Rawabi

Today was the most hopeful day I’ve had on this journey. We visited al-Haram ash-Sharif (the Temple Mount) this morning (pictures below), and this afternoon we visited the offices of Massar International, the real-estate company breaking ground – literally and figuratively – on Rawabi, the first planned Palestinian city.

Bashar Masri is the charismatic founder of Massar International, which, in conjunction with Qatari Government-owned Qatari Diar, are the investors backing the work of Masri’s Bayti Real Estate Investment Company. His story is remarkable. Born and raised in Nablus in the West Bank, he lived in Washington D.C. for well over a decade and became a U.S. citizen in 1987. He founded Massar International, a small private sector development company, in 1994, and moved back to the West Bank. After working on small development projects in Palestine, he realized that to compete globally, the company needed to upgrade. By September 2000, the company was hiring dozens of employees, and owned a brokerage company, a technology company, an advertising company, and a newspaper publishing company. However, also in fall 2000, the first Intifada broke out. With increased security forces of the IDF placing West Bank residents under curfew for four months out of the next year and a half, and increasing difficulties with mobility and a complete halt to development projects, Massar International had to think creatively, or go bankrupt. Mr. Masri decided to diversify and invest in real estate. Bayti Real Estate Investment Company was born and operations started in 2004. Mr. Masri began projects in Morocco, Jordan, Egypt, and Serbia.

“Real estate was promising,” he said. His company realized that there was a significant population of middle and low-income families living throughout the Middle East who don’t own homes, “and there is no good reason why they don’t,” he said. With six years of work in Morocco, Bayti homes sold over 12,000 apartments, growing their initial investment of 1.2 million euro into a 300 million euro enterprise. “Bayti homes have a great reputation. And we made such a profit on the homes in Morocco, within three years we were renovating and updating the homes… When you say ‘Bayti Homes’ in Morocco, they have a great reputation, and a great resale value,” he said.

He continued, “So, we said, ‘If we can be successful in other countries, why not elsewhere? Why not attempt to do this in Palestine?” 2005 was a great financial year for most of the countries in the Middle East, and momentum started building for Mr. Masri and the managers and employees of Bayti Homes and Massar International in Ramallah. In 2007, the idea of Rawabi, the first planned Palestinian city, was born. From the Winter 2010 Newsletters to investors in the Rawabi project:

“Rawabi is being developed by the Bayti Real Estate Investment Company, jointly owned by Qatari Government-owned Qatari Diar and Ramallah-based Massar International- two companies with unsurpassed real estate development experience and extensive knowledge of regional and international markets.

Rawabi will be built as a modern, high-tech city with gleaming mid-rise buildings, green parks and shopping areas. It will include fully developed infrastructure, a business district and commercial center, private and public schools, mosques and a church, public parks, a hotel and convention center, a cinema, a library and a municipal complex. Primary and secondary health care facilities, a police station and a fire station will be key features of the city, ensuring a safe, comfortable and healthy environment. The infrastructure and public facilities will benefit not only Rawabi but also the nine neighboring towns and villages.

Rawabi will provide more than 5,000 affordable housing units with nine different floor-plans to choose from, spread across 23 neighborhoods. Rawabi will initially be home to 25,000 residents, with additional residential and commercial unis slated for subsequent construction phases that will ultimately serve a city with a population of 40,000.”

The Rawabi project has already begun, and it is awe-inspiring. We were driven to the site today to overlook the work being done in the first phase. The mountain is being carved into a contour suitable for building, with the crushed aggregate stone being saved as building material. Three different Palestinian private contractors are busy on the project, causing a significant snowball effect in the Palestinian economy. Banks are approving the contractors’ application for business loans, and the contractors are purchasing new, state-of-the-art equipment to get the job done well and on schedule. The hundreds of workers on site are stimulating the economies of the small surrounding towns and villages by eating in their restaurants and cafes, shopping in their stores and markets, and project managers sleeping in their hotels. With more and more construction workers joining the project every week, new business ventures are popping up in Ramallah and villages near the site to provide large quantities of boxed lunches for the workers. Over 1,000 qualified prospective residents have already been interviewed by Bayti homes and are registered to purchase the first units, which are scheduled to be completed in the next three years.

“We are targeting young professionals, young families who want a safe place to raise their families… a clean, well-planned city that provides jobs… This project is growing the Palestinian economy,” said Amir Dajani, project planner and manager.

The cooperation that has gone into the Rawabi project and the support it is enjoying are unparalleled. Just last Thursday, Tony Blair was on site to learn about the project and see its progress. The newsletter reports, “Bayti holds regular meetings and briefings with Palestinian community and business leaders interested in Rawabi, to provide updates on the project and to gain feedback from the attendees. Recently, Bayti conducted briefings for community leaders on the progress of the Rawabi project. During the meetings, Bayti received valuable insights from the participants, whose suggestions will be incorporated into future development plans. Due to this level of community interest and the fruitfulness of such meetings, Bayti plans to continue to hold such briefings and involve Palestinian business and community leaders in the city’s development.” The notable dignitaries who have visited and support Rawabi include Daniel Rubinstein, U.S Consul General; David Harden, Senior Advisor to U.S. Envoy Senator George Mitchell; Senator John Kerry; board members of the Middle East Investment Initiative; Howard Sumka, USAID Mission Director; and Archbishop Theodosios, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, among others.

It was humbling to realize that I was receiving the same tour that these very important and very influential leaders had received. I was dumbfounded, actually.

I was most moved by the initiative to make Rawabi an environmentally sustainable green space. The Jewish National Fund has for decades received donations from around the world for the forestation of Israel. Now, it is possible to buy a tree that will be planted in Rawabi. I highly encourage you to do so. So far, 10,000 trees have been planted through the GROW for a Greener Palestine program. Visit http://www.rawabi.ps/ to purchase a tree and help forest Palestine.

One more “hallelujah” about the Rawabi project: this project will not only be the first planned Palestinian city, but it is also “the first time in Palestinian history that structured long-term mortgages will be available to target segments of the Palestinian population, such as future Rawabi homeowners (through programs such as Amal [an affordable mortgage and loan company] and those offered through local banks).”

Some of the remaining headlines and taglines of the articles in this newsletter:

· “A Model for Future Palestinian City Developments”

· “A City of Firsts in Palestine: Offering a Better Quality of Life”

· “A Pioneering City, Home to Innovation”

· “10,000 Trees Planted Under the GROW for a Greener Palestine Program”

· “Rawabi to Spur Economic Growth”

· “Mortgage Finance Programs: A Path to Home Ownership”

· “Adhering to Better International Standards and Practices”

It is stunning that the private sector is leading the way in the development of the infrastructure for the birth of a new Palestinian state. After so many failings and so much corruption within the Palestinian Authority under Arafat, the rise of Hamas and brutal and violent clashes with Fatah, the building of the wall to put an end to terrorist attacks originating in the West Bank, and the blockade of Gaza to prevent the entry of weapons in the strip and reaching the hands of Hamas militants –

this is a success story to hold on to. This is the building up of a new generation of Palestinian hope, originating from strong, sound leadership within Palestine’s private sector.

I had a moment for a conversation with Amir Dajani, the project manager, today when we were looking at the construction site. I asked, “Do you think that with your initiative, with you leading the way, that other private sector actors will join in building up Palestine, and that the public sector will follow your lead, too?”

“Oh, definitely,” he said. “We’re paving the way.”

Indeed they are.

If you support the Palestinian cause – you MUST educate yourself about Rawabi. And, you must realize the drastic difference between the past Palestinian modus operandi and the new transparent pioneering vision of Massar International and Bayti Real Estate Investment.

They are paving the way for a transparent, accountable, organized, and modern Palestinian state.

Saturday night

Day four (Saturday night).

At the end of the “business day,” I was ready to pack my bags and go home. Go home. Done. I’m done – see ya later.

Then, we had our oh-so-necessary and long-delayed Episcopal alcohol outing. Two lovely bottles of red wine from the Golan Heights Winery later – I think I can face Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

In every trip I take, there’s always a moment of “wow, I love these people. I’m really going to be sad to leave.” Today was that day for me. I love the people on this trip – in all their eccentricities – and I love the camaraderie and humor we share. I also appreciate – to such a great extent that I cannot express it – that all these bishops and priests have accepted me with open arms and actually LISTEN TO ME. I don’t feel marginalized. I don’t feel young. I don’t feel insignificant. I actually feel quite normal, quite able to contribute, and quite happy. This is a huge moment for me. I think I’ve finally made the transition from child to adult in the church. These very wise and very educated people are listening to me, dignifying me, and most times, agreeing with my assessments of certain issues. I feel pretty damn fantastic.

Also, though, I feel somewhat out of place. Today we had a meeting in Bethlehem with a Palestinian family, and we were offered candies, coffee, and treats. I’ve lived with Arabs, and Arab hospitality is beautiful. I knew going into the meeting that it would be rude to refuse the gifts being offered to us. To me – this is just common knowledge of how to behave in Arab culture. I was astonished by how many members of our group refused – politely, of course –the food and drink. I was a little embarrassed, actually. This is a simple matter – it’s the American politeness of declining in the American way versus Arab hospitality being offered to make the stranger feel like a friend. Two very different systems. I just wish we had discussed it prior to the meeting. I remember my Moroccan mother once being almost hurt that I refused the cookies she had set out for me to enjoy. She offered dozens of cookies – all for me, and all for a simple visit. I said, “La, shukran,” (no, thank you) because I was already full. And then the look on her face came, and I immediately regretted that choice. Arabs are generous and hospitable to a fault. Folks – if you ever travel in the Middle East and you are lucky enough to spend time with people who live there, don’t refuse their offerings. It is their cultural – and beautiful – way of welcoming you, of making you feel like a friend and not a stranger.

At dinner this evening, I was eating with three other women in my group. Across from us, a few tables away, a black Jewish couple sat eating their meal. One of the women at my table is black, and she wanted to get a photograph of this black Jewish couple, since they were the first we had seen. We waited until after dinner. As we were leaving the dining room, the man had his head bowed in prayer as he cradled his prayer book in his hands. His wife was at the buffet getting some more food. One of my friends retrieved the camera from her pocket to photograph the man. I took out my cellphone to look distracted and distanced myself from my group. I didn’t want to be part of these curious and inappropriate Americans taking a picture of a man engaged in humble prayer to his god – in an intimate location, close enough to reach out and touch him. Taking pictures at the Western Wall is one thing. It is huge, it is an open air, public space, and thousands of tourists visit every day. Taking a picture of a black Jew praying in a dining room full of tourists and other Jews at the end of a holy Shabbat– this is just audacious. He ignored her while she took the picture. His wife returned to the table and gave us all a quizzical look. Her husband had not lifted his head from his prayers. “Do you mind if I take your picture?” she asked. The black Jewish woman did not understand her question, so my friend proceeded to position herself to take their photograph.

I was rather disgusted and annoyed. It’s just backwards and strange. Let’s imagine for a minute: I’m in Ghana, or Mongolia, or some other place where my skin color and culture make me out of place. And, curious and silly tourists take out their camera to take a picture of me while I’m kneeling in prayer. “Oh, look at the interesting white girl kneeling down, performing her religious rituals. How fascinating. Let’s take a photograph of this curiosity.”
Oh- but wait. This would never happen to me in another place. This is pure American tourist syndrome, orientalism, and an “oh how quaint and fascinating” attitude rolled into one.

Eww. Ewwwwww. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

These are not cultural curiosities. These are people, living their lives. They’re not on display, they’re not on stage, and they’re not play-acting for your amusement. Why are we taking their photograph?

Those things aside, I will conclude today by saying that I don’t want to write about this conflict today. The layers are only piling up, the interreligious, interethnic, inter-Jewish, inter-Palestinian, and inter-political dialectics are only twisting my brain into a knot.

I can say, with assurance and in full confidence, that there is 1000 times more complexity to this conflict than opinionated Americans understand, or than educated pundits care to write about. Before you jump ship into the extreme pro-Israel camp, or wear your keffiyeh and carry your Palestinian flag, stop for a moment. Think. Read. And get your butt to Israel and Palestine for something more than a religious pilgrimage.

There’s much, much, much more to this conflict than any of us dare to imagine. It’s too weighty. It’s too hard. It’s too much.

And that’s exactly why we should either read voraciously, study voraciously, and talk to people living these realities (normal people, on the ground – and not politicians), or just claim ignorance and shut up.

Why didn’t I shut up before?
How stupid I was.

Shabbat Shalom

Today we heard from two journalists. Yossi Klein Halevi, an Israeli Jewish journalist, spent two hours with us in the morning, and Khaled Abu Toameh, an Arab Israeli journalist and expert on Palestinian affairs for numerous publications, spent about two hours with us this evening.
The breadth, depth, and complexity of the material they presented will take a long time for me to sift through. I took 21 pages of notes – and these are all in truncated short-hand. The primary ideas that arose from both of their talks were:
1. Arab world has to come to an age of maturation, responsibility, and accountability. The West (primarily the United States, but also countries in the E.U.) has to stop financially supporting corrupt regimes in the Middle East, thus suppressing the rise of leaders with integrity, character, and goodwill. [I will get the statistics and all the facts that I can to further explain this point. I was astounded at my ignorance, and when I can more fully present what I heard today, you may be astounded, too. Or maybe the wool was pulled over my eyes only.].
2. Judaism and Christianity have had their modern “coming of age.” Islam isn’t there yet. (Read Irshad Manji’s The Trouble with Islam Today to see what they’re getting at on this point). Islam is being held back by many social forces, including widespread corruption of Islamic governments, which leads to large groups of people looking to radical Islamic movements for solutions to their problems.
3. The relationship of Hamas to Iran, to Syria, and to extremist and radical Islamic movements throughout the world CANNOT be underestimated.
4. $10 billion was given to the Palestinian Authority for development programs for its 3 million people between 1994 and 2001 – primarily from the United States (taxpayer dollars). [This amounts to $3,333 per Palestinian – just to give you a per-person figure]. Walk into the Palestinian Territories today and look for development projects and infrastructure that dates from that period. You’ll find none. Where did all the money go? A corrupt Arafat government that was not held accountable by the nations funding his luxurious lifestyle, his construction of a casino (and not hospitals or schools), and his $100,000 monthly shopping allowance to his wife, who was living in Paris.
5. Israel is marching toward pragmatism and realism. Arab nations are marching toward radicalism, intransigence, and stubbornness.
6. Israel is badly losing the PR war. Palestine has its buzz words: occupation, wall, blockade, human rights. Israel doesn’t have the buzz words. [And the HUGE problem here, for me, is that all you have to say to an ignorant emotional activist-type American is “occupation” or “human rights violations” and the rhetoric is immediately against Israel – without any research to qualify their claims, without deep investigation into the history of the country and the two peoples in conflict, without anything that would dignify their arguments as sound, rational and logical. What about terrorism? What about intransigent religious extremism? What about corruption, misuse of funds, and lack of any stable Palestinian government to build up the Palestinian people and make them self-sufficient? $10billion between 1994 and 2001, and roughly $1 billion per year continues to be given to Palestine. WHERE IS IT GOING?]
7. Palestinians and Israelis are tired of the West’s repeated attempts to bring them into “dialogue,” to the “negotiating table” to talk about the “peace process.” Life has settled into a status quo in the past few years. Violence, terrorism, and tensions have decreased. When the West, or particularly, Obama requests that Netanyahu and Abbas meet to discuss a final settlement – Israeli and Palestinian hairs stand up on the backs of Israeli and Palestinian necks. The “peace processes” of 2000 and 2001 did not deliver.

I learned a great skill while I was in school from good professors and intelligent friends who would call me on my bullshit when I would start spouting “facts” on issues ABOUT WHICH I KNEW NOTHING. Clay truly was my savior in this respect. He calls me on my bullshit.

So, over the years, I have intentionally and deliberately tried to learn to live in humility and admit when I don’t know something. There is no problem with not knowing. There is a problem with speaking as an authority when you’re not. There is a problem in claiming expertise when you haven’t done the groundwork to learn the history, the dialectic, the polemics, etc., etc. (And, I have to say, there is a problem with having an opinion when you’ve not educated yourself in the least bit on the issue about which you’re forming said opinion. Period. …climbing down off my soap box…).

This trip is teaching me two things. First – thank goodness that I started reading about this conflict back in January, because if I hadn’t, I would be in the middle of the deep-end without my floaties and I wouldn’t know which way was up. Second – I am desperately ignorant.
Despite, or rather, because of my ignorance, I am listening with the widest open ears I can muster. My eyes are pealed. I am reading voraciously, scribbling notes voraciously, and trying to retain everything I’m being told. I’m relying on my short experience living in the Arab-Islamic world, on my undergraduate years spent reading about religion and religious conflicts, and on my previous trip to Israel so that I can learn more fully about intra-Palestinian political struggles, intra-Israeli political discourse, and the very delicate and volatile nature of this whole thing.

To conclude, today brought to light that there is much more going on in this conflict than two competing narratives, and two peoples fighting for the same very small piece of land (along with other readily acknowledged things that this is about). What is going on in many cases is journalism lacking integrity and blinded by ideology and argument.

And so, this leaves observers of good will with the high task not only of dignifying both peoples, but of searching for the truth in the media, and proclaiming it with integrity.

My suggestion: get to Israel and Palestine, meet with people in the know, and learn for yourself.

deeper into the narratives

Day two on the ground.

I’ll open this synopsis with the ideas I used to conclude my last posting:

In Israel, in Palestine, in our own country: what memories do we allow to shape our history, shape our identity, and then cycle back to create new memories? What memories do we co-opt as our own, from others’ testimonies, from history, from our identity? What memories, histories, and identities do we construct out of thin air?

What is the mantle that we wrap around ourselves? And do we have the courage to take it off, and objectively analyze, cleanse, reconstruct, or destroy it if necessary?


This land is a land of vivid memories, dynamic and tangible history, and complicated, unceasing conflict. The Israeli national narrative is deeply ingrained in the minds of the Jewish Israelis living here. It is dream fed by memory, molded into movement, enacted by emigrants and refugees for decades prior to the establishment of Israel in 1948, and continued since. It is nightmare-dream/memory/myth become national narrative, become catalyst for events that have shaped history. Whether or not you buy into the narrative is irrelevant. The narrative has shaped history for the Israelis, and it will continue to do so.

A view of the security barrier from the

southernmost point of Israel (looking into Bethlehem)

Graffiti on the wall, on the Palestinian side,
on the way to Ramallah.

The Palestinian narrative has likewise shaped their history. It is, similarly, nightmare-dream/memory/ myth become the narrative of the nationalist aspirations of Palestine, and it shapes their history on the ground. Every event in the life of Palestine (and likewise of Israel) is perceived through the lens of the collective national memory and identity, and thus shapes their historiography (their writing of history) – and likewise the history-in-the-making on the ground. Again, whatever you might think about the narrative is irrelevant. The narrative is writing history.




My thinking about this whole memory/history/identity cyclical process has matured in the past year and a half, since I first started working with the idea in the context of Moroccan identity politics. I still have a soft spot in my heart for the Berberist (Amazigh- indigenous) struggle and the narrative that they spout, but, in the end, their narrative developed just as did the Arabo-Islamist narrative that they are combating. My thesis argued in favor of the Berberist narrative, and concluded that it is in the interest of the West and particularly, America, to hear their narrative and value it over the Islamist one. In the end, though, both narratives developed by means of the same processes, and one is NOT better than the other and should NOT supersede the other. They both just are. It is how it is. The problem in Morocco and the problem in Israel and Palestine is that there is one narrative that is superseding the other narrative, one history and memory that oppresses the other (the Islamist in Morocco, and, arguably, the Israeli in this part of the world, but also, in certain ways, the Palestinian in the ability of Palestinian-born terrorists to hold the Israeli population hostage in immobilizing fear, and lead them to security measures such as the blockade of Gaza and the construction of the security barrier).

More graffiti on the Palestinian side of the wall

It serves no purpose to form value judgments about a people’s collective narrative and identity. Identities are what they are, and the Palestinian and Israeli identities are shaped as any person’s identity would be shaped: by events, by memory, by family, upbringing, filtered through language, religion, culture and historical experience. Layer upon layer of individual identities conflate to form the collective identity and group narrative.


The Israeli narrative is a valid narrative. The Palestinian narrative is a valid narrative. Both contain fact, fiction, reality and myth. The issue is not that one narrative must cease to exist (and a people and their identity with it) in favor of the other’s rise. The issue is when two peoples of distinct identities and narratives are in conflict, it is often because one is not being granted the right to self-determination in light of their narrative. This is, as I see it, exactly what is going on Israel-Palestine, and to a much lesser and much milder extent, in Morocco between the indigenous Berbers and the Arabs.

Looking into Beit Lehem (Bethlehem) and Beit Jala

from the southernmost Israeli-controlled point in Jerusalem

Ok. So both the Israelis and the Palestinians deserve the right to self-determination. A no-brainer. A two-state solution is the most viable way to go – where Palestinians would have full and complete governance of their own state, existing peacefully beside Israel. The problem is, then, where the state is to be after the failure of the peace negotiations of the last decade. Here is where I have difficulty, and here is where you must spend considerable time learning about the failed Middle East Peace Summit at Camp David in summer 2000, and the later failed negotiations at Taba in January 2001. The blame is thrown at both sides: at Yasser Arafat because he rejected a very generous offer made by Ehud Barak, and at Israel because Israel didn’t concede enough, and back at the Palestinians because Israel maintains there was nothing more they could have reasonably given. And so it continues. (Read about the Clinton Parameters on Wikipedia. It’s truly a good, concise synopsis, and it will provide you with many links for further research).

We met with a senior Fatah official today at the Palestinian Authority headquarters in Ramallah (an experience that very very few Americans heavily emotionally invested in this conflict EVER get to have). The four-part demands of Fatah, as he repeatedly explained to us, are as follows:

1. Withdrawal from lands that exceed the pre-1967 borders of Israel, returning all the land outside of those borders to the Palestinian people for a Palestinian state. (This was effectively part of the Clinton Parameters accepted by Barak, and rejected by Arafat).
2. To give East Jerusalem – in its entirety (as defined by Fatah) – back to the Palestinians.
3. Remove illegal settlements in Palestinian territories, which he defined as settlements in that exceed the pre-1967 borders of Israel (this was addressed in the peace negotiations with proposed “land swaps” for Arab villages in the Israeli side with Jewish settlements in the Palestinian side)
4. Grant the option of the Right of Return to refugees and their descendants, or instead grant them monetary compensation for their losses (which has always been a demand of the Palestinians, and has always been refused by Israel)

Our group spent considerable time questioning him about the fourth demand, as this would mean at least hundreds of thousands (some estimates exceed millions) of people flooding into the land of Israel, effectively dismantling the demographics of the state and the existence of a Jewish state.

“With very minor exceptions, one through three have been granted and rejected twice by the Palestinians. Why do you say that Israel refuses to meet these parameters?”
“Because they were not offered to us in this way. This was not the offer made to us at Camp David or at Taba.”
A few more questions circled about this, and the response remained the same. The Wikipedia article touches on what he considered many of the problems: occupation of the Jordan Valley by Israeli forces (Wikipedia reads “international forces”), right of Israel to deploy troops in Palestine, etc.

“The Right of Return would be impossible for Israel to accept,” some of us mentioned.

“Israel won’t even meet one through three,” he said. “Israel must accept one through three, and then we can negotiate about number four. But one through three, they must accept.”

The whole talk left me feeling somewhat hopeless, and while this was perhaps lost in translation, his position, as I heard it, was one of intransigence. (Two things: first, he’s a politician, and politicians stick to their party line. Granted. From what I could see, he’s a very effective politician, and a good leader for his people. Second, I really loved being around Arabic speakers. I could catch at least a dozen words or phrases in every statement he made, and often derive some meaning from it. That was terribly exciting, and renewed my motivation to gain functional fluency in Arabic. So, while his position was hard to swallow at times, the whole experience was as enjoyable as this type of experience could be).

The Israeli and Palestinian narratives are nationalist narratives, and the Palestinians need their own state. The Israeli public (70% in a recent poll) have no argument there. They want Palestinians to have their own state. Two “however’s.” The first: However, the Palestinians have to get their act together (Hamas needs to stop terrorizing Fatah, and Fatah needs to stop terrorizing Hamas, responsible leaders need to be raised up and the widespread corruption in the Fatah government has to end). The second: However, those who support the creation of a Palestinian state – and I wholeheartedly do – have to also acknowledge the very valid security concerns of Israel. While the Fatah official with whom we met spoke to us primarily about territorial concerns and, I believe, yearns for negotiations and for peace, I pressed him on the issue of Hamas – which purports an religious extremism, historically has terrorized the Israelis living in towns bordering the Gaza strip, and has proclaimed its determination to destroy Israel. (Fatah also proclaims that they want an end to the Jewish state).

“You are speaking about territorial concerns, but what about Hamas? Hamas will not negotiate, and is determined to destroy Israel. How will peace come, even if Israel meets these demands, with Hamas determined to destroy Israel?” I asked.

He contended that if Israel would concede to the demands of Fatah, peace would come to the region and Hamas would cease its campaign of terror.

I wish, and I pray. Truly I do. But I don’t believe that religious extremists will stop if Israel were to make the territorial concessions that our Fatah official outlined. The motivation that drives Hamas’ fight supersedes the nationalist aspirations of Palestinians as outlined by Fatah. Hamas wants to end the existence of Israel.

The high-ranking IDF officer with whom we spoke yesterday in Sderot, on a hill overlooking the Gaza strip, told us, “There have been 10 million Qassam rockets launched into Israel since 2001.” The vast majority of these were fired into Israel from Gaza. He later added, “If you open the sea gates, within two months Hamas would have 40,000 rockets that could reach Tel Aviv.”

We hear these things and whether or not we believe them, whether or not we believe Israeli intelligence and the unclassified information being shared with us, we’re hearing part of the Israeli narrative that continues to feed their mindset, stoke the fire of their fears, and affects their actions on the ground.

And those of us stateside who are very passionate about this conflict, we HAVE to remember: There is no easy answer to the woes of all the people in this land, and there is no use to Westerners spouting one-sided, biased, bigoted, and proud analyses of this conflict. I’m guilty of this, and tonight, I will pray for forgiveness. I don’t live here. My family members haven’t been killed or maimed by suicide bombers. I have no iron key hanging on my wall that unlocks a long-lost door in a long-lost Arab neighborhood in what is now Israel.

My heart aches for the people affected by this conflict. I have no solution. American pro-Palestinian activists don’t have a solution, and neither do American pro-Israel lobbies.
We don’t live here. We don’t know what it’s like to feel that there is no other option than to construct a security barrier to prevent terrorists from entering our neighborhoods and blowing up buses outside our children’s kindergartens. And we don’t live next to walls that separate us from our family and friends living in Jerusalem, while we live just over the hill in Bethlehem.
I am convinced that no side is ultimately “right” while the other is “wrong.” Both have committed violence and unspeakable evil.

We can’t imagine what it’s like.

Happy photos from today's journey

Needed some levity to my blog, so here are two happier photos from today's excursion:

Russian Orthodox Church on the Mount of Olives:

Church of All Nations, next to the Garden of Gethsemane, at the base of the Mount of Olives:

beginning

End of first full day in Israel.

My group has been asked not to do in-depth blogging while on this journey, as the trust and honesty built between our group is paramount to the mission of why we’re here, learning what we’re learning. So, in interest of maintaining integrity, I’ll only share tidbits of the goings-on here, with some commentary on what I’m experiencing and what’s running through my head.

After arriving in Tel Aviv yesterday (and opening an Israeli cell phone account and putting my new Israel SIM card into my Moroccan cell phone – a walk down memory lane…), our tour guide and driver took us to an overlook of the old city of Jerusalem on the Hebrew University campus on Mount Scopus. Clay and I have looked dreamily at the English language masters programs offered at Hebrew University – Religious Studies, Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies, Biblical Studies, etc. – so I called him immediately and told him where I was. I really look forward to returning to Israel with him so we can visit the school together and get to know some faculty. I would love nothing more than to be a student at Hebrew University.

The view of the city from Mount Scopus is magnificent, and an entirely different viewpoint from the one I had when I was last in Jerusalem. On Mount Scopus we stood at the north end of the city, facing south. When I was previously in Jerusalem, we stood west facing east. It’s difficult to discern in the photograph, but from Scopus we could see the comparable size of the Holy Sepulchre dome to the Dome of the Rock, could see the Russian Orthodox Church, the Garden of Gethsemane and Church of All Nations, and just to our left, on the next hill over (an outfielder’s stone’s throw away) was the Mormon university. I identified it before our tour guide did, because I’m a nut and when I learned there was a Mormon university in Jerusalem months ago, I immediately scoured their website and learned what the campus looked like. So, yes, there I stood, looking once again onto the Old City, but strangely, with an eerie sense of calm and no nervous butterflies or chills up my spine. I just leaned my arms on the stone wall of the overlook, enjoyed the breeze, and felt comfortable in my surroundings. It has taken nine countries and some ten trips abroad to feel comfortable in a foreign environment. As I stood on Mount Scopus, I felt a great sense of peace and hope that I could return and live here, happily and perhaps for an extended stay.

We descended Mount Scopus and next visited the Western Wall. The first time I visited the Western Wall, I had been anticipating the visit for years – probably well over a decade. Ever sense I had read The Big Lie in third grade, and then read, and re-read Chaim Potok’s The Chosen (the last pages of my copy are tear-stained), I had dreamt and hoped and prayed about being at the Western Wall. Then, at 19, I toured Poland and visited Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Madajnek. My first trip to Israel was altogether momentous and lacking all comparison. I still cannot put adequate words to it. It’s an experience I share with all those who were on the trip with me, and particularly share with Dr. Russell and Dr. Jones. As a senior at Transy, my time in Israel would wander into my synapses and unexpected times, and then I would walk to Dr. Russell’s office, knock on the door, and say, “I was thinking about Israel.” We’d just look at each other, and smile knowingly, and that was all that needed to be said. Then, I’d walk away.

The Western Wall came late in my first trip to Israel – after visits to numerous archaeological sites, the Sea of Galilee, Tiberias, Caesarea Maritima, ancient churches, on and on. It was Shabbat, and we walked through the darkened tunnels of the old city, through heavy security screenings, and entered the Western Wall complex. It was FULL of people – in many places, shoulder to shoulder. I had excitement building in my stomach like I was just about to reach the crest of a roller coaster and be thrown into the fast downhill rush – but no, I was just about to experience Shabbat as I had never experienced it before. I heard shouting, singing, chanting, dancing, preaching. I walked to the wall that separates the worshipers from the crowd of onlookers, and stood up on a chair where I could see over into the crowd of men and boys below. I was enraptured. A huge, imposing Chasidic rebbe stood gyrating and preaching to the crowd, his speech peppered with higher-pitched staccato whenever he seemed to be making a really momentous point. He looked like a Southern Baptist preacher who’d been transplanted into old Poland or Lithuania, but no, here he really was, with all his faithful followers, preaching up a storm next to the Western Wall in the holy city of Jerusalem. My thoughts about the separation of men and women at prayer aside (and in this context my thoughts really aren’t vehement and truly don’t matter), there are few moments in my life when I have been happier or more in awe. I had walked through death camps and smelled remnants of Zyklon-B in the Madajnek gas chamber. And now, before me, standing below a proudly flown Israeli flag, were hundreds of Jewish worshipers, praying to God in the home of their ancestors, as the Divine Presence hovered above them and the wall.

Female worshipers praying at the wall

Israeli flag fluttering in front of the Western Wall

So, having that climatic experience of the Western Wall in vividly and permanently ingrained in my memory, this visit was far less moving. It was 100 degrees of hot, there had been no community building within this group - yet, we were all exhausted, dragging our feet, sweaty, stinky, and had just deplaned after 12 hours on our butts. Those things being said, I was able to have a calming moment of prayer at the wall, after which I departed slowly, walking backwards so not to turn my back to the Divine Presence. I returned to my group, and we made our way back to the bus, finally to the hotel to rest and refresh ourselves. Of course, before I allowed myself a moment to recover from the trip, I went wandering around the hotel looking for a place to work out. I discovered ballrooms in the depths of the hotel where I did some dance exercises and developed a good sweat before I got back to my room and took a cold shower and changed clothes for dinner. Dinner was delicious, as meals always are in Israel, and… to fast forward, breakfast was amazing this morning as well. Pickled fish, smoked fish, fresh mozzarella, hardboiled egg, hummus, bread, and thick creamy yogurt. I live for breakfasts in Israel (and Greece…… but that’s another time and another set of stories).

Today was our first day of actually doing fact-finding. I won’t share details with you about the people we spoke to and all of what we learned, but I can tell you some of the fascinating places we went and my reactions. First, we visited Sderot, an Israeli town on the border of the Gaza strip, and spoke to a high-ranking IDF officer about the situation in Gaza and Israel’s response to it.

Gaza strip in the distance, viewed from hill in Sderot

(so close we could clearly hear gunfire in Gaza City)

In 2000 and 2001 alone, over 4,500 rockets and 4,250 mortars were launched from Gaza into Israeli towns, killing innocent civilians in their homes. Children grew up in Sderot with the daily threat of bombings. Now, the sea blockade is an effective means of keeping high-range missiles and rockets out of the hands of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Among the many conversations we had today with Israeli officers, legal analysts, and others in the business of protecting Israeli civilians, I heard this idea presented, in different words, through different means, and by different people, that “If you open the sea gates, within TWO MONTHS, Hamas would have 40,000 rockets that could reach Tel Aviv.”

Later we visited the IDF base in Tel Aviv and met with experts in international law. The very real dilemma of the asymmetrical war Israel is fighting with terrorists became deathly clear. What is a sovereign nation to do when its opponents (here we’re talking Hamas militants) dress in civilian clothes, attack from civilian residential areas, hospitals, schools, and use children as human shields, and will not, under any circumstances, come to the table to discuss ceasefire or peace? What does a sovereign nation do when the opponent does not hold itself to, and neither do any other countries demand that it hold itself to, established rules of war – as enshrined in the Geneva Convention, sculpted by modernity from Augustine’s just war theology?

I can speak more about this later – in greater detail and with more depth – but I ask you in the meantime to consider how terrorists and terrorism, particularly the tactics employed by Hamas, challenge their victims to remain committed to the basic principles and laws of armed conflict:

1. Military necessity: That an army may not launch a military offensive unless it has just cause and justification to do so.
2. Distinction: That a clear distinction is drawn between civilians and combatants, and civilian objects and military installations.
3. Proportionality: That collateral damage (civilian casualties and destruction of civilian installations) cannot be excessive to the military advantage gained.
4. Humanity: That civilians and victims of war are dignified as human beings (i.e. granted access to Red Cross and other medical care, that civilians are given opportunities to remove themselves from impending sites of military action, etc.)

I’ll conclude with this idea. My senior thesis project revolved around Moroccan religio-political identity issues, and the construction of memory, history and identity within the Amazigh (Berber) and Islamist movements in Morocco.

What kept tumbling through my mind today was the idea that became the thrust of my thesis: that identity creates memory creates history creates memory creates identity – and the cycle falls over upon itself over and over again, agitated by the waves of movements, ideologies, and events.

In Israel, in Palestine, in our own country: what memories do we allow to shape our history, shape our identity, and then cycle back to create new memories? What memories do we co-opt as our own, from others’ testimonies, from history, from our identity? What memories, histories, and identities do we construct out of thin air?

What is the mantle that we wrap around ourselves? And do we have the courage to take it off, and objectively analyze, cleanse, reconstruct, or destroy it if necessary?

We are a sad lot, we humans.

Charcoal graffiti:

"Gaza," in Arabic

"FilisTin," or "Palestine" as written in Arabic

Article from Islamicity.com

Christmas a time for bridge building
12/10/2009 - Interfaith Religious Social - Article Ref: IC0612-3182
Number of comments: 14
By: Abdul Malik Mujahid
IslamiCity* -

Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Palestinian is about 10 kilometers (6 mi) south of Jerusalem. The church is built above a cave where it is believed Jesus was born.

Treating Christmas with Respect

Christmas is an annual Christian religious holiday commemorating the birth of Prophet Jesus, peace be upon him. For many Muslims who do not even celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, it becomes an issue of what stand they should take.

There have been a number of legitimate criticisms of the holiday from Muslims and non-Muslims based on theological and cultural considerations. However, this cannot be used to disregard the holiday as merely an exercise in ancient pagan practices, for instance, or excessive consumerism. Muslims have to remember that for practicing Christians, Christmas really is about Jesus .

Prophet Muhammad , was so accommodating of Christians that according to the two earliest Islamic historians, Ibn e Saad and Ibn Hisham, the Prophet even allowed a delegation of 60 Byzantine Christians from Najran in Yemen to worship in his own mosque in Madinah. Lead by their bishop (Usquf), they had come to discuss a number of issues with him. When time of their prayer came, they asked the Prophet's permission to perform this in the mosque. He answered, "conduct your service here in the mosque. It is a place consecrated to God."

God expects us to stay away from mocking the religious beliefs of others, no matter how much we disagree with them. He says in the Quran: "And insult not those whom they (disbelievers) worship besides God, lest they insult God wrongfully without knowledge. Thus We have made fair-seeming to each people its own doings; then to their Lord is their return and He shall then inform them of all that they used to do" (Quran, 6:108).

We also have to remember that even if for many nominal Christians, the celebration is not really about participating in religious traditions, Christmas is a time for families to get together. In a number of cases it is the only time of year families get together, either because family members are scattered in different parts of the country or the world, because of communication and relationship problems, or because in America today, the family unit is becoming weaker and weaker.

Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus .

Christmas is a great time to relate to our neighbors. We should not forget though, that "relating" does not mean "preaching". Dawa cannot be made in a rude manner. Allah says in the Quran: "Invite (all) to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful advice, and reason with them by ways that are the best and most gracious: because your Lord knows best, (those) who have strayed from His Path, and those who receive guidance " (Quran, 16:125).

In particular, when dealing with Jews and Christians, Allah says: "Do not argue with the People of the Book unless it is in the politest manner, except for those of them who do wrong. Say: 'We believe in what has been sent down to us and what has been sent down to you. Our God and your God is [the same] One, and we are Muslims before Him'" (Quran, 29:46).

This may not be an occasion to emphasis the differences as much as the commonality of our beliefs, unless someone is really asking you about them.

A starting point for a discussion about Christmas could be the Islamic belief in all Books revealed by Allah and all Prophets sent by Him. In this discussion, special emphasis could be made on Prophet Jesus . Non-Muslims are often surprised to discover that Muslims also believe in this noble Prophet and his great mother Mary (peace be upon her).

Remember that respect does not mean compromise. This article is not asking you to compromise anything. You have freedom of religion given by God to believe in what you believe in. But in a world where conflict is increasing, a Muslim should be a bridge- builder and a peacemaker. It was due to the Muslim practice of Islamic ideals of respect and tolerance that the key of the holiest Christian Shrine in Jerusalem, the church of the Holy Sepulcher, remains entrusted with a Muslim family, as it has been for over 1400 years.

These are the lessons which need to be learned by those extremists who attack Christians during their worship in Nigeria and those extremists who burn Masjids in the USA.

Abdul Malik Mujahid, is the President and Director of Sound Vision Foundation Inc. He is an Imam in the Chicago area and a founding member of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (CIOGC).