A Jew Amongst Palestinians

In a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, Jan 2012.

The red, green, and black Palestinian flags told us that we were leaving Beirut city and entering another world, even though that other world is smack in the midst of the city.
       I felt the tension rise inside me as our driver wound her way to a dilapidated parking garage where we left the car. We walked a brief way and entered the wildly narrow alleys of a miniature city - 20,000 people living in 1 square kilometer. Welcome to Palestine!
       The refugee camp has been there since 1948, when Israel became a nation. It is a series of rundown buildings divided by alleyways with power lines draped everywhere about 6 feet off the ground.
       As we wandered through the camp escorted by two Lebanese women who work there, I wondered how many Jews have actually been inside such a camp. And how many of us Jews would change our perspectives about the "Palestinian problem" if we spent much time there.

Power lines in the refugee camps - not very safe.

       The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is far too complex to discuss here. However, what is definitely needed and what the Isaac-Ishmael Initiative is about in part is a deeper understanding of "the other." That is to say, each of us must cross the "dividing walls of hostility" (Ephesians 2) to begin to know those who are very different than us.
       And so I count it a privilege that I was able to visit a refugee camp while in Beirut. It was not easy or comfortable. On the contrary, it was confronting - as it should have been.