The following are excerpts from my two-week trip to the West Bank and Israel in May 2008.

May 19, 2008

I walked a few blocks to the bus stop in Bethlehem, the West Bank, and caught the bus to Jerusalem. I thought I knew where to go when I got off at the Jaffa Gate again, but I got so lost - a 15-minute walk turned into 45 minutes, but at last I found the site of the conference about a proposed Peace Park on the lower Jordan River, organized by EcoPeace (Friends of the Earth/Middle East, FOEME). I thought I was late, but apparently all I missed was the beginning reception. Several Yale architects and architecture students have been involved in the planning, so I'm covering it for the Yale Alumni Magazine, and hopefully some other outlets too, so I won't write details here. FOEME staff are going to try to arrange for me to visit the site on the lower Jordan, and or visit a twinned Israeli/Palestinian community they work with. FOEME has Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian co-directors and they have many twinned communities along the three borders, including in Gaza.

After the conference I met the Palestinian co-director of Eco Peace - we shared a cab back to the Bethlehem checkpoint. Nader al Khatib is a water engineer, and actually set up the Palestinian Water Authority before joining EcoPeace. He told me he, like so many Palestinians, feels hopeless, because there's nothing happening to move the peace process forward at the government level and Israel continues to build the Wall and illegal settlements, "but we can't give up," he said. I asked if he thought the situation was similar to apartheid in South Africa, and he said, "It's worse." (Archbishop Tutu has said the same thing.)

When we arrived at the checkpoint, I followed him into line to show my passport. He told me he had a day permit that was good from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., and if he were to try to cross back into Palestine after that, he could be arrested by the IDF (Israel Defense Force). The Palestinians with permits have to hold their open permits up to the glass and an Israeli on the other side scans the information (which includes a facial scan, Nader said.) Then they have to provide their fingerprints on another screen before the security person grunts or nods them through. That response is in itself so dehumanizing, but I guess it's self-protection for the Israelis, who couldn't do their jobs as efficiently if they treated the Palestinians as fully human.  Just like Gaza is an open-air prison, people on the West Bank say they're in prison. In fact, Nadia the other night said she was sure if the Israelis could take away the Palestinians' air, they would.

May 20, 2008

Tuesday was probably the best day so far. First George drove me to meet a family living about five miles from Bethlehem, on 100 acres atop the highest hill in the vicinity - actually looking down on five settlements that ring the property - settlements that themselves are all on hilltops. Because the Israelis put a huge stone in the road to block access, we had to walk in about a half mile. (A taxi passed us from the other direction, and Daoud, the scion of the family, said it was a taxi delivering a passenger to that roadblock, who would then cross on foot and catch another taxi to Hebron, although we were so far out in the country it was hard to imagine where or when another taxi would appear.)

Daoud said his family's owned the land since 1916 and lived in a cave on the property - cool in summer and warm in winter. They've been fighting the government for 17 years after Israel announced in 1991 that the whole area was state land. He said a few years ago his family started Tent of Nations, which brings Palestinian children and international and Israeli volunteers to live in tents on the property (because they can't get permits to build any permanent structures) and plant all kinds of fruit trees and work in a children's summer camp with the goal of sharing their humanity.

I already edited our long visit down to a half hour for one of my "Forest and Trees" shows, but I'll be doing more with this. The land is absolutely beautiful, and Daoud said on a clear day at sunset they can see the Mediterranean, which of course has been off-limits to Palestinians for decades.

Then I interviewed a water expert in Hebron and visited a sewage treatment site, which uses very simple techniques to separate liquid and solid waste, and passes the partially treated sewage through a stand of phragmites to further clean it. Fascinating...although the smell drove George immediately back to the car!

After that we visited At-tuwani, a poor Palestinian village in the Hebron hills, where people live in caves or really ramshackle concrete houses, which has been attacked repeatedly by right-wing (ideological as opposed to economic) settlers who live nearby. Pretty horrific stuff. There has been a long-term (several years) presence of a Christian Peacemaker Team, and Hafez, the community leader I interviewed, said some villagers who were driven out have now returned. I edited a piece that will be running next week on Between the Lines (http://www.btlonline.org/). The birds singing all around were again amazing.

May 21, 2008

Today I went to the Israeli Supreme Court to hear an argument from a group of nine Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups trying to get the government to provide more fuel to Gaza. They say refusing to do so amounts to collective punishment of the civilian population. I interviewed two of the lawyers - one is American (now an Israeli citizen) and the other had an Israeli name but spoke English without an accent and went to Yale Law School. When I asked the former whether, even if the Supreme Court rules in their favor, does he think the government will change its policy, because there have been other cases (like the Wall taking Palestinian property) where the Supreme Court ruled in the Palestinians' favor and nothing changed. He actually denied that was the case, which surprised me, and said the government must abide by the SC rulings, even though it might take longer than one would wish - he repeated the oft-heard phrase that Israel is a democracy and a government of laws.

May 22, 2008

We went to interview Atef Abu Jaish, a researcher with the Water and Environmental Studies Institute. He said all the cities in the West Bank have water networks (and one of my surprises was that it's safe to drink the water out of the tap everywhere I've been so far - where there are taps, that is), and the Palestinian Water Authority is working to extend them to all the villages, 80 percent of which have them now. But that doesn't mean there's enough water. He reaffirmed stats about the lack of water (rainfall averages about 24 inches a year, but this past winter was only 2/3 of that) and the fact that Israelis use five to six times more than Palestinians, and Palestinians in isolated villages use much less than that - nowhere near the WHO recommended level. He said Israelis use 85 percent of the water in the region's three aquifers. Mr. Jaish also told me animatedly that he thinks a single state is the only viable solution to the situation. "Not us here and the Israelis there," he said, drumming his fingers on different parts of his desk, "but living together and sharing the resources."

May 25, 2008

Yesterday George had scheduled me to go to Jenin, in the far north of the West Bank, and a town I'd been wanting to visit, but I decided instead to go with the Palestinian representative of Friends of the Earth/Middle East (FOEME) to an event not far from Bethlehem, where a Palestinian village, Wadi Fukin, is cooperating on environmental issues, especially water, with an Israeli town across the Green Line, while one of the biggest illegal settlements is perched on the hills above the village, creating all kinds of problems, like letting its sewage - not always but with some regularity - pour down on the farm fields, rendering them unfit for growing crops; dynamiting the hills for further construction, creating a problem with two of the 11 springs in the village not recharging; and swimming naked in the irrigation pools on the villagers' lands, in some kind of a ritual cleansing. This was all told to me by Iyad Aburdeineh, the FOEME coordinator for the Palestinian communities. He has a master's degree in environmental engineering from George Mason University.

A group of about 20 Israelis from West Jerusalem was visiting. They've been buying vegetables from several farmers in the village, as one of them told me, "to get local, organic food and to support the Palestinians." He said the visitors wanted to get to know the farmers and learn about their farming methods. First the whole group sat under two big fig trees, which provided shade for everyone as they sat drinking sweet, hot tea out of flimsy plastic cups. Then we went to visit another farmer's lands down the road, and all sat under an enormous mulberry tree, whose fruits were just ripening. We all plucked a few red berries and enjoyed the sweet treat - I'd never tasted them before.

Iyad told me the sale of Palestinian produce is illegal in Israel, so technically this whole operation is illegal. But two of the farmers I spoke to, who've been farming more than 40 years, said they were grateful for the support of the Israelis, not only financially but also in helping fight the construction of the wall through the area, which has so far been stopped due to a court order that Friends of the Earth participated in winning. It was inspiring to see the humanity evident on both sides.

May 26, 2008

I went to visit a planned permaculture farm in a little valley close by. I spoke with two Brits, who are setting up the project with two other internationalists. The idea is for it to be a model for Palestinian farmers to consider, because it's no-till farming and thus conserves the soil and keeps moisture in better than other farming methods. Tom, an ecologist who's worked all over the world, said several farmers have already stopped by to check them out, even though the project's not up and running yet. I got there in a taxi, but Tom walked me back to George's office in about 15 minutes. I'm constantly surprised by how close things are to each other around here. Tom, the man who accompanied me, said Palestinians don't walk anywhere, so they always think no one else can/should either.

May 28, 2008

Flying into Budapest, I found it soothing to see so much green. I'd felt metaphorically parched the whole time I was in the Middle East, just looking out over the dry land.

Now that I'm home, I miss the dual-flush toilets that help conserve precious water, and I miss the Muezzin's call to prayer every evening.

I took Pema Chodron's book, "When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times" on my trip. I read this passage: "Just as the Buddha taught, it's important to see suffering as suffering. We are not talking about ignoring or keeping quiet. When we don't buy into our opinions and solidify the sense of enemy, we will accomplish something. If we don't get swept away by our outrage, then we will see the cause of suffering more clearly. That is how the cessation of suffering evolves."

Seems like good advice in general, and for the Middle East in particular.

.