Quest for Peace in Israel-Palestine: Galilee and the West Bank

Wow!  Here I am 5 days into an incredible "quest" to the holy lands of Israel-Palestine.  I am typing these words from just outside the Old City of Jerusalem.  

If you missed my first post on this trip last week, I am one of 18  mostly college students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison who are traveling for 10 days in the Holy Land meeting with organizations from both perspectives who are working towards peace and reconciliation.

 I had hoped to write about my travels here on a more regular basis, however a stable internet connection in the Galilee and the West Bank can be hard to find at times.  Now that we have arrived in Jerusalem I will have a much more reliable connection and hope to post here much more often.  

We began our trip with a 2 day visit to the village of Ibillin in the Galilee area of northern Israel.  There we stayed at the Mar Elias Educational Institutions.  MEEI is a school where Arab-Israelis can attend school from kindergarten through university level and learn from both Palestinian and Israeli teachers the importance of not only education but also the powerful message of peace that the schools founder Elias Chacour wrote so passionately about in his book Blood Brothers.  

From there we traveled to Bethlehem stopping briefly in the city of Nazareth on the way.  In Bethlehem we had arranged to stay with families from the Bethlehem suburb of Biet Sahour.  In America all we hear in the media tells us to fear the Palestinian people becuase they hate westerners and are terrorists.  Many people in my family feared for my safety when they heard I would be staying for several days in the West Bank.  

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I know this sounds crazy, but I actually felt safer in the West Bank city of Bethlehem than I do in my hometown of Madison, WI.  We felt like superstars while we were there, with everyone (especially the beautiful children) yelling  "Welcome, Welcome!!"  The growing fear of terrorism in western nations has been devestating for Bethlehems vital industry, tourism.

In Bethlehem we met with Holy Land Trust's Peace and Reconcilation department.  They conduct non violent resistance training (MLK Jr style) in villages throughout the West Bank.  We also met with Wi'am who works to mediate conflicts in the region using the traditional Arabic process known as "Sulha".  Among several others.

In another post I will go into futher details regarding these groups and our other experiences, however, I wanted to encourage readers to take a look at a dangerous bill that is scheduled for a vote tommorow in the House. HR 4681 will impose further sactions on innocent Palestinian people for exercising thier right to vote in one of the only free and fair democratic elections in the history of the middle east.  I am 100% opposed to Hamas, its tactics and it's goals.  So is every single Palestinian I have met so far on this trip.  This bill however, goes beyond isolating Hamas and towards punishing an entire group of people for the way they voted.  In addition it makes it incredibly difficult if not impossible for non governmental organzations (such as the ones above) to fund thier incredibly important work here.  

Many of the people I have met here have not been paid for over 3 months.  Even those who do not work directly for the Palestinian Authority are suffering from the depressed economy.   The EU is working out a plan to bypass Hamas controll of international aid and send it directly to the government employees who need it to survive.  This bill threatens to derail that effort and forces the Palestinians to look to hostile regiemes such as Iran or Saudi Arabia for the necessry fundiing.  I urge you all to contact your representatives and tell them to vote against this bill and support the EU initiative.

That's all I've got for now as it's around 2 AM here in Jerusalem.  Look for more over the next several days.

Peace-Shalom-Salaam!!!!

ps. Check out pictures from out trip at www.questip.org