Hebrews 10:23

            The first half of the program is over, which means people are leaving and new people will be coming soon. This week has been very interesting and I am genuinely beginning to start seeing myself fitting in this place in some capacity in the future.            

            I came home after a long day last tuesday and ended up talking to my host parents about the first intifadah and my host dad’s experience during that time. He was 19 years old and thrown in jail for throwing rocks at the IDF. He said he was the only Christian in the prison and told gruesome stories of torture. He described in detail sleep deprivation, severe beating, electrocution, etc etc. He was in jail for 2 years and things he was describing in a matter of fact manner shocked me. He told a story of being forced to stay in a cell that wasn’t big enough for him to stand up, lay down, or stretch his legs out. He stayed in this tiny cell, that he said was designed for a toddler, for 22 days. I asked, why would they do that to you, to get information? He said yes and started to describe what they were looking for when my host mom said lets stop talking about this because according to her everyone was in jail during the first intifada. I was overwhelmed with emotion and she wanted to dismiss the topic so we could talk about our daily lives. I cant imagine being used to that reality.

            Last night we spent the day in Jerusalem, touring the old city, the temple mount, Al-Aqsa mosque, the Wailing Wall, Via Dolorosa (check my facebook for pics in the next couple of days). I ended my day on the Mount of Olives speaking with a Sufi family about the conflict. This family fed the small group I was with more food than I knew I could eat. The father works to reconcile the different groups in Israel and around the world, emphasizing the need of individuals to find God and themselves in “the other.” He told a story about a student and a master. The student was in a conflict with another student and very angry, so he was asking the master about who was wrong and right in the situation. The master replied by saying, I can either tell you the truth or something greater than the truth. The student didn’t know there was something greater than the truth and opted for that. So the master said well, the truth is good but sometimes reconciliation is better, basically saying that sometimes one needs to give up a little bit of what is due to him in order to live in peace with the other. Pretty cool, I’m not sure exactly what I think, but definitely challenging, especially with reference to the conflict here.

            We also talked to Rabbis for Human Rights, an organization consisting of Rabbis from the whole spectrum of Judaism that stand up for Palestinian Human Rights, especially focusing on home demolitions in the old city and the right to access and movement in the West Bank. Their work was extremely interesting and the Rabbi who spoke with us seemed to have a very good, balanced view on the situation. He, along with the organization, is Zionist, meaning that they believe in a Jewish homeland in the present state of Israel, which was promised to them by God. However, he said that promise was conditional, and that the Jewish people had to act morally and righteously in order to realize that promise. I thought that perspective was extremely interesting.

            Today I spent the day rebuilding a house, which has been destroyed twice by the IDF.  It was cool to do something tangible to help a local Palestinian family with their daily life.

rack me, i'm out...