15: Interregnum
By Skip Schiel

Photos: Jean Zaru (photo by Jeremy Routledge),Friends Upper school, biology class, November 2004

“We live in terror because persuasion is no longer possible; because man has been wholly submerged in History; because he can no longer tap that part of his nature, as real as the historical part, which he recaptures in contemplating the beauty of nature and of human faces; because we live in a world of abstractions, of bureaus and machines, of absolute ideas and of crude messianism. We suffocate among people who think they are absolutely right, whether in their machines or their ideas. And for all who can live only in an atmosphere of human dialogue and sociability, this silence is the end of the world.

--Albert Camus

I write you during a personal and larger interregnum, a stopping and restarting place. The personal turning point is mainly because finally, after weeks of self-inflicted torment, I’ve sorted out my visa renewal and can remain in country thru my planned period. After a long delay, I can now plan my remaining weeks. And I write you from my joy of working with the Religious Society of Friends in Palestine, part of a slowly dwindling community of Christian Palestinians.

I write you with a gospel, some good news.

First, the Ramallah Friends meeting house, long closed due to the Israeli incursions in 2002 and general deterioration, is now open. It will serve not only as a place of deep gathering for Friends and friends of Friends, but as an international center for nonviolent transformation of the conflict in the Holy Land. I add some links so those of you interested can pursue this further. Look for Jean Zaru, a luminary in Ramallah, long active, long thoughtful, long suffering (tho I’m not sure she’d agree with this characterization). Tho confined mostly to Ramallah because of Israeli closures, unable to enter Jerusalem without a special and rarely granted permit, a mere 10 km away, Jean has vision and stamina, and she and the community need support to bring this initiative to fruition. She chides me when I laud organizations that provide succor and mercy and humanitarian services without struggling to change the system. On this she is rightly adamant.

Second, the Friends schools in Ramallah. I am indebted to them for housing, guidance, computer support, and a seedbed for photography. Here since 1869 when some Ramallah community members asked visiting Friends for a girl’s school, adding a boy’s school in 1901, the Quaker community constructing the meeting house in 1908, the schools and the Quaker community have played a leading role in the life of not only Ramallah, but all of Palestine. Many people tell me that the Friends school is the best in the region. So I am proud to be affiliated, proud to have my photos potentially used on this year’s Christmas card from the school, pleased to have my photos possibly added to the website of the international committee supporting the meeting house renovation, and very happy to make many photos of the daily activities of the school.

I’ve written an essay about my numerous surprising Quaker connections with Palestine. (click here to read it )

Upon returning home, along with post production work on various Levant photo projects, I plan to make a slide show or print display primarily about Friends in Palestine. But for now, this pair of photos and this short essay must suffice.

Now the wider interregnum, and something about the context for this gospel. Like giant hands strangling a less powerful creature, Israel occupies Palestine. This Matrix of Control (as named and explained by Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions--checkpoints, road blocks, separation wall, home demolitions, curfews, and discriminatory legislation) squeezes the Christian life out from the land of its origin (other Palestinian life as well, of course). The hands cut the oxygen from the youth of Palestine. Once graduating from Friends school, the young student’s opportunities for further education and meaningful employment are constrained. The reason for this interregnum, this pause between major periods, is the recent death of President Arafat. A possible opening, a possible change of attitude on many parts. Despite the ongoing horrors in Gaza, already I see signs on the ground: a slight easing of travel restrictions, meetings scheduled between top Palestinian and Israeli leaders, upcoming Palestinian elections, collapsing support for the second Intifada, and renewed interest in the Road Map and the Geneva initiatives. Who knows, maybe this conflict can be sorted out, as was my visa application. The newly opened meeting house with its direction as a base for nonviolent transformation of oppression and violence and the Friends school’s superb creating of the future thru education can play pivotal roles.

The restored meetinghouse will become a center where all persons in the local community desiring to build a life of peace, justice and wholeness for the citizens of Ramallah can gather to make their plans and begin their efforts. Moreover, we hope it can be a place where persons of all nationalities and creeds who wish to work together for justice and peace can come together to pursue efforts to build a new and better life for all the residents of this troubled part of our world.

--International committee to support the renovation of the
Ramallah Friends meeting house

Friends school history--

Ramallah meeting house--

Friends Meeting House in Ramallah reopens (Ecumenical Accompaniers for Peace in Palestine & Israel)--

(then click on Photo gallery and then on #55)

Interview with Jean Zaru (July 2004)—

(then click on Accompaniers’ Reports, then on 20.07.2004 Profiles of Palestinian Christians: Jean Zaru)

New online photos: Beit Hanina, expanding last week’s Paired Photos set (#14)

Jayyous olive trees uprooted for settlement, photos and text by Christoph Gocke of Ecumenical Accompaniers (referring to my Paired Photos #6)

Recommended photographers of the Levant—

James Nachtwey (March-April 2002)

Mohammed in the Gaza Strip (Rafah)--

Justin McIntosh ’s blog (August 2004)