Since being home the last couple of weeks, my thoughts keep returning to my time in the Holy Land. I learned and saw so much and feel quite convicted about sharing it. As I’m sure I’ve said previously, we, in the Christian church, have been firmly pro-Israeli with little, if any attempt at trying to know a bit more about the Palestinians. After all, they are terrorists and want the destruction of Israel. And yes, some Palestinians want that. But some in Israel want the Palestinians to just go away as well. So the following narratives are given to try and lend just the tiniest bit of perspective to this incredibly complex area.

You are an Israeli, native born, as were your parents. However, your grandparents on your mother’s side were survivors of the Holocaust. Your other set of grandparents came to Israel as settlers in the earlier days before independence. You grew up hearing their stories and realizing that life for Jews is one fraught with anxiety and the desperate struggle to survive. You also grew up seeing the soldiers walking around with their assault rifles, ready to protect your country from any outrage. You knew the stories of the terrible Palestinian attacks and suicide bombers. You also knew that the countries surrounding Israel really wanted Israel, as a country, to go away – to be pushed back into the ocean.
When you were 18, you enlisted in the Israeli Defense Force, as did most other 18 year olds, male or female. Part of your training included a visit to Yadva Shem, the Holocaust Museum. It was a grim reminder of your people’s past and also a warning that you were only one generation away from the possibility of another Holocaust. During your time of service, you were assigned to some time in Palestine. The people there saw you as the enemy and sometimes rocks were thrown at you. Occasionally you were in clashes with protesting Palestinians and shot off tear gas grenades and sound bombs to control the crowds. As a young person, it was often terrifying or quiet and boring. After serving, you returned to regular life, just wanting to live a good and quiet life, working and raising your family.
You are very proud of your country and know it has to always be on the defensive and the controls in place in the West Bank and Gaza are only there to protect your country. The wall around the West Bank is only there to protect Israel.
Each year, along with your fellow countrymen, you quietly celebrate Holocaust Remembrance Day – never forget. Then a few days later is Soldier Memorial Day – remembering the soldiers who have died. You, like most of your fellow countrymen, know someone who died while serving – your cousin.
The next day is Independence Day and joyous and boisterous celebrations take place all over the country. Flags fly everywhere and families get together and are grateful and proud to have their country – a land without a people, for a people without a land.

You are a Palestinian, living with many members of your extended family in the West Bank. Your family has lived in this land for many generations, as far back as anyone can remember. One set of your grandparents had lived in what is now Israel, but they were displaced when Israel became a country. They lost their land and homes. Some of your extended family still live in a refugee camp in Jordan since they were displaced in 1948.
This entire area used to belong to the Palestinians. You are a Christian and want to live in peace, but it is hard when so much of your people’s land has been taken away. Even still today, Jewish settlements continue to go up in the West Bank. And legal challenges happen all the time in an attempt to get more Palestinian land. One man, who has legal documents showing his family’s ownership of the land back more than 100 years, has been fighting for the last 20 to hang onto his property.
The West Bank is surrounded by a wall and fence and some of it is on Palestinian land. The wall was built by the Israelis to protect their country from terrorists. So now you need to go through checkpoints throughout the West Bank to travel anywhere. You are not allowed on some roads and must obtain permits to do any building, even on your own land. Usually those permits are refused.
There are other Palestinians who regularly protest the Israeli occupation. They are often met with tear gas and sound bombs shot off by the Israeli Defense Force. Occasionally live ammunition is used and people are hurt and occasionally there is a death. Recently a neighbor’s 14 year old son was awakened in the middle of the night by soldiers coming to the home. He was taken away with no specific charge and kept isolated from his parents and help for a couple of days. He was urged to sign a confession which was in Hebrew so he couldn’t read it. Eventually, a legal team which works such cases was able to get him released, but this will always define that family’s experience with Israelis.
Once you had to fly out of the country, but you are basically not allowed in Israel, except with a work permit. You may not fly out of Tel Aviv. So you went to Jordan and flew out of Ammon.
As you continue to pray to the God that the Israelis have rejected, you wonder what life will be like for your children. Will they become radicalized despite your efforts to teach them the love of God? It is hard when their school has been shelled with tear gas grenades on more than one occasion. And the only Israelis they know are the soldiers and the settlers who mostly despise them. They see your water cut off every few days while the settlements have swimming pools and unlimited access to water. Fortunately you have large tanks on top of your home to store water for the times it is shut off.
Your life bumps up against Israeli checks at most every turn.
This was not a land without a people – you were the people.