Israeli Novelist David Grossman on CBC Radio

On November 7, 2010 Israeli novelist David Grossman was interviewed by Michael Enright on CBC Radio's program "The Sunday Edition." Grossman, writer and peace activist, has been named winner of the 2010 Peace Prize by the German association of publishers and booksellers.

Grossman, 56, is author of The Yellow Wind, a non-fiction work that examined the lives of the Palestinians, and To the End of the Land, a novel that examines the cost of war.

David Grossman is not only Israel's best known novelist he is also one of its most astringent critics. For decades he has condemned his government's treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories and called for an end to new settlements. He has labored for peace while at the same time turning out world class literature. His latest best seller, To the End of the Land is set against the background of the latest Lebanon war. A war in which his young son Uri was killed. In this hour, a powerful conversation with David Grossman about parenthood, the loss of a child and the heart-breaking search for peace in his troubled land.

To listen to the enlightening interview with Grossman, click here.

"A Moment of Truth" from Palestinian Christian Leaders

A group of Palestinian Christian leaders have put together a document entitled "A Moment of Truth" in which they respond theologically to their experience in the Holy Land. In this document we hear one community of "living stones" cry out from the ground. Although there are other perspectives, this one must be heard. Go to their Home Page and read the Kairos Document in English (other languages are available). This is the introduction to that document:

"This document is the Christian Palestinians’ word to the world about what is happening in Palestine. It is written at this time when we wanted to see the Glory of the grace of God in this land and in the sufferings of its people. In this spirit the document requests the international community to stand by the Palestinian people who have faced oppression, displacement, suffering and clear apartheid for more than six decades. The suffering continues while the international community silently looks on at the occupying State, Israel. Our word is a cry of hope, with love, prayer and faith in God. We address it first of all to ourselves and then to all the churches and Christians in the world, asking them to stand against injustice and apartheid, urging them to work for a just peace in our region, calling on them to revisit theologies that justify crimes perpetrated against our people and the dispossession of the land.

In this historic document, we Palestinian Christians declare that the military occupation of our land is a sin against God and humanity, and that any theology that legitimizes the occupation is far from Christian teachings because true Christian theology is a theology of love and solidarity with the oppressed, a call to justice and equality among peoples.

This document did not come about spontaneously, and it is not the result of a coincidence. It is not a theoretical theological study or a policy paper, but is rather a document of faith and work. Its importance stems from the sincere expression of the concerns of the people and their view of this moment in history we are living through. It seeks to be prophetic in addressing things as they are without equivocation and with boldness, in addition it puts forward ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and all forms of discrimination as the solution that will lead to a just and lasting peace. The document also demands that all peoples, political leaders and decision-makers put pressure on Israel and take legal measures in order to oblige its government to put an end to its oppression and disregard for the international law. The document also holds a clear position that non-violent resistance to this injustice is a right and duty for all Palestinians including Christians.

The initiators of this document have been working on it for more than a year, in prayer and discussion, guided by their faith in God and their love for their people, accepting advice from many friends: Palestinians, Arabs and those from the wider international community. We are grateful to our friends for their solidarity with us.

As Palestinian Christians we hope that this document will provide the turning point to focus the efforts of all peace-loving peoples in the world, especially our Christian sisters and brothers. We hope also that it will be welcomed positively and will receive strong support, as was the South Africa Kairos document launched in 1985, which, at that time proved to be a tool in the struggle against oppression and occupation. We believe that liberation from occupation is in the interest of all peoples in the region because the problem is not just a political one, but one in which human beings are destroyed.

We pray God to inspire us all, particularly our leaders and policy-makers, to find the way of justice and equality, and to realize that it is the only way that leads to the genuine peace we are seeking.

Brian McLaren's Reflections on Palestine

Brian McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christian and other books (including the forthcoming A New Kind of Christianity), has recently visited Palestine (I think he's there even as I write this). It's always interesting to hear how people respond when they are given the opportunity to interact with Jews, Christians, and Muslims who live in the region.

McLaren summarizes some of the words of Mitri Raheb, pastor of the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem: "A highlight of our time yesterday was hearing Rev Mitri Raheb share five observations about this part of the world. He said ...

1. There are too many peace talkers and there are too few peace workers.
2. There is too much politics and too little care for people on the ground.
3. There is too much religion and not enough true spirituality.
4. There is too much humanitarian aid and not enough economic development.
5. There is too much pess-optimism (swinging from optimism about the next big project to despair when it doesn't work) and not enough steady hope in action."

In a post titled Reflections from Ramallah, Taybeh and Beit Sahour, McLaren writes: "The struggle here is about people being held in various forms bondage - both occupiers and the occupied each in their own ways, and everyone needs liberation. . . . People aren't the enemy. Rather, it's harmful ideologies and world views and narratives that rule and exert power in and through people's lives." CLICK HERE to read more of this post.

And he concludes his post titled Dead Sea, Nazareth, Capernaum Region, Dead Sea with this: "I've been an avid reader on the subject for quite a while, but being here now, I see how many of my most basic assumptions were skewed from a lifetime of half-truths, unfair and imbalanced news, well-planned propaganda, and misinformation."

Mike Todd provides a concrete example of such misunderstanding at the end of the story he tells in his Guest Blog: "The narrative we are exposed to back home tells us this is a dangerous place, that simply to be here is risky. It goes without saying that the narrative says don't get into cars with strangers, that every Palestinian is a danger. This is not true. It seems the intent of this narrative is to keep us from coming, from seeing, and from abandoning the wrong story we have been told."

Here are a few more posts worth reading:
More from the West Bank
Guest Blog by Greg Barrett on Day 1 in Bethlehem
Jewish Voices
Last Day in Israel-Palestine. There are links here to other blogs by tour members Dave Gibbons and Mike Todd.

Archaeological Sites Digital Map

The Israeli Palestinian Archaeology Working Group has made available a searchable satellite map of every archaeological site (both those excavated or merely surveyed) in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. This is an amazing resource. It is available either on the University of California library website, or through Google Maps. The USC map has more variables. For example, you can set the map to show only Iron Age or Ottoman sites. The Google Maps interface has a handy alphabetical index along the left side of the page.

Here's an exercise you can do. Take Jerome Murphy-O'Connor's archaeological guidebook The Holy Land, and look up each of the sites in your tour itinerary (see my blog post on the book). You can zoom in on the map so closely that you can actually see the contours and colors of the land. I'm awe-struck. But don't become impatient with it. Because the site names are, for the most part, in Arabic, you may need Murphy-O'Connor's book to figure out what's what. The Google Map interface option may be helpful because it juxtaposes the sites onto a map with modern place names nearby. You may have to play around with both of the maps to locate the various sites on your itinerary. And don't be intimidated by the Jerusalem area. Just keep zooming in (but not too far) until the number of sites does not overwhelm the page.

The USC dynamic map is only able to display 600 locations in a view. If more than 600 locations are returned for your search, please take one of the following actions:

-add more limits to your search
-zoom in closer by double-clicking the map or using the ± zoom tool on the left side of the map

Here is a description of the project from the website of the University of California Digital Library:

"This collection includes lists of archaeological sites that have been surveyed or excavated since Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967. Since that time, the oversight of the antiquities of the area has devolved on two government bodies: the military administration's Staff Officer for Archaeology (SOA) in Judea and Samaria and the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). The IAA, which is responsible for East Jerusalem, is a civil branch of government and its records are open for inspection. Some of the records of the Staff Officer for Archaeology in Judea and Samaria are being accessed in full for the first time as a result of the joint Israeli-Palestinian Archaeology Working Group. This involved a team of Israeli and a team of Palestinian archaeologists and cultural heritage professionals working in concert to create new data resources that document the single, unitary archaeological landscape of the southern Levant, which is now bisected by the modern borders.

• View the searchable map interface
• View the kml data in Google Maps

The Israeli-Palestinian Archaeology Working Group sponsored and partly funded a research effort by Rafi Greenberg (Tel Aviv) and Adi Keinan (University College London) in order to gather details about each site in the West Bank excavated or surveyed between 1967 (updated periodically). These data include the site name(s), location on a GIS grid, description of the site's major components (e.g. olive oil press; ritual bath; sheikh's tomb; church, synagogue, village); details about the periods when the site was occupied (e.g. Neolithic, Byzantine [Christian]; Iron Age II; Ottoman); and information about the excavators or surveyors who gathered data about the site; and relevant publications/bibliography. The database file that contains this information initially will be available in a publication by Greenberg and Keinan. This collection page provides access to a database, which is a work in progress. We look forward to additions to this database file in the future as additional data are provided by Israelis, Palestinians and others.

The data contained in this database is also available in a visually searchable Google Map interface."

City of David: Archaeology is Political

The tires were slashed and windows smashed in the small Suzuki four wheel drive vehicle we were driving. I was with an Italian friend of mine. It was his car. It had blue West Bank license plates, so we thought we would be fine. But we looked like strangers, and therefore suspicious. Silwan was still "hot" in 1991, just after the first intifada. And it remains a contested area today. The major archaeological sites there (the City of David, Hezekiah's Tunnel, and the Pool of Siloam) are situated at the centre of a heated controversy. Visitors with eyes wide open discover very quickly that archaeology is political. But most of the 500,000 annual visitors to the site don't get it.

Silwan has long been an Arab village on the hill just south of the Old City of Jerusalem, within spitting distance of the Temple Mount area, or the Haram es Sharif (Noble Sanctuary). The area has been continuously inhabited (more or less) for 5000 years. After all, who wouldn't want to live on a hill near a year-round spring? Among the earliest inhabitants of the area were Jebusites, who, according to the books of Joshua and Judges, could not be conquered (Josh 15:63; Judg 1:21). Hundreds of years later, the city became King David's capital, according to the story in 2 Samuel 5. But even then, the Jebusites continued to live alongside of the first Israelite population in Jerusalem. In the late 19th century the City of David area became a settlement for Yemenite Jewish immigrants. Although Jews and Arabs have lived in the area off and on over the centuries, in recent decades archaeology has been drawn into the conflict.

There are two organizations, both interested in archaeology, that are telling the story of Silwan. One of these writes on its website: "Buried under the village lands, 5000 years of history bind the stories of ancient nations and rulers with the present life of the local residents. Dozens of excavated archaeological strata tell the complex multi-cultural saga of Jerusalem.

We, a group of archaeologists and residents of Silwan, invite you to hear the story of ancient Jerusalem and of life in the village today. Our tour sheds light on the role of archaeology in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and in the discourse of the future of Jerusalem. We will offer a different perspective: archaeology without an ownership, one that bridges between periods, cultures and nations; archaeology which involves the local residents and examines the past as a shared asset regardless of religion or nationality.

We believe that archaeology in Silwan/"City of David" has the power to change the dynamics of the conflict and promote tolerance and respect for other cultures, past and present, for a better future for both the local residents and the whole region."

Browse through the alt-arch.org website for treasures like these: a history timeline, survey of excavations in Silwan (all of which will be relevant for our visit), principles of a peaceable archaeology, and much more. There is a very fine short essay on the Yemenite Jewish settlement in the late 19th century, and another on the current Jewish settlement in Silwan. These two pieces are must reading prior to a visit to the City of David. Of course all tellings of the story are selective, as this piece at the Jewish Virtual Library website illustrates. The story is accurate, but incomplete. The Wikipedia article on Silwan seems to present a broader perspective.

The problem, as those essays point out, is that the City of David archaeological site has become attached to a partisan agenda. I won't say more here. You can read the articles. Or, read the articles listed at the bottom of the Wikipedia page on Albert Glock, an archaeologist who was murdered on January 19, 1992 in Palestine. I attended his funeral.

Elad, the organization that now runs the City of David archaeological park, has created an wonderful website about the City of David excavations. The home page includes a slide show with uplifting accompanying music. Pick your language and enter an educational smorgasbord of interactive maps, virtual tours, a 360 degree interactive panoramic photograph (read the instructions first), etc. Don't miss any portion of this website. There are menus across the top and bottom of the page. Because it's such a rich page, may take a while to load.

For more on the City of David, see Bible Places, and the Israeli Foreign Ministry Archaeology page.

This hasn't been a long blog post, but the content of the websites toward which I've directed you should keep you busy for a few hours. I am looking forward to another visit to Silwan and the City of David this spring!

Biblical Archaeology Review

In 1978 I participated in an archaeological dig at Lachish. The site is mentioned in only 22 verses in the Bible. Yet it is one of the most important archaeological sites for understanding ancient Israelite history in relation to the imperial powers seeking to dominate the region at the time.

For me, archaeological sites are not simply "ancient stones." They are storied places. People lived in these sites, worshiped their gods, raised families, and much more. Each site is alive with memory.

One of the ways tour members can prepare for a tour is to acquaint themselves with some of the ancient sites. Biblical Archaeology Review's website is a good place to visit now and then. There's a wealth of information available there, even without subscribing to the magazine.

Here are a few examples. On this tour we will be visiting the Shrine of the Book (at the Israel Museum) as well as the ancient site of Qumran, where those scrolls were discovered. The scrolls have been in the news recently, as Jordan has asked Canada to return those scrolls currently on display in Toronto to Jordanian control. The News section of the website provides a link to the CBC news report on this item. Even more, BAR's website includes a special section called "The Dead Sea Scrolls and Why They Matter." BAR tends to be a bit controversial at times. But that's part of the fun of archaeology, which is a cross between science, detective work, and creative imagination.

While I was working on the archaeological dig at Lachish, Gabriel Barkay was the junior archaeologist on the site, working under the supervision of now retired archaeologist David Ussishkin. On the BAR site I found an audio lecture by Barkay on "Ten Key Points on Authenticity of Artefacts." Parts of this lecture may not make sense unless you've had a little experience with archaeology, but it is interesting nonetheless!

Do enjoy exploring BAR's website. You might even want to download a free e-book. Excellent options might be "Israel: An Archaeological Journey," or "The Dead Sea Scrolls: What They Really Say."