Post Palestine: Grief and Meaning

After returning from Palestine, I struggled with a sense of grief.  I felt like my heart and mind were still there.  The real world was hard to navigate and I sunk into a type of numbness.  I had little patience for the trivialities of life and could hardly take my mind away from the Palestinian struggle.

Above:  From the church where Jesus is said to have wept for Jerusalem. Trying to remember the difference between hope and optimism. (at Mount of Olives)

I think that many of us lack the background necessary to understand the hearts and minds of those who are tied up in the conflict for land.

One of our tour guides, whose name I cannot use, told us a little story:

A Palestinian man and an Israeli man were arguing about the land.  "This is my land!" said the Israeli.  

"Surely not!  It is clearly mine!" said the Palestinian land.  They argued endlessly over the land and eventually thought to ask the land itself.   

"Whose land is this?"  they asked.

"I do not know," said the land, "but I know one thing: you will both be in it soon enough."

It is difficult to understand the thoughts and experiences of Israelis and Palestinians.  In a sense, you feel deep sympathy for both sides.  But it is also clear, once one opens their eyes and starts talking to people away from watchful eyes of Israeli authorities, that there is a clear imbalance of power and rights.

Above:  Sometimes my brain feels about as chaotic and seemingly disorganized as children’s artwork. It is helpful to remember that sometimes disorder makes sense. Sometimes what appears as chaos is the forming of a more concrete reality. Just as a child’s artwork will mature and eventually better communicate their intentions, so will the chaos of unrefined thoughts and feelings settle into a message. On that day… 

Here is a good video series that is fairly short and attempts to break down to conflict between the two peoples into historical periods:

Israeli Settlements, Palestinians, and You (link)

Written by a woman who was doing a tour with Chicago Theological Seminary while we were in the Holy Land.  They visited many different groups than we did, but we crossed paths more than once.