Art and Mary's Travel Blog

Please pray with us for Israel. Pray for its leaders and its people.

We returned on March 24 from traveling in the West Bank districts of Palestine with the Tree of Life, lead by Steve Jungkeit and Nancy McLaren (both formally part of our congregation). We met with Kate Taber, the Presbyterian Mission Representative to Palestine and many other NGO leaders. We met many, many warm, friendly, loving Palestinian families who extended great hospitality to us and explained the effect of the occupation on their lives and their livelihoods. Middle class, farmers, herders and refugee families.

Please pray for Israel. Please pray for its leaders and its people. Please pray their leaders find their moral compass, their political will to seek justice for both Israelis and Palestinians. Please pray they stop enabling nationalism, Zionism and all-for-Israel-none-for-Palestine greed.

Please pray that the Israeli people stop letting their worst instincts control their actions. In Proverbs 29:18, we are taught: “Where there is no vision, the people perish”. Here, vision means allowing God’s love to rule your heart and to guide your actions. People without vision have an almost boundless capacity to inflict suffering and misery. Israelis are not exempt. If the Israeli people continue on this path, they will surely perish. Jesus in Matthew 22:39 calls us to the path of compassion, justice, reconciliation, sharing abundance and peace saying “And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”.

Please pray with us that Israel – its leaders and its people - welcome God’s love, compassion, reconciliation, and peace into their hearts.

The West Bank and Gaza Districts of Palestine have been occupied by Israel for almost 50 years – three generations. 62% of the West Bank land of Palestine is classified by Israel as “Area C”. “Area C” is the designation for land that is under the complete control of the Israeli military. It is surrounded by a zigzagging concrete wall up to 26 feet high. To enter or exit “Area C”, you must pass through a gate in the wall guarded by Israeli soldiers. Picture airport security on steroids.

Rural Palestinians live in “Area C”. “Area C” is villages, fields, orchards, farms and open land. Palestinians are not allowed to improve their property or build in “Area C” without a permit from the military and permits are very, very infrequently granted. If a Palestinian in “Area C” constructs even a modest cistern to collect rainwater or a small improvement to their property without a permit, the military destroys it.

Israeli leadership’s purpose, enforced by the full brutal force of the military, is to facilitate and guard the construction of Israeli only subdivisions and industrial parks in Palestine connected by Israeli only roads and highways and surrounded by fences and the apartheid wall.

The apartheid wall is specifically routed to confiscate Palestinian land and water so that Israeli subdivisions have land for expansion and all the water they desire - including water for swimming pools and irrigation - while Palestinians often have less than 4 gallons per person per day. A typical Israeli uses 40 gallons per day. Israel has electronically controlled valves in most areas of Palestine and frequently closes them in order to maintain the water supply for Israelis. Water for Palestinians is sometimes only available one day per week or less. Palestinians are forced to store water in tanks on their roofs while water from Palestinian aquifers is provided to Israelis. And Israel charges Palestinians for this water they confiscated often at rate four times higher than Israelis pay.

Israeli occupation strategy is to make life so arduous for Palestinians that they must leave their land and become refugees in order to survive. Unattended land, even land where Palestinians have a deed, is confiscated after a short period. If a Palestinian farmer does not have a deed to his fields or orchards because it was not the custom at the time or it was lost, the military also confiscates that land. Palestinians have extremely few legal rights. Courts are often used to harass them or to enforce confiscations. Confiscated land in “Area C” is provided to the Israeli only planned communities, subdivisions and industrial parks for expansion, and again for emphasis, with no compensation to the Palestinian owners.

Residents of the Israeli only planned communities and subdivisions in Palestine damage Palestinian property and allow their effluent to flow into Palestine streams, with few consequences and with army protection. Israeli “settlers”, residents of these Israeli only planned communities and subdivisions frequently poison or bulldoze Palestinian orchards and olive groves. The Israeli military prevents any type of retaliation and arrests Palestinians who try.

The full force of the military means also they arbitrarily detain adults and children without charge. They kill children and adults without consequences. They break down doors in the middle of the night and imprison leaders. These actions are intended to intimidate, humiliate and oppress. They deny the Palestinians their right to the peaceful enjoyment of their own land and water. The occupation celebrates Israeli military exploits and criminalizes Palestinian resistance, even non-violent resistance. The occupation is teaching young Israeli adults through compulsory military service to disrespect, dehumanize, and torture Palestinians. “Where there is no vision, the people perish” morally, spiritually and ultimately economically.

There is so much more that we could write about. The net result is the people of Israel living first world lives at the expense of Palestinians. The restricted economic activity results in 16% unemployment in the West Bank districts of Palestine and 50% unemployment in the Gaza districts.

We listened and we witnessed. In the 21st century, how can one great people, a people who suffered the holocaust, inflict such hardship, injustice, indignity, pain and humiliation on another? How can America, the beacon of freedom, justice, and hope for the people of the world not just observe it happening but enable it through vetoes in the United Nations and over three billion dollars in aid. Where is our beacon? Where is our vision? How can we, the citizens of America, allow this to happen in our name?

The Presbyterian Church is actively supporting justice for Palestinians through The Israel Palestine-Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA). For additional perspectives on the occupation, please read the information on their website at http://www.israelpalestinemissionnetwork.org/main/ or on the websites of the many other religious and justice organizations supporting Palestinians. One especially valuable site is Freedom Ride For Justice in Palestine at https://freedombuspalestine.wordpress.com.

Please share the love and justice you know in your own life equally with the people of Israel and Palestine.

We visited the center and met Master HASAN ÇIKAR DEDE. Master Hasan answered questions followed by a performance of the Whirling Dervish Ceremony.

The Sufi disciples use effort, energy, searching to reach the level of devine love.

The History of the Sufi movement goes back to Moses, David and Abraham and Mohammed then Ali.

They believe Moses, David and Abraham each had knowledge and the Founder put them together.n

Christians share similar beliefs. Sufis take human beings as the God's representatives. They see God in all mankind. They strive to incorporate all the knowledge, all the wisdom of humans.

Some faiths see God as a distant entity. Mohammed advised the faithful to feel the energy, knowledge, the wisdom of God. To see themselves as God's emissary on earth.

Sufis Believe in the oneness of all people. Devote themselves to the salvation of mankind on earth.

They Focus on the eternal in each of us on earth.

See http://universalmevlanalovers.blogspot.com.tr for additional info.