A terrible weariness of the life of the genocide

These are the words of Amro, the informally adopted Gazan grandson of MIRANDA PINCH, a long-time member of the Balfour Project Advisory Forum. Miranda recently made a solidarity pilgrimage to the illegally Israeli occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem as representative of the Sabeel-Kairos charity, which supports peace and justice in the Holy Land. There follows part of the diary she kept of her visit.

Sat, 9 Nov 2024: I am travelling to Palestine as one of two UK representatives for Sabeel-Kairos UK, https://www.sabeel-kairos.org.uk/, of which I am a Trustee. During my stay, I will be joining what was originally a conference on religious extremism, but is now a Solidarity Pilgrimage, https://sabeel.org/category/conferences/.

We will spend time in Bethlehem and Jerusalem, though we expect to visit a number of other places and communities, but our plans depend on the situation.

It is impossible to go into Gaza and therefore not possible to visit the family I support there, who, I do not exaggerate in saying, are slowly dying of hunger, disease, exhaustion and exposure of every kind.

I communicate with Amro, a young man of 24 who is wounded, ill and starving and living without rest from drones and bombs amid the ruins of Khan Younis. He is largely on his own and veers from feeling abandoned, hopeless and helpless, to grasping any love, hope or comfort I can virtually give him in the form of words and prayers and small amounts of money that pay for next to nothing: the prices of what is available are exorbitant. Moataz, his brother, looks after his own young family and that of his sister’s, also amid the ruins, about 13 in all including a number of children. They desperately need money.

If anyone would like to donate to anything mentioned, or not mentioned, while I am out there please do it via http://paypal.me/MirandaPinch and say who or what the money’s for, or email me and I will send you my account details. I can get money to Gaza through a relative of the family outside Gaza who gets it to them directly through an Arab Bank. He can also get money into the West Bank using the same method.

Thurs 21 Nov: We were supposed to have picked olives with Rabbis for Human Rights. Rabbis for Human Rights | English.  Sadly, that did not happen because one area after another was made a closed military zone by Israel’s army and we all had to leave the area. As we left, a French diplomat arrived, also to  pick olives. We explained the situation and left him and his entourage. Many olives will not be picked this year. Terrible for the Palestinian farmers.

We visited Wi’am  Wi’am: The Palestinian Conflict Transformation Center in Bethlehem on Saturday morning and Usama gave us a very informative talk on the situation including the huge increase in Christian Palestinians leaving the area. .

 

Last Sunday, 17 Nov: Before leaving Bethlehem to spend our second week based in Jerusalem, we went to the service at the Melkite church, which was a joy with young children playing such an active role in the service. The congregation has shrunk a great deal, as all Christian congregations have. On the way out of the service, a woman with three young girls told me that her great fear now is that each Palestinian area will be cut off from others and she will need a permit to travel outside Bethlehem, making it a prison. It is already happening in and around Nablus, where getting in and out has become a long-winded nightmare.

It was a very emotionally tough day on Monday when we visited Sderot, close to the Gaza border, and met with a woman who lived in a small village nearby and with Rabbis for Human Rights. Both had been traumatised by the Hamas-led Palestinian break-out attack of 7 Oct 2023. The woman told us how she had worked toward making life in Gaza more comfortable in any way she was able, prior to that day, but seemed not to understand that caging and blockading people in a tiny area indefinitely was not sustainable. Rabbis for HR were much more aware and understanding.

We then went up to the viewpoint for Gaza and could make out the palls of smoke rising from the ruins. My thought was that the woman we spoke to and whose own grief we heard had the luxury of grieving, while those in Gaza could not have that luxury as all they can do is to try to survive. If and when it all stops, the communal grief will be unbearable.

In the afternoon we had a service with the Lutheran Minister Munther Isaac preaching.

Tues, 19 Nov: We went to Hebron, into the Old City. At the checkpoint by the Ibrahimi Mosque the soldiers confiscated a large wooden spoon and two walking sticks that were apparently dangerous weapons! We did get them back eventually, but before that, we met with Issa Amro at Youth Against Settlements, Issa Amro / Youth Against Settlements – Right Livelihood. On our way out we were prevented from leaving until the IDF commander gave permission…no threats, but causing us inconvenience.

Wed, 20 Nov: We visited the United Nations Relief and Works Agency HQ in Jerusalem and heard about the Israeli actions against them and what it will mean for them and for all Palestinians, especially in Gaza. There really is no substitute for the work they do. In the afternoon we visited the Palestinian Al Najah university in Nablus and met students there.

Thurs, 21 Nov: In Ramallah we had an informative and useful presentation by Sam Bahour ePalestine: From Sam’s Desk followed by a panel of the NGOs banned by Israel last year as ‘terrorist’ organisations. In Birzeit,  we met the mother, Lulu, of Layan Nasser, a 23-year-old student who was arrested without charge or trial in administrative detention. Lulu has never been allowed to see Layan and her solicitor has only seen her twice since April.

On the way back to Jerusalem we discovered the main checkpoints closed and the driver of our coach needed to negotiate the back roads. Everyday life for the Palestinians.

In Jerusalem at night we can hear the war planes flying overhead. Last night they were very loud and while I was communicating with my informally adopted grandson in Gaza, Amro. We communicate via WhatsApp daily and some of your money bought him a blanket. A cheap fleece blanket cost $200! He and it get wet when it rains as he has no real shelter among the ruins. He wrote the following and I assume it is a translation by him of his own Arabic:

 “Sometimes, suddenly, a terrible weariness of life the genocide arises in my consciousness, to the point where it is impossible to invent an act of domination. A weariness that yearns, not to cease to exist, which is either possible or unbearable, but to something more terrible and more profound, to cease even to have existed, which there is no way it could possibly be.” then a little while later he wrote: 

“I will rebuild myself a thousand times
and try a thousand ways and a thousand tricks
I will make a thousand promises to my future!
I may back down.
I may lose.
But I will not be defeated!”

 

Tue, 26 Nov: I am home. Some explanation about Sabeel. Sabeel tries to ensure that groups that they host help the Palestinian economy. We stayed in Palestinian-run hotels and were fed in a variety of Palestinian restaurants and cafes as well as doing our best to buy their products. Our welcome was amazing and we were greatly encouraged to return very soon and to encourage others to do so.

When I travelled out I carried quite a lot of money with me and already had a donation of £1000 in my bank account for the Catholic Cremisan monastery and vineyard. A blog from 2018 gives an idea, but things are much worse now.  https://bethbc.edu/blog/2018/09/25/cremisan-monastery-7th-century-christian-presence-in-palestine/   Many Palestinian Christians of all denominations are being dispossessed of their land and livelihoods. The Armenians in the Old City are also doing battle to save their land and their very existence in Jerusalem. We were told that in Bethlehem alone, more than 60 Christian families have left in the past year. Many others are planning to leave, with some testing conditions abroad before deciding to relocate their families.

Sending money to the West Bank and getting goods back to the United Kingdom is difficult. Even getting money from my bank account was a challenge. The banking system is in a poor state, the ATMs often do not work, bank charges are high, and exchange rates are not good. The money I carried was for Wi’am in Bethlehem and I was able to pick up embroidered purses for a friend who needed them for a Christmas sale that would not have easily or cheaply made it to the Uk in time.

We were travelling with a niece of  Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian journalist shot dead by an Israeli sniper in Jenin, who was acting as a tour guide. So I would like to give some money to the foundation set up in her name. https://www.shireenabuakleh.org/

On the coach, one of the Sabeel tour guides told us a story about his five year old daughter. The child learned that an Israeli settler mother and daughter had been run over and killed at a checkpoint and she shocked her father by being gleeful. He asked her why, as they are a Christian family who very much believe in non-violence.  What he learned from her should shock the world. It shows some of the consequences of the Israeli occupation on even the youngest Palestinian child in the West Bank.

Like all Palestinians his daughter is subject to multiple restrictions on her freedom and has sat for hours in cars held up at Israeli checkpoints. But more than that, she had known Shireen and attended her funeral. It was not the first time she had experienced teargas, but it was the first time she had seen her father beaten up by the Israeli forces, just for being at the funeral. The terrible scenes were on mainstream news. So a young child had already experienced enough to hate the Israelis. Her father told his daughter that the death of the woman and child had been an accident and not deliberate on the part of the Palestinians and the child was relieved.

When Israel claims that Palestinian children are taught to hate perhaps we need to ask who is teaching them to hate.

While we were staying in Bethlehem, we went to visit the Tent of Nations https://tentofnations.com/.  The Archbishop of Canterbury visited there the next day and met one of our number. I look forward to hearing about his visit. It is another terrible tale of Israeli dispossession of Palestinian land. In this case there is plenty of evidence to prove ownership of the land, but it has been rumbling through the Israeli courts for more than 30 years. In the meantime, the settlers and army continue to encroach, destroying fruit trees and olive groves, building a road and moving caravans onto their land.

The year before last I was there helping to plant olive trees, so I would like to purchase two or three more and will send certificates to those whose donations are used.

And then there is that deep black hole that is Gaza. People have been wonderfully generous, yet the black hole is bottomless and I fear that if this monstrosity, this genocide, continues, then all I may be doing is enabling Moataz, his family and Amro to survive a little longer.

During the past year donations have paid for two tents for Moataz’s family. The first was destroyed by an Israeli missile and the second was on the beach and so flimsy it was impossible to remain there. Recently, donations enabled Amro to get a warm jacket as he had only the lightweight clothes he was wearing. Another donation has enabled him to buy a fleece blanket and I hope that he might be able to get something waterproof as he is sheltering in ruins and it is now raining and cold. Everything is scarce and expensive and the food is often rotten. Moataz is looking after 13 people including children, his own and his wife’s family, and it is impossible to send enough money to help them in any way beyond the most basic and immediate.

Overall so far , excluding the money for Cremisan and Wi’am, donations have reached over £2,500 and I am so grateful.

I am working on a huge amount of transcripts, notes and photos and am happy to share specific areas of interest concerning our visit.  Just ask!!

 

Best wishes

Miranda

 

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