let it be morning

Last night I finished a novel called, "Let it Be Morning" about an Israeli Arab journalist who lives in a village that becomes blocked and closed off by Israeli security forces. It is defenitely worth a read. I think it gives a pretty good idea/picture of the realities of what it would be like to undergo a military closure/blockade---extrememly inhumane and diffcult. It gives a range of different Palestinian, Arab Israeli voices as well.

I got this in my inbox too this morning and wanted to post it. I pray for the people in these Palestinian villagers in their continued non-violent resistance who face almost an impossible task and get little attention. Do not forget these people who struggle daily with an incredible amount of courage and integrity.


CPTnet
22 June 2007
AT-TUWANI REFLECTION: Behind the scenes of a civil war


by John Lochtefeld


Life slows down in At-Tuwani as the weather gets hotter. Both Palestinians and settlers take refuge from the afternoon sun, reducing the amount of
confrontation that occurs. It does not, however, stop. Young settlers still find opportunities to launch rocks at Palestinian shepherds.Bored soldiers roll through the village in their jeeps, stopping randomvehicles, sometimes unscrewing and confiscating the license plates from Palestinian cars, alleging they are stolen or their Israeli plates faked.

Worst of all, the nearby village of Susiya is under imminent threat of
the army destroying it, and no amount of cooperation on their part with the
Israeli civil authorities seems to be good enough. So when news comes
through word of mouth of the intensifying conflict between Hamas and
Fatah,it still seems far away, even as it spills into the West Bank from Gaza
and creeps down as far south as Ramallah.

The South Hebron Hills remain a world apart. Here the threat of violence
remains the monopoly of extremist Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers.
Here the conflict is still defined by an ever-tightening occupation and
efforts by Palestinians to go on with life in its shadow. Here a group of
villagers, shepherds and farmers, carry the struggle forward by meeting
on ahot Friday afternoon to strategize on how to prevent the dismantling of
Susiya and the subsequent loss of land.

Resistance in At-Tuwani retains a level of integrity that seems to have
beenlost in not so far away cities where cousins have turned their guns on
eachother, fighting over the scraps of food that fall from the oppressors'
table. Sadly, he fratricide occurring to the north and west will
overshadowthe nonviolent efforts of the villagers. Cable news stations will
descendupon Gaza and Nablus like vultures, looking for sensational stories of
civil war. They will probably not pause to consider any of the underlying
causesof the strife, such as the tightening Israeli noose that reduces
Palestinians to desperation, or the crippling international sanctions
levied upon them as punishment for their exercise of democratic choice. And
thepress surely will not take time to report on the people of At-Tuwani,
Susiya, Bethlehem, and Bil'in--among many other places--who carry the
struggle forward nonviolently.

Their courage and commitment is on parwith that of Mandela, King, and Gandhi. Yet, they do not ask for the fanfare these giants enjoyed, but merely a little moral support from the outside world.