LIving Stones

"I would like to thank you for coming to visit Israel and Palestine.  Thank you for not only touring the dead stones of, but for engaging the living stones of this land with all that makes up the lives of the people here and their struggle for identity and a state." These were the words of one of our guides Husam Jubran, a Palestinian,

He and Leil Maghen, an Arab Israeli Jew, spent two days with us helping us understand the modern history of the Holy Land and its issues.

Husam and Leil. 

These two men come from completely different backgrounds and experiences and opposites sides of the issues in Israel, but they have found a way to work together and help people understand the depth of the complexity in their home. Husam lives behind the wall, but not Leil.

Husam  spent his childhood going to the check points and throwing stones at Israeli soldiers.  Eventually he was arrested, put in jail only to return to the streets fighting for the rights of the Palestinian people.  In his last protest he was shot and spent a year recovering.  This time allowed him to ponder and realize that there has to be another way to approach the issues of Palsestine.

Leil's heritage comes from Libya and Italy.  His parents came to Israel to help build the Zionist state.  He grew up in a family that would be labeled rightist.  As required of all young adults, he joined the army, an experience which changed him.  He was sent with his gun to guard a prisoner.  When he entered the room, full of fear, he meat an eleven year old child blind-folded with hands tied behind his back.  He could not reconcile his fear of this small boy who he was raised to believe was "the enemy" and would hurt him even kill him. Soon after he and a friend were sent to one of the fronts. His friend went to the front lines first. Leil came later and found his friend sitting on the ground crying hysterically,  this made him more afraid but the fear was not of the enemy but of what was happening to people he knew because of the war with the Palestinians.  When he left the army he decided that there had to be another way to deal with the Palestinian Israel issue.

Today they lead these tours taking people through Israel and Palestine, sharing both views of what history has brought to bear on the present moment.

Although really impossible choose ONE best things in this program, these two men's were living stones for me.  Following are some of the sights we saw and views we heard.

     

Streets of an older Jewish Neighborhood

Tram that runs throughout Jerusalem

Market In Jerusalem

Another market view.

Picture of one of the old families that came to Israel after the Holocaust.   These photos are being it up to help people remember how long ago their families came to Israel and why!

The Original checkpoint gate which marked the entrance of the 1948 UN Refugee camp.

The first thing you see inside is this wall with the key.  It a symbol for all Palestians to remember that they owned  homes in Israel and were not always refugees. Many still have keys to their original homes hoping that one day...........The writing in the middle is the UN Declaration of 1948, which identified this camp for the Palestinians until the time, in the near future, when they would return to their land.

I will continue this story in the next blog. 

 Two peoples whose heritage goes back to Abraham struggling to find the way to live here in peace. An extremely complicated story.

(There are no current pictures of checkpoints, as photos are NOT allowed.)