Needing peace in the city of the "friend of God," Abraham

Imagine white supremacists entering an all-black inner city neighborhood somewhere in the U.S., occupying some homes, and beginning to “reclaim” the city for their people. Imagine them raising white supremacist flags, carrying automatic weapons, blocking off streets to be traveled by whites only, and being backed up by soldiers.

Shift your imagination to the West Bank south of Jerusalem, and you have the city in real time, in the “city of Abraham.” Al Khalil – “the friend” (of God, the Qur’anic name for Abraham) – a.k.a. Hebron, is not an easy place. It’s not an easy place to visit, and I’m sure it’s a hundred times harder to live in.

A city of 160,000, the largest in the West Bank…

…mostly Muslim…

…the only West Bank city with Israeli settlers, several hundred, among the most ideological and “hard core” of any settlers…

…and about 2000 Israeli soldiers protecting them.

The second holiest city to the Jewish people…

…the city of Abraham…

…burial place of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah…

A “holy” city, sacred to both Jews and Arabs…

…and a city of strife…exclusion…bloodshed…violence…

…with a mosque that has been exclusive…and a shared place of worship…a place of slaughter…and finally is divided by a wall separating Muslims and Jews…

A parable, perhaps, of the relationship between Jews and Arabs in the land…

…both offspring of the venerated father, Abraham…

…“cousins” who have alternated between peaceful coexistence and bloody battle…

I’m reminded of the Midrash that Rabbi Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights told us about, regarding God providing a spring for Hagar and Ishmael, and the angels questioning God’s wisdom, urging him to let them die, but God in his infinite wisdom allowing Hagar and Ishmael to survive, knowing that they would grow up in the land alongside the offspring of Isaac…

And here they are side by side in Hebron, Al Khalil, the city of the friend of God.

Hebron is noteworthy for the strident settlers. For the Ibrahimi mosque with its wall separating Muslims and Jews. For zones H1 and H2, dividing the city into the areas which are under Palestinian control, and those (settled) areas under Israeli occupation. For the main thoroughfare that has been blocked off to Palestinians, only settlers (and the visiting foreigner) allowed to pass. For the shops (1100 and counting?) that have been driven out of business, due to occupation and the curtailing of tourism and other business.

And Al Khalil is noteworthy for Christian Peacemaker Teams (http://www.cpt.org/), “a living answer to the question, ‘what would happen if Christians devoted the same discipline and self-sacrifice to nonviolent peacemaking that armies devote to war?’” – volunteers who “train for peace (as for war),” who are “willing to die for peace,” and who devote themselves to “conflict transformation” and reduction of violence. 

It seems like every time I’ve visited CPT in Hebron, we are met and shown around by a small, sweet, “older” (in their 60s or 70s – not that that’s old) woman, who is loving and compassionate and “tough as nails,” who fearlessly inserts herself between Palestinians and soldiers to prevent violence, and who makes me feel like I have a lot to learn about living out my convictions.

In the midst of all of the struggle and violence and injustice of Hebron, it is the volunteers of CPT who give me hope, who are my peace heroes.

Can Jew and Arab, the children of Abraham, believers in the God of Abraham, put the violence and conflict behind them and learn to live again in peace in the city of Abraham? What will it take?