How do we expand our aching hearts?

I’ve been back in Scotland for just over a month now. Plans and activities that were routine are now distant memories. I’m trying to plan ahead, looking to a return to Israel as Mission Partner based in Tiberias next to the Sea of Galilee. But there is so much to get my head around.

The Scots Hotel, Tiberias, is currently home to over 100 folk who were evacuated from their homes on the Lebanese border by the Israeli government.  As the Hotel looks after them, so some are helping with laundry and gardening and some are involved in running three play and learning groups with children of different ages.

I’ve been trying to keep in touch with staff but it’s not easy. One of our Filipino staff has already gone back. Two of our staff have been called up as army reserves. Some staff have been temporarily laid off. Many Arab or Palestinian Israelis are thinking they want away, planning to leave because they feel there are few opportunities for them in Israel. And when you talk to them people are cagey, reluctant to comment or speak freely.

Unease about a possible escalation of the war into Lebanon or Syria is growing and there is a feeling that though Hezbollah have not joined an outright war, as the attrition in Gaza grinds on and more of the Israeli army are caught into that, there’s a possibility of that front opening up.

Our staff from the St Andrew’s House Hotel in Jerusalem (the guesthouse has been rebranded) come from the West Bank and East Jerusalem. There is no government support for West Bank workers and so we are trying to find ways to support folks ourselves. Bethlehem is pretty much locked down. There are very few visas being issued to pass from the West Bank to Israel and an increase in check points and road closures have shut Palestinians in very small cantons, separate from one another. It is impossible, it seems, to go from Bethlehem to Ramallah or to Jericho. Unemployment is very high. The Palestinian Authority were not paying government employees their full salaries anyway, and now it is worse.

I am hearing about a marked increase in settler violence from one brave Israeli woman, part of a group called The Villages Group, who have supported Bedouin communities in the South Hebron hills in the occupied Palestinian territories for years. Settlers have been issued with guns and some now wear military uniforms. Acting with the army or under the gaze of soldiers, they have threatened families who don’t leave, stealing their sheep, invading their homes. On Monday she reported that at Wadi Jehiesh settlers broke the wind turbine that gives electricity to the village. Having resisted the aggression and violence for years, some families are now leaving. As H, one of the elders of the village, reported this, Erella said, ‘His voice bore no anger and no vulgar curse about this destruction. Only stable presence of one who already knows that he is helpless to change things, but refuses to give up his inner freedom. A complaint was lodged by the lawyer, and we sent photos. “It helps”, she thanked us. Our hands, too, are helpless, but our aching heart is called upon to expand, meeting so much pain.’[1]

‘Inner freedom’ has been my experience of the dignified and resilient refusal to give up hope that characterizes most Palestinians. It is seen in the motto of the Tent of Nations: ‘We refuse to be enemies.’

There is so much fear and pain and grief and loss. People are polarized and find it hard to empathise with others who are not like them.

How do we expand our aching hearts?

A friend posted a manifesto written by an American Rabbi which might give a clue: 

Today I am taking sides.

I am taking the side of Peace.
Peace, which I will not abandon
even when its voice is drowned out
by hurt and hatred,
bitterness of loss,
cries of right and wrong.

I am taking the side of Peace
whose name has barely been spoken
in this winnerless war.

I will hold Peace in my arms,
and share my body’s breath,
lest Peace be added
to the body count.

I will call for de-escalation
even when I want nothing more
than to get even.
I will do it
in the service of Peace.

I will make a clearing
in the overgrown
thicket of cause and effect
so Peace can breathe
for a minute
and reach for the sky.

I will do what I must
to save the life of Peace.
I will breathe through tears.
I will swallow pride.
I will bite my tongue.
I will offer love
without testing for deservingness.

So don’t ask me to wave a flag today
unless it is the flag of Peace.
Don’t ask me to sing an anthem
unless it is a song of Peace.
Don’t ask me to take sides
unless it is the side of Peace[2]

---

[1] https://villagesgroup.wordpress.com/

[2] Irwin Keller from California wrote these words on October 17th, 2023, ten days after the terrifying Hamas attacks which murdered hundreds of Israelis, both soldiers and civilians. https://www.irwinkeller.com/itzikswell/taking-sides

---