As I awoke this morning, I heard loud chanting and heavy footsteps. I opened my shade to find fifty or more young children swarming the streets. My first thoughts were, "what has happened and what's next". The crowd of children was moving away from the wall so I decided to stop staring and get ready for my day. As I continued to get ready for church, the commotion continued outside. More and more children continued to wander the streets. As I watched the children congregate together, I wondered what caused the children to stir such uproar.
The children in Palestine really do get the short end of the stick. They have to deal with the oppression during their prime years. They do not much hope to look forward to. They should all be normal kids, but they seem to have been robbed of their youth years. They watch as their families get separated and killed. They watch their parents wait in long lines trying to go to work in Jerusalem. You can see the anger fester within each child as they continuously face hardships and disappointments. It is not easy to be a child in Palestine. It is not easy to be robbed of your childhood, either.
The morning demonstration followed through into the afternoon. After church, we continued to see groups of children and youth join the others near the wall. The adolescents surrounded the wall throwing large stones and broken bottles. They continued to rebel against the Israelis. One local boy informed us that Israel was still attacking and killing hundreds of Gazans. With Gaza being attacked, the boiling anger and frustrations promoted the children in Bethlehem to express their discontent about the whole situation. The children here resorted to throwing stones and bottles because that is all they had. They are not trained soldiers with guns. They only have what they can find on the ground.
Israeli soldiers try to resolve the demonstration by firing tear gas and sending in jeeps. They send in fully armed soldiers, who are trained for combat. The problem is, this reaction by Israeli soldiers just encourages the youth to throw more rocks and get more angry. As Israeli soldiers enter Palestinian territory, they antagonize the Palestinians. They know they are making the situation worse, but they continue to antagonize and make a scene.
No one is in the right, but someone needs to stand up against anger and violence. Someone needs to end this hatred and mayhem. Please PRAY for the people on both sides! Please PRAY for the situation in Gaza.
"I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (Ephesians 4:1-3 ESV)
A periodical update from Hannah, Audrey, Adam, Melody, Jared, and rarely from Andrew from whatever corner of the globe they happen to be sharing Christ's love in.
YES Team
Petra, Jordan
5 comments:
Hi Hannah and all, I just wrote something very similar as I saw the tradgedy happening in Gaza. I sent it to members of our group, Volusia Peace Center asking them to contact our government as well.
"Pray for the people of Israel and the people in Gaza. 1.5 million people live in the Gaza Strip which is basically an open-air prison since Palestinians are NOT allowed to leave Gaza and they are walled in- there is no way out. Recent sanctions have also deprived the people living there of fuel, medical supplies, food, etc.
BOTH are being terrorized by the actions of Hamas (who are shooting Quassam rockets into Israel) and the actions of the Israeli government (sanctions and military action)."
We will continue to pray for YOU and the people of Israel and the Palestinian people.
Blessings & Peace to ALL, Dana
Thank you for this post, Hannah. I hope many people read it and take your plea for prayer to heart. I also hope each of us who pray also follow that prayer with action to do what we can to end the occupation.
I have found that our local congressional representative was woefully uneducated on how the occupation is generating more hatred and I suspect most of our Congress is the same since they have so many issues to attend to. But they keep funding the occupation. It would not exist without our support. Each of us is part of the problem and can be part of the solution.
Here is a link to be heard: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
Blessings to you and your team, and thanks for sharing the love of God behind the wall.
Hi Hanna!
What can we do but pray?
How do you facilitate compassion, patience, forgiveness and love when you get daily doses of injustice, land theft, harassment, killing and more.
The Palestinian people need "their own" Ghandi, Jesus, or King.. I will pray for someone to answer this calling from the Palestinian people, someone who can lead the people non-violently to the solutions they so badly need. Someone who can remind the world, that solutions are not found in bombs, guns and hatred, but only in love.
Peace!
Susan Stamm
Thank you Hannah for your blog and the comments are great. I really like what you said Susan- the Palestinian people need their own Gandhi. There are many peace groups that work there in Israel and The West Bank. One is The Holy Land Trust, run by Sami Awad. Their group is doing excellent work- teaching people to be nonviolent and training people to protest in this way. The only problem is that unlike in the US, where I can go to Washington, DC and protest the Iraq war without being shot at by solidiers- the Palestinians cannot do this. Every single time they set out to protest, no matter how nonviolent the intention-if soldiers come in tanks, then it can turn to violence in a flash. I think the soldiers should be taught nonviolence in regards to dealing with the people. We even had this problem in the US back in the 60's-remember Kent State and the violence against Civil Rights protestors. Blessed are the Peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. Peace to all, Dana
Wow--where to begin on this one! You are incredibly right that neither side is correct in this issue. All that we can do is pray that someone will have the courage to stand up and say "We are not getting anywhere, and this fighting will not solve anything". I am appalled at the reactions of both sides. But, it still seems that Israel doesn't "get it". They need to realize that not all Palestinians are enemies, and that one small, minority group doesn't represent an entire people. WAKE UP Israel!
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