Today i got up at dawn, headed to an agricultural gate - a door in the Wall, the Israeli Government has been building since the year 2000 for "Security Purposes", and that the International Court of Justice declared "to be illegal" in its
Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory of 9th of July 2004.
Every day J., like many other farmers, throughout the Occupied Territories, at early dawn, has to cross such gate to access his land. He went through a long process to get a magnetic card and then a permit from the Israeli authorities, the administration of which falls upon the military. Then each day, during a period of time fixed by these same "authorities" he is able to cross a gate where this magnetic card and permit are checked and his fingerprints taken. The gate opens three times in the day, if he and every other farmer in the West Bank is "lucky" enough. His work schedule is subject to this "authority".
By these agricultural gates you find only those few who have got permits, those "lucky" few who besides owning their land, which they all do, have the permit to go through.
Here i sit, every other day, at dawn, during these three months trying to say, by my presence, we care, you're not forgotten. Oddly enough though, these men and women, some well into their 60s are the ones that through their welcome, their smiles, their presence give me the hope that i wish i could convey to them...
You are probably wondering: "why is he there? What does he expect to accomplish with his presence?"
These questions are dangerous. They reveal a tiredness with this subject, due to excessive media coverage, a fatalistic approach that i cannot have. I am tempted at times to have it, to let it go. And i am then confronted with the kindness of a people with whom i have no kinship and with whom my only resemblance is my long beard, my loud laughter and a shared humanity.
Drawing strength from their empathy, their will to resist, their courage none of which seem to portray the long years of waiting, the forgetfullness of the International Community and its lack of backbone, i am here and i have a task to accomplish.
"Pour que l'Homme ne soit plus l'esclave de l'homme. So that Man shall never again be the slave of man."
these were also the questions my colleague and i were asked today by two very young Israeli Army soldiers (Israeli Defense Forces). They seemed puzzled, confused, bored by our presence, so after accomplishing their duty at the gate they came, their gear imposing a certain respect, to ask us who we are and why we're here. Some words came to my mind, a certain reply instantly vibrates within my chest, but some sense of duty and a reflected reply comes instead: " We are from the World Council of Churches and we're here to see that everyone is doing fine!" Still a bit of my "wise nature" reveals itself in the nature of my reply.
I would rather have said:" Why are you here?"
