Bar'am Village

This trip has really made a lot of impressions on us in many ways; sometimes it’s in people we meet, sometimes it’s in learning more about places we visit. The latter is true as Jeff visited a place called Bar’Am. Bar’Am was a village of Palestinian Christians located in the north, very close to Lebanon. It existed peacefully for generation upon generation, and in fact they lived that way right beside a Jewish village the entire time with both sides respecting each other. It was a quiet, unassuming village that had absolutely no violent past in any way.

That all changed in 1948. As Israel gained occupation of the land one of the first things they did was enter the village. People there took soldiers in and fed them and gave them housing, welcoming them in as one of their own. The soldiers soon asked them to leave, telling them that they were not safe in their own homes because of the violence that was taking place with the war around them. As they were escorted out, days later the Israeli Defense Force ordered the bombing of the entire village. Upon hearing what happened, the villagers tried to return home, only to be refused entrance. The same soldiers they took in were now pointing a gun at them telling them to stay away. They complained through the proper channels, telling the authorities that they just wanted their land back. The Supreme Court listened and agreed, but even though that ruling was made the Israeli army has ignored it and not allowed them back in. Israel says it is for defense purposes, the villagers feel it is discrimination. Regardless, these people have now had to resettle in other places, and they are only allowed to return to the village to bury their dead and that is all.

We share this not to say we pick sides in any of the ongoing conflict between Israelis and the Palestinians. The issues are way deeper than we can understand and we cannot in our naïveté simplify it to one or two things. But we will say this – for whatever reason – through media and other means we felt like before coming here we tended to side with the Israelis in this conflict. We see a lot of images of terror attacks that are obviously horrible and inhumane and see Palestinians responsible for that and tend to think a lot more are that way. But there are two sides to every story and Israel is not without guilt. Scholars say that Israel is ‘the abused child who has now become the abuser’. We have spoken to many Palestinian people – and Jewish people too – who are incredibly friendly, hospitable, and welcoming of us in every way. One Palestinian mentioned the other day that he ‘simply wanted a place to live in freedom too, like everyone else’, and he knows that cannot happen in the state things are in today. For this many Palestinians call the Israeli occupation “The tragedy”. They simply want freedom, which is also the only thing so many Jewish people want as well.

Again, we have not taken any sides, but it is a reminder that true peace is not the absence of war and conflict, it is in finding a resolution that allows people to respect each other in their differences and cultural identity. We are reminded that Psalm 122:6 is as real today as it was when it was written, and that is to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”

[the added pictures are of some of the only surviving buildings in the village]