The report was sent by John Stoner of Every Church a Peace Church, an organization who joined the Holy Land Trust in this action. ECAPC believes the time has come for followers of Jesus to make it clear that Christians are not warriors, but peacemakers, and are committed to recovering gospel nonviolence as a defining norm for all churches.
Begin forwarded message:
Dear Ones in the Faith:
We celebrate this Great Palm Sunday in Bethlehem as Jesus would have wished us to. We walked with the children, behind the donkeys, in solidarity with the Palestinians, to pray in Jerusalem.
There was order and joy, there was power and strength in the light of the humility of Jesus as we followed his footsteps. There were songs of joy and peace, songs of defiance and justice, all for the grace and peace and fire of God's justice to become a reality for the Palestinians, an occupied people.
We walked through the Wall opening on the one road to Jerusalem that still exists. We numbered as many as 324, total. There were 92 kids and six hardy donkeys we all followed. We were holding palm branches and olive branches as we walked. In Bethlehem Square, we sang several songs, such as “We shall not be Moved,” and kids especially liked “Peace, Salaam, Shalom.”
When we got to the first group of troops, we continued to walk, saying that there was no reason we should not be allowed to pray in peace in Jerusalem this Holy Palm Sunday. We spoke in calm, clear tones, as the leadership had directed. After a first contingent of the troops fell back, we walked further right up to the Checkpoint. We had our arms locked in solidarity, now at least 10 rows of 20. There was dignity and solemnity as we approached the point where only six soldiers were ordered to stand, with their arms locked. There were conversations and prayers offered to the soldiers over the barrier of inches. One older man in a suit asked a soldier for a cigarette, and the soldier surprisingly shared it. Several soldiers unlocked their arms, but were ordered not to talk with us. We declared things like, "We come in Peace to pray in Jerusalem this day!" "Justice for the Palestinians!" "We do not recognize your illegal laws." "We pray for your children, that they may live in a peaceful land." We offered these in a spirit of solidarity, a spirit of engagement in love. We looked in the eyes of the soldiers and whispered, "Shalom," to help them to see our humanity and touch their hearts.
There was an initial negotiation, in which first the Major, then the Captain and finally the Commander, addressed the leadership. They allowed one leader to go into the Checkpoint site and confer with him for about 10 minutes. He returned and stated that the Checkpoint would not allow us through under any circumstances, that they were proud of their racist policies and that no one here was allowed anywhere near Jerusalem because they were not permitted to be there.
After a hiatus of another 10 minutes, we were notified we would have only 10-15 minutes to disperse before they would use force, and we were directed to sit down to discuss our plans. There was a request that we poll the group. Our leadership told the soldiers that we should sit down and confer about what we would do next. At this point we sang peace songs, like "We have Overcome...today...", and saw the soldiers' stances and gazes soften. We included verses like, "We will speak God's Truth...," "In Jerusalem...," "We will pray as One...," "We pray to One God..." The arabic-speakers also sang 3 songs.
After 20 minutes of sitting, Sami Awad rose to say he had a statement to read. "We did not want violence and were not seeking to endanger those present with the violence of the weapons that we knew would be used. They had been used often agains the people in the past, he stated, and they would not hesitate."
Then Sami Awad, Director of Holy Land Trust, spoke these prepared words at the Checkpoint to Bethlehem:
Asalaam 'alaykum,
We in the Bethlehem community have come to you today with a message on behalf of our people. We represent the family members and friends who are imprisoned by these concrete walls and wire fences that now create the Bethlehem open-air prison. You, like the prison guards, control our freedom and ability to live as human beings with dignity in this holy land.
Our strong delegation of civilians comes to you without weapons but with great strength and commitment to deliver the message of just peace. In the name of security, you do not permit us to travel to work, to school and to worship inour holy sites in the city of Jerusalem. Your government deprives us each day of basic human rights to self-determination. Each day you keep us from beiong with our families at weddings, funerals, graduations, birthdays and religious holidays. Although Al Quds is only 20 minutes from Bethlehem, we have not been allowed to pray or to worship at our holy sites.
Each day as you come to our city, you serve the system of violence that keeps our people imprisoned and without the ability to live a life of a normal human being. With your guns, tanks and insults, you teach our children to hate.
However, we believe each of you has the power and choice to choose a different ending to this story. We appeal to your conscience and humanity as individuals and as soldiers, who may feel there is no way out of this system. Put your guns away and join us in the fight for peace and freedom.
Signed,
The People of Bethlehem
These words were delivered with dignity and strength. They were delivered directly to the soldiers and commanders over the barricades they erected. Despite the commander trying to get his officers to push the cameras away, the cameras were recording each and every word, to the glory of God. The soldiers were not following the directions to push the cameras away.
Blessings of Peace with Justice from Bethlehem, as we all follow in Jesus' steps. May we seek to find the power and the choice to live a different ending to this tragic and horrific story.
Part 2
There is more to tell of the amazing march we were just on. We will try to help you understand what is happening more clearly through several vignettes that occurred during the march as we backed away from the checkpoint.
Several of us had olive branches that we passed to the commander, the major and the soldiers. The commander and major, surprisingly, accepted them. The Commander responded, sarcastically, "Oh, thank you." The soldiers would not accept them, nor would they talk with us. We spoke to them about the peace we wish for, that we long for the chance to pray in Jerusalem with all people, all faiths together. I also said to the soldiers that the olive branch I was sharing represents the legacy, the integrity of the Palestinian People, as reflected in the longevity and endurance of the olive tree. I pointed out that such olive trees, 500 hundred year-old ones, were planted in their beautiful Settlement roundabouts. I reminded them that these were uprooted from Palestinian Land and stolen from the Palestinians.
As we slowly made our way back the 600 yards between the Checkpoint and the Wall, the squad of 6 soldiers we first engaged as we approached the Checkpoint followed close behind. They were not aggressive, but clearly assertive about needing us to leave immediately.
When we reached the Wall, many children began writing in Green markers slogans in Arabic, like: "The Wall is no good." The Wall must fall." Two of the young boys, approximately age 8 or 9, had crowns of thorns on their heads. The soldiers told them to stop, but Sami Awad gently but firmly asked the soldiers if they wanted to join us to work for peace. He reminded them that the children were not hurting anything but were only expressing their views. Eventually, after a period of another 5 minutes of slogan-writing, the leadership and the children's mother was able to clear away the 10 children doing the writing.
As we walked through the opening in the wall, several of us knelt beside the Wall, and prayed prayers of penitence and forgiveness for our complicity in its creation. The prayers spoken were of this tenor: "We pray, God, that you have mercy on us for the assistance we have given, through our government of the United States, for building such a Wall. Help us to recognize that each time a Wall is built, it is wrong. It keeps out the Truth of Peace, not only providing security or safety--or the illusion of it." "Lord, we pray now that this Wall be destroyed in the name of Jesus."
We returned slowly, and one soldier was mounted on the balcony of an abandoned building with his machine gun focused on all of us peacefully returning from the march. We demanded his respect, that we come in peace, and asked him to lower his weapon. He would not acknowledge us or lower his weapon.
We were repeatedly asked to hurry up, that the soldiers wanted us back into the city. A group of teenage boys were gathering at one of the intersections. They were preparing to return to the soldiers and to throw stones. In spite of the leadership of the peaceful march encouraging them not to do so, they were determined to follow through. The leaders of the march did not want us to be implicated with them in any way. The boys were again reprimanded by the leadership to disband. They slowly began to disband, and rejoin the group of us still leaving.
Sami Awad reminded us that 95% of the protests of the Palestinians have been peaceful. "Only the violent ones get into the news," he said.
The work begun this day is only a small marker of justice, compared to the suffering and abuse we have witnessed, but it is at least that. May we find ways to be afire with God's peace, as it is grounded in Truth, Justice and the healing the many wrongs done to the Palestinian people.
Blessings and Hope for more Markers of Justice,
Kent
### END forwarded message.
PLUS: The Holy Land Trust posted their nonviolence Training outline
http://www.holylandtrust.org/pnr_nvt.html and it bears similarity to our “Creating a Culture of Peace” curriculum.
These are indeed times for change, times for linking heart to heart and becoming reconcilers of that which is broken and separated. Love and peace, the greatest power at our disposal. To God be the glory.
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