In the Holy Land: Words Matter

My wife and I recently returned from a tour of a certain Middle-Eastern nation with an ecumenical group. Most people who travel to this land speak of going to Israel. If they never went to Bethlehem, or Jericho, or some of those other biblically notable areas, they may indeed only have gone to Israel. However, if they went to Bethlehem, which most Christian travelers to this area likely do, whether they realized it or not, they also went to Palestine. According to most of the world, that is a state on its own.  It is a divided body though, part in the south, on the Mediterranean coast, referred to as Gaza, or sometimes the Gaza Strip. The other much larger part lies between Israel and the Jordan river, on its west side, and is therefore often referred to as The West Bank.

Now, the Israeli government would be quite happy to have you think you visited only Israel, regardless of where you went between Lebanon, to the North, Syria and Jordan to the East and Egypt to the South. This is because they would rather not have you recognize that there is another state here besides Israel. They certainly do not recognize it. Of course, that is in part because the Arab states, by and large, do not want to recognize Israel. So, Israel will let you use the terms the West Bank and Gaza because that could just mean you and your listeners/readers think you are referring to parts of Israel. Of course, since 1967, when Israel invaded these territories when they pushed back an attack from their Arab neighbours and drove Jordan out of the West Bank and Egypt from the South, they have controlled these lands. Most of the rest of the world though, and the inhabitants of these lands, consider it an illegal situation according to International Law, and refer to Israeli “occupation” of these parts of Palestine. Israel hates that term. If it wasn’t for the rest of the world, they would make all of these lands part of Israel.

Sometimes it is obviously convenient to use the terms West Bank and Gaza when you are referring to either area. However, it might be better to add ‘of Palestine’ after those references to be clear. The more we use the specific terms for the lesser territories, the more the impression is created that these are just regions, somehow linked to Israel, but not part of an independent state.

Now, I am not sure what the Palestinians themselves think about the use of the terms west Bank and Gaza without recognizing at the same time that these are parts of Palestine. However, I am more concerned about what we in The West understand when we use these names. We are already inundated with enough propaganda from Israel about the situation there. The Israeli lobby is extremely powerful when it comes to the media and government. Some say it is the most powerful lobby in Washington. I’m not sure about Ottawa.

In losing, let me also clarify that all of this is not written as part of some action against Jews. I love The Chosen People and pray for their ultimate salvation and recognition of our Messiah. I don’t even object to their being back in the land promised to their ancestors. There is just a lot that the government of that resurrected state does that we, as Christians, really cannot agree with in how un justly they treat their Palestinian neighbours. Indeed, they are not only neighbours, but brothers/sisters. Yes, Abraham had other sons besides Isaac, and Isaac had another son besides Jacob. Who do you think their descendents are???

Going [Back?] to The Holy Land

I cannot, of course, presume to speak for others who have gone to The Holy Land. However, speaking for myself, I must say that my first trip to The Holy Land has been a profoundly impacting experience. This has been so on many levels. Before I go let me explain that I am using the phrase The Holy Land to refer to this geographical area where at least most of the events of the Gospels took place to avoid some of the religious and political divisiveness that might occur if I refer to it only as Israel or only as Palestine, let alone begin to use both terms. That is because what is now known as Israel only covers a part of that territory. Likewise, what is known as Palestine does not constitute the whole area referred to. Of course, there are many who would not even refer to Palestine as a state, but that begins to lead to the discussions that I want to avoid, as they are not germane to what I am writing about here.

The most basic level that I would describe, would simply be the sense that one has now been on the earth in the same places where so many characters one has learned about since childhood spent their lives. So many stories that one was told took place here. Most important, of course, is that this was a spot of geography to which God chose for his son Jesus, the Christ, to come to live, die and be resurrected. Reading and studying the scriptures will never be the same. There is ever that sense in one's mind that one can identify with where what one is reading about took place. There is in some indescribable way a new depth to what one reads in the Bible.

At the same time, it did not really take long for the sense to grow that this is a place I want to return to. Some of that is because the first trip only opened up many more areas of unanswered questions related to the recent history and experience of those who live in this land between The Mediterranean Sea and of the Jordan River, questions that can best be answered by going to more places and meeting more people than we did on our first eight-day trip.

However, it goes deeper than that. I am not sure what those of our tour members who have been there multiple times would say about why they have returned, but besides what I said above, I think it has something to do with the basic sense that this is where much if not all of God's history has its focus. I don't know about all of those prophecies that are being interpreted by some to suggest that events such as the establishment of the State of Israel mean the end of this era and Christ's Second Coming are more imminent than ever. Jesus himself told us not to worry about these sorts of things but to carry on with our lives, watching and waiting. When he was on this earth, he said he himself did not know, only The Father. He specifically warned about many who would make predictions about his return that would prove false.

But I think my feelings and thoughts about going to The Holy Land are echoed in prophetic passages from the Old Testament scriptures like Zechariah 8:23: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: in those days ten men from nations of every language shall take hold of a Jew, grasping his garment and saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’" Or, Isaiah 2:3: "Many peoples shall come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." Finally: Isaiah 55:5 “See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, the holy one of Israel, for he has glorified you."

The only missing part(s) here yet are that with all that is going on between the Israelis and Palestinians, one does not yet see that God can be with the Israelis with the way they ignore repeated passages from their own scriptures and lessons they were to learn from their own history in how they treat the Palestinians, so I am not sure we can learn much from the Jews there yet. We are certainly not, for the most part, at the point where we can 'grasp the cloak of a Jew, ' at least not most of them, and expect to go there and get lessons in how to live as God's people.  However, it will come. In God’s time. To be sure, He is also working with and through those Jews who want justice done and human rights respected, but they are still only a prophetic minority in their own state. Now, if anything, we see God at work with the Christians there who are mostly Palestinians, and that is where we need to be. We must ever be working where God is at work.

In Jerusalem - A Refugee Camp???

Shufat Refugee Camp - May 11 2016

It was a surprise to learn as part of our recent tour of Israel that there is actually still a large refugee camp, dating back to 1948, but especially the Six-Day War of 1967, and run by the UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine, within the borders of northeast Jerusalem itself. Some of the last referred to were those who had lived in what was referred to as the Moroccan Quarter which Israel cleared in 1967 to make room for their Western Wall Plaza. The population in 1967 had been about 7000. Ironically, this is just across the road from a rich area of Jerusalem of long-standing, referred to as French Hill. Conversely, the refugee camp is referred to as a mini-Gaza. It is now surrounded by one of Israel's famous concrete walls, complete with guard towers, and its citizens subject to the use of rubber bullets and tear gas, of which empty canisters can be seen on street corners at any time. Apparently 22,000 and possibly as many as 27,000 Palestinians still languish in this camp and there are another 75,000 of them trying to make a living in the surrounding area of Jerusalem.

This "refugee camp" is in some ways indistinguishable from other parts of the city because of its concentration of multi-story apartment buildings, some with shops on their main floors, with cars busy going up and down such streets as they have. Of course, decades ago, it began with what we are more familiar with when it comes to refugee camps - tents. This building goes on in spite of the fact that Israel as opposed to it and in fact, in the previous year, had only issued three building permits for a population of 400,000 Palestinians. Even to get those building permits would have been an ordeal. However, there is no electricity grid, no cablevision or Internet service and no connection to Jerusalem's sewer and water system. Israel is supposed to be responsible for their infrastructure, utilities and economy, whereas the UN is only responsible for health and education. However, Israel seems to use the UN involvement as a way of denying their own responsibility and provision of services. On the other hand, the UN lacks funds to keep up even their commitments to the camp and would like out of their responsibility. Some say that the Western nations are responsible for all of this happening and should take care of it, referring particularly to Britain's role in the establishment of the state of Israel.

One has to acknowledge the ingenuity of the Palestinians though, for many connect to the outside world with satellite dishes and cell phones. They also set up their own electricity grids. They are given rations of water. They work hard to save this by putting up water tanks on the roofs of their buildings. However, a high proportion of the residents are unemployed. It seems they have Israeli ID as they live within Israel, but are still hindered from going out to work legally.

They were apparently two substandard schools in this camp. We also visited what was referred to as a Childcare Center, which even got some funding from somewhere in Canada, according to a plaque on the wall where we were gathered. However, they are only able to operate a couple of hours of school in the morning and a couple of hours of play under supervision in the afternoon; needless to say, there are no parks or green spaces for children to play in this whole area.

I could not help but reflect how all of this resembles the struggle for a just existence, identity and independence that has characterized two other groups of people that I'm well acquainted with: the indigenous people of North America and indeed around the world, and the Taiwanese, from where my wife comes.

Although there is a gated checkpoint with security towers at the northern entrance from which we originally entered, there is a long narrow over-arched passageway, essentially an old street, to the south with no such restrictions at its end. This leads into what the village of Anata, which has grown up to surround the refugee camp. This whole area has a population of about 90,000. This is the route we took to exit the camp and meet our bus.

For some of our exploration of the camp, we were led by a young Palestinian activist named Mohammed, who seemed to be known to one of our leaders, Omar Haramy. Mohammed responded in the affirmative with respect to arrests when we asked him if he had ever been arrested. He also stated that he had been tortured on at least five of those

Here, we reflected on the Second Station of the Contemporary Way of the Cross. In the first sense, this is simply when Jesus begins to carry his cross. Today, it directed our attention to the refugees, whom we had just visited. Surely, being a refugee since either 1948 or 1967, is a heavy cross to bear after all this time.