May  06 Newsletter

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 Memoirs and Reflections:

 From the bus, while we were still by the hotel, a sheep herder passed through and we had to wait for his sheep to clear the way.  I felt that this was a sort of biblical scene that fits, in my mind, with the beauty of the city of Bethlehem. This is how the lives of these people were for centuries and centuries, but it’s not like that any more.  Beyond the sheep herder, the cement partition wall began to appear over the buildings, with its powerful murals of resistance clear in the daylight. 

Heba Gowayed

One of the Arab students asked our professor if he thought it was more important to live free of occupation or under democracy.  Professor Ibrahim rejected the question, reminding the student that he did not have democracy before, and asked him how successful that had been in ending the occupation.

Our next stop was at the Civic Forum Institute. Our host and general director of the institute, Aref Jaffal… Another thing he said was that if Hamas fails, there would be a third intifada, and the third intifada would have the goal not of having an independent state, but of becoming one state with Israel in which the Palestinians in the territories would have full citizenship in Israel. He says that this is the case because the way in which the wall is being built and all the good land and resources are being scooped up by Israel, there is nothing left for a viable Palestinian state. In that sense, Israel truly is disingenuous in their new unilateral live and let live withdrawal strategy.

- Nathan Bech

  That night, after dinner at the hotel, we all sat around and talked about the trip, what we learned, and what we can do in the future.  It was a good wrap up, and the professor left us with some encouraging words about his meetings with the Hamas leaders.  He said that they were considering how they may move forward. Among their considerations is embracing the Saudi-led Arab summit peace initiative of just a few years ago, the one that Israel rejected outright at the time. It left me encouraged. There is hope for the future. 

- Nathan Bech