the last two years (Where Palestinians know that if they complain about being attacked by Israelis, they will be the ones arrested), and now in Sheikh Jarakh.

In Rabbi Nava Hefetz’s dvar Torah below, she quotes from this week’s Torah portion, ‘You shall not harden your heart and shut your hand against your needy brother.” (Deut. 15:7). As always, THE question is, “Who do we see as our brothers and sisters?” Unfortunately, some of us are willing to harden our hearts towards non-Jews and to ignore the command of next week’s portion,
“You shall appoint judges and officers (In Hebrew, “shotrim,” which is “police officers in modern Hebrew) for all your tribes, in all the settlements that the Lord your God is giving you, and they shall govern the people with due justice. You shall not judge unfairly. You shall show no partiality.; you shall not take bribes, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and distort the plea of the just. Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may thrive on and inherit the Land that the Lord your God is giving you.” (Deut. 17: 18-20)

I can’t say that the police are taking bribes, but I can say that they are showing partiality. This is not the way for us to thrive here – It is not the Judaism and not the democracy that we desire. There is another way, one that will allow us to merit Isaiah’s prophecy in this week’s Haftarah, the third Haftarah of consolation after Tisha B’Av, “Great shall be the peace of your children. You shall be established through righteousness. You shall be safe from oppression (Could also be read, “You shall be distance yourself from oppression” and shall have no fear. (Isaiah 54: 14)

Shabbat Shalom
Arik

What is EAPPI, and What am I Doing Here?

Backing up a bit… for those who may be unfamiliar with it, the group I’m in Palestine with, the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel, is an initiative of the World Council of Churches, which sends Accompaniers (EAs) to the region for three month terms, during which time they live with local communities in the West Bank and Jerusalem. I quote freely from the EAPPI’s own brochure [italics mine]:
The mission of the EAPPI is to accompany Palestinians and Israelis in their non-violent actions and concerted advocacy efforts to end the occupation [of the West Bank and Gaza by the State of Israel]…. Objectives are to:
• Reduce and prevent incidents of violence, humiliation and violations
of human rights against civilians
• Ensure the respect of human rights and international humanitarian law
• Express solidarity with Palestinians and Israeli peace activists and empower local churches and Palestinian communities
• Construct a stronger global advocacy network
• Influence public opinion and policy makers
• Be an active witness for peace and alternative non-violent struggles against injustice

I’ve been here now for two and a half weeks. Here’s a stab at trying briefly to describe what I’ve been doing, from arrival in Jerusalem on August 3, until the team of which I’m a member began to work in earnest in our placement last Sunday:

This a very demanding program. We spent the first day in Jerusalem having a "once over lightly" of the whole program and a walking tour of the Old City of Jerusalem --since it's several thousand years old, with an amazing variety of cultural, ethnic and religious traditions, it's a very colorful eyeful, and very easy to get lost in! Lots of stuff you've seen on TV, and lots more you never imagined.

Then we spent three days in the various towns where each team is placed, getting oriented by a member of the outgoing team. We're 24 EAs, four each in six towns and villages. My team, which includes Patricia, a Canadian-born women who lives in Sweden, Cecilie from Norway, Mandla, a South African man, and myself, is placed in the village of Jayyous in the northern West Bank. The people here are virtually all farmers who are now, as a result of the occupation and the Separation Barrier (often referred to as “the Wall,” although in this location it’s a series of fences, electrified wire, razor wire, trenches, and gates) which the Israeli government is constructing , are now surrounded by obstacles that make it increasingly difficult just to get to their land so they can work it each day.

A regular part of our job involves monitoring three agricultural gates through the Barrier between the village itself, where the people reside, and the surrounding lands, where they work: observing how many people can go and come, who and what is denied entry, what problems people may have with the soldiers staffing the gates (Barrier crossings, whether into agricultural lands, on the highway, or in and out of cities, are all controlled by the Israeli military), whether the gates are open throughout the posted times, etc.

We do the same at a large terminal in our neighboring city, Qalqilya, which is at the Green Line, the internationally-recognized (but not by Israel) boundary between the West Bank and Israel.

Palestinians entering Israel here are going to work, for which they require a permit to enter and leave Israel each day (they may not stay overnight), which is usually granted for a few months at a time and then must be reapplied for. Each person’s permit must be checked before one is admitted. On our first Sunday here (Sunday being the beginning of the work week in this part of the world) we arrived at a little before 4:00 a.m. to find several hundred people, some of whom said they’d been there since 2:00 a.m., already lined up waiting for the gate to open at 4:00. After passing one at a time, through a turnstile, they must go through a rigorous screening process and get out on the other side in order to get to work at 7:00 -- every day. We counted (on a clicker) over 3,000 people getting through the gate between 4:00 and about 7:30. That's just getting through the first gate -- there at least two more turnstiles, two more potential screenings (either being x-rayed or patted down for explosives residue), plus presenting a permit to an officer who may or may not honor the permit. To get to work. Every day. Sometimes, depending on the crowd and whether or not one is subjected to extra screening or questioning, the process can take as little as 15 minutes; or two hours or more. Since they cannot spend the night in Israel so they can keep regular hours, these workers are likely to do casual or contract labor,and many need to meet a boss or middle-man on the other side of the Green Line. If they are late... the job may go to another. Without a job, they cannot apply for another permit....

A few others entering here, mostly women, are going for medical appointments or may be visiting a family member in prison. For this, they also must have a specific one-day permit, which must be applied for in advance. Emergencies...???

After this intense introduction to what the next three months hold for us, all teams then spent five more days back in Jerusalem, continuing training, hearing from lots of different local peace and justice organizations and NGOs, touring the area of Israeli settlements around Jerusalem, getting oriented to the practicalities of our work and daily life as EAs. The statistics we gather are shared with UN agencies, International Red Cross and other human rights organizations and NGOs, who use them, along with research from other sources, in their own reporting. So we have to keep good records!

The Jayyous team returned to the village on Saturday, August 15, to begin the real work. Along with our agricultural gate and checkpoint monitoring, we will visit the residents of Jayyous and the villages and towns around the area, try to develop relationships with the two women's organizations in town, be at the ready in case there are any incidents to report (Israeli army coming in the middle of the night, or at other times, to arrest someone and/or order a curfew, for example) and do our best to do pastoral follow-up with the affected families, and to accompany or monitor any non-violent political action the people of the village choose to take.
******I am a minister of the United Church of Christ (UCC), sent by the Common Board of Global Ministries of the UCC and the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, and by Church World Service, as an Ecumenical Accompanier serving on the World Council of Churches’ (WCC’s) Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views contained herein are personal to me and do not necessarily reflect those of the UCC, the Common Board of Global Ministries, Church World Service, or the WCC. If you would like to publish the information contained here (including posting on a website), or distribute it further, please first contact info@eappi-us.org or the EAPPI Communications Officer, eappi-co@jrol.com for permission. Thank you.

We made the papers

Pasted below, coverage in this morning's The Jerusalem Post of a vigil/demonstration our group -- which is in Jerusalem for the rest of this week for the remainder of our orientation -- attended last night. A few comments, for the less-initiated.
> Sheikh Jarrah is a Jerusalem neighborhood in which Palestinian families have been fighting evictions for the past several months; the evictions will make way for new Israeli settlers to move in. The Palestinian familes are people who were made homeless by the proclamation of the State of Israel following the 1948 war. The war resulted in annexation by [then known as] TransJordan of what is now the West Bank, and the king of TransJordan granted the refugees the land, the UN provided the houses. These families have been living in this neighborhood since the 1950's, and their recent eviction resulted in more than 50 people losing their homes. Members of the evicted families sat on the sidewalk in plastic chairs while we vigiled; some of the men sleep outside overnight in protest.
> Yes, indeed, the "global church delegation" singing "We Shall Overcome" in an beautiful variety of accents, is us.
> I witnessed the arrest of Arik Aschermann, whose workshop I attended in June at the annual gathering of Churches for Middle East Peace in Washington, a few weeks before I left for Palestine. I wasn't at the front of the line, but I could not see him doing anything that look provocative or, to my mind, would justify his arrest.
> I can't vouch for the description of what happened in front of the second home. I did not see anything like that, but our group left before the crowd dispersed.

******
I am a minister of the United Church of Christ (UCC), sent by the Common Board of Global Ministries of the UCC and the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, and by Church World Service, as an Ecumenical Accompanier serving on the World Council of Churches’ (WCC’s) Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views contained herein are personal to me and do not necessarily reflect those of the UCC, the Common Board of Global Ministries, Church World Service, or the WCC. If you would like to publish the information contained here (including posting on a website), or distribute it further, please first contact info@eappi-us.org or the EAPPI Communications Officer, eappi-co@jrol.com for permission. Thank you.

The Jerusalem Post

Aug 11, 2009 0:31 Updated Aug 11, 2009 9:27
Hundreds protest Sheikh Jarrah evictions
By Abe Selig

Hundreds of left-wing activists from Israel and abroad joined dozens of residents of east Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood Monday evening to protest last week's eviction of the Hanoun and al-Gawhi families from their homes.
The protest began peacefully at 8 p.m. with a candlelight vigil in front of the Hanoun family home. A global church delegation sang "We Shall Overcome," and demonstrators waved signs reading "No to ethnic cleansing in Sheikh Jarrah" and "Why do you steal our homes?" and containing quotes from a letter Hanoun sent Monday to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The evicted families were among the protesters.
Police were present at the scene, but didn't take any action until the protesters began to move toward the al-Gawhi home, led by Rabbi Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights.
Police then moved in and arrested Ascherman, restraining both his arms and legs, and began to disperse the crowd.
The protesters regrouped about a block away from the al-Gawhi home, their mood markedly more tense. Spotting a group of Orthodox Jews returning from prayers at the tomb of Shimon Hazaddik, the protesters hurled abuse at them, shouting, "Get out, Jew!" in Arabic. This, together with the size of the crowd - which included many people taking pictures or filming - left them visibly shaken.
The crowd also jeered when a bus full of IDF officers passing through the area stalled nearby, with the protesters making rude gestures and name-calling.
By press time, protesters were still in the area, but many had left, and the demonstration seemed to be on the wane. There was no response from police on whether or not Ascherman would be charged.

Why I'm here

In my first post, I mentioned reflecting on my hopes and expectations for my time in Palestine, what I want to learn and do with this experience. I’ve now been here for four days – and I can hardly remember when I wasn’t! For an old-fashioned Sunday School kid who grew up with powerful images of the Holy Land, the place where my faith was born, being here is almost magical, a “natural high.” It's also filled with the contradictions of being in occupied territory.

Two days in East Jerusalem, second day now in Jayyous, the small agricultural town north of Jerusalem (looks on the map to be about 40 miles as the crow flies, but the journey is longer and more complicated) where my team of four Accompaniers is placed. We will have another two and a half days being generally oriented to this placement by one of the departing Accompaniers; and then will return to Jerusalem for another week of preparation before finally settling in here and beginning our work – more about that to come.

Back to my hopes, expectations, motivation for participating in this program…. As our entire group of 24 Accompaniers met for the first time in Jerusalem on Wednesday morning, August 5, we each were invited to introduce ourselves individually and talk about our backgrounds, our education and professional lives, our interest in Palestine and motivation for participating in the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine/Israel. When my turn came, I talked about some of the usual: my understanding of faith communities as places of welcome, peacemaking, reconciliation – alongside the reality that our faith often is used for opposite purposes: to exclude and judge, to harden our differences, to justify our conflicts – along with my background in peace and justice ministries, my education in theatre and theology, my other international solidarity experiences. But I found myself saying for the first time that I think my real personal objective is “to find my voice: to be able to speak about Palestine with Jewish friends and colleagues in ways that build bridges rather than undermine relationships.”

I have had strong feelings about the Israeli occupation of Palestine for a long time. I don’t expect that my experiences here will change those opinions, although I trust that I may find much more subtlety and complexity than I’ve been able to absorb from a distance. But while I’m known as a person who’s rarely at a loss for words, I find it painfully difficult to speak my mind on Palestine with those whose attitudes and experiences may lead them to conclusions vastly different from mine. I consider the occupation of Palestine to be the key geopolitical issue of our time – and I don’t know how to talk about it (dare I say, “I’m afraid to talk about it”) forthrightly. As a person of faith and as a political person, my silence and self-consciousness are a big problem.

So I need to see for myself. That’s why I’m in Palestine: to see for myself. And to act on what I see. And to be able to tell the human stories that emerge from seeing and acting. That’s what I’m hoping for, and that’s what I want to learn. Or that’s a start….