Be afraid

The was once a man who had many arguments with his neighbour, mostly about things their fathers had done to each other. This man wondered how he could stop his neighbour annoying him. He had an idea. "I will build a large wall, and then he will not be able to annoy me" he said. But instead of building the large wall around his property, he built it around his neighbours house. This meant that not only could the neighbour not annoy him, but the first neighbour could now enjoy his neighbours garden as well. Unfortunately and rather surprising to him, the neighbour was not pleased with the arrangement, and so he made a lot of noise expressing his dislike of being behind a very tall wall. The first neighbour wondered how he could stop his neighbour making so much noise. He had another idea. " I will make a large gate in the wall, which only I can open. Then, in the middle of the night, I can open the gate and make a surprise attack on my neighbour. This will keep him quiet.' But it didn't. The neighbour became quite unreasonably angry. Now I ask you the reader to help the first neighbour. What do you think he should do now to pacify his angry neighbour? Clue: Jesus. 

I have never in my life been afraid. Until last night. The gate in the picture above is about 100 yards from where I live. The wall of which it is a part surrounds Bethlehem and runs very close to the houses in this camp. On the other side are the fields which belong to Bethlehem, but which have been "annexed" to Israel. According to the Oslo accord, we are living in Area A which means we are under Palestinian civil and military authority. However, almost every night in the past year, these gates open to reveal armoured vehicles and soldiers. The children of this camp throw stones - at the 24 foot high wall during the day and at the soldiers when they appear. The soldiers respond by firing tear gas, rubber bullets and worse. I asked my hosts if the soldiers have called at the house. Of course, she replied - the last time was 3 weeks ago! I have been told that there might be probing questions at the airport, but a soldier coming to my room is something else. I have been told that the Palestinians teach their people to be terrorists. I have discovered that this is not the case. The children are like children everywhere. They simply react to the way they are treated. What would you say to your child if you lived here? 

My guide told me yesterday that he brought a group of tourists here and the boys were throwing stones at the soldiers and the soldiers were firing rubber bullets at the boys. The guide asked the boys to stop throwing stones, and they said "tell the soldiers to stop firing". So the guide asked the soldiers to stop and they did, so the boys stopped and the guide took his party through. Then he told the boys to carry on and the fighting restarted. Every person I have met here returns a smile and greets me warmly. I live in peaceful place. Is there something someone should tell our neighbour about this?