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.

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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, 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.