New Friends, New Perspectives

i have just returned from spending almost two weeks in the middle east. i traveled with five of my friends from the boston area and we visited some of my friends who live in jordan, then did some additional traveling in the region.  we left just a couple of days after the latest intifadah between israel and palestine started.  it was particularly interesting to spend time in jordan, israel and the west bank while such unrest was going on.  there was a dynamic about the situation that was both sad and interesting.  people i talked to in the states were so concerned for my safety because of all that the media reported but things there were perfectly safe, even normal.  i briefly watched what al jazira reported but mostly just observed myself. 

i was in jordan for new year’s and normally there are lots of parties but all of them were cancelled in solidarity with gaza.  there was a heavy feeling on people’s hearts throughout jordan as they were very concerned with the situation to the west, but overall, unless you talked to actual people you would never know the intifadah was happening.  life just goes on.  i made some great new friends in jordan.  Z, M and R are all Palestinian and their insights about the intifadah were very helpful, especially given that i make an effort not to watch the news (especially the ulta-biased western news).  my new friends helped me and my other friends see things from a new, different and helpful perspective.

the wall being built around the west bank

after a few days we traveled to the west bank and israel.  we first visited bethlehem and saw one of the most disturbing things on the trip.  israel is building a 30 foot high wall around the west bank.  it would take far too long for me to explain all about it and i won’t even pretend that i understand all of the issues but the wall looks like the wall around a prison (and i have visited prisons to see those).  the wall is almost completed and once it is, the palestinian residents of the west bank will be held captive inside the wall by israel.  there are a lot of issues and, again, i don’t want to pretend that understand them all but i was really disturbed by this.

the brightest part of this segment of the trip was also in bethlehem.  it was a man named sami.  sami leads an organization/movement that is committed to the principles of nonviolence.  They

seeks to develop spiritual, pragmatic, and strategic approaches that will empower the Palestinian community to resist all forms of oppression, and engage this same community in making the Holy Land become a global model and pillar of understanding, respect, justice, equality, and peaceful coexistence.

wow! you can read about sami on his blog at http://samiawad.wordpress.com/.  it’s definitely worth the read. i could have spent a week just listening to him talk.  he is so fascinating.  sami sees and understands the reality of the situation between israel and palestine in ways i will never understand and he is filled with hope that there is a solution.  he recently wrote on his blog

Violence will never lead to any peaceful solution to any conflict. All violence must stop and all negotiations must stop as well. The only success for achieving real results is found in the re-establishment of the grassroots nonviolence resistance movement in Palestine. This will not be easy and will not be welcomed by the enemies of peace, but we believe is the only way.

that’s just the beginning of the trip.  there’s a lot more.  give me a few days to recover from the jet lag and and the cold i got from someone.