Amnesty's report on the situation of Palestinian and Israeli water resources has been summarised in Ekklesia. Thank you to Brian for a link to this. Last night I heard some of the statistics from Patricia. I was at the reporting back night of the tour group that went to Israel and Palestine in September. There we had heard from Rich in the Bethlehem refugee camp we went to about Israel "turning on the tap" for a few hours every week or so (or every month or so). Now Amnesty has it documented. The report is to be found at http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE15/027/2009/en/e9892ce4-7fba-469b-96b9-c1e1084c620c/mde150272009en.pdf
The evening of reporting was wonderful with 63 people attending. Thank you to everyone! It was a good time to be telling stories and those stories need to be told. As they are told they gain strength. I told a couple of people of my wonderful time in the crowds at the Damascus Gate. I realised that I needed to go out again (this was just before Eid; a very busy time!) I could not have easily walked through the old city to the hotel. It was much quieter outside the wall. But the crowd! I saw a very large young man, an orthodox jew, going out and I walked behind him. But he could not get through. Some Palestinian workers saw him struggling and they were taking pallets out on their shoulders... they beckoned him to follow. We got through. :-)
It seems to me that the crowds and pilgrims of three faiths are a vision of heaven. When we acknowledge one another, when we help each other, when we mill around and enjoy festivals from all over... in Jerusalem people from Indonesia, New Zealand, China, India; we all meet... it is heaven.
and we make of it a hell....
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