WEST PEABODY, MA (March 20, 2007) \u2013 Community Covenant Church pastor Joel Anderle says a recent educational trip to Israel proved \u201ca powerful journey of encounter with history, politics, religions, and people.\u201d
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While there, Anderle met with people from different ethnic, religious, political and social backgrounds. \u201cI sat with chief rabbis and Palestinian archbishops,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI spoke with folks who work with at-risk immigrant adolescents and folks who advise the Prime Minister. It was a fabulous kaleidoscope of exposure to a remarkably complicated nation, region and people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anderle traveled across the country February 4-13 as a guest of Project Interchange, a program administered by the American Jewish Committee. He was chosen to go on the trip because of his local and statewide ecumenical work, he says. The project has sent about 4,000 people from the United States to Israel to learn about the Middle Eastern country and regional issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy exposure was intended to make the issues more complicated than they are frequently explained in the U.S. media, or broader evangelicalism,\u201d he says. The trip fulfilled those expectations.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of us went with an inclination to believe that Israel has oppressed the Palestinians, that there is a real human rights crisis. It\u2019s much more complicated than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anderle calls the relationship between Jews and Palestinians, especially in the disputed West Bank area, \u201ca circus of misunderstanding.\u201d Mistrust also runs deep, he adds, explaining, \u201cBoth sides believe the other side doesn\u2019t want peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Imagining a future is difficult for many in the region, Anderle says. College students in the Palestinian section of Jerusalem always have lived under Israeli occupation. \u201cThey can\u2019t wait for the end of the occupation, but when you ask what it would mean to have an end to the occupation, they don\u2019t have an answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
He adds, \u201cThey think of it as a perfect place. They don\u2019t think about establishing a government. They also don\u2019t necessarily mean that all the Jews are gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even Palestinian and Jewish close friends still live different experiences, Anderle says, noting the relationship between the CEO of a Jerusalem hospital and the head of the hospital\u2019s emergency room as an example. The CEO, who was educated in West Virginia and carries a United States passport, must live in the West Bank and has to show papers before he can get to work each day. The process through multiple checkpoints can be daunting. The head of the emergency room has a quick drive.<\/p>\n
Despite the misunderstandings, many people do want peace, Anderle says. He was surprised when he spoke with a couple who had emigrated from the United States to live in a kibbutz (an intentional Jewish settlement), and learned their community gets along well with the Arab Muslims who live nearby. The couple said they opposed Israel\u2019s ongoing construction of a \u201csecurity fence\u201d along the pre-1967 border between Israel and the West Bank in an effort to stop terrorism.<\/p>\n
Despite news reports that connect Muslims with terrorism, many seek peaceful resolution to the conflicts, Anderle says. \u201cThey say, \u2018How wonderful it would be to have our kids live in a different kind of world.\u2019 Some of the most eloquent discussions of peace came from Muslims.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now that he has returned, Anderle is considering ways to bring what he calls \u201ca transformative experience\u201d to his ecumenical work.<\/p>\n