I write this less than 48 hours after coming home from Palestine, realising that the situation may have changed completely by the time you read this. I travelled in order to keep faith with friends (Arab and Israeli, Christian, Muslim and Jew) I’ve made in visits going back more than 50 years. In a sometimes cold and wet week (they needed the rain) I made lots of new ones too.
Left: Banksy on the Wall, Bethlehem. Everywhere was very quiet; it was lovely to have places like the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and the Nativity Church in Bethlehem completely to myself. I only saw one pilgrimage group – a large party of Anglicans from Nigeria, who were clearly enjoying themselves.
I stayed 3 nights in a French Catholic convent in the Via Dolorosa and 4 in a sort of Airbnb in a compound in the middle of Bethlehem; most hotels have been closed since 7th October 2023, as are souvenir shops. My whole week, including all travel, accommodation, meals etc cost less than £800. I had £650 from two friends and £1,450 to give away from Spondon Church’s Carol Service; I managed to give away most of it to people working with children with very differing needs.
I had an afternoon at a hospital on the Mount of Olives owned by the Anglican Church which had just lost their USAID funding (20% of their budget). I had half a day at a Christian-run orphanage and school in Bethany. I spent a morning at a school for blind children near Bethlehem; several of them read me speeches in English printed in braille. Both schools I visited had new headteachers, who seem to get younger and prettier as I get older and balder.
SAMUD
In addition to a few holy sites, I met the Jerusalem bookshop owners who were arrested a few days later, the staff of a ‘Conflict Transformation Centre’ by the apartheid Wall in Bethlehem, a young people’s Culture Centre in a refugee camp, and the bosses of Palestine’s Natural History Museum. I heard one sermon (in Arabic!) preached by the great Revd Dr Munther Isaac of the Lutheran Church – his (in)famous Christ in the Rubble crib still on display.
Left: Entrance to Refugee Camp, Bethlehem. I couldn’t get to Hebron, Derby’s twin city; but several people came to see me from there, including the city’s deputy mayor, a very forthright young mother. I spent an evening with a lovely man who had just been released from 6 years ‘administrative detention’ (no charge or trial); and I went to the Bethlehem home (hovel) of a lady who had a son shot by illegal settlers some years ago and who still suffers soldiers breaking into her house from time to time.
What have I learned on my 41st visit to the Holy Land? The meaning of SUMUD. This is a uniquely Palestinian cultural value and political strategy which means a mixture of ‘steadfastness’ and ‘perseverance’ and ‘resilience’.
It is a non-violent way of coping (or at least surviving) under occupation, adversity and increasingly scarce resources. I wonder how our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land cling onto hope. St Augustine of Hippo said, “Hope has two beautiful daughters: anger and courage. Anger at what is wrong and the courage to do something about it”.