Conclusion: One story at a time
Eleven days in Israel-Palestine, November 11-21, on a Solidarity Pilgrimage. Eleven grim but sometimes heartening days of encounter and reflection, during a time of genocide and ethnic cleansing, imposed by Israeli forces and illegal settlers on Palestinians.
The most common comment, from nearly every Palestinian we encountered, was like this: “Thank you for coming to visit. It means so much to us to have company at such a hard time.” The pilgrimage theme was, “Come and See. Go and Tell.” That’s what our Palestinian acquaintances hope we will do. To return and, wherever we can, retell the stories we have heard. Their stories, they said, told and retold, give them hope. One voice, one story at a time.
Ancient olives trees
In Jericho, one of the longest-inhabited city sites in human history, we viewed the ruins of the winter holiday house of Herod the Great and realized that civilizations for the last 12,000 years have risen and fallen in what we now call the West Bank. Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Babylonian, Macedonian, Seleucid, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, and the infamous British Mandate—Palestine has been the graveyard of empires. We observed the manifold appalling methods the current Israeli government uses to try to erase the Palestinians. Day by day, Palestinians resist. We have seen them do this in brave and creative and nonviolent ways. They still are there where they belong. They have deep roots and defiant hope, and hope breeds resilience.
Jesus prayed on the Mount of Olives, as was his custom (Luke 22), and an angel appeared and strengthened him. On the Mount we saw an olive tree that arborists say may be over two thousand years old. On the Mount of Olives that same day, Jesus was betrayed and arrested. From the Mount of Olives, he ascended into heaven (Acts 1:12). Two angels told his disciples to not just stand there staring up. So they went and took up the mission Jesus had commissioned them to carry out.
A Palestinian farmer whose olive harvest the settlers have yet again prevented said, “If I knew that tomorrow the world would end, today I will plant an olive tree.” After our Solidarity Pilgrimage, may we all go and do likewise, replanting stories--if not trees.
*About the author
Bill Butt is retired after writing for CBC Television, teaching at Western University in London, Ontario, and thirteen years as Overseas Personnel for the United Church of Canada, based primarily in Angola and Mozambique. He is a member of the CFOS Communications Committee. Along with a dozen other Canadians, he participated in a Solidarity Pilgrimage, November 11-21, 2024, hosted by Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem. Each day of the pilgrimage, he wrote about his personal experience.