by Julianna Bienert

"Is running water what makes us happy?"  This question, coming from a member of Christian Peacemaker Teams in At-Tuwani, where there is neither running water nor electricity, has made me think.  What is the ideal human condition anyway?

When we asked Nasser, who lives in the tent town of Susiya, what he'd wish for if he had three wishes, he only had one answer for us: freedom.  Freedom for his country and for his family.  He did not ask for running water or electricity but for freedom from military occupation.  What is the point of amenities when your humanity is denied?

As I've pondered these things and witnessed the tenacity of the human spirit, the tenacity of the oppressor and the oppressed I cannot help but marvel and wonder how this situation will end.  Each side is driven; each is trying to survive; both can play the victim though the wise have seen that this role gets them nowhere.

I hope and pray that freedom will come to this land:  freedom from fear and hatred as much as from checkpoints and the wall.  As one presenter put it, the closures and boundaries imprison one group just as much as the next.  Thus, the freedom needed here is not just political, economic, or social, it is a heart and mind change.  Seeing the other for who they are: a brother, sister, a child of God.

This type of freedom is something I need, a change that must start within me.  I have no right to speak or to be present without it.  Thus, to pray for Palestine is to pray for myself that Christ would do in me what I'd like to see happen in the other, who, like me, is a fellow creature in need of freedom.

[Members of CPT's May 18-31 Palestine/Israel delegation were Josiah Abubakar (Edmonton, Alberta), Aaron Au, (Edmonton, Alberta), Julianna Bienert (Edmonton, Alberta), Jesse Doell (Hague, Saskatchewan), Stephanie Epp, (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan), Michael Hickey (Pickering, Ontario), Esther Kern (London, Ontario), James Leeson (Edmonton, Alberta), Joost Pikkert (Edmonton, Alberta), Brian Rempel (Kitchener, Ontario), Katelin Rempel (Kitchener, Ontario), Gordon Roberts (Ottawa Ontario) and Evan Yang (Edmonton, Alberta).]