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….