Palestinian Joe
By Rev. Dr. John Tweedie
I’ll call him Joe (not his real name). Joe was my Palestinian guide for my last tour to Israel late last year. This was a first for me. On all previous tours to Israel, going back more than 20 years, I’ve always had Israeli guides. Let me say quickly that I liked Joe, even though it soon became apparent he didn’t like Israel. This was evident by his reticence to take the group to Israeli restaurants or to let them shop in Israeli stores. He kept telling them to be patient with their spending, that he knew the perfect place to buy Holy Land souvenirs etc.
What Joe had in mind, as it turned out, was an Arab store in Bethlehem later in the tour.
Of course, having been on many tours to Israel before this one, the pattern was all too familiar. All guides have their favourite stores. Joe does too, but Israeli stores will never be among them. Anyway, as Joe continued with his anti-Israeli commentary, it was all I could do to not openly challenge some of his more biased and inaccurate statements.
My role as tour leader was not to have running verbal battles with Joe. This would have spoiled the tour experience for everyone. In the first place, this was not an official Christians for Israel tour. Rather, I had been approached by another tour company and asked to lead one of their tours when the scheduled leader dropped out. This meant that I had no say or influence when it came to choosing the in-Israel tour company (an Arab-Christian company), much less the driver and guide. Since they were appointed by the tour company, I ended up with Palestinian Joe as my guide and Palestinian Mohammed (not his real name either) as my driver. I liked him too!
Roles and responsibilities
Back to my role: my responsibility was to ensure that tour participants had the best experience possible in Israel. I could not have done so by constantly challenging Joe, especially in front of the group, although I did later, in private, when he had been sufficiently challenged and chastised by others. He asked if I agreed with them and I said that I did. I told him his commentary was one-sided and unbalanced. Thankfully, He changed his ways after that.
By the way, Joe is a Christian. He could quote the Bible at the drop of a hat, and did often. He had a verse for each occasion and location. I liked him for that. I liked him for other reasons, too. What I didn’t appreciate was the way he seemed to seize every opportunity to bash Israel. Anyway, I decided to sit back, listen, and try to understand why Joe had such a huge chip on his shoulder. For one thing, I learned that his home was in close proximity to a security ‘wall’ Israel was building throughout the country. Joe said that the fact that it was built it in front of his house cost him $ 93,000 in depreciation. That would have upset me, too.
What Joe failed to mention was that this so-called ‘wall’ was built in response to incessant suicide bombings in Jerusalem and elsewhere, indiscriminate attacks that had taken many Israeli lives and caused immeasurable grief and heartache. I also knew that the ‘wall’ Joe kept referring to was, in fact, primarily a fence which, when completed, would extend for some 640kms throughout the country. However, only 3% of this security perimeter could be properly considered a wall made of steel and concrete. These 10 metre-high protective sections were necessary because of the ever present risk of sniper fire, especially where Israeli and Palestinian communities existed side by side.
Joe neglected to mention this.
The toxic mixture of pain and pride
I also observed that Joe’s interaction with Israeli soldiers and border guards was usually strained, to put it mildly. Case in point: whatever was said as we were trying to leave Bethlehem by one particular check-point resulted in a 11/2 hour delay and an unnecessary detour. As we waited for approval to pass, Joe emphasized that this was not unusual, that Palestinians were commonly delayed or mistreated by Israelis. In my almost 30 year’s experience of visiting Israel, however, this certainly was not the way foreign tourists were treated.
Israelis are very conscious of their image at home and abroad. They also appreciate the income stream and employment generated by tourist dollars. There had to be good reasons why Israeli border guards risked aggravating and alienating a bus load of Canadian tourists whose average age was the far side of 65. I suspect the check-point delay had everything to do with attitudes, eye contact, body language and words exchanged between Joe and the young soldiers on duty. In other words, the outcome was influenced by pride of position and painful experiences on both sides.
When we returned to Bethlehem the next day, I suggested to Joe that it might be helpful to let me do the talking this time. He agreed. So I stepped off the bus, talked to the border guards, and even managed to get them to agree to allow the bus, with Palestinian Mohammed at the wheel, to drive into the protected enclave of Rachel’s Tomb, a sacred and sensitive site to all Jews. Joe was astonished when we received permission to pass through the security barrier. It also created some anxiety for Mohammed since visiting Rachel’s Tomb was a first for him. He was unfamiliar with the directions, and very aware that soldiers in the towers above were watching our movements. I reassured Mohammed and told him all he needed to do was to follow the posted signs. He did. Success!
A learning experience
What I observed on this tour, by having Joe as my guide, was that tension fuelled by suspicion is always in the air when Israelis and Palestinians are in close proximity to one another. And, clearly, there are faults on both sides as two peoples with very different histories and aspirations try to find ways to co-exist in the tough neighbourhood that is the Middle East. I learned other things from Joe as well.
He unintentionally reminded me that there are emotionally wounded Christians within the Palestinian population, ordinary people who live in a no-man’s-land between Israel on the one hand and the aggressive expansion of Islam on the other. For instance, it wasn’t that long ago that the Christian population of Bethlehem was above 80%. Today it is less than 4% according to a Christian pastor I asked in Bethlehem last year. In fact, this city which is so sacred to Christians is no longer part of Israel in an official sense. Jericho and Bethlehem were handed over to the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority back in the 1990s as part of the now infamous Oslo Peace Accords. Life for the Christian population of this city beyond the ‘wall’ seems to have deteriorated from that time onward, while the ethnic cleansing of Christians continues apace and in not so subtle ways.
Ironically, it is not difficult to imagine a day in the near future when Bethlehem, known historically as the birthplace of the Christian Saviour, will be a city without Christians. Much maligned and often persecuted, they have been leaving the city in droves. In fact, Christians are a rapidly diminishing minority throughout the Palestinian areas. Joe is all too aware of this demographic shift. He knows he is standing on the shifting sands of religious and political uncertainty. He has already reached the painful conclusion that if his children and grandchildren are to have a brighter future, it will have to be in a land of promise far from the one they now call home. Joe and his family already have Canadian immigration cards that will allow them to move to Canada when they are ready to do so. When that day comes, it will be Canada’s gain but the Holy Land’s loss, at least where one more Christian family is concerned.
Keeping perspective
Joe also taught me to keep a more open and balanced perspective, again unintentionally. As Evangelical Christians, we tend to view Israel through rose-coloured glasses. We so much want to bless the children of Abraham that we tend to forget that not all of the children are honourable citizens. There are those who will take advantage of Christian generosity in the same way Bernie Madoff took advantage of so many of his fellow Jews. Jesus warned us to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” (Matt.10:16).
We also run the risk of viewing Palestinians only as the enemy. We need to remember that there are many Palestinians, especially Christians, who find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place. While the vast majority of them, like Joe, are angry at Israel, they are unlikely to encourage their children to become Shaheeds (suicide bombers). They are frustrated by the fact that they, unlike one million of their Arab counterparts, don’t enjoy the benefits of Israeli citizenship. The fact that they have a diminished standard of living, and are caught up in a bitter conflict with no clear end in sight, has caused many to despair and lose hope. This seems to be Joe’s problem. He is all too aware that the problems which have plagued Palestinians in the past may well enslave them for generations to come.
While it is true the nations have collectively tried to do something for the Palestinians, the sad truth is that people like Joe have lived long enough to see successive attempts to find solutions repeatedly fail. So Joe is getting out while he can. He sees no other solution for Christians living within a predominantly Muslim culture that views followers of Jesus as second class citizens at best, and aliens at worst. Joe is hurting for himself, his family, his Christian neighbours and their families. They are all hurting and frustrated by the never-ending conflict that surrounds them. I witnessed Joe’s interaction with Israeli border guards. I’m sure there are times when he is just as frustrated and annoyed by his encounters with Palestinian Authority guards.
How to help?
So what can we do for Joe and his friends? We can begin by remembering they are there, beyond the security fences and high walls that surround them. We can pray for them, perhaps as much for their peace as for Israel’s peace. We can try to get financial help to them. This is not always easy, given their difficult circumstances, but I do know that Christians for Israel International is helping certain Palestinian pastors and their people in the same way it is helping poorer, disadvantaged citizens of Israel. Finally, we can cling to the hope of better days ahead for all the people who call this region home.
Even so, come Lord Jesus!
(Rev. Dr. John Tweedie is Senior Pastor at New Covenant Christian Fellowship in Brantford, Ontario,Canada, He is Chairman of Christians for Israel International, and the Chairman of the Canadian Branch)
