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Israel - The Frontline Is Everywhere
by Lloyd Howell
Introduction
In mid-November of 2003 I had the opportunity to participate in a task force as part of a Peace Rally in Israel, which was organized by the Inter-religious and International Federation for World Peace [IIFWP]. The purpose was to advance the Middle-East peace process centering on a great Peace Rally to be held on Dec 22 in Israel. The underlying idea was that peace would not come through political or military means but that there is also a religious and spiritual side of the peace equation; that religion, at its best, brings man outside of himself and the confines of his nationality to see the brotherhood and oneness of all people as God’s children. The goal was to tap into these powerful currents and direct them toward solving the problem.
We worked in teams of 4 and later in teams of 2. I started off with the following team members: Benedicte, a French woman; Etsuko, a Japanese woman; Jan, a Slovenian man and Rev. Hilary, a black Baptist preacher and later, in his place, Imam Aziz, a black American Muslim. Task forces were given assignments to meet previous IIFWP contacts, build new relationships starting from there and ultimately persuade people to support and participate in the rally on December 22.
Ibrahim abu el-Hawa
Ibrahim abu El-Hawa was one of the first people I met in what he referred to as the Land of the Prophets. He was small in stature and radiated warmth and generosity. He was lingering in the lobby of the Jerusalem Renaissance Hotel and we began conversing after he stated that he thought he had seen me before; a fairly common approach, I later discovered, used by Palestinians to initiate a conversation with someone they don’t know.
As I came to know Ibrahim I was deeply impressed by his ability to engage those within his reach. Eager to share about his life and to know another he approached strangers as one would old friends and thus it came to be that I, a man of few spoken words, came into contact with him.
He began telling me of his extraordinary family that had lived on the Mount of Olives for the last 1400 years resulting in around 12,000 descendants. During that time the Crusaders, the Turks, the British and the Jordanians had come and gone. Now, he said, the Jews were here. He laughingly spoke of the ’Travel Document’ the government of Israel had issued him. Despite his family’s deep historical roots the Israeli government, established only decades earlier, would not acknowledge his family as full citizens of the land, that is to say worthy of being granted an official passport! Not wishing to grant a non-Jew such a status, he could only obtain a travel document which arbitrarily categorized him as a citizen of Jordan! He said that if he was to show and try to use such a document in Jordan he would surely be arrested and that if he produced it in an Arab country he would be in serious danger. And that when his sons went to study in the U.S. such a document was used to block their return to Israel. He found it all somewhat ridiculous and- to my surprise - laughed good-naturedly about it all.
Ibrahim delighted in introducing himself to others by stating ”Do you know I am a very rich man?” This sometimes raised eyebrows as his clothes did not correspond with his words. In his mind his wealth lay in the fact that he knew thousands of people; their family life, jobs, income and children. He was rich because he had friends all over the world and was surrounded by a large family with dozens of grand children and thousands of extended tribal relatives. His world was one of community and family experienced on a level that most westerners could only imagine. He claimed that the people of his area did not need a newspaper - news would spread by word of mouth be it a wedding, funeral or whatever. In his house one could find guests from all parts of the world, at times numbering a dozen or more, all welcome to partake of his family’s food and generosity. Moreover to be a guest in Ibrahim’s house one only had to come across his path. An invitation would unfold at the drop of a hat, ”Would you like to come and stay in my house? You don’t need to pay for a hotel.” It did not matter what religion, race or nationality one had. If a traveler was hungry or desired not to stay in a hotel he was welcome at Ibrahim’s home. At the time just prior to the peace rally he had twelve guests staying in his house. No doubt his wife must have been as much of a saint as him!
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