EYEWITNESS FROM JERUSALEM

A WEEKLY JOURNAL WRITTEN BY SISTER MARY

Jerusalem Journal # 8

February 24, 2001

    "Speaking the Truth, Seeking Justice" was the theme for the Sabeel Alternative Assembly this last week here in Jerusalem. About 400 participants from 21 countries came to Palestine/Israel during these difficult times to express their solidarity with the Palestinian people.

    The word "Sabeel" is an Arabic word meaning "the way", "a channel" or "spring" of life giving water.  Sabeel ia an ecumenical theological movement among Palestinian Christians to deepen their faith, promote unity among them and lead them to act of justice and love. The spirituality of the movement is based on justice, peace, non-violent action, liberation, and reconciliation. Sabeel attemps to promote a more accurate international awareness regarding the identity, presence and witness of Palestinian Christians, as well as their contemporary concerns. 

    Our participation in this Assembly was not just to listen to excellent speakers but also to move toward action. We prayed and listened and then we got up from our comfortable chairs in the Notre Dame Conference Center and went out under threatening skies to Ramallah where we not only saw the damage to the homes caused by Israeli shelling, but we marched through the town's main streets holding banners asking for the end of the Israeli occupation and that justice be the basis for peace. The next day found us standing in solidarity with the "Women in Black" -- an Israeli and Palestinian woman's group -- at a busy intersection in the Israeli section of Jerusalem. We held banners and signs provided by these women asking for peace, an end to the occupation of Palestinian land, and justice for all. Many Israelis driving by this intersection did various things with their fingers as they passed us. Saturday found us at the Bethlehem check-point, where the Israeli's said we could enter but not our buses. Since we were going on to Beit Sahour, Beit Jala and nearby refugee camps to see first hand the damage caused by the resumption of the nightly shelling of these areas, we simply got out of our buses and took buses that were already inside the checkpoint. No, it wasn't "simply", a great deal of negotiations were going on as a Christian Arab woman from Nazareth (therefore she is considered an Israeli Arab), who was a member of our group had her I.D. card confiscated by Israeli soldiers and was refused entry beyond the checkpoint. The 400 members of our group responded, "We're not leaving until she gets her I.D. card back." And so there was a delay for a good hour until the police commander arrived and personally returned her card but still prohibited her crossing the checkpoint into Bethlehem. So accompanied by several international friends she took an alternative route by foot through the grounds of Tantur, thus by-passing the Israeli checkpoint, into Bethlehem. 

    But this lapse of time turned out to be fortuitous for some of us as we spoke with the Israeli soldiers, still in the teens, learning how to humiliate people, force them to beg, and then make the decision whether this person or this family would be allowed to enter or leave Bethlehem. I spent the time at the sides of two of these very young men with American made M-16's over their shoulders. They were responsible for the traffic exiting Bethlehem. A young Russian Israeli soldier at first told me that he didn't speak English, but I told him that I knew he did. I stayed with him and looked at each identity card as he demanded to see it or I walked down the long line of cars and told each Palestinian that I was sorry that he had to go through this indignity each day, I thanked him for remaining here in Palestine, and told him I was proud of him. I saw hardened faces change, a smile and a thank you for appreciating/understanding their difficulty. For some reason that made tears come to my eyes... Later in the day a man told me that he couldn't approach the soldiers and talk with them. He teared up just at the thought of all the young people on both sides who had died and who have killed. I kept coming back to the soldiers, especially to the young Russian, standing very close to him and watching what he did to each Palestinian. He finally said to me, "You don't like me, do you." I responded by telling him that I did like him (I honestly did), but I didn't like what he was doing to people. I told him how what he was doing to these people would be with him the rest of his life -- how it was entering his subconscious and would haunt him in his dreams. He looked at me with comprehension and that look from him will be with me for a very long time. 

    When a lull in the morning traffic came, the young Russian Israeli took off his helmet and handed it to me. He told me it weighed 2 kilos (which is about 4 pounds) and that it was heavy on his head. I told him my neck would hurt and he responded that it made his neck hurt, too. He then told me that his bullet proof vest weighed 12 kilos (about 26 pounds). He was so skinny; I laughed and told him he was heavy!  I was beginning to feel like I was in a mother-child relationship or that I was the "auntie" to this young man...we had forged a bond. 

    It was time to leave the check-point and board the other buses. I turned to these soldiers and said, "I will pray for you." And I will. What a ministry it would be to be able to be present at this point of tension, assuring the Christian Arabs of concern for them as they approached this place of humiliation, which reminded me of Jesus stripped of his garments. And also to be present to these young soldiers who are still in their formative years, to be with them, too. Please pray for me, too, the check-point sister.

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