West Bank Story: 2011

2011年11月23日星期三

The World of More

Passed by City Plaza yesterday and went in to take a look, might have been more than 10 years (or 20?) since I last visited. I had a simple lunch there and finished some paper work after lunch at the cafe, and I decided not to go ther that often from now on.
Why should I put myself in a situation where all I hear is "you need more"?
This is exactly what I feel the keenest since coming back to HK to live and I cannot but compare it with how life was last year, in Palestine.
I remember the anticipation I had when my Arab friend told me she'd take me to Shadi's Market one day. "It's a great place, where you'll get all that you need," she said.
Then one afternoon, when I passed by a grocer's on the street next to mine, I noticed the crowd inside. "This must be a pretty good shop, let me take a look," I thought to myself. But boy, what shock and disappointment I got when I saw its sign--Shadi's Market !
"How on earth can I survive this year here when the best shop is but this?" I sighed as I looked at the shop, the size of like, two 7-11 shops.
My dear friends, let me tell you life IS better when the shops are small and few. I miss the simple life there where I could easily feel life's richness with its many blessings. And how I hate the "poverty" imposed on us in a city compelled by enterprises which keeps telling us that we need more!
"Is it OK to want more?" I asked myself. I can't deny that I would like to move to a bigger apartment. I would also very much like to get a job where I can invest myself in. But for now, I do want to protect the space in my heart where I can enjoy all that I've already got, for I am already living in a world of MORE, lest I forget--
Now that we have been put right with God through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 He has brought us by faith into this experience of God's grace, in which we now live. And so we boast of the hope we have of sharing God's glory! 3 We also boast of our troubles, because we know that trouble produces endurance, 4 endurance brings God's approval, and his approval creates hope. 5 This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to us.

2011年7月9日星期六

Emmaeus

Thank you Lord, for coming close to walk with us at a time when faith is a challenge!

Settlements

I took this photo while helping my friend look after her sick daughter. It should have been a joyous time for Christmas in Bethlehem。Yet the view of the encroaching Israeli settlement outside the window is suffocating...

A Bedouin Village

Went to visit a Beduoin village. It was a heart breaking experience to meet these peaceful people, their simple life and their hope--to lead a life of their ancestors for generations in this land. Hearbreaking, for such a simple hope is under threat every day. With the loss of their land owing to the coming of Israeli settlers, their hope is but a dream.

Samaritan passover

I used to think that the Samaritans were people of the past, with the most famous one. "the good Samaritan" being only a fictitious person in Jesus' parable. What an experience for me to meet them and learn that they have been practising the Passover sacrifice according to the Mosaic Law without interruption all these years!

my neighbour

探望我的鄰居。真不敢相信今天還有人用耶穌當日流行去的Aramaic!

2011年6月6日星期一

the PRIVILEGE of having a taste of Real Life

Finally given the PRIVILEGE of having a taste of Real Life

For most of my stay in Palestine, life here is quite OK. After all, I’m a visitor with a foreign passport, enjoying a lot of privileges. Then this month, just when we are preparing to say goodbye for now, I’m finally given the “privilege” to have a taste of what real life is like…

On leaving home, I met my neighbor just coming from the roof.

“Still no water coming?” I asked.

“No, 15 days now.”

I could hear the frustration, the helplessness.

Gush, can’t imagine 15 days without water. Water, for sure, is a most precious commodity, especially that we here do not have control over water. Water supply is controlled by Israel, a major bone of contention between Israel and Palestine. And there is a big disparity between water availability to the two sides. For us, water comes "whenever", and by the same token, it stops coming "whenever". That explains the water tanks crowding every roof top.

I have been lucky. My landlord has been kind to me and has always lent a helping hand by sharing with me his own water. “Don’t worry about water.” He has told me twice, and that has been among the most comforting words I have heard this year.

Yes, I have been forced to choose often to do the most important, like choosing between using water for shower or for laundry?

But today is different!

“Mine is low too,” for the first time he said.

He gave me some water anyway. Not much, I can tell by the sound in the pipes.

Yes, we have been without water before but today is different!

My sister-in-law is coming for a Holyland vacation tonight.

She was worried that I do not have an air-con at home. I did not tell her we do not have a fan (it’s cool here). Now should I tell her about water?

In a way, it has been satisfying for me to think of creative alternatives for daily practices like doing the dishes and cleaning and toilet flushing. But I do want her to have some water for a shower!’

And then I have lots of friends who will come and visit tomorrow. At least they need to use the washroom.

My neighbor told me that they were once not getting water for 45 days…

“Can you help when we move out?” I asked my friend G, a strong build fellow in his last year at the university.

“Sure, but I have disc problems with my back,” he said.

I’m puzzled, “why have I met so many people here with the problem?”

“He was in jail,” H explained.

“So you were beaten?”

I could see the anger that rushed to his eyes instantly.

“So what do you want to do?”

He cursed.

What can I say? Before me is this very intelligent young man. He has been crushed, unfortunately not just on his back.

I looked at his friend H sitting beside him. He still has the bullet on his side. He has a serious stomach problem because of the various hunger strikes in jail…

It hurts to have to ask these people who bear the marks of suffering to help me bring down my furniture when we move out.

H took me to the post office. I had wanted to send our belongings home since we only had a 20 kg baggage allowance on the plane.

“Sorry, we cannot take any international mail,” the clerk said.

Since their two parties pledged to work together, different punitive measures have been imposed on them by the Israeli government. So even I can’t send my belongings back to HK? When did I start to be punished together with them? I am embarrassed to have thought otherwise before.

(P.S. We finally got water!!!!a few hours before their arrival, God is good! I quickly washed the dishes, mop the floor, a clean house again!!)

2011年5月28日星期六

Saving Lifta

The first time I visited this village, I was struck by its beauty.

An abandoned village on the edge of Jerusalem, as a result of the ethnic cleansing that accompanied the building of the State of Israel in 1948.

Now 63 years have passed by, Lifta has evaded total erasure that has happened in so many places in the country because it is set within a valley and is virtually cut off and sunk beneath the surrounding new establishments.

To this day, Lifta bears witness to the history of this land before 1948. This was the place where once Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived together in harmony. This was the place where the Arab villagers once took the displaced Jews from foreign lands in, even unto sharing the same house!

However, now comes Plan 6036. The Israeli Government has approved plan to transform this Palestinian village into a commercial edifice under the name “Mei Naftoah”. The redevelopment plan will erase any memory of the village, replacing it with a commercial centre with shops, hotels, bus stations and 212 luxury apartments.

Yes, redevelopment projects happen everywhere. But can Lifta be spared?

There have been protests that take place here every fortnightly. Anil Korotane, an activist architect and director of Belonging proposes that Lifta be conserved as a “Site of Conscience” that will allow people here to confront and reconcile the differences in their narratives of histories. Through exploring the realities of the conflict here, Lifta and demonstrate a place that promote healing, pluralism, and inclusiveness.

In Israel there are numerous places that commemorate the darker side of the Jewish history (e.g. the Holocaust and the displacement of Arab Jews in the North African and Middle East region). Can Israel also allow a place that can bear witness to a more harmonious heritage of this land? The narratives of displacement of both the Jews and Arabs, shared together at Lifta, can allow for healing and conciliation—for people groups to reach beyond rivalry towards brothers living in peace.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!


I came from Jordan to visit my village

To find out more:

Facebook group: Saving Lifta

http://saving-memory.blogspot.com/2006/09/what-is-significance-of-saving-lifta.html

In the old days...


For now, something from HOME, for HOPE

2011年5月24日星期二

哦，沒問題

哦，沒問題

「槍是我表弟的，但他告訴以色列警方說那是我的。」
我還未有機會問他，他便自己說出坐牢的原因。
「他供了十個人的名字」他補充說，「判兩年半，我則一年。我在監獄遇到他，他哭了。」
「他現在怎樣？」
「他也出來了。」
「你生他氣嗎？那其他九個人呢？」
「哦，不，沒問題。不是每個人都可以堅強。」看他的表情，我不得不相信他。但令人驚訝的是，他才剛剛告訴我他是怎樣挨過人家嚴刑迫供的。

和猶太人吃逾越節晚餐

牧師向我們解釋猶太人逾越節晚餐

不明白他們如何能在耶穌以外真正體會其意義!

Ein Karem 你一定會很喜歡這地方

「我的家人都在海外了，祇有我留在這裡。」

「為什麼？」
「嗯，我仍然有我家田地的文件，萬一有變，我還可領回...」

他是在說那耶路撒冷城郊的地。

「Ein Karem, 美麗的地方。瞧，他們將我家的房子變作博物館。」
我看著照片，屋外掛著橫幅，上面寫著：“聖經時代”
我回家後google Bible Times Museum的地方，找到了地址，改天過牆那邊去尋找他的家，一個他不能探望的地方, 一個不再屬於他的家。

地方是找著了，卻沒有什麼博物館。
「你在找什麼？」一個正要進入的人問我。
「我在找聖經時代博物館，」我說，難道我可以告訴他，我在尋找一個朋友的家，一個不再屬於他的家？
「博物館沒有了，這裡現在是一家酒店。」
「哦，我可以進去看看嗎？聽說以前博物館有一個美麗的花園…」我想起我朋友給我看他家的照片，花園裡有個井，還有那漂亮的房子…
「隨便，但現在已改了呢，」他說。
改了？那當然。1948, 帶來多少變遷, 以色列建國, 多少人雀躍, 卻沒想到變成一些人的大災難!

對於其他遊客，這是一個不錯的精品酒店。他們可能喜歡裡面的裝飾，也可能不會。他們可能欣賞這裡的服務，也可能會抱怨這裡的食物。但對我來說，我看到的是住在這村莊的一個基督徒家庭, (在這個舊日阿拉伯村莊的都是基督徒)。這條施洗約翰稱為家鄉的地方，在這裡馬利亞因親戚以利沙伯而得安慰，在這裡她高唱「祂憐憫敬畏祂的人,直到世世代代」(路１：５０）。現在這失去家園的村莊原居民已流離世界各地，當然很大部份在1948時失去家園成為巴勒斯坦難民, 成為我的鄰居, 我在這裡的朋友!

今天, Ein Kerem被打造成一個古色古香的小城鎮，音樂廳, 咖啡廳和畫廊給這原本已很美的小村莊增添了幾分雅緻。假如你不認識它的過去，你一定會很喜歡這地方。