Thursday, December 22, 2011

 

A modern day miracle in Palestine, where it’s needed most


by Larry Geller

It’s Hanukah, which seems to me to be a very mid-Eastern type of holiday. It’s all about oil.

The miracle was that the oil lasted and lasted. We could use a miracle like that right about now, so we wouldn’t need to build that pipeline from Canada, for example.

Over in Palestine, it’s business as usual. Boston Review carried this article about protecting Palestinian farmers against the attacks of rabid Israeli settlers who swoop down to burn, kill and steal.

Sometimes miracles happen. Here’s a snip. Please read the entire article.

…We walked along the rough goat-paths skirting the Israeli outpost of Chavat Maon, up and down the hills, scanning the horizon for some sign of Shehade Mahamra Salama or of his tractor. We were there to be sure settlers didn’t attack this Palestinian and his fellow farmers, driving them at gunpoint from their fields.

Shehade and his family own this land; the courts have confirmed their claim. But the threat of settlers looms constantly over them. Four times, the Chavat Maon settlers stole this entire field, and each time the court eventually returned it to Shehade’s family. Once, when the wheat had grown tall, the settlers burned it. But it rained that night, somehow the burnt wheat sprouted anew, and eventually the Palestinians were able to harvest a new crop. Put this down to the occasional miracles God allows in his otherwise sorrow-stricken world.

[Boston Review, The Plague: Farmers and Settlers Clash in South Hebron, 12/19/2011]

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