‘Come and see!’ (and you will understand)
Activism
Rev. Dr. Jeffrey DeYoe on October 24, 2015 10 Comments
Re. Jeffrey DeYoe's Christian group of mostly Presbyterians, in the occupied
territories
Beit Sahour, with the famous “Shepherd’s Field” at its heart, is a smaller town
next to occupied Bethlehem, and many holy-site tourists who visit the Field are
unaware that they have even left Bethlehem to see it. Most tour companies
whisking people through the famous “separation wall” and back in the same day
want people to think they are still in the city of Christ’s birth, so they
don’t mention the fact that Beit Sahour is a different Palestinian town.
If you actually stay in Beit Sahour, when you are grilled by a security person
at Ben Gurion Airport on your way out of the country, it is easier to say that
you stayed in Bethlehem near the Shepherd’s Field. Saying you stayed in Beit
Sahour reveals that you know the difference among Palestinian towns and cities,
and that always raises suspicions. So you act uninformed and sacrifice all your
self-respect by asking, “Isn’t it all part of the same Holy Land/Disneyland
experience?”
We stayed one block from the Shepherd’s Field at the Sahara Hotel for the
southern leg of our trip to Israel Palestine because it is the host hotel for
those who help with the olive harvest. Beit Sahour is the official headquarters
for YMCA’s Keep Hope Alive program. This was the second time I’ve led a group
of U.S. Presbyterians (with some Unitarians and Baptists) on a Keep Hope Alive
trip. The first time was to plant olive trees in February 2014 (which I
described here) and here. This trip was to pick olives, but not from the trees
we planted, because an olive tree takes at least six years to start producing.
One day the Palestinian farmer told us the trees we were picking were 400 years
old.
When you spend time in Palestine, one of the things you discover is how well
educated Palestinians are, and Beit Sahour is full of people with many
different advanced degrees. All of this is owing to the fact that long before
1948, education has always been a high priority in Palestinian culture.
Palestinians are the most highly-educated oppressed people I have encountered
anywhere I have traveled in the world. One of our stops this year was to
visit a Bedouin village. The Bedouins are a nomadic people who live in tents.
Originally they followed the herds. Now, though, they have to move around
because they live in the “seam” between the Palestinian West Bank and the State
of Israel and, after their tent villages have been set up, the Israeli military
comes in and makes them pull up stakes after so many months. Then they have to
find another place to live. They have no rights in Israel, and they have
nothing in Palestine (and find themselves at the bottom of the Palestinian
pecking order). Even so, the young woman speaking to us after we had lunch in
her family’s tent has a degree in English translation and hopes to get a job
teaching English, although she is always at the bottom of the waiting list
because she is Bedouin. I was awed by how articulate she was, and I
remembered that when we visited Bedouins in 2014, my daughter Tina, who was
also on this trip, developed a relationship with a young woman who also had an
M.A. degree in education. These friends in Palestine remind me of when I was a
teenager and my dad insisted that I go to college, saying: “Remember, in this
life you never know… the world can take everything away from you, but it can
never take your education.” As I said, Palestinians value education.
Palestinians also value peace. While we were staying in Beit Sahour, the YMCA
held programs for us every night after our days of olive picking and touring.
One night we were mesmerized by the Palestinian film, “The Wanted 18: A Story
of Bovine Resistance.” It is very creative and has won many international
awards. It tells the story of the very beginning of the First Intifada
(“intifada” means “uprising”), which was a peaceful uprising of economic
resistance to oppression against the Israeli government. Up through the 1980s
the Palestinian people were dependent upon Israel for most of the goods they
could not produce themselves (and for the most part still are today).
Therefore Beit Sahour city councilors decided they did not want to depend on
Israel for dairy products any longer, so they bought 18 cows from Israeli
farmers to start their own dairy. The humorous part of the story is that these
were people with businesses and/or advanced college degrees, who knew nothing
about taking care of cows. So they sent a young man from their community to the
United States to work on a dairy farm for months and he came home ready to set
up a milk barn. They got the cows and began production. As the First Intifada
took hold, with growing economic resistance to Israel throughout the West Bank,
the Israeli military told the Beit Sahour city council that it had to get rid
of the cows or have them confiscated. The city council decided not to comply
and hid all the cows in separate locations. With that came the spectacle of
Israeli soldiers looking for 18 cows throughout the city every day for weeks to
no avail. All Beit Sahour soon joked that the Israeli soldiers would search
forever for “terrorist cows.”
The Oslo Accords brought an end to the First Intifada, to the dismay of many
Palestinians, including residents of Beit Sahour. They felt that Yasser Arafat
sold out their program of non-violent resistance by making a political deal of
convenience. Unfortunately those Accords, along with ending Beir Sahour’s
program of non-violent resistance (they sold the cows), eventually led to the
Second Intifada, which was very violent. I remember it well because I visited
Israel Palestine in 2001 while it was raging.
During this last visit to Israel Palestine, there were many demonstrations in
the streets. They actually began peacefully—we even attended one in the middle
of Nazareth Square on one of our first nights there. But Palestinians—whether
they are Israeli citizens living in Galilee or people with no status living in
the West Bank—are not allowed to demonstrate (either for very long or not at
all depending on what side of the wall you live on). The clashes resulted
from the fact that the Israeli military chose to come into the middle of
Palestinian cities and forcibly end non-violent protests. Given the physical
force the Israeli army used on the people–spraying teargas and even spewing
sewage–on the crowds, demonstrations turned violent. If the military had not
shown up, the demonstrations would have occurred peacefully then ended
peacefully with everyone going home, and you would not have heard about it in
the U.S. media. But that is not the way it happened.
Demonstration in Bethlehem
I likened the demonstrations to last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests in
cities across the United States. Most people were there to engage in
non-violent protest, but some (not the majority) created havoc. Like those
demonstrations, the ones in Palestine have been spontaneous and do not seem to
have any single group organizing them. As we walked with the demonstration in
Nazareth, or watched others from a distance in Bethlehem, with the signature
burning tires in the middle of the street, I noticed how many Palestinians were
running their shops and going about their daily routines even while young
people protested just a blocks away.
Demonstration in Bethlehem
I found it interesting that, while receiving e-mails and texts from home asking
if we were safe, I was watching CNN World News on the hotel television
reporting on the shooting (1 dead and 4 injured) in downtown Ft. Myers,
Florida, at the “Zombiecon” event. This is only a mile from the Presbyterian
church where I serve as pastor. In the last few months, Ft. Myers has
experienced a lot of shooting violence and unsolved murders. I have been to
Zombiecon in previous years. Given the events in my own hometown I wondered if
I were safer in Beit Sahour.
As we were told repeatedly while we were in Palestine, this is not a religious
conflict, but a political one. Seeing Palestinian Christians and Muslims living
together peacefully and well (as well as can be expected under those
conditions), as well as being conducted around for a day by an Israeli Jew who
seeks peace and justice, of this I have no doubt. American professor Norman
Finkelstein, a prominent Jewish voice for peace in Israel and justice in
Palestine, recently co-wrote an article about the present unrest in Palestine
and Israel and mentioned the non-violent First Intifada. He observed that right
now Palestinians are in a very important position because this unrest could
once again give rise to an effective non-violent uprising that could make a
difference. The article reads like a playbook on how Palestinian leaders could
take hold of this present energy in a positive way. It is my prayer that this
indeed might come true.
As with our first trip to plant olive trees in 2014, everyone on our recent
trip came home greatly impressed by the quality and perseverance of Palestinian
people and their ancient culture. Many of us found ourselves wishing that we
Americans could retain the best of our historical cultural practices as well as
they. One person remarked, “I haven’t encountered a Palestinian I didn’t like!”
Hearing from me about the injustices in Palestine has become routine for
members of my congregation and some have complained. But now they do not need
not take my word for it, because those who have gone with me on these two trips
have seen it with their own eyes, felt it in their hearts, and returned home
changed by what they now know is true. The motto in Palestine, among the
leaders with whom we lived and worked for two weeks, simply is: “Come and See!”
They say it, confident that when we do, we will understand. My two trips with
Presbyterians who knew little about Palestine except for what is shared by the
American media did exactly that and their lives have been changed in the most
profound ways.
All you really have to do is go and see….
‘Come and see!’ (and you will understand)
Activism
Rev. Dr. Jeffrey DeYoe on October 24, 2015 10 Comments
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valid.
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Re. Jeffrey DeYoe's Christian group of mostly Presbyterians, in the occupied
territories
Beit Sahour, with the famous “Shepherd’s Field” at its heart, is a smaller town
next to occupied Bethlehem, and many holy-site tourists who visit the Field are
unaware that they have even left Bethlehem to see it. Most tour companies
whisking people through the famous “separation wall” and back in the same day
want people to think they are still in the city of Christ’s birth, so they
don’t mention the fact that Beit Sahour is a different Palestinian town.
If you actually stay in Beit Sahour, when you are grilled by a security person
at Ben Gurion Airport on your way out of the country, it is easier to say that
you stayed in Bethlehem near the Shepherd’s Field. Saying you stayed in Beit
Sahour reveals that you know the difference among Palestinian towns and cities,
and that always raises suspicions. So you act uninformed and sacrifice all your
self-respect by asking, “Isn’t it all part of the same Holy Land/Disneyland
experience?”
We stayed one block from the Shepherd’s Field at the Sahara Hotel for the
southern leg of our trip to Israel Palestine because it is the host hotel for
those who help with the olive harvest. Beit Sahour is the official headquarters
for YMCA’s Keep Hope Alive program. This was the second time I’ve led a group
of U.S. Presbyterians (with some Unitarians and Baptists) on a Keep Hope Alive
trip. The first time was to plant olive trees in February 2014 (which I
described here) and here. This trip was to pick olives, but not from the trees
we planted, because an olive tree takes at least six years to start producing.
One day the Palestinian farmer told us the trees we were picking were 400 years
old.
When you spend time in Palestine, one of the things you discover is how well
educated Palestinians are, and Beit Sahour is full of people with many
different advanced degrees. All of this is owing to the fact that long before
1948, education has always been a high priority in Palestinian culture.
Palestinians are the most highly-educated oppressed people I have encountered
anywhere I have traveled in the world. One of our stops this year was to visit
a Bedouin village. The Bedouins are a nomadic people who live in tents.
Originally they followed the herds. Now, though, they have to move around
because they live in the “seam” between the Palestinian West Bank and the State
of Israel and, after their tent villages have been set up, the Israeli military
comes in and makes them pull up stakes after so many months. Then they have to
find another place to live. They have no rights in Israel, and they have
nothing in Palestine (and find themselves at the bottom of the Palestinian
pecking order). Even so, the young woman speaking to us after we had lunch in
her family’s tent has a degree in English translation and hopes to get a job
teaching English, although she is always at the bottom of the waiting list
because she is Bedouin. I was awed by how articulate she was, and I remembered
that when we visited Bedouins in 2014, my daughter Tina, who was also on this
trip, developed a relationship with a young woman who also had an M.A. degree
in education. These friends in Palestine remind me of when I was a teenager and
my dad insisted that I go to college, saying: “Remember, in this life you never
know… the world can take everything away from you, but it can never take your
education.” As I said, Palestinians value education.
Palestinians also value peace. While we were staying in Beit Sahour, the YMCA
held programs for us every night after our days of olive picking and touring.
One night we were mesmerized by the Palestinian film, “The Wanted 18: A Story
of Bovine Resistance.” It is very creative and has won many international
awards. It tells the story of the very beginning of the First Intifada
(“intifada” means “uprising”), which was a peaceful uprising of economic
resistance to oppression against the Israeli government. Up through the 1980s
the Palestinian people were dependent upon Israel for most of the goods they
could not produce themselves (and for the most part still are today). Therefore
Beit Sahour city councilors decided they did not want to depend on Israel for
dairy products any longer, so they bought 18 cows from Israeli farmers to start
their own dairy. The humorous part of the story is that these were people with
businesses and/or advanced college degrees, who knew nothing about taking care
of cows. So they sent a young man from their community to the United States to
work on a dairy farm for months and he came home ready to set up a milk barn.
They got the cows and began production. As the First Intifada took hold, with
growing economic resistance to Israel throughout the West Bank, the Israeli
military told the Beit Sahour city council that it had to get rid of the cows
or have them confiscated. The city council decided not to comply and hid all
the cows in separate locations. With that came the spectacle of Israeli
soldiers looking for 18 cows throughout the city every day for weeks to no
avail. All Beit Sahour soon joked that the Israeli soldiers would search
forever for “terrorist cows.”
The Oslo Accords brought an end to the First Intifada, to the dismay of many
Palestinians, including residents of Beit Sahour. They felt that Yasser Arafat
sold out their program of non-violent resistance by making a political deal of
convenience. Unfortunately those Accords, along with ending Beir Sahour’s
program of non-violent resistance (they sold the cows), eventually led to the
Second Intifada, which was very violent. I remember it well because I visited
Israel Palestine in 2001 while it was raging.
During this last visit to Israel Palestine, there were many demonstrations in
the streets. They actually began peacefully—we even attended one in the middle
of Nazareth Square on one of our first nights there. But Palestinians—whether
they are Israeli citizens living in Galilee or people with no status living in
the West Bank—are not allowed to demonstrate (either for very long or not at
all depending on what side of the wall you live on). The clashes resulted from
the fact that the Israeli military chose to come into the middle of Palestinian
cities and forcibly end non-violent protests. Given the physical force the
Israeli army used on the people–spraying teargas and even spewing sewage–on the
crowds, demonstrations turned violent. If the military had not shown up, the
demonstrations would have occurred peacefully then ended peacefully with
everyone going home, and you would not have heard about it in the U.S. media.
But that is not the way it happened.
http://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/IMG_0722.jpg
http://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/IMG_0722.jpg
Demonstration in Bethlehem
I likened the demonstrations to last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests in
cities across the United States. Most people were there to engage in
non-violent protest, but some (not the majority) created havoc. Like those
demonstrations, the ones in Palestine have been spontaneous and do not seem to
have any single group organizing them. As we walked with the demonstration in
Nazareth, or watched others from a distance in Bethlehem, with the signature
burning tires in the middle of the street, I noticed how many Palestinians were
running their shops and going about their daily routines even while young
people protested just a blocks away.
http://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/IMG_08911.jpg
http://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/IMG_08911.jpg
Demonstration in Bethlehem
I found it interesting that, while receiving e-mails and texts from home asking
if we were safe, I was watching CNN World News on the hotel television
reporting on the shooting (1 dead and 4 injured) in downtown Ft. Myers,
Florida, at the “Zombiecon” event. This is only a mile from the Presbyterian
church where I serve as pastor. In the last few months, Ft. Myers has
experienced a lot of shooting violence and unsolved murders. I have been to
Zombiecon in previous years. Given the events in my own hometown I wondered if
I were safer in Beit Sahour.
As we were told repeatedly while we were in Palestine, this is not a religious
conflict, but a political one. Seeing Palestinian Christians and Muslims living
together peacefully and well (as well as can be expected under those
conditions), as well as being conducted around for a day by an Israeli Jew who
seeks peace and justice, of this I have no doubt. American professor Norman
Finkelstein, a prominent Jewish voice for peace in Israel and justice in
Palestine, recently co-wrote an article about the present unrest in Palestine
and Israel and mentioned the non-violent First Intifada. He observed that right
now Palestinians are in a very important position because this unrest could
once again give rise to an effective non-violent uprising that could make a
difference. The article reads like a playbook on how Palestinian leaders could
take hold of this present energy in a positive way. It is my prayer that this
indeed might come true.
As with our first trip to plant olive trees in 2014, everyone on our recent
trip came home greatly impressed by the quality and perseverance of Palestinian
people and their ancient culture. Many of us found ourselves wishing that we
Americans could retain the best of our historical cultural practices as well as
they. One person remarked, “I haven’t encountered a Palestinian I didn’t like!”
Hearing from me about the injustices in Palestine has become routine for
members of my congregation and some have complained. But now they do not need
not take my word for it, because those who have gone with me on these two trips
have seen it with their own eyes, felt it in their hearts, and returned home
changed by what they now know is true. The motto in Palestine, among the
leaders with whom we lived and worked for two weeks, simply is: “Come and See!”
They say it, confident that when we do, we will understand. My two trips with
Presbyterians who knew little about Palestine except for what is shared by the
American media did exactly that and their lives have been changed in the most
profound ways.
All you really have to do is go and see….
