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News from the Region
2007 Olive Harvest Delegation

Report #1, Part 1 of 2
Hanging onto Hope

By Judy White

Jerusalem, October 30 - In our first full day here we learned and experienced a great deal about a complicated situation.  Looking at many maps in two presentations, from both the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and the United Nations Office on Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), we saw the geography:  the land controlled by Israel, and that of the Palestinians; the security barrier, 450 miles of cement wall and electric fence, separating people from jobs and fields; the Israeli settlements, more than 300 in the West Bank alone; the access roads linking these settlements and the major cities, mostly forbidden to Palestinians to drive on; the checkpoints, 100 in the West Bank, through which Palestinians must pass to get to work, school, fields.  Facts on the ground, unarguable.

We also visited several settlements, including Ma’ale Adumim, which will be larger in area than Tel Aviv when completed.  It looked like a segment of America, with a big swimming pool, beautiful landscaping, and modern malls.  A nearby Palestinian neighborhood has no trash collection. 

The Separation Wall snakes through the Palestinian neighborhood of Abudis. Photo: Adam Horowitz.

When we see the shape of the barrier snaking its way across the map, it’s obvious that its real purpose is not securing the borders – if so, it would just run along the border.  It is obvious that its real purpose is to isolate, contain, and eventually push out the Palestinian people, and that the clock is ticking for these people to remain here.  Both sides have deeply felt stories, and they are so irreconcilable that optimism about achieving peace here seems real foolishness.

And so are many of us feeling when Tom, in our evening meeting, reads a talk by Desmond Tutu, archbishop and peacemaker from South Africa.  After saying that he is not optimistic about an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he continues, “However, that does not mean I am without hope.  I am a Christian.  I am constrained by my faith to hope against hope, placing my trust in things as yet unseen.  Hope persists in the face of evidence to the contrary… I believe a resolution will be found.  It will not be perfect, but it can be just; and if it is just, it will usher in a future of peace… God has a dream for all of his children.  It is about a day when all people enjoy …security and live free of fear… God’s dream is about a day when all people are accorded equal dignity because they are human beings.  In God’s beautiful dream, no other reason is required….God’s dream begins with the mutual recognition – we are not strangers, we are kin…”

My husband Mike and I hesitated about coming on this trip, fearing that we would be taking into ourselves a heart-breaking situation that felt hopeless.  So must the South African situation have felt before peace was achieved there.  If Desmond Tutu could hang onto hope then, and now, then we must too…

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