Much to the students relief, today we had a work day at the Friends meetinghouse in Ramallah. Theyve been living in their heads and hearts so much on the trip that it was a real pleasure to work with their hands for a change. All pitched in for three hours and cleaned & dusted the worship room, raked the garden, and gathered trash. Recognizing that my limited skills were not advanced enough for that work, I was given the task of pruning all the olive trees in the garden! Now, let it be noted that I have not had a lot of experience pruning olive trees back in the States. But given the pruning that Mother Nature did to the trees with her 3-foot snowfall last month, I figured that I couldnt do much worse! It was fun to contemplate as I worked on the two dozen or so trees (including a few eucalyptus, pine, and almond trees) that our various workcamps over the years have planted most of them. I could remember specific ones planted as little slips - and now they are tall enough that I couldnt reach the upper branches! Of course, as I snipped away, taking out the suckers, removing dead or damaged branches, and opening up the trees to sun and air, I recalled all the allusions to pruning in the Bible and was reminded again of Jesuss close affinity to the land and agriculture. At noon, we gathered to hear Sam Bahour with 17 American Jewish college students who are in the area on an Extend program - a program developed by Swarthmore College alumni to offer Birthright participants the opportunity to experience the rest of the story in the Palestinian/Israeli situation. Sam was his usual brilliant self and held us captive (I guess, to give us an experience of his daily reality!) for two hours as he described living under military occupation. Its not a pretty picture - even for him as an American-born and US passport holding Palestinian. In the end, he shared with us what he is hearing from his own children, one a sophomore at MIT and the other an 8th-grader at the Ramallah Friends Schools. Like most in their generation, they say this: 1) Fighting Israel did not work; 2) Appealing to international law did not work; 3) The various Intifadas did not work; 4) Oslo did not work; 5) Going to the UN did not work. Were still under occupation, and its only getting worse. So what now? Maybe its time to say, Okay, Israel; you win; you get it all - the land, the water, the resources, all of it; and guess what else you get: us! Now where do we sign up for the benefits of citizenship in Israel? Sam believes that if Kerry fails in this round of negotiations - and weve met nobody who gives them a chance - then Palestinians may give up their call for a two-state solution and follow the opinion of such as his children. In that case, he believes, the game is over eventually for Israel, as the demographics are not in its favor. After Sams talk, we traipsed up the hill to Jean Zarus home for tea - which reminded us of the previous British Mandate era: although it wasnt 4:00 pm yet, it certainly was high tea with three types of sandwiches, five types of cookies, a sinfully rich chocolate cake with whipped cream frosting, tea, and coffee. The students were sorry that theyd insisted on falafal and shawarma sandwiches to eat on the way! With the appearance of the cake, I had to have Jean tell the story of when she and her late husband Fuad lived at the School while Fuad was serving as Head and the Israeli Military Governor came calling. Jean had to decide whether to serve him her best chocolate cake - and of course, being the Palestinian hostess that Jean is, she did. I still remember the ministry in worship she shared about it shortly afterwards. Then Jean told the rest of the story. As the Military Governor left with his entourage, one of his security guards accidentally left his pistol on the couch. Jean saw it and, knowing she couldnt go running after them waving a gun, called the Israelis back, saying, We have no need for this gun, but perhaps you do. When we arrived at Jeans house, she asked us if we were warm enough - given that, like most, she cant afford the cost of fuel. We assured her that we were fine. We were comfortable with her not packing heat in both senses of the word.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 16:28:54 +0000
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