Members of the delegation with Salam Fayad, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority.
Crossing Borders: An Interfaith Visit to Israel and Palestine
June 3, 2008
It was 4 a.m. and at first I didn't quite realize that I was waking up to the crisp sound (over loudspeakers) of the Muslim call to prayer. We had flown all night to get to Israel and spent all day touring Old Jerusalem. Soon it became clear: I wasn't dreaming. I was in the Muslim Quarter of Old Jerusalem, staying at the Daughters of Zion Convent.
As a member of an Interfaith Compassionate Listening Delegation, I heard fascinating stories from Israeli Jews, Palestinian Muslims, and Palestinian Christians, and witnessed some of what their lives are like. Our diverse delegation consisted of Rabbis, Imams, Christian Ministers, Roman Catholic Sisters, a Buddhist, a couple of lay leaders, and me—a Unitarian Universalist minister. We were all from the same geographic area, either Bucks or Mercer counties, on either side of the Delaware River.
We proceeded to cross through numerous fences and walls which marked borders that separate people, making some feel safe and others feel excluded. The first border we crossed was at the airport as we prepared to leave the United States. We showed our passports several times and had our baggage screened. At the final passport check we all quickly passed through, except for the two Imams. With names like Abdullah and Muhammad they were each led off to different rooms for special questioning. The rest of us waited as close as we could until they were cleared to join us. When we landed in Israel, the story repeated itself. The two Imams were again led off for questioning. Again, we hovered as close as permitted.
We were in a land long called holy by Jews, Muslims and Christians. This is clearly a place of intense and divided faith among religious cousins. All claim Abraham as their spiritual ancestor, and all worship the same God. Yet they live in fear, frustration and anger and thus, there are many tall and foreboding borders which have been erected to identify various claims to this land. We saw the tall cement wall that is being built to zigzag throughout the lands of Israel and the Palestinian West Bank. We saw tall wire fences topped with razor wire around refugee camps.
The goal of our Interfaith Delegation was to listen compassionately to the stories of individual leaders on all sides of this divided land. We met with many remarkable leaders. There were Rami and Mazin, two members of "Grieving Parents"—families who've lost loved ones to the conflict. These two men who had lost so much—one an Israeli Jew and the other a Palestinian Muslim—called each other brothers and were working to build peace. We met with Suleiman al-Hamri, one of the founders of "Combatants for Peace," an organization of former Israeli and Palestinian soldiers. We met with political leaders from Hamas, Fatah and Israel.
One of the highlights was meeting with Salam Fayad, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority. We were also scheduled to meet with Shimon Peres, President of Israel, but he was called away to a special Summit meeting. We met instead with another representative of the Israeli government.
We met with many religious leaders working for peace, Rabbi Menachem Froman and Sheikh Buchari. All of these people have experienced painful wounds. Around such wounds, it is human behavior to build defensive walls to protect ourselves. "Compassionate Listening" is a discipline that helps us listen from our heart, not from our wounds or the defensive barriers we have built up to protect ourselves. It was the practice of Compassionate Listening that helped us connect on a personal basis with people of different faiths, both those we met in the holy land, and those with whom we were traveling. No matter our belief—Jewish, Muslim or Christian in Jerusalem, or those who are Unitarian Universalist—the most difficult task we face is finding a way to pass through walls that have been built up between ourselves and those we are afraid of. The twenty religious leaders who made up our Compassionate Listening Delegation began to learn how very important it was that we come together as people of faith.
Following this remarkable journey, we returned to our homes in the Delaware Valley, united in our love and respect for one another. We experienced the love that Jewish, Christian and Muslim people have for the "Holy Land." It is our hope that as we return to our home congregations and tell our stories we will be able to channel some of the love we have observed among Jewish and Palestinian peacemakers. I return hopeful that we might become, in some small way, a part of a united dynamic force for greater nonviolence in our area as well as in Israel and Palestine.
Charles Stephens is minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church at Washington Crossing in Titusville, New Jersey.
Last updated on Wednesday, June 11, 2008.
