Holy Land - Sacred Places

There are no un-sacred places

there are only sacred places

and desecrated places.

Wendell Berry

In spring 2022 I spent a short time in the Holy Land as a member of team organised by Amos Trust not far from Bethlehem. We helped rebuild a home destroyed by the Israeli army. That home, mentioned in the first entry of this blog, tragically is now destroyed again. To my mind destroyed homes (where the destroyers have breakfasted cheerfully on the ruins following their work), like destroyed hand-made objects, are ‘desecrated’, in Wendell Berry’s sense. There is an echo of the mis-deed in the air.

Amos also took us to other homes that similar teams had helped rebuild in previous years. At each one we were treated with overwhelming hospitality and kindness by the families who had suffered so much. It was a delight. I remember being amongst a group led by a small girl who proudly showed us to her new bedroom, all her own. I experienced these exchanges between people of different cultures and experiences as founded upon love. Their rebuilt homes and the wonderful feasts we were presented with, signs of how people enjoy caring for each other. People joyfully affirming their shared humanity.

When I left the Holy Land at the end of my visit, I was obliged to explain to Israeli security at the airport what I had been doing. ‘Rebuilding a Palestinian family home destroyed by the Israeli state’ is not an acceptable answer. Many people go on pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Bethlehem and they expect certain predictable responses. Though not an overly religious person myself, I found I could look the security personnel in the eye and say from the heart ‘I have been visiting the sacred places’.

First Joyful Sale card dispenser installed

The first Joyful Sale of Broken Objects card dispenser has just been installed, as a trial. Like the rest of the Joyful Sale, it works because we trust the people who join in.

Fifty shoppers pass through the Souk

The ancient market in Al Khalil (Hebron) has very few shoppers these days. Largely blocked off by Israeli military checkpoints, Israeli walls or barriers, and militarily patrolled Israeli-only areas. You are likely to be asked, ‘what religion are you?’ by a soldier with a gun. You must answer if you want to proceed. Instead of being at the heart of this Palestinian city the Souk has become a backwater - a dead-end.

It is also a potentially dangerous place to shop. Israeli settlers have illegally seized buildings, where they live protected by the Israeli army. From their high windows they throw rubbish, bottles of urine, or rocks down on the Palestinian shoppers below. The alleyways between shops, which were once thronging with people of all religions, locals and tourists, are now largely deserted. One can walk along them alone, saddened by the knowledge that shopkeepers are quietly desperate to make a sale. Few people stop to buy.

Now imagine the Joyful shoppers walking down this street. All of us. Every one of us making a purchase of some sort; everyone engaging with a shopkeeper in a spirit of mutual respect; everyone deciding to purchase a broken object. For a brief visit, fifty of us bringing the Souk to life. Yes - the Joyful Sale of Broken Objects has passed a milestone. We have made fifty sales. Thank you for participating! If you’d like to pass through again, please do. Bring your friends. You will be welcomed. Ahlan-wa-sahlan.

The Joyful Sale in Action

Soon we will be putting right a small part of this mess. Though the picture is not from this week, such actions by the Israeli military and settlers are intensifying, on this spot and elsewhere. We now have over £1,200 to send out, to restore some justice to families, to put ourselves alongside ordinary people who face militarised bullying, and (as requested by the West Bank shopkeepers) to reach people in Gaza whose need is unimaginable. If you want to make this gesture more powerful, amazingly, you can! Send the web site link out to five your friends, and bring a tiny bit more justice to the world.

‘Respect!’

Today the Joyful Sale of Broken Objects reached a milestone. The total of funds raised since May is over £1,000. All that money has or soon will be in Palestine in the hands of the people where it should be, or with those suffering/working alongside them. So I wanted to say… well I would say ‘thank you’ - but that’s not right. It is more than that. We’re not giving for charity. We’re ordinary people respecting other ordinary people’s rights to live life; all doing a bit to repair injustice and replace it with justice. So really what I want to say is, ‘Respect’. It’s good to stand up for one another together, ‘and believe that a better day is coming’ as Gregory Manning once said https://youtu.be/T3SH_2G5Pp8?si=NG0lSJAxGAUZVogi

We are with you

My experience of handing over funds from the Sale of Broken Objects to a shopkeeper is a powerful thing. It is more then the cash that will put a meal on the table - even more. It means that indifference is not the response of the world; that ordinary people want to put things right; that the attempt to belittle, humiliate, intimidate, degrade and project power over, in all these things the injustice has failed. It failed because the cash bears a subversive message - something like 'we are with you, all of us!'. And when the object pieces have been swept up, and the funds have been used, the meal has been eaten - even if the soldiers come back and repeat their crime - the message remains - 'we are with you!'.

By our actions we make a difference.

Launch of the Joyful Sale of Broken Objects

The second Joyful Sale of Broken Objects was launched today at Ullapool clock, at the weekly gathering for Gaza. We enjoyed cake in the sunshine. Four items are now released for ‘sale’ and the site has already raised over £200 for people suffering in Palestine. Thanks to all who participated and made it a lovely event.

Remembering a family newly made homeless

This week a house was illegally demolished by the Israeli army in the West Bank. The soldiers enjoyed breakfast on their land once they had destroyed their house. That much is not news, it happens most days. The newly homeless family have suffered this already, in 2021. A group of volunteers from UK and elsewhere had helped them rebuild it in 2022, so it was a particular sadness that their home, and our act of solidarity, had been destroyed. A group of us will soon come together to decide how to distribute any of the extra funds from the Joyful Sale, and if the family might receive a small part of the proceeds to show them that we are aware of the injustice done to them.