As many of you know, I recently went on an awesome trip to Israel and Palestine. While there I was able to go and visit with a friend of mine, Elias Gahreeb, who is a Palestinian Christian, that lives near Bethlehem. It was an eye opening and life changing expereince. Let me explain.
I have neverr before understood what it meant to be an oppressed people. I still cannot comprehend or imagine living as an opressed person, but I think I have a better understanding.
Imagine if you will owning a home, that has been in your family for thousands of years. Living in a land for many generations, then suddenly having soldiers come in and force you to leave your home. You are not given any restitution or any kind, nor were you given a new home. A foreign entity had to come in and build a home for you, so that you could have a roof over your head. More than tweny years later, you still live in this temporary home and now that same foreign government, is building a 30 foot tall cement wall within sight of your house. This wall is between you and family and freinds. You cannot cross this wall. The occupying government will not allow you to cross this wall at any point. In addition, many of your family and freinds lost thier homes, so that this wall could be built. Again, no restitution was paid.
In addition to these oppressive situations, you are now told that you cannot go to the hospital that your children were born in, nor can you visit family and freinds a few miles away. The occupying government moves new people into your community and expands the area these new people can live. The occupying government creates new roads, but will not allow you to use them, because you are not one of thier people. There is also an even more powerful government and people that constantly back up this occupying government. This other government gives the ocuppiers money and military support.
Perhaps this seems outrageous to you. You may even think this has the beginning of a wonderful fictional story, but it is exactly what is happening in the Middle East today. The Palestinian people are being abused and oppressed by Israel and we in the United States of America support the oppressors.
Here is one examples. Today in what is called the West Bank, there are many Jewish Settlements that have been built. Granted there has been no new settlements in several years, but these illegal settlements are expanding. Less then a block from my freinds home, a settlement just finished and expansion and are building a wall around the settlement. This particular expansion was done for "security purposes." My friend had freinds and neighbors that lost thier houses due to this expansion. Because of the anti-Palestinian policies of Israel, a good percentage of these people had no job or very little money coming in. Now they are homeless as well. Would we stand for the United States of America's government coming in and taking over someone's house. I think not. Yet we whole heartedly support Israel.
In addition, when Israel was made a country, they uprooted many people who had lived there in peace for thousands of years and made them move. They did not offer them citizenship, or a voice or a choice. The soldier came in and took thier property, that had been in thier families before Jesus walked this earth. Many of these were Christians and all of them were Palestinians.
I imagine Iwill write more on this at another time, but I think we as citizens of the United States of America need to really examine who we want to support in this battle. I believe that Israel has the right to exist and to be secure. I do not believe they have the right to oppress a certain ethnic group. My brothers and sisters in Christ that live in the West Bank are advocates of peaceful resistance. I agree with this. There is no call to violence, but there is a call to stand for justice and peace. This call is from God. I will be praying for the people of the West Bank and my brothers and sisters in Christ. I will pray for peace and justice in the land my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ walked.
Salaam,
Dane
I have neverr before understood what it meant to be an oppressed people. I still cannot comprehend or imagine living as an opressed person, but I think I have a better understanding.
Imagine if you will owning a home, that has been in your family for thousands of years. Living in a land for many generations, then suddenly having soldiers come in and force you to leave your home. You are not given any restitution or any kind, nor were you given a new home. A foreign entity had to come in and build a home for you, so that you could have a roof over your head. More than tweny years later, you still live in this temporary home and now that same foreign government, is building a 30 foot tall cement wall within sight of your house. This wall is between you and family and freinds. You cannot cross this wall. The occupying government will not allow you to cross this wall at any point. In addition, many of your family and freinds lost thier homes, so that this wall could be built. Again, no restitution was paid.
In addition to these oppressive situations, you are now told that you cannot go to the hospital that your children were born in, nor can you visit family and freinds a few miles away. The occupying government moves new people into your community and expands the area these new people can live. The occupying government creates new roads, but will not allow you to use them, because you are not one of thier people. There is also an even more powerful government and people that constantly back up this occupying government. This other government gives the ocuppiers money and military support.
Perhaps this seems outrageous to you. You may even think this has the beginning of a wonderful fictional story, but it is exactly what is happening in the Middle East today. The Palestinian people are being abused and oppressed by Israel and we in the United States of America support the oppressors.
Here is one examples. Today in what is called the West Bank, there are many Jewish Settlements that have been built. Granted there has been no new settlements in several years, but these illegal settlements are expanding. Less then a block from my freinds home, a settlement just finished and expansion and are building a wall around the settlement. This particular expansion was done for "security purposes." My friend had freinds and neighbors that lost thier houses due to this expansion. Because of the anti-Palestinian policies of Israel, a good percentage of these people had no job or very little money coming in. Now they are homeless as well. Would we stand for the United States of America's government coming in and taking over someone's house. I think not. Yet we whole heartedly support Israel.
In addition, when Israel was made a country, they uprooted many people who had lived there in peace for thousands of years and made them move. They did not offer them citizenship, or a voice or a choice. The soldier came in and took thier property, that had been in thier families before Jesus walked this earth. Many of these were Christians and all of them were Palestinians.
I imagine Iwill write more on this at another time, but I think we as citizens of the United States of America need to really examine who we want to support in this battle. I believe that Israel has the right to exist and to be secure. I do not believe they have the right to oppress a certain ethnic group. My brothers and sisters in Christ that live in the West Bank are advocates of peaceful resistance. I agree with this. There is no call to violence, but there is a call to stand for justice and peace. This call is from God. I will be praying for the people of the West Bank and my brothers and sisters in Christ. I will pray for peace and justice in the land my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ walked.
Salaam,
Dane
