Thank you to family and friends!

I’ve safely returned from my two-week visit to Israel and the West Bank! You are among the many friends, family, and coworkers who were worried about me, supportive of me, and anxious to hear back about my experience. Thank you so much for the ways that you have supported me. I am grateful for the opportunity to share with you about what I saw and learned.

To remind you of the group I was with, I traveled with an organization called Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), an initiative of the three historic peace churches: Mennonites, Church of the Brethren, and Quakers. CPT’s work is an answer to the question: “What would happen if Christians devoted the same discipline and self-sacrifice to nonviolent peacemaking that armies devote to war?” CPTers non-violently live and work daily in areas of violence, including Iraq, Columbia, and Palestine.

During our delegation, we visited Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, and a village near the Southern border of the West Bank called At-Tuwani. I had many kinds of experiences with many kinds of people including Israeli and Palestinian peace activists, an Israeli Jewish family, Israelis and Palestinians who have lost family to violence, Israeli soldiers, Israeli military police, Palestinian refugees, an Israeli settler, and a Palestinian schoolteacher.

Some important things that I learned:

1. A long history of built-up hurts is used as a rationale for violence from both sides. Not everyone chooses violence, though.

Hurt people hurt people. But hurt people have choices, and I do not excuse Israelis for their occupation because of Palestinian suicide bombers. Nor do I excuse Palestinians for their suicide bombers because of the Israeli occupation. One of my biggest joys from the trip was witnessing many Israelis and Palestinians choosing to work proactively against violence by using nonviolence. A few of the peace-seeking organizations I met with are: B’tselem, Holy Land Trust, Rabbis for Human Rights, Women in Black, Badil, the Wi’am Center, and Breaking the Silence.

An admirable example of nonviolence in the West Bank is the village we stayed at for two nights, At-Tuwani. An aggressive Israeli outpost and settlement have been built right next to the village, causing several violent incidents to occur over the last several years. (It is important to note that not all settlements are violent towards their Palestinian neighbors, but all settlements are illegal under international law.) The villagers of At-Tuwani have suffered the destruction of their crops by their neighboring settlers, numerous threats of violence against villagers, threats of arrest, and actual incidents of violence against old women, fathers, and children. It is an especially dangerous situation for children who walk from other villages to attend school in At-tuwani, and have to pass by the settlement. One of CPT’s roles is to accompany these children part-way in an effort to reduce the violence because of their international presence. Despite the obvious hatred and severe violence (often resulting in hospitalization) directed at the villagers, At-Tuwani has decided to respond nonviolently. I joined them on a nonviolent march to advocate for children’s rights to a safe journey to school, and to protest the Israeli confiscation and destruction of their only school truck used to transport the children to and from school across the steep, rough, and rocky hills. When the Israeli military or settlers invade the village with threats of arrest or killings, the villagers do not react out of fear. Instead, they are calm and say that they will not leave their homes no matter what is done to them. Parents in this village are adamant about teaching their children principles of nonviolence and activism, and strive also to balance their children’s lives by giving them things to think about other than the occupation, such as teaching them traditional dance.

2. Israelis and Palestinians alike are afraid.

I walked around cities and villages in Israel and the West Bank constantly confronted with the fact that everyone there is living a life of military occupation and fear. Soldiers and walls and checkpoints are EVERYWHERE. On a street in Hebron, I witnessed 5 soldiers in full gear converge on one Palestinian civilian who had a barking dog. Along the road from Hebron to Jerusalem, I witnessed a Palestinian man’s car getting searched by 3 soldiers. In Hebron I responded as part of the CPT team to an emergency call from a Palestinian man whose home was being invaded by a group of 6 or 7 soldiers with no legal papers to verify their right to enter the premise. I spoke with an Israeli who expressed that he would normally stop and help a person stranded by apparent car trouble along the road, but he is too afraid to do this if he sees that the person is Arab. Another Israeli I spoke with said that he is dismayed by the fact that the occupation is causing whole generations of Israelis to grow up thinking that illegality is the norm. The occupation is much more oppressive, abusive, and deadly for a Palestinian on a daily basis than for an Israeli. However, I believe both Israelis and Palestinians suffer from the occupation.

3. The current situation is more political and less religious than I had previously thought.

The Holy Land contains holy sites of three major religions: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. I was awed and appreciative to be able to visit a number of these sites myself. My general impression is that for the most part ordinary Jews, Christians, and Muslims respect each other’s holy sites. Unfortunately, because of the ongoing conflict some sites are not as accessible as they used to be. Of course land is a central issue to the conflict, but not necessarily because of each religious group feeling that they deserve the Holy Land for its religious significance. Mostly, the people I met want to live where they grew up at because that is home to them. This includes both Israelis and Palestinians, whether or not they support or oppose Israel’s presence and occupation in the Palestinian territories. Historically, Zionists wanted refuge from persecution through establishing their own state. Anti-Semitism was and still is real. Zionists considered other locations for a Jewish state such as Argentina, Uganda, and even Florida, which have no religious significance. I feel that the biggest problem is the Israeli government rather than any personal hatred on an individual level between people of different faiths. I believe that the current Israeli occupation and oppression of Palestinians is political in nature, and that the Israeli government uses religion and anti-Semitism as a manipulative cover to hide its inhumane and illegal acts towards the Palestinian population.

4. The separation wall is incomplete, and building has been halted in some areas.

I find this to be important because many people have understood the wall to be an unfortunate yet necessary evil. Suicide bombings dropped dramatically around the same time as the wall was being built. There is some doubt, however, that these two events are in a causal relationship. People I spoke with told me that the rate of suicide bombs has decreased because Palestinians have changed their strategy upon realizing that violence will not help their cause, and not because of the wall being built. Personally, I think a strong point to consider is the fact that the wall is incomplete - there are places where Palestinians can still get through the wall or around the wall without ever going through a checkpoint and being searched. If a Palestinian suicide bomber wants to get into Israel, he can. Further, the wall does not actually separate Israel from Palestine’s West Bank. It does not follow the 1967 “green line”, and it literally cuts through some Palestinian communities, placing some Palestinians inside the Israeli side of the wall. I view the wall as an unfortunate and unnecessary structure that is used to divide Palestinians from each other, make their daily lives harder, assuage the fears of Israelis, improve Israeli international image, and, in effect, annex more land to Israel than the green line allows.

5. Israel has all the power.

My experience was not anything close to what a typical tourist would see, and I learned what a typical news-browser would not learn. I experienced both the Israeli exceptionally forgiving treatment of a white tourist, as well as the Israeli paranoid and suspicious treatment given an international peacemaker. Tourists don’t go to Hebron or At-Tuwani. They don’t meet with Palestinian or Israeli peacemaking organizations. Tourists don’t challenge Israeli soldiers to get off of their roof. They don’t stay in a Palestinian home overnight, nor do they witness children being prevented from attending school. I have seen things that most people don’t see when they visit Israel, and I am grateful for it because the mainstream U.S. news agencies fail to report these things. Because I saw the daily life of a Palestinian, and because I got to learn from Israelis who used to serve in the army in the West Bank, because I stayed overnight in a refugee camp, and because I was personally faced with situations in which I had to make quick decisions regarding my rights, I can say with the authority of my experiences that Israel has all the power. Israel has international recognition as a sovereign nation, and it has the backing of the United States. Palestine has neither. International consensus is in favor of monitoring Israel’s actions, as demonstrated by the sheer volume of UN resolutions proposed either against Israel in some way or in support of Palestine. Despite this international consensus, the U.S. repeatedly shelters Israel from criticism by being the only country to veto many of these resolutions. Israel has been militarily occupying the Palestinian territories since 1967 and exerts incredible military force on Palestinians’ daily lives. Israel’s occupation of the West Bank has become so entrenched in society that Palestinians have actually become economically dependent on it. How can fair negotiations take place with such an imbalance of power and influence? The situation there is NOT equally hard for Israelis and Palestinians, and my concern for human rights and well-being causes me to be more concerned for Palestinians because they are suffering more.

It is hard for me to imagine a just solution considering certain current factors, but it seems obvious to me that there can be no peace as long as the occupation continues. In the words of a post- military-service Israeli man I met, “What kind of two-state solution? What kind of one-state solution? If it doesn’t include equality, I’m not interested.” As Americans and perhaps people of faith, I know you and I are interested in equality. It is core to our national identity and pride. I encourage you to join me in being a peacemaker by searching for a solution of equality in the Middle East. If you feel uneducated, learn more about the situation. Learn more about the U.S. role and influence in Israel. Read the news from peacenow.org, and a variety of alternative sources! Research what your representatives are doing, and contact them if you disagree or if you want to urge them to do more. Learn about the economic link between the U.S. and Israel. As citizens of the U.S. we really do have an incredible chance to positively impact what’s going on in Israel and Palestine. And of course, give me a call if you ever want to talk about it more or hear more of my experience than what I could reasonably include in this letter.

Thank you again for your love and support. My experience was uneasy at times, and it was comforting and important to me to have a community to return to who is interested in listening to me and concerned with matters of peacemaking.

Love Mary