His father was right when say this “Remember, in this life you never know…
the world can take everything away from you, but it can never take your
education,
that I feel today,
life took all for me but didn't take my education and nolege what I have,
about world and people.
-----Original Message-----
From: Miriam Vieni
Sent: Monday, October 26, 2015 3:30 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] ‘Come and see!’ (and you will understand)
‘Come and see!’ (and you will understand)
Activism
Rev. Dr. Jeffrey DeYoe on October 24, 2015 10 Comments
Re. Jeffrey DeYoe's Christian group of mostly Presbyterians, in the occupied
territories
Beit Sahour, with the famous “Shepherd’s Field” at its heart, is a smaller
town next to occupied Bethlehem, and many holy-site tourists who visit the
Field are unaware that they have even left Bethlehem to see it. Most tour
companies whisking people through the famous “separation wall” and back in
the same day want people to think they are still in the city of Christ’s
birth, so they don’t mention the fact that Beit Sahour is a different
Palestinian town.
If you actually stay in Beit Sahour, when you are grilled by a security
person at Ben Gurion Airport on your way out of the country, it is easier to
say that you stayed in Bethlehem near the Shepherd’s Field. Saying you
stayed in Beit Sahour reveals that you know the difference among Palestinian
towns and cities, and that always raises suspicions. So you act uninformed
and sacrifice all your self-respect by asking, “Isn’t it all part of the
same Holy Land/Disneyland experience?”
We stayed one block from the Shepherd’s Field at the Sahara Hotel for the
southern leg of our trip to Israel Palestine because it is the host hotel
for those who help with the olive harvest. Beit Sahour is the official
headquarters for YMCA’s Keep Hope Alive program. This was the second time I’ve
led a group of U.S. Presbyterians (with some Unitarians and Baptists) on a
Keep Hope Alive trip. The first time was to plant olive trees in February
2014 (which I described here) and here. This trip was to pick olives, but
not from the trees we planted, because an olive tree takes at least six
years to start producing. One day the Palestinian farmer told us the trees
we were picking were 400 years old.
When you spend time in Palestine, one of the things you discover is how well
educated Palestinians are, and Beit Sahour is full of people with many
different advanced degrees. All of this is owing to the fact that long
before 1948, education has always been a high priority in Palestinian
culture. Palestinians are the most highly-educated oppressed people I have
encountered anywhere I have traveled in the world. One of our stops this
year was to visit a Bedouin village. The Bedouins are a nomadic people who
live in tents. Originally they followed the herds. Now, though, they have
to move around because they live in the “seam” between the Palestinian West
Bank and the State of Israel and, after their tent villages have been set
up, the Israeli military comes in and makes them pull up stakes after so
many months. Then they have to find another place to live. They have no
rights in Israel, and they have nothing in Palestine (and find themselves at
the bottom of the Palestinian pecking order). Even so, the young woman
speaking to us after we had lunch in her family’s tent has a degree in
English translation and hopes to get a job teaching English, although she is
always at the bottom of the waiting list because she is Bedouin. I was
awed by how articulate she was, and I remembered that when we visited
Bedouins in 2014, my daughter Tina, who was also on this trip, developed a
relationship with a young woman who also had an M.A. degree in education.
These friends in Palestine remind me of when I was a teenager and my dad
insisted that I go to college, saying: “Remember, in this life you never
know… the world can take everything away from you, but it can never take
your education.” As I said, Palestinians value education.
Palestinians also value peace. While we were staying in Beit Sahour, the
YMCA held programs for us every night after our days of olive picking and
touring. One night we were mesmerized by the Palestinian film, “The Wanted
18: A Story of Bovine Resistance.” It is very creative and has won many
international awards. It tells the story of the very beginning of the First
Intifada (“intifada” means “uprising”), which was a peaceful uprising of
economic resistance to oppression against the Israeli government. Up through
the 1980s the Palestinian people were dependent upon Israel for most of the
goods they could not produce themselves (and for the most part still are
today). Therefore Beit Sahour city councilors decided they did not want to
depend on Israel for dairy products any longer, so they bought 18 cows from
Israeli farmers to start their own dairy. The humorous part of the story is
that these were people with businesses and/or advanced college degrees, who
knew nothing about taking care of cows. So they sent a young man from their
community to the United States to work on a dairy farm for months and he
came home ready to set up a milk barn. They got the cows and began
production. As the First Intifada took hold, with growing economic
resistance to Israel throughout the West Bank, the Israeli military told the
Beit Sahour city council that it had to get rid of the cows or have them
confiscated. The city council decided not to comply and hid all the cows
in separate locations. With that came the spectacle of Israeli soldiers
looking for 18 cows throughout the city every day for weeks to no avail. All
Beit Sahour soon joked that the Israeli soldiers would search forever for
“terrorist cows.”
The Oslo Accords brought an end to the First Intifada, to the dismay of many
Palestinians, including residents of Beit Sahour. They felt that Yasser
Arafat sold out their program of non-violent resistance by making a
political deal of convenience. Unfortunately those Accords, along with
ending Beir Sahour’s program of non-violent resistance (they sold the cows),
eventually led to the Second Intifada, which was very violent. I remember it
well because I visited Israel Palestine in 2001 while it was raging.
During this last visit to Israel Palestine, there were many demonstrations
in the streets. They actually began peacefully—we even attended one in the
middle of Nazareth Square on one of our first nights there. But
Palestinians—whether they are Israeli citizens living in Galilee or people
with no status living in the West Bank—are not allowed to demonstrate
(either for very long or not at all depending on what side of the wall you
live on). The clashes resulted from the fact that the Israeli military
chose to come into the middle of Palestinian cities and forcibly end
non-violent protests. Given the physical force the Israeli army used on the
people–spraying teargas and even spewing sewage–on the crowds,
demonstrations turned violent. If the military had not shown up, the
demonstrations would have occurred peacefully then ended peacefully with
everyone going home, and you would not have heard about it in the U.S.
media. But that is not the way it happened.
Demonstration in Bethlehem
I likened the demonstrations to last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests in
cities across the United States. Most people were there to engage in
non-violent protest, but some (not the majority) created havoc. Like those
demonstrations, the ones in Palestine have been spontaneous and do not seem
to have any single group organizing them. As we walked with the
demonstration in Nazareth, or watched others from a distance in Bethlehem,
with the signature burning tires in the middle of the street, I noticed how
many Palestinians were running their shops and going about their daily
routines even while young people protested just a blocks away.
Demonstration in Bethlehem
I found it interesting that, while receiving e-mails and texts from home
asking if we were safe, I was watching CNN World News on the hotel
television reporting on the shooting (1 dead and 4 injured) in downtown Ft.
Myers, Florida, at the “Zombiecon” event. This is only a mile from the
Presbyterian church where I serve as pastor. In the last few months, Ft.
Myers has experienced a lot of shooting violence and unsolved murders. I
have been to Zombiecon in previous years. Given the events in my own
hometown I wondered if I were safer in Beit Sahour.
As we were told repeatedly while we were in Palestine, this is not a
religious conflict, but a political one. Seeing Palestinian Christians and
Muslims living together peacefully and well (as well as can be expected
under those conditions), as well as being conducted around for a day by an
Israeli Jew who seeks peace and justice, of this I have no doubt. American
professor Norman Finkelstein, a prominent Jewish voice for peace in Israel
and justice in Palestine, recently co-wrote an article about the present
unrest in Palestine and Israel and mentioned the non-violent First Intifada.
He observed that right now Palestinians are in a very important position
because this unrest could once again give rise to an effective non-violent
uprising that could make a difference. The article reads like a playbook on
how Palestinian leaders could take hold of this present energy in a positive
way. It is my prayer that this indeed might come true.
As with our first trip to plant olive trees in 2014, everyone on our recent
trip came home greatly impressed by the quality and perseverance of
Palestinian people and their ancient culture. Many of us found ourselves
wishing that we Americans could retain the best of our historical cultural
practices as well as they. One person remarked, “I haven’t encountered a
Palestinian I didn’t like!” Hearing from me about the injustices in
Palestine has become routine for members of my congregation and some have
complained. But now they do not need not take my word for it, because those
who have gone with me on these two trips have seen it with their own eyes,
felt it in their hearts, and returned home changed by what they now know is
true. The motto in Palestine, among the leaders with whom we lived and
worked for two weeks, simply is: “Come and See!” They say it, confident that
when we do, we will understand. My two trips with Presbyterians who knew
little about Palestine except for what is shared by the American media did
exactly that and their lives have been changed in the most profound ways.
All you really have to do is go and see….
‘Come and see!’ (and you will understand)
Activism
Rev. Dr. Jeffrey DeYoe on October 24, 2015 10 Comments
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valid.
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valid.
• Adjust Font Size
Re. Jeffrey DeYoe's Christian group of mostly Presbyterians, in the occupied
territories
Beit Sahour, with the famous “Shepherd’s Field” at its heart, is a smaller
town next to occupied Bethlehem, and many holy-site tourists who visit the
Field are unaware that they have even left Bethlehem to see it. Most tour
companies whisking people through the famous “separation wall” and back in
the same day want people to think they are still in the city of Christ’s
birth, so they don’t mention the fact that Beit Sahour is a different
Palestinian town.
If you actually stay in Beit Sahour, when you are grilled by a security
person at Ben Gurion Airport on your way out of the country, it is easier to
say that you stayed in Bethlehem near the Shepherd’s Field. Saying you
stayed in Beit Sahour reveals that you know the difference among Palestinian
towns and cities, and that always raises suspicions. So you act uninformed
and sacrifice all your self-respect by asking, “Isn’t it all part of the
same Holy Land/Disneyland experience?”
We stayed one block from the Shepherd’s Field at the Sahara Hotel for the
southern leg of our trip to Israel Palestine because it is the host hotel
for those who help with the olive harvest. Beit Sahour is the official
headquarters for YMCA’s Keep Hope Alive program. This was the second time I’ve
led a group of U.S. Presbyterians (with some Unitarians and Baptists) on a
Keep Hope Alive trip. The first time was to plant olive trees in February
2014 (which I described here) and here. This trip was to pick olives, but
not from the trees we planted, because an olive tree takes at least six
years to start producing. One day the Palestinian farmer told us the trees
we were picking were 400 years old.
When you spend time in Palestine, one of the things you discover is how well
educated Palestinians are, and Beit Sahour is full of people with many
different advanced degrees. All of this is owing to the fact that long
before 1948, education has always been a high priority in Palestinian
culture. Palestinians are the most highly-educated oppressed people I have
encountered anywhere I have traveled in the world. One of our stops this
year was to visit a Bedouin village. The Bedouins are a nomadic people who
live in tents. Originally they followed the herds. Now, though, they have to
move around because they live in the “seam” between the Palestinian West
Bank and the State of Israel and, after their tent villages have been set
up, the Israeli military comes in and makes them pull up stakes after so
many months. Then they have to find another place to live. They have no
rights in Israel, and they have nothing in Palestine (and find themselves at
the bottom of the Palestinian pecking order). Even so, the young woman
speaking to us after we had lunch in her family’s tent has a degree in
English translation and hopes to get a job teaching English, although she is
always at the bottom of the waiting list because she is Bedouin. I was awed
by how articulate she was, and I remembered that when we visited Bedouins in
2014, my daughter Tina, who was also on this trip, developed a relationship
with a young woman who also had an M.A. degree in education. These friends
in Palestine remind me of when I was a teenager and my dad insisted that I
go to college, saying: “Remember, in this life you never know… the world can
take everything away from you, but it can never take your education.” As I
said, Palestinians value education.
Palestinians also value peace. While we were staying in Beit Sahour, the
YMCA held programs for us every night after our days of olive picking and
touring. One night we were mesmerized by the Palestinian film, “The Wanted
18: A Story of Bovine Resistance.” It is very creative and has won many
international awards. It tells the story of the very beginning of the First
Intifada (“intifada” means “uprising”), which was a peaceful uprising of
economic resistance to oppression against the Israeli government. Up through
the 1980s the Palestinian people were dependent upon Israel for most of the
goods they could not produce themselves (and for the most part still are
today). Therefore Beit Sahour city councilors decided they did not want to
depend on Israel for dairy products any longer, so they bought 18 cows from
Israeli farmers to start their own dairy. The humorous part of the story is
that these were people with businesses and/or advanced college degrees, who
knew nothing about taking care of cows. So they sent a young man from their
community to the United States to work on a dairy farm for months and he
came home ready to set up a milk barn. They got the cows and began
production. As the First Intifada took hold, with growing economic
resistance to Israel throughout the West Bank, the Israeli military told the
Beit Sahour city council that it had to get rid of the cows or have them
confiscated. The city council decided not to comply and hid all the cows in
separate locations. With that came the spectacle of Israeli soldiers looking
for 18 cows throughout the city every day for weeks to no avail. All Beit
Sahour soon joked that the Israeli soldiers would search forever for
“terrorist cows.”
The Oslo Accords brought an end to the First Intifada, to the dismay of many
Palestinians, including residents of Beit Sahour. They felt that Yasser
Arafat sold out their program of non-violent resistance by making a
political deal of convenience. Unfortunately those Accords, along with
ending Beir Sahour’s program of non-violent resistance (they sold the cows),
eventually led to the Second Intifada, which was very violent. I remember it
well because I visited Israel Palestine in 2001 while it was raging.
During this last visit to Israel Palestine, there were many demonstrations
in the streets. They actually began peacefully—we even attended one in the
middle of Nazareth Square on one of our first nights there. But
Palestinians—whether they are Israeli citizens living in Galilee or people
with no status living in the West Bank—are not allowed to demonstrate
(either for very long or not at all depending on what side of the wall you
live on). The clashes resulted from the fact that the Israeli military chose
to come into the middle of Palestinian cities and forcibly end non-violent
protests. Given the physical force the Israeli army used on the
people–spraying teargas and even spewing sewage–on the crowds,
demonstrations turned violent. If the military had not shown up, the
demonstrations would have occurred peacefully then ended peacefully with
everyone going home, and you would not have heard about it in the U.S.
media. But that is not the way it happened.
http://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/IMG_0722.jpg
http://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/IMG_0722.jpg
Demonstration in Bethlehem
I likened the demonstrations to last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests in
cities across the United States. Most people were there to engage in
non-violent protest, but some (not the majority) created havoc. Like those
demonstrations, the ones in Palestine have been spontaneous and do not seem
to have any single group organizing them. As we walked with the
demonstration in Nazareth, or watched others from a distance in Bethlehem,
with the signature burning tires in the middle of the street, I noticed how
many Palestinians were running their shops and going about their daily
routines even while young people protested just a blocks away.
http://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/IMG_08911.jpg
http://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/IMG_08911.jpg
Demonstration in Bethlehem
I found it interesting that, while receiving e-mails and texts from home
asking if we were safe, I was watching CNN World News on the hotel
television reporting on the shooting (1 dead and 4 injured) in downtown Ft.
Myers, Florida, at the “Zombiecon” event. This is only a mile from the
Presbyterian church where I serve as pastor. In the last few months, Ft.
Myers has experienced a lot of shooting violence and unsolved murders. I
have been to Zombiecon in previous years. Given the events in my own
hometown I wondered if I were safer in Beit Sahour.
As we were told repeatedly while we were in Palestine, this is not a
religious conflict, but a political one. Seeing Palestinian Christians and
Muslims living together peacefully and well (as well as can be expected
under those conditions), as well as being conducted around for a day by an
Israeli Jew who seeks peace and justice, of this I have no doubt. American
professor Norman Finkelstein, a prominent Jewish voice for peace in Israel
and justice in Palestine, recently co-wrote an article about the present
unrest in Palestine and Israel and mentioned the non-violent First Intifada.
He observed that right now Palestinians are in a very important position
because this unrest could once again give rise to an effective non-violent
uprising that could make a difference. The article reads like a playbook on
how Palestinian leaders could take hold of this present energy in a positive
way. It is my prayer that this indeed might come true.
As with our first trip to plant olive trees in 2014, everyone on our recent
trip came home greatly impressed by the quality and perseverance of
Palestinian people and their ancient culture. Many of us found ourselves
wishing that we Americans could retain the best of our historical cultural
practices as well as they. One person remarked, “I haven’t encountered a
Palestinian I didn’t like!” Hearing from me about the injustices in
Palestine has become routine for members of my congregation and some have
complained. But now they do not need not take my word for it, because those
who have gone with me on these two trips have seen it with their own eyes,
felt it in their hearts, and returned home changed by what they now know is
true. The motto in Palestine, among the leaders with whom we lived and
worked for two weeks, simply is: “Come and See!” They say it, confident that
when we do, we will understand. My two trips with Presbyterians who knew
little about Palestine except for what is shared by the American media did
exactly that and their lives have been changed in the most profound ways.
All you really have to do is go and see….