AT-TUWANI REFLECTION: Hope for the New Year
December 26th, 2008
in:
CPTnet
26 December 2008
AT-TUWANI REFLECTION: Hope for the New Year
by Janet Benvie
As I write this, Advent and Christmas are over. The new Christian year has begun; the new calendar year is about to beginGregorian and Hijri.* It is a time for looking forward to the New Year, the lengthening of the days again and, in due time, the earth's new growth in spring.
Here in At-Tuwani I see hope and new growth everywhere I look. In the midst of the Israeli occupation and its attendant violent oppressions imposed on the villagers, I see such amazing signs of hope.
Just south of At-Tuwani, in Humra valley, a family has planted a new olive grove. On the rocky hillside they have created a small walled ‘garden.' The olives they planted are Roman variety, they told usaround four times more expensive than the common variety, but superior and longer lasting. A carefully crafted stone wall surrounds this new olive grove. A little lower in the same valley, other villagers have repaired a wall around an existing grove. Considerable time and great care was taken with the work, and the result is attractive, but practical, new walls.
As I walk around the village I see numerous families undertaking home repairs and extensions. Some are re-building demolished homes, others building new homes. One family who returned this summer to re-build their home, demolished by the Israeli military in 2004, is walling in small garden areas around their new house and planting trees and shrubs. Another family, who is repairing and extending their home, is carefully building a stone outer wall to match the stonework of the original house.
It takes hope for the future to build a new home when the occupying power has already threatened all the houses in your village with demolition. It takes hope for the future to invest time and money in olive groves and gardens.
As we enter the new year, my hope for the future is that the world's politicians (the quartet of the European Union, the United Nations, Russia and the USA), will recognize Israel's occupation for what it isbrutal, oppressive and immoraland will stop sending it military funding. My hope for the future is that people around the world will say to Israel "enough" and will boycott this immoral state in the same way so many people boycotted apartheid South Africa.
My hope for the future is that peace with justice shall prevail. Living in At-Tuwani nurtures that hope.
For photos of some of the walls and gardens, go to http://cpt.org/gallery/Tuwani-walls-of-hope
* The Gregorian calendar is used almost universally, with twelve calendar months in each year. Muslims use the Hijri calendar, based on lunar months, which is eleven days shorter than the Gregorian. The new Gregorian year will be 2009; the new Hijra 1430.
26 December 2008
AT-TUWANI REFLECTION: Hope for the New Year
by Janet Benvie
As I write this, Advent and Christmas are over. The new Christian year has begun; the new calendar year is about to beginGregorian and Hijri.* It is a time for looking forward to the New Year, the lengthening of the days again and, in due time, the earth's new growth in spring.
Here in At-Tuwani I see hope and new growth everywhere I look. In the midst of the Israeli occupation and its attendant violent oppressions imposed on the villagers, I see such amazing signs of hope.
Just south of At-Tuwani, in Humra valley, a family has planted a new olive grove. On the rocky hillside they have created a small walled ‘garden.' The olives they planted are Roman variety, they told usaround four times more expensive than the common variety, but superior and longer lasting. A carefully crafted stone wall surrounds this new olive grove. A little lower in the same valley, other villagers have repaired a wall around an existing grove. Considerable time and great care was taken with the work, and the result is attractive, but practical, new walls.
As I walk around the village I see numerous families undertaking home repairs and extensions. Some are re-building demolished homes, others building new homes. One family who returned this summer to re-build their home, demolished by the Israeli military in 2004, is walling in small garden areas around their new house and planting trees and shrubs. Another family, who is repairing and extending their home, is carefully building a stone outer wall to match the stonework of the original house.
It takes hope for the future to build a new home when the occupying power has already threatened all the houses in your village with demolition. It takes hope for the future to invest time and money in olive groves and gardens.
As we enter the new year, my hope for the future is that the world's politicians (the quartet of the European Union, the United Nations, Russia and the USA), will recognize Israel's occupation for what it isbrutal, oppressive and immoraland will stop sending it military funding. My hope for the future is that people around the world will say to Israel "enough" and will boycott this immoral state in the same way so many people boycotted apartheid South Africa.
My hope for the future is that peace with justice shall prevail. Living in At-Tuwani nurtures that hope.
For photos of some of the walls and gardens, go to http://cpt.org/gallery/Tuwani-walls-of-hope
* The Gregorian calendar is used almost universally, with twelve calendar months in each year. Muslims use the Hijri calendar, based on lunar months, which is eleven days shorter than the Gregorian. The new Gregorian year will be 2009; the new Hijra 1430.
