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