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The 6th Internatonal Sabeel Conference The 6th International Sabeel Conference to which three Episcopalians, one Catholic and this Presbyterian went in Jerusalem (November 2-9) was billed as “A Window into the Life and Witness of the Christians of the Holy Land.” The only way to open wide that window was for the 200-300 conference participants from 29 other countries and a comparable number of local participants to be bused between Jerusalem, Jericho, Ramallah, and Nazareth, to name the sites whose names are familiar in the Western world. We were bused to a number of less familiar Christian villages as well. Why was this logistics nightmare necessary? Because it would have been impossible for the Palestinians participating in the conference to obtain the required permits to travel to any one site, so the international participants—for whom travel through both Israel and the Occupied Territories/Disputed Territories/Administered Territories in the West Bank is easier—were taken to them. To quote from the head of the Australian branch of Sabeel, “At a checkpoint on the ‘Green Line’ that separates Israel from the occupied territories one of our buses was turned back because there was an elderly Palestinian woman on board. She was in her seventies and had all the required papers to allow her to travel into Israel, but the two adolescent soldiers with large guns enjoyed their opportunity to intimidate her and to humiliate her. There is no right of appeal when soldiers refuse to allow a Palestinian through a checkpoint; and there are now more checkpoints on the West Bank than there are villages! So the bus turned around and went to another nearby checkpoint where it was allowed through without incident and then rejoined us as we traveled north on national highway 6 to the Galilee.” Did this put us in danger? Since we were not going to Gaza, the quick answer is, “No”. There was one morning when we were welcomed to Bethlehem University with, “Please do NOT leave campus. There was an Israel Defense Forces incursion into Bethlehem yesterday, during which two Palestinians were killed and their homes demolished. The funerals are being held today, and the people are angry.” Recognizing that we, too, would be furious if we were in their places, we did as we were asked. The rest of the time we internationals were under no restrictions. The Palestinians were under the ever-tightening restrictions imposed on them under Israel’s almost 40-year occupation of much of their West Bank lands (the nine years of relative freedom in certain areas after the 1993 Oslo Accords and before the 2002 Israeli reinvasion are fast becoming a distant memory). The Israeli Arabs can move more easily within Israel, but may not go to the West Bank. The roughly 80 Palestinians in Gaza, half of them civilians, who lost their lives during the week of the conference, were evidence of the radically different situation in that Palestinian enclave. Israel officially evacuated it a year ago, but still maintains tight control. Most of the speakers we heard in 40 lectures were Palestinian Christians (their ancestors were among the first disciples of Jesus). They represented a spectrum of Christian denominations: Orthodox, Armenian, Coptic, Syrian, Latin (Roman Catholic), Maronite, Anglican and Lutheran. The warm personal greetings from the Christian mayors of Bethlehem, Ramallah and Nazareth, which used to be mostly Christian but have received many Muslim refugees, were evidence of the continuing Christian community—trying to resist the temptation to give in to injustice, leave their trying circumstances behind, and emigrate. Conference attendees were commissioned to maintain their bonds with Palestinian Christian friends and advocate for them; “to campaign for truth and justice with the energy and consistency of an ever-flowing stream”—the logo of Sabeel is such a stream; and to work diligently “to bring healing and reconciliation to all people with God’s joy and peace in their hearts, especially to the people of the land where the first message of peace was proclaimed.” Peace, Salaam, Shalom. Marilyn Loos
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