Patterson Irrigator

BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK — In better times, traveling from Bethlehem to Jerusalem was like going from Ceres to Modesto. These days, it’s like crossing one of the world’s most stringent international borders.

After walking several yards through a fenced off area and entering the sterile halls of the checkpoint building, each person must place personal belongings through a metal detector. Then, Palestinians must have their hands scanned, allowing an Israeli soldier to pull up a computerized photo of their faces; internationals need only show a passport. Israeli settlers don’t cross the checkpoint to get to their West Bank abodes, as they instead use roads designated for Israelis only.

Soldiers at the checkpoint, often half the age of the Palestinian men and women trying to cross, tell would-be passers-by whether they can go to Jerusalem.

Many Bethlehem residents cannot get into Jerusalem at all, and all Palestinians need a special permit to do so.

A growing 26-foot-high concrete wall, connected by guard towers, looms above the newly defined border in an attempt to prevent stragglers from slipping around the soldiers.

It’s all part of the daily routine of West Bank life.

When I arrived in July, it had been a little more than two years since I last visited Israel and the Palestinian territories, and I was shocked to see how much more difficult life had become for many people.

Orthodox Jews recite prayers July 4 at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The wall is the site of the ancient temple in Jerusalem. Jonathan Partridge/Patterson Irrigator

In 2003 and 2004, I worked as a missionary with the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem, working mostly with Palestinian Christians, some of who can trace their roots in faith almost to the time of Christ. I returned a couple of years ago on a fact-finding trip, and this summer, I came to help build a home in Al-Walajah, a village northwest of Bethlehem, through a group called Holy Land Trust.

My hope and prayer is that all residents, Jew and Gentile alike, can live side by side in relative peace, as many of them generally did about 70 years ago. And though the situation looks increasingly bleak, some local residents are doing amazing work on behalf of peace.

Village to be wiped off map

The house we helped build replaced another home Israeli soldiers had demolished, as Jerusalem plans to expand its municipal borders. The Salem family who lived there never received any compensation, as eminent domain laws don’t exist for West Bank Palestinians.

Al-Walajah actually should have fallen under the jurisdiction of Jerusalem, but it was considered part of the Bethlehem area (West Bank) because of surveyors’ errors. The error was discovered in the 1980s, but village residents were never given rights of Israeli citizens as other Palestinians have in Israel, and they did not receive any of Jerusalem’s municipal services.

Above, protesters gather July 6 near the village of Umm Salamona, southwest of Bethlehem, to challenge the confiscation of land to build a separation wall. Below, graffiti adorns much of the wall, which cuts into the West Bank and separates the region from Israel. Jonathan Partridge/Patterson Irrigator

In many ways, Al-Walajah is still a part of the West Bank. However, Israel now plans to demolish dozens of homes and a mosque within the village to make way for new growth. Residents must seek a permit to save their homes, but no permits have been granted.

Local construction workers did the bulk of the work on the Salems’ house, working sun up to sun down, while our team moved sand, concrete blocks and other supplies and helped mix concrete.

There was much rejoicing when the Salems finally moved inside, followed by a housewarming party that attracted dozens of local residents and internationals.

Glimmers of hope

It seems light often shines the brightest in dark places. That’s certainly the case in the West Bank.
Seham Salem, who lives in the house we helped build, asked me at one point if I believed in God, and I told her I am a Christian.

Though she is a Muslim, Seham quoted back the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”

“I try to teach my children not to hate,” she said.

They seemed remarkable words from a woman whose home had been bulldozed by Israeli forces.

It’s certainly not the standard — or natural — human response. When our group was in Nablus a few days later, I saw a sign showing the photos of three Palestinians killed in what was described as a massacre, along with the words, “Never forgive. Never forget.”

Above, members of the Holy Land Trust group mix concrete July 12 at a home site in the West Bank village of Al-Walajah. Below, a hotel sign indicates the optimism of West Bank residents in 2000 after the approval of the Oslo Accords. Those dreams were shattered after the second intifada, and, until recently, Nablus was a nightly war zone between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants. Jonathan Partridge/Patterson Irrigator
 

Members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade controlled Nablus’ old city, and our group was told to wear special T-shirts and stick together to prevent any harm from coming to this group of Westerners.

As a staff member of Holy Land Trust reminded me during a conversation there that night, “Not everyone believes in nonviolence.”

That fact was clear as we all went to sleep to the sound of scattered gunshots between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants. We learned a couple of days later that someone had been killed that night.

Reasons for optimism

Still, nonviolent protests take place more often than Westerners are led to believe. In the village of Umm Salamona near Bethlehem, international and Palestinian demonstrators had a chance to speak to the Israeli soldiers who blocked the group from getting to land that had been confiscated for the separation wall.

Soldiers arrested a leader of the Popular Committee to Resist the Wall in South Bethlehem campaign and roughed up some of the nonviolent protestors — shown worldwide in Associated Press photos — but none of those images captured the ensuing dialogue. The soldiers all appeared to listen, and some even spoke to the demonstrators. One soldier said he was just following orders, and he had seen enough problems in the area to warrant the soldiers’ actions.

I told the soldiers that we demonstrators were there for the sake of their security, and that no peace likely would exist in the region if the Palestinians lived under oppression. Desperate people often turn to desperate means, even when the resulting terrorist actions are revolting, evil and worthy of condemnation.

I found myself praying for the soldiers afterward, hoping they would enact justice, instead of preventing farmers from getting to their land.

The Umm Salamona dialogue was not the only positive note. More tourists appear to be traveling to Jerusalem these days than four years ago, stimulating the struggling economy. A trip to Ramallah indicated a vibrant city, with residents packing the streets in the shopping areas.

Increasing difficulties

All the same, it’s safe to say the situation in the West Bank has worsened.

Growth of Israeli settlements in the West Bank continues unabated, in violation of United Nations accords. The settlements — some of which have become giant cities — use up traditional Palestinian resources and are connected to Israel via roads that West Bank residents are not allowed to use. New streets are being built for Palestinians that tunnel under the settlers’ roads where the two roads intersect — creating a separate, but likely unequal, system similar to apartheid in South Africa. In fact, a South African diplomat I met there said he believed the situation in the West Bank is worse than anything South Africa experienced.

The separation wall has cut off many farmers from their land, and soldiers allow growers into their fields only at certain times of the day near the West Bank city of Qalqilya.

People who have West Bank identification cards but live on the Israeli side of the barrier are in a world of hurt. In one instance a couple of years ago, a sick girl in this region had to get immunizations through a fence-like portion of the wall because she did not have access to Israeli hospitals and was not allowed to pass to the West Bank on the other side.

Meanwhile, residents have little faith in their government or in Israel to solve the problems.

Many consider Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to be weak. They say Abbas’ Fatah party was rife with corruption, leading many Palestinians to vote for Hamas leaders as an alternative, even when not all of them subscribed to Hamas’ extremist philosophies.

Now, Hamas controls Gaza and Fatah controls the West Bank, so there is no united Palestinian government to work with.

Few alternatives

As the future of a viable Palestinian state appears increasingly dim, many residents are now hoping for a one-state solution — a single democracy encompassing Israel and the Palestinian territories in which everyone has a right to vote. If that were to happen, Palestinians would likely far outnumber Jews and have majority power, and the country could cease to be a Jewish state.

An alternative, traditionally preferred by most U.S. officials, is for Israel to pull out of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, allowing Palestinians to control both of those entire regions.

The third option is the status quo: a separate but unequal system that creates bitterness and feeds motives for terrorism, with a minority of troublemakers on both sides causing problems for most folks who want to live  in peace.

Of course, a fourth choice would be genocide or displacement — one group murdering or driving out the other through violent means. One would hope international forces would step in to prevent that from happening.

It’s encouraging to see peace talks under way between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, but serious concessions must be made on both sides for a just peace.

It would be great if more Americans would support those endeavors. We have a say in the matter.

Billions of our tax dollars have gone to Israel, with some of that money going toward settlement building and construction of the separation barrier. In addition, Fatah officials in the past allegedly embezzled millions in U.S. aid money to spend on their own pet projects, rather than helping people.

With financial accountability, which might result from a concerted effort to lobby our elected officials, there may be a better chance for peace. For the sake of Jewish and Palestinian families in the Holy Land — and, ultimately, for the sake of our own national security and interest — it’s a goal worth striving for.

Jonathan Partridge spent two weeks in Israel and Palestine, building a home and traveling, from July 2 to July 16. To reach him at the Irrigator, call 892-6187 or e-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  

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