What's it like to have your house torn down 2 times and to rebuild it after each time it's been torn down? How would you feel? What would you do?

Well, we met the mother, Mundir, and one of the three sons, Muhammed, of a family that had that happen to them. The Salem family live in the town of Al Walajah. Al Walajah is South of Jerusalem, and is being broken in half by the wall that is being planned. Part of the village is in "Greater" Jerusalem, the new line for Jerusalem put in to extend its boundaries. There are about 50 house demolition orders for houses in the town. No demolitions have taken place since 2006. But . . .

The Salem family own the property their house is on. As you walk into their property, you see on the other side of a very big valley, a Settlement. This settlement is Gilo and in "Greater" Jerusalem.

They built their first house in 2003. Shortly thereafter, they received notification that their house was to be demolished, and if they didn't demolish it, they would have to pay about 70,000 shekels (just under $20,000) . (Note, the demolition order is for the owners to demolition their own home. The fine is for NOT demolitioning their home.) The father went back and forth to court for 3 years. They didn't have the money to pay the fine for not demolishing it. After 5 months, he was put in jail for a month, and still didn't have the money to pay the fine. Some people feel if they pay the fine, the demolition will not take place, but that is not true. The demolition can still take place, but the Israeli Army does it.

One day, in January of 2006, soldiers showed up at their door with a bulldozer and told them to take their personal stuff out of the house. After taking their personal stuff out, the soldiers then moved (or maybe the right word is THREW) their furniture and remaining articles out of the house (some thru the windows) and bulldozed the house down.

For the next 6 months, they lived in a tent on their land. Friends and family were there for them, and helped them rebuild the house. The courts sent them another demolition order, which again they did not do. So in December of 2006, (the same year) the army showed up again, and once again, demolished the house they had rebuilt on their land. The family thinks it may have been some of the same soldiers.

Fortunately, their family and friends were still there for them, and again rebuilt the house one more time in 2007. It's smaller than the original house, but its big enough to live there. If you look behind the house, you see the pile of rubble left from the other houses. The family just moved the rubble over to the side, and began building again.

When asked, "how do you feel?" Their answer was "Don't get too involved with thinking about the situation. Just try to keep on living."

WHAT PERSISTANCE!

They do have another demolition order on this house. The family prays that it won't be demolished. Though the boys are growing up and moving on with their lives, Mr and Mrs Salem continue living there. Mrs Salem's comment was "This is our home, and we do not want to leave, so we will stay, even if it means living in tents."

I pray they won't have to live in tents again.

I am an Ecumemical Accompanier (EA) for the World Council of Churches' (WCC) Ecumenical Advocacy Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views herein are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of the WCC. If you would like to disseminate the information on this blog, please contact the EAPPI Communications Coordinator at eappi-co@jrol.com. You can also contact the US EAPPI office thru the website www.eappi-us.org. Peace

Getting kicked out of the Checkpoint

Thursday morning, I had checkpoint duty with Andreas. We woke up at about 3:50, had some coffee, got dressed expecting cooler weather and worked our way up the hill to the checkpoint. Andreas was outside, minding the lines going thru the wall, and I was inside minding the people in the metal detector and ID verification lines. When I got inside, I found only one metal detector open. I waited a bit, since it was before 5AM when the gates are open, but then as I saw people beginning to run down to the metal detector lines, I contacted the Hotline people and said that only one was open, and that was going to be a problem. They said they would see what they could do about it. So, I decided to leave that area, and move into the ID area to see how many of those lines were open.


Initially, only 2 were open, so I again, waited a while, until people were getting thru the metal detector lines and the ID lines were beginning to back up. I then called the Hotline again, to indicated that more lines were needed. They again, said they would see what they could do.


Meanwhile, as I was standing there watching the ID lines, 2 soldiers were standing on the other side of the ID booths, watching me. I tried not to make eye contact, and I did move around a bit, but they seemed to move where I moved and continued STARING at me. It was difficult not making eye contact with them. But, I decided to leave that area, and go back to the Metal Detector area to see if another line was opened up. So, I left. It takes 2 or 3 minutes to get there, but I had a cigarette on the way, so it may have been 5 minutes when I arrived back in the metal detector area.

I looked around, saw lots more people in that area, and indeed the second metal detector was open, so there was movement. Then I looked up and saw 3 soldiers in the walkway above the metal detectors. 2 were the ones from the front, and now there was a third. One of the soldiers was sticking his tongue out at me. Again, I tried to ignore it, but as I walked, he followed me with his tongue sticking out, so I indicated to him (I'm not sure how I did that) that he should stop that. It was definitely annoying me. He got it, and laughed, and his friends weren't exactly sure what happened, but they were laughing too.


Since I had completed my task of determining there was another metal detector open, I decided I would get out of view of the soldiers, and move myself back to the ID area. So, I used my female sex and was able to move in front of all the people in line to go back thru the metal detector.

When I got to the ID lines, I noticed that there were now 4 booths open, so the lines were moving, though there was some delay. Also, I noticed the 3 soldiers on the walkway above the area I was now in, again STARING at me, leaning on the bar, talking to each other, and just staring at me. They were really obnoxious. They must have called the Checkpoint Security, and they must have just been waiting to see what I would do next. The Checkpoint Security person came to me and said "Come with me". I had no idea that they had called him, and didn't know why the Security man was saying that so I said "Why? What have I done?" He continued by saying "Just come with me." and led me through the ID gate to the door going out of the Checkpoint, and told me to stay there. From there I could still do my job of watching the lines, counting women, seeing if anyone is stopped. I just wasn't able to see all of the lines.

Meanwhile, the 3 guards moved along the walkway to near where I was, still staring at me and talking and laughing. They were smoking, so I pointed to a sign right near me that said No Smoking. They laughed and said "No smoking down there. OK up here." I just kept pointing at the sign. So one of them said "Want to take a picture?" One of the other army guards took a picture of me, I think, with his cell phone, cause he called out to me "Do you have blue tooth?" I didn't answer him, but I pulled out my camera, and pretended to take a picture of them. Immediately, the three of them moved away from each other, trying to hide, so that a picture couldn't be taken.

In about a minute, one of the soldiers was standing next to me saying "Show me the picture". I told him I hadn't taken any, but he said "Show me". So, I started showing him the pictures on my camera to show him I hadn't taken one of him. Unfortunately, there were some pictures on the camera from the demonstration at Umm Salamona. There were some close ups of soldiers. There were also some pictures from Tuq'ua showing soldiers in the distance. He was NOT happy with that. He told me to delete ALL pictures that have soldiers in them. I complained, but started going thru the pictures, showing him I had deleted the ones with soldiers. There was a picture of a bunch of people on a hill. It was actually kids from the school in Tuq'ua. He said "delete it". I said "They are not soldiers, they are students." He said to delete it again, and I said "But they are not soldiers." so he let it go. There was another shot of a tower used by the army. He said "Delete it". I said, "There are no soldiers in that picture." He said "This is my country." I pushed back a bit, but deleted it anyway. Interesting, that he didn't want the picture of a tower to remain.


Anyway, after he had gone thru all my pictures on the camera to see that there were no soldiers and no towers, he told me to leave. I asked why, and he just said "Leave", showing me the way go back into Palestine.


So, by 5:45, I was back on the Bethlehem side of the checkpoint, and Andreas was going over to cover the Jerusalem side.

A couple of things struck me. First, I felt that I had to push back on the soldier when he was sticking his tongue out at me. He was joking and jesting and laughing, as he was doing it, and I felt I wanted him to stop. It was WRONG for him to be doing that. So, I had to push back, and I did. The second was when the soldier was so defiant about me deleting all the pictures that had soldiers or towers in it. Again, I HAD to push back. I HAD to let him know that I was not happy. I pushed back with the picture of the students on the hill, which I did NOT erase, and I pushed back on the picture of the tower, which I DID erase (it's his country, you know). But I HAD to push back. The overall result was that the soldier probably was with me LONGER than he wanted, and that I had to go back. MAYBE he won't stick his tongue out at someone again, and MAYBE they won't laugh and stare at someone again. But, I'm not sure about that. It's easy when you are in control to do all the inhumane things that you do, since you ARE in control, you know. Anything you do is OK.


It brings me to the students that were throwing stones on the road. That's the only way they know to push back. The response to that was to have the army come to the school, search it, throw tear gas in the classrooms, and close the school down for the day. Again, the Push Back results in LOTS of problems.

I'm not sure I'm any better than the students. I'm also not sure I would, or could, do anything else. I'm going to have to learn to smile and deal with it, if I expect to stay here. I'm glad I don't live here. It would be too hard for me.



I am an Ecumenical Accompanier (EA) for the World Council of Churchs' (WCC) Ecumenical Advocacy Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views herein are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of the WCC. If you would like to disseminate the information contained herein, please first contact the EAPPI Communications Officer at eappi-co@jrol.com. You may also contact the US office via www.eappi-us.org. Thank you and peace to you and to this Land.

Overview of what I am doing here

Well, I haven't done a good job writing in this BLOG. Sorry to all those that were expecting it. So, I'm backing up and going to put together a blog to describe a few things.

First, I am in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is in Area A, which means the Palestinian Authority has full responsibility for it. That includes water, electric, garbage, etc as well as security. However, just to the right when looking out my apartment porch is an Israeli Settlement. That area is managed by the Israeli's and is referred to as in Area C. So, Israel is responsible for the water, electric, etc and the security. This whole area is in the West Bank. Before 1967, this was part of Jordan. In 1967 this was area was taken over by Israel. It currently is occupied by Israel. To manage the security of the many settlements being built, Israel has built the "security" wall. The majority of the wall is in Occupied Palestine.

So, this to start at the beginning and give you a sense about where I am and what I am doing.

I am here with a Norwegian, Swede, and German. We have a very nice apartment, with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths, a living/dining room area and a kitchen. We have our own washer, which works most of the time, and we have an area where people can stay when they visit. This is the view from our front deck.

Not bad, eh? Way in the distance you can see the Moab mountains. They are on the other side of the Dead Sea, in Jordan. It's really beautiful here.

As I said, just to the left of us is an Israeli settlement. Here is a picture of that settlement. The settlement starts with a group of people putting up vans, and living in them for a while. Then they tell the army that they need to be protected. Then the army comes in and begins protecting them, and a plan is put in place to build this city. The "settlements" are homes for people brought in from around the world, and are at a good cheap price. They have malls, parks, pools and all the amenities of a nice city. Unfortunately, they are often built on land that used for farming by the Palestinians. This, then, is one of the issues here in Occupied Palestine.

So, what am I doing here. As I indicated to people before I left, we are Ecumenical Accompaniers (EA's). That means we are WITH people here as they go through their daily experiences. The 2 main areas are the Checkpoint from Bethlehem into the "expanded" Jerusalem and in the villages around Bethlehem being impacted by the Settlements.

The checkpoint is an EARLY day. People have to go through the checkpoint as they go from Bethlehem (Area A) into the Jerusalem area (Area C). It's not that far from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, where people work, but the checkpoint adds about an hour and a half to two hours to some people's travels.

This Checkpoint (called Checkpoint 300 or Gila Checkpoint) is like going to the airport. There is a line to check your id's and ticket, and line for the metal detector, and finally a line for final verification that you are permitted into Jerusalem.

This picture shows the line waiting to get into the Checkpoint (see the Wall on the left) in the morning. This is what the line looks like at 4:30 in the morning.

This picture shows the line for the Metal Detector. They have to remove their belts, shows and any metal from their pockets and go through a personal scanner, while their stuff goes through the metal detector.

The picture to the right shows the final verification, where each person puts his id card on a card reader, then his hand in the hand machine to scan his/her prints, before being told whether she/he can go into Area A.

A bit much? I'd say.

Anyway, we are there counting, calling hotlines if things slow down, trying to help people out as they go thru this EVERY DAY.

The second set of work items is being with people in the villages. There are about 8 villages that we visit. The issues are - the wall being planned in an area near the village which will result in the people not being able to get to their lands; schools being searched and tear gassed by the army because the kids may have thrown rocks; house demolitions because Israel has determined that their paperwork isn't complete or they built without asking permission; kids harrassed on the way to school by settlers and/or the Israeli army; and more.

The prior post shows one of the villages - Umm Salamona. I will try to be better about putting up stories from the other villages and the people in the villages. People we meet all have their own story, and it's amazing what they have been through.

OK, that's enough for this post. I hope you can comment on it. Feel free to email me if you can't. I may not respond immediately, but I will respond. The pictures do not seem to be coming out in the right place, so I also hope you can read it.

Peace to all of you, and Peace to the people in this land.

I am an Ecumenical Acompanier (EA) for the World Council of Church Ecumenical Advocacy Programme in Palestine and Israel. The views herein are personal and do not necesssarily reflect the views of the WCC. If you would like to disseminate the information contained herein, please first contact the EAPPI Communications Officer at eappi-co@jrol.com. You may also contact the US office at www.eappi-us.org. Peace

Demonstration in Umm Salamone

Yesterday was my first full day here in Bethlehem as an EA for EAPPI. On Fridays, the village of Umm Salamone (Mother of Solomon) schedule demonstrations. They have been doing this for at least 3 years.

The reason for the demonstrations is that Israel is planning on extending the wall by the town of Umm Salamone. For those of you who don't know what the wall looks like, here is an example of the Wall in Bethlehem. It's about 20 feet high.

In 1979, a nearby settlement tried to take some of the lands from Umm Salamone. The village took the case to court, and the court ruled in favor of the village. In an attempt to keep the lands from becoming state lands in the future, the villagers planted olive trees on the previously unfarmed land. Since then, the court has overruled the 1979 decision for security purposes. However, the villages in that area have not had any problems with nearby settlements.

In May of this year, there was violence and arrests at the demonstration. Since then the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has put up a barbed wire roadblock to stop the progress of the demonstration.

The demonstration this week was not violent. About 20 people of all ages, came down from the village, and met up with 4 Israeli's from Tel Aviv and the 4 of us EAPPI EAs and progressed down to the barbed wire, where the soldiers were standing. At that point, everyone stopped. The demonstrators made short speaches and shouted that the Wall was Bad. The soldiers stayed on the other side of the barbed wire, watching the demonstrators. On the hill was a jeep that could have contained sharp shooters. They too were watching the activity.

The young boys got into the act by trying to pull the barbed wire out of the way. The soldiers, standing on the barbed wire on the other side, watched the kids. To me, they seemed to have a feeling for them.

As the rain came down in BUCKETS, the demonstrators stood under the flag, trying to stay dry. They were persistant in their demonstration.

This was my first experience with a demonstration. It showed the fear of the Palestinians that they will be loosing their land and their freedom to move. When the wall is put up in an area, people often must travel a distance to go what used to be "across the street". This seems to me to be inhuman, and I continue to pray for peace.

I am an Ecumenical Accompanier (EA) for the World Council of Churchs' (WCC) Ecumenical Advocacy Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views herein are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of the WCC. If you would like to disseminate the information contained here in, please first contact the EAPPI Communications Officer (eappi-co@jrol.com) You can also contact the US office via (www.eappi-us.org). Thank you.

Getting Ready to Go

Well, 3 weeks from today, I'll be traveling down to Washington, DC and then from there to Israel to be an Ecumenical Accompanier for EAPPI. OH MY!!!! What an amazing opportunity I am being granted!!! What a challenge it will be!!! I pray I can live up to the needs of those I work with and those I accompany.

I am sitting here on my deck, looking at my backyard, and enjoying the cool breezes on a nice warm day. What will the next 3 months hold in store for me? I am excited and scared, and pray you will follow my various experiences as I try to document them here.

Stay with me I need you all.

Peace