November 2, 2001

Marthame headed down to Jerusalem today to lend a hand at St. Andrew's Church of Scotland. He got in the taxi in the morning to discover that he was the only passenger - the normally full taxi to Qalandiya (north of Jerusalem) was empty. No passengers. Even so, the two of them (Marthame and the driver) waited quite a while at the Tayasir checkpoint - now closed with a large arm blocking the road. After ten minutes, several soldiers lazily walked down to begin to inspect vehicles. As the two of them checked IDs and contents, another soldier stood on a hilltop and aimed, panning down the row of waiting taxis. It's an unnerving feeling to spend a few seconds in the sight of an M-16. After about half an hour, the taxis were let through.

Marthame headed on to both Ramallah and Jerusalem to run errands for the various priests in our region. With the closures, it is really hard for them to get down to their Patriarchates to do the necessary work, so Marthame was able to at least do that for them - a few cassettes for the Anglican priest, assistance checks for the schools in Zababdeh and Nablus, paychecks for Zababdeh and Jenin.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Elizabeth attended the All Souls' Day service at the Latin Church which finished at the village cemetery. They were kind enough to turn off the neighboring generator during the service there.

Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom hosting members of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.

Having dinner with Presbyterian Peace Fellowship delegates.

By way of our friends at the Christian Peacemaker Teams in Hebron, we had gotten word that there was a contingent from Presbyterian Peace Fellowship present in the West Bank and Israel for a few days. Marthame met up with them and got a chance to talk about our work, as well as joining them on a visit to our friend who works with Rabbis for Human Rights, whom we get little chance to see these days. His vision of what this place could be is inspiring, but his unflinching analysis of the situation here is dire. He came here in the late Sixties, inspired by a love of Judaism. After thirty years here, that love has not faded, but it has become flavored by an awareness of what life is like for "the other half" - the Palestinians. He noted the prevalence of hard-liner opinion in Israel, but also that if he experienced a personal change, why couldn't the nation?

Birthday celebrations at the Jerusalem youth hostel.

With this note of hope, a good meeting and meal with fellow Presbyterians (a rarity in this part of the world), and having finished a day of errands, Marthame headed off to one of the youth hostels near Damascus Gate to celebrate a friend's birthday party. Long, long day.