Sermon: Bloordale United, December 27, 2015
Texts: Colossians 3:12-17 (A new life); Luke2:41-52 (The boy Jesus in the Temple)
The story of Shufa
I am so pleased to be with you this morning, and to share a little bit about my journey. As I mentioned during the sharing time, I was part of an international team who provided human rights observation and ecumenical accompaniment in Palestine.
I arrived in Israel-Palestine during the Gaza war in summer of 2014. I left three months later. Just before I left, the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem was closed by Israel. This was the first time this had happened, since Israel’s occupation of Palestine began back in 1967.
So in my final days there, I felt the eerie chill in East Jerusalem, move right across the West Bank, as the Israeli occupier denied all access to this holy site. This action left Palestinians feeling perhaps a little like those for whom Luke’s gospel was written. In the year 70, the Palestinians’ sacred worship place had been destroyed by their Roman occupier. Now, here we are almost two thousand years later still wondering how do you find hope, when the occupier takes that which is most sacred?
The world’s attention on Gaza during the summer of 2014, had ironically provided perhaps some hope. Maybe amongst the destruction and death, the world was finally waking up to the reality of illegal colonization and occupation.
Just as the people of first century Palestine living under Roman military occupation found hope, in a new baby; I saw Palestinians finding hope in their daily lives, despite the relentless occupation. However, today’s Palestinians, like those in Jesus’ time, also understand their hope is very unlikely to come the form of a messianic rescue. Rather, hope is through telling stories, helping people understand, person by person, community by community. This was what the writer of the letter to the Colossians was attempting to do. So too, that is why Palestinians as well as Israeli peace activists asked me and people like me to tell share their stories, with the hope that understanding will increase. That is why I am so grateful to be with you today.
So there are many stories to tell. During my time in Israel-Palestine, I was able to see much of the West Bank—from Jenin in the north to the South Hebron Hill; to spend time in Jerusalem and travel through Israel from the Golan Heights in the north, where on a beautiful fall day, I watched the rebels and regime bombing each other a few kilometers over the border in Syria; to Eliat in the south where I swam in the Red Sea.
In Palestine, I accompanied people who had their homes destroyed, their children & other family members arrested and shot, tear gas arbitrarily shot through their villages, and their homes raided in the night—all of this by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). I also arrived in the wee hours of the morning, to watch people cross military checkpoints to go to work, to go to school and to go to their own farm lands. Of course sometimes people were arbitrarily denied access, for things as absurd as the colour of the shirt they had on. Always, guns pointed at them by mainly 18 or 20-year-old young Israelis.
But mostly what I experienced were people who showed me how to live the passage we have just heard from Colossians. They showed me the spirit of sumud—sumud in Arabic means steadfastness—they showed the spirit of steadfastness—that is, how accepting that through non-violent persistence we can resist the powers that occupy…and in so doing we can be free in our own hearts and minds…even if we are in prison, literally or figuratively, we too can experience God in the life of love, that Colossians speaks of….we can be dressed in the wardrobe God picked out for us: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, and discipline. Being even-tempered, content with second place, and quick to forgive.
In this context, I felt so at home in Palestine, so welcomed by radical hospitality, so changed by being with people who trust in something bigger than themselves, people who care for their families, their community and their land…all of this in the midst of foreign occupation.
As far as the details associated with the military occupation, the illegal settlements, and the daily violations under international humanitarian law and universal human rights, we can understand these through conversations and study without being in this sacred land. But what I I did not expect was the change that these sacred people could have upon me.
I fell in love with the land, and the people, feeling God surrounding me.
I call it my eastern glow, something not so easy to maintain, when I came back to the west…it was a glow that sort of sneaks up on me….even my kids and friends commented as I Skyped with them.
So there, amongst the refugees who have lived 70 years in exile still denied rights given then in 1948 by UN resolution, there amongst those who have their land taken from them, and amongst all Palestinians who live with restricted access and constant violence dished out by the military and also illegal settlers….
There, amongst all of this and more, I felt the the spirit of sumud….a spirit of steadfastness. Maybe one of the strongest and most surprising signals of this was the large number of young Palestinians who were receiving post-secondary education, often more than 75% in a community. Across Palestine the people are focused on educating their next generation, still holding hope that this will bring peace and justice.
So, there are so many stories to tell, but I have chosen to share only one– the story of Abu Omar, and the community of Shufa, a village about 6 km from the city of Tulkerarm, abound a two hour drive north from Jerusalem on winding Palestinian roads—although about an hour on the illegal freeways built for settlers to use.
This sign points to Shufa but in fact for most of this current century this trip has not be possible. But the sign remains in hope. You see, in 2001, with an illegal settlement build on land taken from the people of Shufa, the military installed barriers so there was no vehicle traffic able to move in nor out of Shufa. These roadblocks even separated members of the same family living in different sections of the village. And, to reach their own farmland and the urban hub at Tulkerarm, where most of the residents work and where they receive health, education, and commercial services, residents in the southeastern part of the village were forced to surreptitiously remove the blockade on the dirt road leading out a back way. After residents had done so several times, with the military rebuilding it each time, the military finally gave in, around 2005, and allowed this dirt road to remain open. Thus residents could finally reach their district capital via a long, roundabout route, making what should have been less ten-minute trip to be sometime more than an hour on difficult road, sometimes through temporary or as they are called flying military checkpoints.
Still the two parts of the villages remained separated. Then after some years of support by Israeli and international activists, the Israeli high court actually overturned this road closure, and eventually in 2012 the earth mounds were removed on the main road, meaning people could now travel between the east and west part of their village, and directly down this road into city of Tulkeram. However, this was to be short lived—less than 2 years. Last summer, we were informed in the meeting (shown in the earlier slide), that a 24/7 military checkpoint had just been put in where the court had ordered the blockade had been removed. So despite the court order, Israel had just given the people a “small window of hope” to dash it with a new strategy. We immediately went to investigate and this is what we saw.
In the field to the south (right) of the check point, we met Abu Omar and his sons. Immediately, I had sense of a very wise and gentle man. He did not seem interested in remounting a court case. Rather he mentioned how with the road having been open, that Israeli Palestinians from Haifa had started to come into the village for some trade over the last year—of course that no longer will be the case.
Now with the checkpoint now put in, it means that people from east section Shufa can drive in and out of their own community, as long as the military will let them pass; but the military will not let anyone who is not a resident of east Shufa to enter. That means we cannot go into the village; it means their relatives in west Shufa, less than 2 km away, can’t come in. Previously, at least people could walk in around the earth mounds. In fact many ecumenical accompaniers I know had done that over the years. However, now no one is allowed past the check point even walking unless they have a resident card showing they live in East Shufa. But beyond this, the children of east Shufa are not able to go to high school as they don’t have get ID permits until they are 16 years old and no one without a permit is being let through the checkpoint. He tells, us no commercial vehicles are allowed so all supplies have to go the long way. The primary school teachers, who are mainly from Tulkerarm are not being allowed in either, so they are having to drive the almost an hour each way to get to the village to teach. In fact, if a resident of Shufa wants to bring in, say more than a flat (2.5 dozen) eggs, then that is considered commercial and the military is turning them back to drive the long, difficult way. And so on….
shows the lay of land…you can see Tulkerarm in the distance…and beyond that Israel, of course separated by the wall, which runs in most places well inside the green line, meaning Palestinians are cut off from their own farm land. Towards the left, just above the road, you can see Izla Shufa (or the west part of the village), and east Shufa is to right behind a hill & not in view, and in the middle the illegal settlement of Avne Hefez.
We enjoyed some delightful fresh cucumbers and tomatoes from the greenhouse, and tea, as Abu Omar and his sons told us about what all this means. We reported the changed situation and made contact with various Israeli and Palestinian peace activist groups. We returned a few times to monitor what was happening, and to try to intervene in the morning especially as students were coming out of Shufa to high school and university.
A couple weeks later, we made the long drive into Shufa, on the back roads. There we met with the school teachers—about 20 of them crowed into the principal’s office, willingly staying after school to explain what this meant to them, but especially to the students and their families.
The school yard was adorned with amazing art—an act of sumud—steadfastness—one of the teachers had taught himself to paint, as a way to recover after he had spent five years in prison (of course the majority of Palestinian men who over 40 years of age, have spent time in Israeli prison—-often in administrative detention, which means one is just held without charges..)…this teacher uses his skill to work with the students to make their school beautiful and filled with as much hope as possible…the hope of arts and sports is certainly evident in the school yard.
We then went to Abu Omar’s home…from the top floor, as a gentle breeze blew through the windows, we could see the Mediterranean about 15 miles away…but of course Abu Omar nor his family have been able to travel there since the wall was built more than a dozen years ago…nor can they go to Jerusalem or Nazareth…or anywhere outside of the West Bank or Jordan.
As his family shared their food and hospitality with us, I learned that Abu Omar is just a couple years older than me. He said the people in the illegal settlement who have taken much of his land, say “we will wait you out old man….when you are gone…it is all ours…only you are strong enough to try to stop us…”
The last time, I saw Abu Omar, was just before I was leaving the West Bank in late October. We parked the car just this side of the check point off the road by his green houses. He mounted his donkey, and my Swedish team mate Samuel and I walked well behind not to compromise him. (our driver is shown in this picture, will wait for us.) We walked along on Abu Omar’s property, following a path parallel to the road. We continued to walk well past the point where the check point was located as we stayed on Abu Omar’s land; when we had gotten about 500 feet beyond where the check point was, we followed still well behind him, as he rode his donkey across the road.
This meant we had actually crossed behind the check point on the east side Shufa, and Abu Omar said we were the first to do so—certainly not something safe for a Palestinian to do. It was an act of sumud, especially brave for he as a Palestinian to lead the way for us. The purpose was so that we could set a precedent so that our team mates might be able to follow a suite to provide protective presence during the olive harvest in the coming weeks.
We continued up towards Abu Omar’s small barn where his poultry and sheep are kept. And his donkey takes a break to drink some water…
We look out over the illegal settlement, where once Abu Omar and the other residents of Shufa had olive trees; we look out beyond to the other side of the hill where residents from another village had been physically hurt by settler violence the day before. Hopefully the next week, our team mates who were replacing us, would be able to use our test run to accompany Abu Omar and his family so they could safely pick their olives.
And then we look the other way, to the south-east towards Shufa village, and see the military base, and the growing illegal outpost where illegal settlers are now establishing their footprint…and it too will too grow into an illegal settlement shortly…Palestinians know the pattern well…a military base, then a few more trailers and some pioneers arrive, and then the illegal town is built…and some become illegal cities
We walk back the way we came, once again following Abu Omar as he rides his donkey…again keeping our distance. In some ways it feels a little Biblical….retracing our steps, we again cross the road on the well inside of the checkpoint, back towards where the car and our driver wait…and as Samuel and I get safely back onto the south side by the greenhouses, I can hear a young Israeli soldier say in English (which in itself was strange as usually it would have been in Hebrew)—he said “who were they?”…but he and his partners don’t come our way…perhaps he was too busy texting their friends (which is pretty normal behaviour)…anyway, I found myself thankful for having been able to experience the spirit of sumud with Abu Omar…
I tell you this story today, because as I looked at the Palestinian news a few weeks, I see Abu Omar….it seems perhaps the settlers did not wait for him to die to push him out…the IDF was there, with indication that his greenhouses would be torn down and his olive trees uprooted…he asked if they would defer while he tried to get court ruling…but seems they would not …and the bulldozers moved in. And here are the barn where his sheep and poultry are kept…and his donkey had a drink (shown in earlier slide)…
So where is the hope, I wonder…..we wonder…
On Christmas eve there were more pictures…pictures of a new illegal community being built where the outpost had emerged last fall….large equipment had been moved in and foundations were being dug for new settlement that I expect will join Avne Hefez and Enav…this is not random of course
This last three months have been devastating in Palestine…and so of course, I could have told stories about much more disturbing things…133 people have been killed including many children, and many left to bleed to death as Palestinian ambulances are tear gassed and prevented from getting to the victims, and thousand have been injured, many by with live ammunition,….dozens of students have been seriously hurt at Kaldoorie university in Tulkerarm over these weeks, no doubt some of them from Shufa…and even close to home, a Canadian citizen doing Ph. D. research (on effects of people living with weapons of war) in Bethlehem (at university that is linked to UCC through some of our ecumenical partnerships) was shot a couple of weeks ago by an Israeli military sniper as she simply walked down the street…… ….
Indeed, there are so many parallels in occupied Palestine today to that of the occupied Palestine that led to the rise of Christianity in the first century…our original story is a story of non-violent resistance…of taking the path to justice through humility…..sumud.
Just as Jesus returned from the temple and kept on growing wiser and more mature, and in favor with God and his fellow people, he would return at the end of his Ministry and turn the tables in that same temple….and so it seems that this spirit of sumud still lives on in Palestine….. So even as even the olive trees are under seize….literally called sometimes a security threat (as can see in this slide)…
The people of Palestine showed me what the author of Colossians seemed to know…that we can find peace when we let every word, even action follow the way Jesus taught us, the way of sumud. Then, let us too stay in step in solidary for peace and justice, and the end of occupation. Only then can we realize the peace told in the story of a new baby born in the little town of the still besieged Bethlehem. Amen
Palestinian-Canadian Robert Massoud provides a review of a new documentary that explores the relationship between the American media and Israeli Lobby, and how this has helped shape the America’s sympathy towards the Israeli narrative the conflict.
Sharing Common Sacred Ground 