The Palestine 2.0 Delegation

Everywhere daily life is constrained by endless barriers: physical, bureaucratic, economic. It is a comprehensive plan, a form of incipient state violence, that denigrates the Palestinian nationality, and is designed to suck the life force out of the people. Of course, it won’t; fascists never win in the long run. But it takes its toll.

The delegation joined local and international activists in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem to resist the Sabbagh family’s pending eviction from their home that would displace 40 members of the Palestinian family. The Sabbagh family is one of at least 180 Palestinian families in East Jerusalem threatened with eviction by Israeli authorities.

When our Eyewitness Palestine delegation reached the Negev desert (inside the official borders of Israel), we were greeted by gorgeous blue skies beneath which straight rows of lush green barley were growing and solitary Bedouin shepherds were peacefully herding their sheep while being buffeted by a wondrous wind.I am a Midwesterner from Nebraska. At last I was seeing an area of ancient Palestine where I felt at home and at peace.

Our delegation joined Bedouin residents of Al-Fura’a village and other human rights organizations at the Israeli Supreme Court for the latest stage in the battle against a planned phosphate mine in the Naqab (Negev) in southern Israel that will displace their entire village to an urban ghetto - an urbanization plan. This is part of the larger racist settler colonial plan of Israel to take as much land as possible …

WATCH: Our delegation recently visited the High Court of Israel where Organizers from Adalah - The Legal Center For Arab Minority Rights In Israel briefed us outside the court on either end of a hearing for an injunction on Israel's planned demolition of Al-Fura’a village. Here are the videos from the High Court. Others appear on Eyewitness Palestine’s youtube channel.

We got to Checkpoint 300 separating Bethlehem and the southern West Bank from Jerusalem at 6:30am. Immediately, Palestinians told me that I should not try to take delegation through... that it was crammed and only a few minutes earlier, soldiers had used tear gas in the crowd of Palestinians waiting to get through. “They’ll get crushed... haraam. Perhaps you can go around with them?”

Battir’s footpath runs by an elegant 2000-year old Roman stone pool, fed by an aqueduct from one of three village water springs not yet blocked by Israel. The hillside terraces stepping down to the tracks are lush with gardens. But across the tracks, the villagers can get spring water only from an old, rusting pipe they aren’t allowed to repair, limiting their agricultural success.

When Islam Abu Odeh, a lifelong resident of the Aida Camp whose family fled there from her village in 1948 found that her son has cerebral palsy and epilepsy she was devastated but also committed to overcome the culture of silence around disabilities in the Middle East. Sadly residents of Occupied Palestine have limited professional services for people with disabilities.

We’ve been in Palestine for a week now. Every day has brought new people and experiences but at the same time, much that is not new. This is my fourth trip to Palestine, and I still find the preceding statement to hold true but reinforced with each trip. Two qualities of the Palestinian people which particularly impress me is the quality of “sumud”, meaning “stalwart” or “steadfast”.

We spent 4 days in Al-Khalil (Hebron). Spending time at the Youth Against Settlement Center. It’s a scrappy little building with a few rooms and hardly any furniture. Since it is small, we spend most of our time outdoors on the patio (“patio” makes it sound fancier than it is). Like nearly every place in Palestine, a land of hills, it has a great view, but I digress.

For many years my friend Susan and I have been holding a secular, progressive Seder. We even wrote our own Haggadah, which tells the story of the Exodus from Egypt. On the Seder plate - where all the elements of the Seder are placed, we've added a few things… Recently we have put a glass of water on the table to honor Miriam, who was a feminist, even as a child.

Most communities fail miserably when faced with how to respond to incidents of domestic violence in families. As an administrator of a domestic violence program in Brooklyn, New York for over 30 years, I was responsible for work with thousands of women (and eventually men) seeking safety.

Morning last Thursday began with stone-faced, Israeli soldiers marching past the Peace House where we gathered for sage tea before heading to see one of Hebron's two Women's Charitable Society locations. The message on those military-trained faces: "Don't share a smile. We have no intention of sharing this land."

The demonstration, a march into the militarized part of Hebron where expanded Israeli settlements are expected, was just a part of the resistance activities. In the same area last night, children potted up plants to represent hope being rooted in the soil and girls danced the traditional dabke, showing that the spirit of Palestinians will not be broken but be carried on by the next generation in their struggle for freedom and justice.

I felt pride even in the protest’s moderate success. Not asserting a Palestinian presence on this important anniversary would have conceded too much to Israeli Apartheid. Although the Shuhuda market shops remained closed up and the street empty alter the protest, the activists had continued to insist on their rights and dignity in the face of overwhelming Israeli power. They — we — had been there.

Throughout the West Bank Hebron has the reputation of having the most in-your-face examples of Israeli settlers attempting to stamp Palestinian society into the ground. We spent four days here, seeing examples of settler brutality and Palestinian resistance. It was simultaneously heart wrenching and inspiring.

When I visited Hebron with Eyewitness Palestine in October 2016 the oppression of Palestinians was bad. In tours yesterday and today I saw that things are far worse. There are more Israeli settlers, continued efforts to evict Palestinians from their homes and worst of all increased attacks on Palestinians in an effort to drive them out of this ancient city.

This Eyewitness Palestine alumni trip allows me to blend my 2014 Palestine experience with the Presbyterian Church - USA with the connections and support Eyewitness Palestine provides. Our group has jelled quickly due to our size of 15, repeat travelers already being friends, and a marvelous pre-trip training that included sharing our " Stories of Self."

Our bus dropped us and our luggage off at the foot of the hill they are forbidden to pave up to their Center. YAS guys dashed around to help haul our bags the half-mile over rutted paths made muddy from the previous day’s rains. Their bare-bones concrete center is overtopped and surrounded by an Israeli-flagged settlement compound patrolled by Israeli soldiers.

Sumud is Arabic for “steadfast perseverance” and a description of the resistance we saw and heard about today from villagers from the Palestinian southern Hebron hills - from Susiya, to Al-Twani, to Saroura. The courage to live out - “To exist is to resist!” - requires Sumud when the Israeli settler-colonial empire brings so many expanding layers of violence.