A story of a friend of mine, six years after living in a war zone.

Once upon a time ,  back in 1984 a baby boy was born , the family was happy even thought it wasn't planned for this boy to come , and as some people say in those cases that this was a mistake, but this boys mum was always happy for this mistake .

The boy was raised up in a very small tiny village called Bethlehem, and exactly five minuets away from where baby Jesus was born, not only it was five minuets away from the birth place, but his house is few meters away from Rachel's Tomb, where Jacob buried his wife.

Not long enough after this boy was born something strange happened in his country, something that is called the intifada, which means the uprising. This was in 1987, and lasted for few years. And it became normal for this boy to see soldiers all around, and kids throwing stones on soldiers because this boy's country was occupied from another force. This boy grew up wondering why all those things are happening, whose fault that there isn't any playgrounds that he can go to, and why is it possible to go to the sea, or even going out without fearing the soldiers. Time passed and this boy started understanding bit by bit what is going on in his country. And all his dreams and prayers were focused on being free one day. The boy used to go to the Sunday school in his town, learning more about god, and about Christianity, and one day god used this little boy to say something that brought his mother to the Christian faith and that helped bringing the father as well. 

Life was normal, or maybe it wasn't, but the political situation in his country was improving, and things started getting better and better each day especially in the time of preparing for the millennium, where everybody in the world turned their eyes to Bethlehem. Work was available, money, friends and everything that 16 years old teenager wanted, until suddenly something strange happened, and woke up this kid from his dreams of having a goof job and traveling all over the worlds and study … in September 2000 the prime minister of Israel at that time with a thousand soldiers got to the most holy place for Muslims in Jerusalem, and Muslims considered it as he was trying to humiliate them and their religion , so they started throwing stones on the soldiers, and the soldiers shoot at them and killed more than 30 people in the first day . the Palestinians got angry for that , they buried their friends and family members , and went back to throw stones on soldiers in the next day , and as well , lots of people were killed, and that is how life turned to be in Palestine . and as you know , this boy who now is a teenager lives next to Rachel's tomb which is a place full of Israeli soldiers , and because of that kids started coming and throwing stones on the soldiers, and all what the soldiers did was killing them . People living there thought it would be just for few days, week's maybe, but it continued for months and months. Lots of Palestinians died just because they were throwing stones. So some guys couldn't handle this, so they went and bought some guns to fight back. And because they wanted to shoot at soldiers they used to come and shoot at soldiers who are based next to my house. And soldiers use d to shoot back 10 times as much as the Palestine does.

The conflict started getting worst and worst, and from throwing stones to shooting, the soldiers started using tanks and big machines, that you can just see in movies or in wars. Lots of kids died next to this guys house, and he heard and saw lots of them dieing, lots of them getting seriously injured, bullets everywhere, stones, road blocks, blood, sorrow, pain, suffering, injustice hatred. Lots of times this guy needed to stay home for weeks and weeks hiding in his house because of the curfew policy that the Israeli soldiers took , and not only hiding in his house but in a corner, because the bullets used to come through the windows and the doors.. Life seemed very dark ,and this guy became hopeless , careless, full of hatred for the soldiers who are doing this to him , and for the people who took his land and built settlements on it and stopped him from going there . Fear of what the future will be holding, and escaping from the presence by ignoring it, and the past, well it's not better than the presence, but maybe it would be better than the future.

From believing in god and being a "good Christian " this guy started blaming god for what he and his people are facing, and instead of praying and asking god for help , he turned completely away from god. That made life harder and impossible to live specially with the heart full of hatred a heart wanting to see his enemies suffer as much as he is suffering.

And then god interfered and pulled this guy from this situation by a Dutch couple. This couple came and offered a full scholarship for this guy and his friend to go to Belfast Northern Ireland with a Christian organization called" YWAM "Youth with a Mission. This guy took this chance without even thinking twice. He got all his staff and traveled to Belfast to go and find him self with a group of Christians from different parts of the world learning more about god , and about reconciliation ,forgiveness and loving the enemy. At first  it was very hard for him even to hear that and deal with it , because its easy to forgive somebody who hurt you once , but its very hard to forgive those who still is hurting you , and doesn't even care if you forgive them or not . This guy learnt lots and god worked in his life and his heart, and he started having hope again, and a meaning for his life.

This guy went back to Palestine, to his home country to find out that everything is still the same, but he is the only thing that was changed. Soldiers are still killing people; the wall was built exactly next to his house. Since this guy was born the first thing he used to see when he opens the door was Rachel's tomb, now what he sees when he opens the

Door is the wall , 12 meters high. This wall stopped this guy from being able to go and visit his married sister who lives in Jerusalem five minuets away from his house. And just then all the lectures about forgiveness and loving the enemy started being a challenge.

One day in December 2005, this guy decided to go to a conference in Bethlehem talking about nonviolence resistance, and there he saw a man with long beard and a weird hat , so what this guy did is went and introduced him self And said , I am Elias Halabi from Palestine, and the man introduced him self back as : Elijahu from Israel. Elijahu was the first Israeli that Elias meets after 7 years of the conflict. They exchanged emails and phone numbers because Elias was interested of know Elijahu more ,and so was Elijahu. 2 weeks after the conference Elias got a permission to go and pray in Jerusalem because it was Christmas , and for you to know because Elias is a Palestinian guy he is not allowed to go to Jerusalem even if he can see it from his roof and its only five minutes away from his house . Elias takes his opportunity and goes to meet Elijahu in Jerusalem. And there was the shook; Elijahu wasn't just an Israeli, but an orthodox Jews. So, Elias went with Elijahu and stayed with him in his house for a night, and in the second day Elijahu came and asked Elias if he wants to join Elijahu for a friends wedding, and as Elias decided to go , they went together. And there the surprise was bigger than Elias, and there he finds him self in the middle of more than 600 orthodox Jews, big black hates, big black dresses, and some of them were setters so they had there big machine guns with them . What shall he do!! What he did was to go down and dance like crazy hand in hand with those Jews who suppose to be his enemies. this was a turning point in Elias's life, dancing with them was like a door opening to him to share with few of them about his life and what his people are facing and that they're not terrorist , but they're normal people wanting to have normal life . Time passed, and Elijahu and Elias became good friends, Elias invited Elijahu to his house, which is not normal from a Palestinian to have a Jew in his house, and this Jewish friend came to his Palestinian friend's house.

Some of you may think that now life is perfect, and everything is ok with Elias, but no, I want to tell you something , Now when I am writing about this guy, I know that 6years have passed on the conflict, more than 4,500 Palestinians were killed, more than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners are in Israeli jails. The wall is still standing next to his house, and he can't go see his sister when ever he wants, he can't move and he is always in danger because of the soldiers next to his house…

Elias needs to take a decision everyday to forgive his enemies, pray for them, and bless them, why?! Because he thinks that that's what Jesus did, and that's what he will do if he is living in the same situation. Is it easy , ?!! no its not easy , lots of times Elias just feels angry, frustrated and fed up with what is going on, and just wanting to react, but throw the power that god gave him , he is trying to be a peace maker and a bridge builder throw this situation , and trying to be the light in the darkness. That's why he needs our prayers.

Since the start of the intifada most Palestinians have greeted the various peace efforts with weary scepticism or downright pessimism. However, some refuse to let the vicissitudes of political manoeuvring affect their vision for the future. Daoud Nassar's story is one of both hope and despair, where injustice meets inspiration.

Daoud lives with his wife and children in Bethlehem, and his family owns a piece of land southwest of the city. One Friday morning, in the summer sun, I stood with Daoud looking out across his fields and beyond, up the hill towards the Neve Daniel settlement.

The land has been at the centre of a struggle with the Israeli military since 1991, when the Israelis declared it 'state' land. "If anyone 'claimed' to own the land he had to go and present his case to a military court", Daoud explained. "Some had no papers or documents to prove ownership and so lost their land." The Nassars, on the other hand, have the deeds from the Ottomans, the British Mandate, the Jordanians and even from the Israelis.

Last year, the Palestinian lawyer representing them received a paper from the court saying that the family could not prove ownership of the land, a decision Daoud suspects was influenced by the events of the intifada. The verdict was made in spite of the court recognizing three borders of the land and accrediting witnesses brought forward to attest they had worked there.

"We appealed to the Supreme Court with a new lawyer, Jonathan Kuttab (since Palestinian lawyers cannot go to the Supreme Court). On 5 February 2003 there was the first postponement, again in April and June, and the most recent hearing on 9 July postponed it again." There will now be a 60-day period for the military to substantiate its reasons for rejecting the Nassars' appeal, after which the family will have 30 days to respond.

Looking west into the valley from the Nassars' land there are superb views of the Palestinian village of Nahalin, and its monstrous neighbour, the Beitar Illit settlement, which took a fifth of the 5,000 new settlers to arrive in the Occupied Territories during the first half of 2003. The family's more immediate neighbours in Neve Daniel have been there since 1982, and relations have seriously deteriorated in the last few years.

"When the intifada started the settlers wanted to confiscate the land," Daoud told me, after a hard morning's work clearing a cave. "Sometimes they came with machine guns. One time I showed a settler my papers showing ownership of the land, and he said that he had papers from God. They tried to open a road through the land, they uprooted our trees, pulled down fences, broke water tanks, but we just kept mending everything. Now we try and keep a permanent presence here."

But on the very land he is fighting to keep, Daoud also hopes to realize his dream, a place for reconciliation, international exchange and building relationships across the divide. "The vision we have here is for a campsite, called 'Tent of Nations', a place to bring different religions, cultures and nationalities together."

Daoud has already organized two peace camps in Europe, bringing together Israelis, Palestinians and internationals. "During these peace camps, I realized that Israelis and Palestinians didn't know much about the other side at all. The Palestinians didn't even realize that Israelis ate falafel, and the Israelis were not aware that Palestinians had access to things like the internet!"

Tent of Nations is also a gesture of defiance to those who would seek to steal the land. "There are a lot of projects in Area A and B but this is not where it is important to do something. If we don't do something like this in Area C then the land might just be taken one day." Daoud remains anxious that under cover of an intense period of violence, Israel could come and take the land unimpeded.

South of Bethlehem, the Gush Etzion settlement block eats up Palestinian land. In this claustrophobic and hostile environment, Daoud is preparing for the reconciled relationships on which long-term peace will be built. "I don't care much for all these political processes. Look at Oslo, how it ended up — with an intifada. Peace is like a tree, you have to water it and tend to it for it to grow."

http://www.benwhite.org.uk/

Elias Halabi, an adventurous person who always seeks for a change, a person who strives to make a difference, He's one of our university's current students, who lives every phase in his life with continuous hope bumping with every beat in his heart.

Elias Issa Qusta Halabi, born 1984 in a Christian family and raised on the true meaning of love, forgiveness and caring. Helping people and assisting them to solve their problems have been the drivers towards his current study in Sociology / Psychology. Through his studies same with every Palestinian he has been affected by the political situation, especially with him living at the heart of the Palestinian- Israeli Confrontations in Bethlehem. He says:" The political situation has influenced every aspect of my life, emotionally, financially and it made me get to a point were I have to step back and stop caring, especially when you look around and find all doors are closed and you're not given the opportunity to dream and act . But luckily, with the help of God and my inner beliefs I was able to stand strong through it all."

    Elias has always been so into music, decoration and archeology. He's sociable and has participated in several summer camps, voluntary work, he also used to give tutoring in Arabic language and nowadays he's a member in religious youth groups in the University and in Bethlehem. He aims to continue his higher education and master in Counseling since he has set his target towards the youth and their issues.

    A major experience in Eli's life is a 6-month course titled "Reconciliation Discipleship Ttraining Ccourse", a religious, social, moral and ethical course that he participated in during the period January 19^th and July 21^st, 2005 in Belfast, Northern Ireland; Rwanda and Burundi, Africa; that was arranged to him by Youth With A Mission "YWAM".

The course held Participants from Palestine, South Africa, USA, Canada and Germany. The Aim of the course was to look at life from a Christian perspective and enhance human rights, communication and relationship with God, forgiveness, humbleness, understanding and respecting each others' different opinions, reconciliations at various levels, in addition, to revealing the source of a human's inner passions and fears.

The Life Style they lived in Belfast, Rwanda and Burundi started every morning with lectures followed by work at schools and youth centers, holding conferences for university students along with reconciliation conferences as well as connecting with people suffering from HIV/AIDs and parentless young people.

    Eli stated that the experience has brought and enhanced the message of forgiveness and existence of God to his heart and the heart of others; it helped him express himself in front of thousands of people and helped to reveal the true picture of the Palestinians life. Moreover being away from your country and pulling back from the routine life into a completely different way of living made him grow to be more independent and cherish liberty and freedom and use them well within the boundaries of responsibility.

    In his opinion:" I think that the course is reflected now in every portion of my life and has had great results for me as an individual and for a community and people of various beliefs. It helped get them together mainly religious people of different parties who were never expected to sit together and reach out to something."

    Studying at BU has opened his way to step forward in his life as he stated; it's true he took one step back from his academic life at BU by participating in the course for 6 months but that helped him take 2 steps forward as he returned, he's now one of our university's Student Ambassadors that he enjoys being a lot, he's connecting with variety of people and establishing strong social bonds with many others.

    "I want to tell all the students to trust themselves and believe in their abilities. People could harm our hopes and could sometimes with one word devastate us if we allow them. Just trust in yourselves and believe in God in all decisions you make and all the steps you take" He states.

Dalia Kharoufeh

Bethlehem University