March 14, 2003

Stones vs. tanks is a common site in these parts.

We apparently missed the excitement yesterday. Several tanks rolled through town, and the youth responded with the usual stones. Reports vary as to whether a molotov cocktail was thrown, but the tanks shot back.

Somehow we missed it all, something we're not too upset about. Last night, during an Israeli incursion into Jenin, they killed six Palestinians. One of them was from Zababdeh, the town's second "martyr" in the last two and a half years. He was around twenty years old. Another among those killed was a student at the University. The mosque sounded the mourning call to prayer while the church bells tolled for the dead.

We heard the sounds of the funeral procession as we had lunch with a couple of older members of the Anglican community in Zababdeh. They are frustrated with the lack of Sunday morning worship for their congregation over the past many months. One of them, who speaks impeccable English, lived in Baghdad for twenty years. She and her husband were married in the Presbyterian church there.

The other was married in Zababdeh and then moved with her husband to Kuwait. After three years there (and four years of marriage), they came back to Zababdeh for three weeks to see their families and baptize their children. During their visit, the 1967 War broke out. The Israelis placed the village under curfew, then they called all men to the Latin Convent to be registered. Her husband was coming with her father and brother from just outside the western side of town when an Israeli sniper shot him in the head. Widowed at age 21, with three children, and no compensation for her loss, she stayed in Zababdeh. One of her children now lives in Jordan, another in the States, and one in Zababdeh.

Unfortunately such stories are not uncommon.