Bet Jala Adventures

Today I had my interfaith encounter at Bet Jala. I once again wasn’t permitted to take many pictures but I took some. The restaurant we went to was called Everest in Bet Jala and when we arrived we drove past a building and in Hebrew graffiti on the building it said “There are no weapons here, this is a restaurant.” The history of Bet Jala is a sordid one. Back during the second intifada a group of Hamas militants took over Bet Jala and began to shoot into Gilo (a jewish settlement) and launch rockets into the small city.

Israel’s response resulted in loss of life and the destruction of much of the infrastructure in Bet Jala. This small Palestinian town is a Christian one and that can be seen by the plethora of churches and monasteries we drove by. When we arrived at the restaurant I met Talib for the first time. He is a professor at Al-Quds University, a world-renowned scholar, and a advocate for peace and understanding between the religions represented in the region.

The encounter was impactful, interesting and meaningful. A Palestinian woman, Maisoon from Hebron who I bonded with shared a lot about spirituality in Islam. At the end she hugged me and said to me “Inshallah I will see you again”. The dialogue and respect between the people who represented the 3 religions was inspiring. Another woman, Raphaela from Italy, has done peace work in Tibet and India and is currently working for an NGO in Italy that fights for rights of disabled people with multiple sclerosis. She is definitely another inspiring figure. She represented Catholicism on the issue of spirituality and holiness.

The rabbi in the group, Robert Carroll who happens to also be a Brandeis alum, shared a story from the Talmud with the group. The story goes, there were once 2 men who had a disagreement over some land. One man claimed that he owned the land and the other claimed that he owned the land. This is when Talib quipped, “well doesn’t that sound familiar.” These two men argued and fought over the land but to no avail, neither was willing to sacrifice what they believed to be was their land. They decided to go speak to a judge. This judge heard both their cases but was not able to make a decision on the matter. So the judge told both men, “I could not properly deliberate and therefore I have decided that we should ask the land what it thinks.” When they arrived at the plot of land the judge asked, “Which of these men is your rightful owner?” And the land replied, “Neither of these men own me, I own both of them.” Symbolically, this represents that we are just creatures in this world that are at the mercy of the environment. We are at the mercy of hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis. We are at the mercy of the rain, sun, and snow. We do not own the land, the land owns us. There has been so much bloodshed over this land that the Palestinians and Israelis have been fighting over for years but if we don’t respect one another, our claim to any land is futile. It’s a powerful message that resonated through every single person sitting at that encounter.

By the end of the encounter we were all family. We exchanged hugs and kisses on the cheeks. Talib took a liking to me, he told me, “keep spreading peace because you are OUR future.” I don’t think he was directly telling me that I am the future of the conflict but he was enforcing a message, that the youth of today are the future of this conflict. He continued on and said to me, you can convince 100 people out of your village of 101 to go to war but if that 1 person is against you, even if you win the war you are the loser. Because it only takes one to conquer you.” What I understood from this was, that even if you win the actual battle, if not everyone supports your message of peace, you will lose. You lose because if a message of understanding and respect and a willingness for peace isn’t something engrained into every single person’s mind form both sides, violence will just continue. It will have a constant presence in both Israel and the Palestinian territories and both sides will suffer tremendously.

This encounter was a productive and moving one. It has shown me inner beauty in so many people and that is something I have come to respect and yearn for. This sense of inner peace and respect towards people of all religions and political affiliations. And maturity and wisdom that is rarely seen anywhere else in the world. These people know the struggle because they are living the struggle, yet their view peace as the only option and they are willing to learn more and grow as human beings in order to achieve that outcome. I'm expecting and hoping that these encounters will be as amazing as this one.