In her teachings on conflict transformation, CPT trainer Carolyn Shrock Shenk
says that conflict is holy ground. When you walk with those who are
experiencing conflict, you are walking on holy ground.

On the morning of Feb. 4, the CPT Hebron team prepared to worship on Shuhada
Street, a main commercial artery in Hebron that runs past the CPT apartment.
A section of the street also runs past the Israeli settlement of Beit
Hadassah, and this section was closed to all Palestinian pedestrians last
October. It remained opened to settlers and all others. Palestinians had to
walk up a tortuous hilly path to bypass the street.

CPT had been praying for months that this street would be reopened to all. We
walked again into this conflict zone that morning. When we reached the
military checkpoint that marked the start of the section closed to Palestinian
pedestrians, we turned to walk up the hilly bypass.

Then the Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint called out to us, "Come back. It's
open today. Everyone can walk."

"Why?" we asked, "What's happened?"

"It's God's will," they replied.

God's will? Or the Israeli authorities' will? Are they the same? Why was it
opened today, the very day on which we had decided to worship there?

Shuhada Street was transformed today. We walked the street with Palestinians
and Israelis marvelling at God's abiding desire to transform conflict and to
bring peoples together. This is holy ground.