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Perhaps it was prophetic that on our last day we visited two organizations: Wi’am and the Holy Land Trust. At Wi’am, Zoughbi Zoughbi interspersed his description of his organization’s activities with words of encouragement: “Your presence is a message to those who are oppressed, a message of solidarity. We cannot succeed without support from international civil society.” He spoke about the exhaustion on both sides, the need for “restorative justice – to address the wrongs, not avenge them,” and said of hope: “We cannot live without hope. This is a land of hope and hope has a price. Who thought the Berlin wall would fall? Who knew the apartheid regime in South Africa would fall? Hope is the prophetic voices that come here.”
Report #6:
Actions for Reconciliation
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| Delegation members meeting the Natshe family in Hebron. Photo: John Treat |
After we boarded the bus we stopped at the home of a wonderful Palestinian family, the Natshes. A mother with four sons and one daughter. Her husband was in an Israeli jail for five years after the 1967 war and he died a few years ago. She baked cakes, cookies, and served grapes from their own yard. One of her sons has a PhD; one is third-year civil engineer; the youngest is a daughter who is in high school. All are determined to live lives of non violence and get an education. They are determined to stay in Palestine; it's their home. They want to live in peace. 
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| Picking olives near Bethlehem. Photo: John Treat |
I, like many of the people whom I have met on the delegation, yearn for a place where people treat others fairly and generously, for ways to spread a sense of justice which permeates the choices and actions of all people, and for efforts to spare our earth from our destructiveness so that its beauty and abundance might be available to our children and grandchildren. I truly believe that these longings are God’s will for us.
I have found such an atmosphere here in Israel and in the West Bank.
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| Children in Jenin. Photo: John Treat |
The sun was high and hot when we tumbled out of the bus at the third checkpoint. We carried our overnight bags down a long walkway, fenced with rigid wire mesh that arched overhead. A young Palestinian woman in a pink hijab and long, black coat exiting Jenin, came out of the checkpoint shed tucking her green identity card into her purse. “You are Americans?” she asked. We nodded. “You going to Jenin?” We nodded again. She looked at us fiercely. “You go back and tell,” she demanded, jerking her head toward the checkpoint.
Oh, we will, we promised enthusiastically, not knowing that her story would become ours.
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| Combatants for Peace. Photo: John Treat |
We were privileged today to meet a half dozen people from quite varied walks of life who are living hope. They are living hope and by their efforts and commitments bring hope to others of us who might otherwise despair at the way things are going here.
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From the highway leading to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, we turned onto the "highway" for the West Bank Palestinians: a narrow, dirt road with deep holes which slowed the bus to a crawl. Shortly this road was blocked by an enormous boulder that had been placed squarely in the middle of the road by Israeli soldiers. Leaving the bus, we gathered our bags and walked to the farm called “Daher’s Vineyard” and the “Tent of Nations.” Here siblings Daher, Daoud, and Amal Nassar live with their extended family. The family has farmed this land for many generations—and their modest farm is now surrounded by Israeli settlements on all sides.
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| The Olive Harvest delegation waiting in line at the Qalandiya checkpoint. Photo: John Treat |
The Qalandiya Checkpoint which separates Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank is a huge, brightly lit maze of concrete and steel that funnels people and vehicles. On a cold November evening our delegation did what thousands of Palestinians must do every day: we waited in lines before turnstiles, waited until a light turned green so we could pass to the next line and wait some more.
UN: The Olive Harvest in the West Bank and Gaza (October 2006)
The Independent: Poverty-stricken Palestinians desperate to profit from West Bank olive harvest (November 3, 2006)
Reuters: Cash-strapped Palestinians bank on rich olive crop (November 6, 2006)
Reports from the Olive Harvest Delegation
See also:
Purchase Fair Trade Palestinian Olive
Oil >
Ziyarat az Zeitoun - Visiting the Olives >
'O little ghetto of Bethlehem' >
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