From the Other Side

While visiting recently in Greece and Turkey, it was good to be reminded of the very long history we are part of in the faith community...in "holy" places beyond Jerusalem's sites with all their mixed messages and tensions. We stood at the spot where the Apostle Paul preached to the Thessalonians (Acts 17), walked through the 3rd Century church on the site where St. Dimitri the gladiator died for his faith rather than do mortal combat, and spent time in the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate Istanbul which is the symbol of 1500 years of suffering and faithfulness among Eastern Rite Christians.

While returning to Tel Aviv, I jotted down a list of "encouraging words" (see below) as a reminder (particularly to me!) that it is always too soon to give up hope no matter how deep the darkness. Several days later Karen and I were hosted for lunch and a project visit in conflict ridden Hebron by our relief volunteer colleague Khalil el Tel. Before the meal was served I asked him with some trepidation if we could review the records for the nearly 700 Hebron District families that World Vision had assisted during the 1997 comprehensive 100+ day Israeli military closure. My haunting hunch was correct. The three families who lost their husbands in the killings at the Tarkumia Israel/Palestine check point were in World Vision assisted homes!

It was so eerie to see the signatures of Ghaleb al Rjoub, Adnan Abu Znaed and Mohammed al Sharawneh on the recipient list. The families of these men were among the 53 poorest households in the Dura, West Bank, village of 5500 homes. Khalil commented as we studied the revealing documents that "WV is the only society that reached the nucleus of the poorest of the poor in the most distant villages." The initiative helped encourage Ghaleb, Adnan, and Mohammed to get Israeli work permits for the Ford plant at nearby Kiryat Gat. The sad irony is that it also led them into the undisciplined gunfire of the militant border guards.

Educational Assistance and Housing Funds

I talked to an official at the Israeli Civil Administration about whether Prime Minister Netanyahu would pay condolence visits and reparations to the victim families, as King Hussein did for the families of the Israeli school girls killed on the Jordan border Peace Island last year. Her strained hesitation confirmed my assumption. She said, "it is unlikely but if it happens it will take some time. You should feel free to be the intervening agency for those who would like to help." Therefore, World Vision Jerusalem started an education assistance fund for the 17 children of the three murdered fathers. It is important, Khalil emphasized, that "we grow the idea with them that not all the world killed your fathers...we will now be your fathers."

We have also been asked, by a legal aide group of Israeli and Palestinian lawyers, if World Vision will be the agency to manage the gifts from rabbis and other progressive Jews who want to help with the Attrash family. They too are from the troubled Hebron area and have been featured in recent days on TV news around the world. Their home, on land which they have owned since Ottoman times (pre-1917), was demolished by Israeli soldiers...one of 1800 bulldozed since 1987. Their property was raided by 10 vehicles of soldiers because they were guilty of the crime of possessing supplies to rebuild their home. The father and 18 year old son were thrown into Kiryat Arba settlement jail, the mother was stripped half naked while being dragged, and the 17 year old daughter, Manel, was beaten so severely that she spit up blood. While the mother and daughter were also in detention 8 other children, the youngest age two, were left alone in the tent which has been their home for the last two months of this severe winter.

Prophetic Words

While on health project visits several days later in Beit Sahour (the traditional Shepherd's Field) I was convicted about my heartbreak- induced lethargy as I saw this "hesitation" quote in the office of my host at the Well Baby Clinic:

"On the plains of hesitation lie the bones of countless millions, who in pausing to reflect and rest, in resting died."

The Prophet Micah also has words appropriate for the present situation:

"As for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin. Hear this you leaders of the House of Jacob, you rulers of the House of Israel, who despise justice and distort all that is right; Who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness... Yet they lean upon the Lord and say, "Is not the Lord among us? No disaster will come upon us." Therefore because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, The temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets." Micah 3:8-12

May God help each of us as we contribute in our small ways to justice and peace. May we not pause too long in reflection and rest. And may we speak boldly and lovingly to those in power so that the bloodshed and wickedness might cease before God's judgment descends once again upon Zion. In the meantime pray for grace on all those here in the "holy land" who suffer that the loving spirit of Christ might shine through and give some measure of hope and peace.

Tom Getman and his wife Karen work in Gaza and the West Bank for World Vision, a Christian international relief and development organization which has projects in 104 countries. They live in Jerusalem within sight of Mt Zion.