Steps of the Magi, part 4
Hebron, At-Tuwani, Baqa'a valley
December 29, 2004
by Skip Schiel
Hebron , or Hevron or Al-Khalil, means friend in first Hebrew then in Arabic and refers to Abraham, the friend of god. Jerry Levin of the Christian Peacemakers Team (CPT) in Hebron introduced me and my Magi group to the reality of inner city Israeli settlements encroaching on Palestinian residents, to the point that most of the Palestinians have fled the old city, the inner city. We’d just come from talking with the Jabbers family in the Baqa’a valley. Later we traveled to a second CPT site in At-Tuwani, where Palestinian shepherds lived in caves until recently. There, you might remember from September 2004, settlers attacked two CPT members when accompanying school children walking past the settlement. All was quiet while we visited (and later when I returned on a solo visit overnight) but several weeks ago settlers attacked a 16 year old shepherd and 3 of his sheep. What can be more evocative of cruelty than attacking children and sheep? Maybe destroying olive trees competes with this dubious honor.
I’d like to highlight several people from the many we met on this 10 day long pilgrimage.
First, Jerry Levin. In the mid 1980s, he was the CNN bureau chief in Lebanon. Hezbollah militia captured him, the first in a string of internationals held for ransom. Thanks in large part to the courageous and unflagging work of his wife, Sis, he was allowed to escape after one year as a hostage. Now he is a fulltime member of CPT, his wife teaches peace studies thru the Holy Land Trust in Bethlehem. He gives a powerful tour, often laced with humor, and sometime ringing with righteous anger. (Jerry’s regular report, From the Inside Looking Out, can be subscribed to by writing jlevin0320@yahoo.com.)
Second, Zleikha Muhtaseb. Several years ago, noticing that children in Hebron’s Old City had only dangerous rooftops to play on, she founded a children’s center, the Ibrahimi Center for Social Development . With the help of volunteers, she offers classes in Arabic, English, Hebrew, along with counseling for mothers, and plans to open a computer center. She began with 18 children and 15 mothers, now hundreds have passed thru her doors. My daughter Katy had commissioned me to donate money to a children’s organization. I chose this center.
Third, the Jabbers family. Atta and his brother and their families have the unfortunate luck of living in a fertile but endangered region near Hebron. Fertile because they are in a richly endowed valley, endangered because settlements are popping up thruout the valley, one a stone’s throw behind their homes. Many times their homes have been demolished, many times their orchards have been attacked, many times their lands have been stolen--and equally many times others have rallied to rebuild their homes, many have brought civil disobedience and court cases to stop the oppression, and now many tours stop thru to visit with them and spread their stories. I include two older photos on my website, one showing Atta with his daughter in their orchard, the second showing Atta trying to stop a bulldozer. The brothers told a legendary tale of always offering tea to the police, the army, and the settlers--let’s sit down and talk about this. They evidenced no anger or threats in their talk to us, they simply recounted their experiences and demonstrated resolve to gain their basic human rights.
Fourth, Art Gish, another CPT member and an Ohio farmer (married to Peg Gish, also of CPT, now serving three months in one of her many visits to Iraq where CPT has an ongoing presence). Art is from the Church of the Brethren, one of the traditional peace churches (along with Mennonite and Quaker). He’s written extensively about the Jabbers in his book, Hebron Diary. For several nerve wracking months recently he lived with the family, as accompaniment or protection during some of the worst settler attacks.
Art led us in a tour of At-Tuwani, the small ancient village in the southern Hebron hills. In September 2004 two CPTers, Chris Brown and Kim Lamberty were beaten and robbed by settlers in At-Tuwani while accompanying children home from school. This was in the first month of the CPT--At-Tuwani project. Now joined by the Italian Christian organization, Operation Dove, and at the invitation of the At-Tuwani residents, the internationals have expanded their presence. Meanwhile the settler violence continues, sometimes aimed at the sheep.
One stirring part of this story is building the village medical clinic. For months the villagers built with a clear need--medical services are very difficult to access--but without a permit (permits had never been granted to the village by the Israelis for any sort of building). Despite constant threats from settlers and authorities, the continued building. Then, miraculously, the authorities granted a permit. Villages hope to celebrate an opening in early spring.
Later, I returned to At-Tuwani with Art and Peg, to stay overnight and sense the beauty and risk of living in this small traditional village. But this is another story.
I close with words from the Vietnamese Buddhist monk, poet, teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, about suffering of another sort, the tsunami disaster (plus one photograph, among the most evocative from this incident):
If any accident happens to one member of our family, the whole family suffers. When an accident happens to a part of our nation, it happens to the whole nation. When an accident happens to a part of the planet Earth it happens to the whole planet, and together we bear it. When we see that their suffering is our own suffering, and their death is our death, we have begun to see the no-self nature. When I light incense and pray for those who died in the tsunami disaster, I see clearly that I am not only praying for those who have died; I am also praying for myself because I, too, am a victim of that earthquake. We ourselves have died, too. There are not just the 155,000 dead. Whenever we love, we see that the person we love is ourselves; and if our loved one dies, we also die. Although we are sitting here, and we have the impression that we are alive, in fact we have also died. What happens to one part of the body happens to the whole body.
The human species and the planet Earth are one body. I have the feeling that our planet Earth is suffering, and this tsunami is the cry of the earth as it writhes in pain: a lament, a cry for help, a warning. We have lived together so long without love and compassion for each other. We destroy each other; we abuse make our mother Earth. So the Earth has turned back on us, has groaned, has suffered. The Earth is the mother of all species. We make each other suffer and we make our mother suffer. These earthquakes are bells of mindfulness. The pain of one part of humankind is the pain of the whole of humankind. We have to see that and wake up.
--Thich Nhat Hanh
Zleikha Muhtaseb, Ibrahimi Center for Social Development, Hebron
“ CPT members took us to the Ibrahimi Center for Social Development, a children’s center run by Zleikha Muhtaseb. She funds the program herself in order to provide a place for Palestinian children to draw and play, sharing their feelings through art. She told us that she encourages her teenage nephews to be nonviolent to the Israeli settlers, but allows them to defend themselves as needed if Israeli soldiers attempt abuse. We could hear children playing in the background as she spoke and as we took pictures of her, children took pictures of us. We then spent time with the children, playing games and making music with them. We — the delegates and the children — also traded cameras and video cameras as we both recorded images of our interaction.”
From a Fellowship of Reconciliation delegation, July 2004--
Jabbers family in Baqa valley--
Art Gish—