Check Points and Prayers--Part Two

Check Points and Prayers—Part Two

The Fourth Friday of Ramadan and Beyond

After the third Friday of Ramadan and the problems that the pilgrims going to al Aqsa encountered, there were many questions about what the last Friday would bring.  Would the rules be changed again at the last minute?  Would the soldiers stop the women again and make their crossing difficult?  Would the men who had gone to the time, trouble and expense of getting special permits to go to the Mosque be allowed to pass through the check point or would they all, without exception, be denied entry?  Or, would some be allowed to pass through and others, for no apparent reason, be denied entry to pray on the most holy day of Ramadan?

The crowds approaching the check point at 3am had no idea what reception they would receive, but all came prepared to spend the day and the night at the Mosque in prayer and meditation.  And, when they got there at 3am the checkpoint was almost deserted.  The pilgrims, at this time mostly women, streamed up the vacant lanes and through the terminal. 

About 3:30am Israeli soldiers started arriving, and they came through the check point and searched the area very thoroughly—just to be sure there were no surprises that would cause harm to the pilgrims, or to them.  Then the Palestinian Authority arrived and set up the temporary barricades in a pattern to help keep order when the crowds of people began arriving. 

And the crowds did arrive and order was kept and people were allowed through the check point with a minimum of trouble and delays.  Instead of an Israeli Army Officer standing at the turnstile holding it shut while the women were crowded into a crush in the humanitarian lane, the turnstile was not turning because the gate beside it was standing open and a single, young solder was crying out, “Hurry, come through” and the women were quickly clearing the check point to continue on their way to Jerusalem where all the gates to the city were open.  And, some of the festive mood of the first two weeks returned.

While everyone was there watching the pilgrims stream through the checkpoint.  I was summoned by one of the Red Crescent Ambulance drivers.  He wanted to know exactly what it was that I was doing there.  He patiently listened to my explanation and finally said, “I do not want to insult you,” and he hesitated before going on, “but you are wasting your time!”

Well there have been many a moment when I have agreed with him.  But, after some discussion, he said, “Okay you pray to your God and I will pray to my God and maybe…” his voice sort of trailed off.  Then he said, “Okay, sister, you better get back to work.”

            And maybe….one day …..  it will be as Isaiah says…

                                                The wolf shall live with the lamb,

                                                            the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

                                                the calf and the lion and the fatling together,

                                                            and a little child shall lead them.  (11:6)

                                                They will not hurt or destroy

                                                            On all my holy mountain;

                                                For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord

                                                            as the waters cover the sea.  (11:9)

and when we are reading about the Peaceable Kingdom Isaiah describes in chapter 11, we need also to look at how Isaiah begins with warnings about ceasing to do evil, learning to do good, seeking justice, and rescuing the oppressed. (1:16-17ff)

which leads us right to:

                                                …they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

                                                            and their spears into pruning hooks;

                                                nation shall not lift up sword against nation,       

                                                            neither shall they learn war any more.  (2:4)

Saturday morning, about 5:30am when I decided to look to see what all the honking of car horns was about on the street that is in front of the house and leads to the car check point, I saw a sign of the peaceable kingdom.

 Men, women and children filled the street, the honking was of taxis picking some up and then trying to get though the people.  When the wide stream of people began, I don’t know, but it continued for another hour or more.  All the people who had rushed and crowded through the check point and past all the soldiers and guns and searches and turnstiles to get to the mosque for prayer the morning before were quietly returning from a day and night of prayer. 

As they streamed silently through the huge gaping car gate, some carried prayer rugs, some had bags with things they would need or that the children would need, one man had a pillow.  And one small, little boy lead a tiger by a thin string tied around its neck.

...and a child shall lead them.

Okay, so maybe it was just a Mylar balloon that a grandmother had bought for her grandson.  But maybe it was also a sign.  Which gets us back to what the ambulance driver said:  “Okay sister [and brother], you better get back to work.”  

And a place to start might be:    

           The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel;

                   The Lord our God is one Lord:
                             And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,

                                     and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength:

                   this is the first commandment.  And the second is like, namely this,

                              Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

             There is none other commandment greater than these.  Mark 12:28-31

                               (useful link:          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Commandment )

As the month long fasting and prayer of Ramadan comes to an end and the Jewish people around the world begin to prepare for Rosh Hashanah  and the Ten Days of Awe, perhaps we too should contemplate these words of Jesus.

How can we love the Lord our God with all of our hearts, our souls, our minds and our strength and our neighbors as ourselves?  And when we do, how can we turn our swords, guns, tear gas, check points, sound bombs into plowshares, fertilizer, open doors and sounds of welcome?

                                                                           Sharon Wiggins, EA 

                                                                           Grandmother  and Pastor

                                                                                                                                                                                                           

CHECK POINTS and PRAYERS

Check Points and Prayers

During the month long fast of Ramadan, Muslim men and women like to go to the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem for Friday Prayers.  (To understand this, think what it might be like for people in Italy to be at the Vatican for the Pope’s Christmas Eve Mass.)  Because of the special significance of this tradition, the Israeli government, the Palestinian Authority and UN and other nongovernmental organizations, including EAPPI, all work together to facilitate movement through the Check Points.  There is a hopeful, festive feeling in the air as tens of thousands of people descend on Jerusalem for the Friday Prayers.  It is like being with the 30,000 thousand young Lutherans in the streets of New Orleans at the National Youth Gathering.

And, for the first two Fridays of Ramadan that is exactly what happened.  It was a beautiful sight. The Israeli soldiers welcomed the Palestinians with traditional Ramadan greetings as they checked their papers and allowed them to pass through the gate.  The men went up their lane and the women went up their lane and everything flowed smoothly as the families were reunited at the bus loading area on the Jerusalem side of the Check Point and whisked off to Al Aqsa Mosque in plenty of time for the noontime Prayers.    

Then, on the third Friday of Ramadan—an especially holy day during Ramadan when the crowds are even larger, everything changed.

The Israelis made the Check Points very difficult.  Instead of Ramadan greetings, there was a soldier standing above the crowd with his finger on the trigger pointing his automatic rifle into the crowd, targeting first one person than another.  The Israeli woman from Machsom Watch did not like this.  She made a call and he was replaced by a Border Policeman who did not put his finger on the trigger and did not randomly take aim on anyone.

And the rules had changed during the night.  Now women as well as the men had to be 50 or older to pass.  All children 12 or under were still allowed go with a parent or grandparent.  All special Ramadan permits and most work permits were suspended.  So, suddenly many people who had come to the Check Point with every reason in the world to think they would be going to Al Aqsa to pray, were denied access to the Check Point.  And men trying to get to work were also turned back except those going to two of the Israeli Settlements.                     

For the lucky ones who made it into the Check Point, the men were to go up the main lane.  The women were to go up the special

Humanitarian Lane

.  The men went up their lane and were allowed to go through the turnstile at the top.  The women who went up the men’s lane were also  allowed through. But, when women followed the soldier’s instruction they ended up being stopped and not allowed to go through the turnstile at the top of their lane.  As the women over 50 were directed into the

Humanitarian Lane

, the small area became more and more crowded until it became a crush between the seven foot tall metal bars that enclose the lane. 

The men, enclosed by bars in their own lane, looked on, unable to help their wives caught up in the crush.  At the top of the lane, an Israeli Army Officer was holding the turnstile and allowing one person through and then holding it closed for a time.  The Private Security guard opened the gate used for people in wheel chairs beside the turnstile and a few women would be pushed through by the crowd before several soldiers forced the gate closed again.

Starting at 4am, it took an hour and a half and several bruises from the metal bars to go a couple hundred feet.  After being allowed through the turnstile by the Army Officer or pushed through the gate by the crowd, four lanes with soldiers at the end of each one had been set up to search the women before they went to the buses.  These lanes stood empty while the women were crushed together behind the turnstile.        

On the way out of the Check Point, going down to the buses waiting to take her to Jerusalem, one woman was heard to say, “Now we have peace.”  One can only pray.

Why am I telling you this story?

…because tomorrow is the last Friday of Ramadan and also the 27^th day of Ramadan which is called Lailet al kadr.  And again on this day many, many people will try to go to Al Aqsa Mosque and still violent incidents are occurring in the south of Israel and tensions are high.

Please pray for the peace that passes all understanding to be with those going through the Check Points and for those manning the Check Points and for all those monitoring the Check Points.

                        Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,

                                                for he will speak peace to his people…

                        Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;

                                                righteousness and peace will kiss each other.

                        Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,

                                                and righteousness will look down from the sky.

                                                                                    Psalm 85:8, 10-11

One can only pray for the time when all people leave vengeance to the Lord and in the meantime, we can look to our own hearts.

Sharon Wiggins, EA

Bethlehem

 

Life in An Nu’man

Life in An Nu’man

West Bank Village Annexed into Israel

I would like to introduce you to Siham.  She lives in the village of An Nu’man just north east of Bethlehem with her husband and three children.  From the hill top where they are living in a converted barn, you can see across to the village where she grew up.  Siham can go to visit her mother, but her mother can not come to visit her or to help if the children are sick.  Because a fence has been built up around An Nu’man and no one is allowed in except the ones who live in the village and people with international passports. 

Between Siham’s home and her childhood home there is an Israeli Settlement and a nice road that takes one quickly to Bethlehem and Jerusalem and if someone in the Settlement becomes ill, an ambulance has no trouble to go to the house and offer aid.  If Siham were to need an ambulance, the ambulance must wait at the gate with the soldier at the bottom of two long, steep hills for Siham to come to the ambulance.  Siham and her husband are young and their children are healthy, so we pray that they do not ever need an ambulance.

But why must they live in a converted barn?

In the states sometimes people find old stone barns, spend a lot of money and turn them into lovely homes because they want to do it.  But that is not why Siham lives in a barn.  She lives with her family in a barn because the Israeli Army demolished her perfectly good house.  There was only time to get the furniture out from one room before the demolition began.  Some things however, were rescued and are stored under a tent in hopes of having a house again.  In the meantime, they rent a barn to live in.

Buildings in existence before 1967 are supposed to be exempt from these demolition orders, but there seems to be some exceptions even to this safe haven.

           

How does all this come to be?

1.  After 1967 Israel annexed the land of the village into Israel but did not make the inhabitants citizens of Israel.  They can continue to reside there, but they are illegal residents in their own homes living in isolation from their friends, neighbors and families—behind a fence with a guard to keep everyone out.

2.  As a practical matter, Palestinians cannot receive building permits for homes or home improvements.  But any building done without a permit is subject to demolition.  There are many demolition orders pending that can be implemented at any time.  The current practice is to give people a window of time in which to remove their belongings and demolish their own home.  If they do not, they are charged the cost of demolition and will probably not be able to remove many of their belongings.

So, in conclusion…

Anything Siham and her family build to live in will be subject to demolition because they will not be given a building permit.  But even so, EAPPI and other international and Israeli groups are looking for ways to help build a new house for this family.

What to can one say about a system that reaches out and annexes the land of a village into its own country, but tells the 200 people living in the village that they are just not part of the deal.  We want your land, but not you!!  And, then builds a fence around them and sets soldiers to guard the gate so no one, except foreigners, can visit without special permits—not even an ambulance or a grandmother.  Surely this action has to do with something other than National Security.

And when one Israeli group demolishes a house in a small village because there was no building permit and another Israeli group looks for ways to build the house gain—still without a building permit so the house will be subject to demolition again, but probably not for 5 or 10 years.  How does this benefit “National Security” for the State of Israel?  If there is any benefit to anyone, it is to those who produce and sell building supplies.

Please contact your Senators and Representatives and ask them to use their influence to get Israel to refrain from these practices that do not increase Israeli National Security, but only bring grief to families.

                                                From an EA who is also a mother and grandmother

                                                Sharon, Group 40