This tour is active and strenuous, and the schedule keeps us busy. Participants should be comfortable walking on uneven walkways with lots of hills, sometimes for an hour or more. (Use of walking poles or canes is fine, but be prepared for a few times when rest stops might be an hour apart.)
Questions? Please email or call or text Joan Deming, the tour leader: jdeming7@gmail.com or 608-235-1046.
How Wi’am’s yard used to look – before being fire-bombed
Sharing concern for our partners/friends at Wi’am, the Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center in Bethlehem:
Yesterday, 7 December, the Israeli Defense Force’s response to stone-throwing children caused terrible damage at Wi’am. Stone-throwing and IDF response are daily occurences, but this damage is by far the worst. Outdoor lights broken, electricity into the Wi’am building damaged, seating destroyed, a shade and its frame burned beyond repair, another garden shade torn down, dozens of tear gas and sound grenade canisters littering the Wi’am garden and yard.
We have shared events in this yard with Palestinians and an array of international friends at Wi’am twice this year for significant community events. The first was during our May pilgrimage: a communion service with Pax Christi International, a very moving service of unity and bridge-building. The second was a women’s ecumenical prayer service, late October, to pray for peace.
Wi’am is one of our Pilgrims of Ibillin peace-building partners, and this yard is part of our home in Bethlehem. Share this! People need to know how bad the situation has become. And if you want to contribute to Wi’am to help them recover from the damage, gifts to Pilgrims of Ibillin (designated “Wi’am”) will go 100% to Wi’am. You can give through Pilgrims’ website: www.pilgrimsofibillin.org.
Wi’am yard, immediately next to ground zero for protests in Bethlehem. IDF claims Wi’am damage is just collateral result of stone-throwing.This table is a survivor.Wi’am staff members survey the damageShredded and burned “shade” from Wi’am yard
The Event: Following his 2011-12 Hebrew College year in Israel, rabbinical student David Fainsilber committed himself to support grassroots organizations working for a non-violent resolution to the conflict in Israel and Palestine. To fulfill his promise last year, David participated in his first-ever triathlon and raised $4,000 for the Mar Elias Educational Institutions.
Now he did it again: Doubling Down for Peace on 8/25/13!
The Goal: David’s working to raise $4248 in 2013 to benefit the Mar Elias Educational Institutions’ interfaith programming through his Triathlon August 25th. Why such an odd number? It’s last year’s goal of $3600 + 18%! Thanks, David.
A Matching Grant! A generous donor will match your gift dollar for dollar. Please be generous; you’ll literally be doubling down for peace.
What’s the background? David discovered the Mar Elias Schools after his Boston-based group of students spent an electrifying hour with Archbishop Elias Chacour during in Haifa in 2012. Abuna’s story of Building Peace on Desktops through the unique school he founded in Ibillin made David eager to see for himself. He found his way to Ibillin and spent an inspiring hour with Elias Abu Ghanima, Mar Elias’ spokesperson. A passion was born, and as soon as he returned to the US, David launched his support for Mar Elias’ dream of overcoming differences and teaching students to find a neighbor in “the Other” is lived out every day.
As a result: On August 25, 2013, David will race in his second triathlon to raise funds and awareness for Pilgrims of Ibillin in the USA and Peace it Together in Canada. Both organizations support programs in Israel that bring young people together across religious lines to cultivate peace and mutual understanding.
Why Pilgrims of Ibillin? It’s a US-based organization dedicated to supporting the Mar Elias Educational Institutions in Ibillin, Israel (founded by Fr. Elias Chacour), as well as other mission projects that cultivate a just peace in Israel-Palestine. Pilgrims of Ibillin provides this support through financial resources, education, and peace building projects.
Both Pilgrims of Ibillin (USA) and Peace it Together (Canada) are registered charities. You will receive an official tax receipt with your donation, if you live in the same country as the charity through which you contribute.
Click here to make your contribution! It will be doubled by the matching grant and will directly benefit the students of Mar Elias. Then invite your friends and family, through emails or your own social networks, to join you in supporting this worthy cause.
Homily for Community Thanksgiving Service at Mary Lyon Church…Nov. 20, 2012
The Rev. Cara B. Hochhalter, Charlemont, MA
When we were driving here tonight…a beautiful white owl flew by our window and we thought perhaps it was a sign of peace…Good evening…
When we decided to be thankful for peacemaking on this night… we didn’t know then that there would be such violence erupting from Israel and Gaza. I DID know that I would be just coming back from a 2-week study/tour through Israel/Palestine with “the Pilgrims of Ibillin” and I figured I would have at least one story to share….but I did not imagine that I would share about peace out of this global context of bombing and fear… I hear that a truce may be imminent …May it be so!
Here’s a little snapshot of two people…two peacemakers…one Palestinian Arab Christian, the other, a Jewish Israeli…both are women.
Her name is Amal… she is a Palestinian who comes from a long line of generations who have lived on top of one of the highest hills about 7 kilometers from Bethlehem in the West Bank. Her family has deeds of ownership for this 100 acres from the Ottomans, then the British, then the Jordanians, as well as the Israelis, but in 1991 their land was called “state land” and Amal and her brothers were not to farm there….but they are. They continue to grow olive trees, almond trees, fig trees and cactus among many flowers….They invite classes of 80 to 100 students to come for camping sessions to learn about living off the land, how to collect water from the rain and use solar for electricity. They teach non-violence and peace to people who come from all over the world to learn from this family of peace-makers.
Amal told us a story… because their farm is not supposed to exist, there have been boulders placed at the lower part of their hill so they cannot use vehicles to get in or out….but one day she was in a town nearby at the bus stop, she saw a Jewish woman who was going to the settlement that covers the hilltop across from where Amal lives.
Instead of ignoring each other and looking down, Amal, decided to make conversation…and in these few words… she began to form a small bridge…a beginning at making peace! She introduced herself to the other woman who asked where Amal’s home was…she told her that her family lived on top of that mountain.
“Impossible,” said the woman, “No one lives on that mountain. We were told that no one lives there…we are people on land where there are no people…” But Amal assured her that for generations, her family had lived there. She told her about their farm and their efforts at educating young people. Amal handed her her card as they parted.
A few weeks later, Amal received a call from her. She wanted to come and see. And so she did…she was served a beautiful lunch, just as we were served…and they talked at the long table looking out over the expanse of hills, a distant Palestinian village, and Jewish settlements.
Amal told us, “You have to know your neighbor if you are going to love them.”
A few months after this visit, Amal received another call from her Jewish neighbor who asked if she could bring her husband to visit because he didn’t believe her when she told him of the family who lives on the mountain and teaches environmental classes and peace-making. He came… And the bridge between these neighbors is building…But it is very hard. Their farm is called, The Tent of Nations as their goal is to bring many different people from all religions and nationalities…together.
The second story is about a woman that some of you may have already read about…in the book The Lemon Tree, by Sandy Tolan. On a rainy evening we pulled up to the very home in Ramla, near Tel Aviv, where the Palestinian family had had to flee and the Jewish family moved in after 1948. In this true story, the Jewish daughter, Dalia Landau, becomes friends with Bashir of the Palestinian family and through their life-long communications, they decide that their home should be used for a preschool for children.
It is now called “The Open House.”…What a privilege it was to sit on little preschool chairs in a circle with Dalia, now a grown woman with reddish hair and a kind smile …The house is not just a place where Muslim and Christian children come to play, but many programs that bring people together are sponsored from this once contested home, summer camps for Jewish and Palestinian youth who seek the creative space that is in the middle between them…women of all faiths work on projects together…
Dalia said it isn’t easy…but she says that “not knowing the other, is a tragedy.”
When I sat listening to her…just a week ago…she told us about something that was going to happen on November 20… today! In light of the turmoil…I can only hope they were able to continue with this program…Today they were to celebrate a Day for Prayer and Action for the rights of children!… How poignant this is as the news images we have seen coming from this same region are pictures of injured children…From “The Open House” they are going to teach about the rights for education and safety and non-violence….The staff were to go into Hebrew and Palestinian Schools …and make stories or plays that demonstrate these rights…they were also to stress the power of prayer from all religions. Today… they were to bring Jewish and Palestinian volunteers into a Bedouin school…and the children would see an example of peace-making in action.
Dalia said that HOPE is a spiritual quality…and I hope and pray that these bridges of peacemaking continue and continue and continue…I give great thanks tonight…for the people whom I met in Israel/Palestine and the people I know right here among you…who dare to reach across to the “other” ….and in that space, in that reach…I believe something of the Holy, enters in…and peace is made visible!
When Pastor Mitri Raheb of Bethlehem’s Christmas Lutheran Church launched a Young Adult Leadership Development effort in 2007, he didn’t yet have program funding, but he knew training young leaders was important. Pilgrims of Ibillin provided early and ongoing funds to help with this highly successful program which helps young leaders develop both personal and professional strengths.
For the first two years a group of 25 young adults met weekly with Pastor Raheb and other community leaders. Then the 25 were challenged to go out into the community to use what they had learned — to BE leaders in some-thing creative they care about.
One member of this group, Honey Thaljieh, applied her newly minted leadership skills to developing a women’s soccer program in the Bethlehem area through the Diyar Consortium’s Dar al Kalima Health and Wellness program. Through Diyar, in turn, Honey has also helped launch a national women’s soccer program in the West Bank. In May 2011, the Diyar Women’s Soccer Team won first place in the first-ever Palestinian national women’s soccer tournament!
Honey’s initiative laid the groundwork for key successes in the last two years:
A trip to Germany gave the Diyar soccer team a chance to play against German teams and enroll in an in-tensive athletic leadership program.
A return visit by German coaches trained local coaches—not only to improve players’ skills, but also to organize and coach soccer programs for kids from refugee camps and the streets.
Many Diyar team members also play on Palestine’s first-ever na-tional Women’s Soccer Team, thus contributing to Palestinian women’s success in international sports.
The German soccer team paid a return visit to the Bethlehem soccer team in June 2012 (see photo above)
In 2011 Honey and the other Diyar Young Leaders met together again — to reflect on their leadership experiences, and dream of next steps.
Honey, however, left in mid-2011 to become the first Arab woman ever accepted into FIFA’s prestigious Master’s Program—a 9-month training program set in Europe. She graduated this summer and brings her considerable skills home to Bethlehem. Congratulations, Honey! (Watch “Captain Honey” on YouTube!)
The program Honey launched 2 years ago has borne fruit, even through her absence. Coaches trained through the women’s sports program of Diyar now run basketball and soccer programs for girls: sixty 6-9 year-olds, and sixty 10-12 year-olds.
Diyar asks, “How can you bring people together? How can you build bridges? How can you witness great communication among humans? SPORTS Indeed!”
Fr. Firas Khoury Diab and his Melkite congregation in the upper West Bank village of Zababdeh have had a very busy couple of years! Abuna’s passionate concern for “the Living Stones” of Zababdeh led him to expand his church’s activities beyond just meeting spiritual needs to create a Kindergarten and a new Community Park.
Pilgrims of Ibillin has been a partner of St. George’s Church since 2008, providing annual peace-making grants to help create jobs, build a new kindergarten building, and most recently, prepare for a new park for youth and families.
The new kindergarten (in its brand new building next to the church) serves Muslim and Christian children, age 1 month to 5 years. Two college graduates are employed as teachers. Enrollment numbers have been low in the first year, but Abuna expects more children to enroll when another school year opens. Very low tuition makes the kindergarten affordable but only covers part of the cost. Donations from international friends help, but kindergarten expenses are also supported by the sale of olive oil soap and olive wood products made by St. George’s church members. Note: if your church or group is interested in selling soap or olive-wood carvings to help with kindergarten expenses, contact Joan Deming for information: jdeming7@gmail.com
Abuna’s newest venture, Mar Elias Community Park, fulfills another dream of a safe place for parents to send their children when school’s out. Since Zababdeh has no public parks or recreation centers, the playground next to the church fills a community-wide need, especially for teens. Separate basketball and volleyball courts located in front of the church offer recreation options for teens, both boys and girls. And indoors, a ping pong table and weight-lifting equipment are in almost constant use by neighboring youth.
Mar Elias Community Park will also be the location of a summer camp for about 100 youth in August 2012. Abuna Firas and community leaders are working overtime this summer to plan activities and supervision so that the first ever summer camp for children and youth at St. George’s Melkite Church will be a rousing success.
