Linda and I had the privilege of visiting some friends of ours in Israel last month. We traveled to Israel via London - a five hour flight to Tel Aviv, followed by a one hour drive to Bethlehem, where we lived in an apartment for the week with some lovely people - Erika and Frank, a young couple who are also working in Israel. Frank is originally from Spain and he's tutoring Arab students in learning Spanish. Erika is originally from Wales and is pursuing her Master's degree in Ireland and doing research with Palestinian children. We loved our times with them. They've been married less than a year and their adventure in life together is really just beginning, but we loved our times with them over cover, food and late night conversations.
After a couple of days in Israel we went to Hebron where we split up. Linda went with Karen to a afternoon session with women from the University that Karen had organized. Women in Palestine are often marginalized and treated as second class citizens. In Muslim culture, women are not treated as anything other than child bearers, child raisers, and home keepers. When we went to a Muslim home, we were ushered into a front living room where the man brought us, and the women remained in the kitchen, separated from us - largely because there were two men in the room. I never met this man's Mom or sisters. For Karen to run this class for women was an amazing assertion of their dignity and honor of their worth.
David and I, along with his friend Mohammed went on to visit a Palestinian dairy farm.
David has been working with Mohammed on this dairy farm to improve the milk production.
The farm is much like our own Wisconsin modern farms.
The farm has an open barn system with bunk feeders, and milk parlor set up. It's high tech, but they've struggled a lot with keeping cows healthy.
This is where David and Mohammed come in. They've provided some modern methods to improving the cow's health.
Interestingly, most of the milk produced on Palestinian farms is not for drinking, like we do.
Palestinians love yogurt and make a cheese that's much like our cheese curds, but milk for drinking is not the predominant use of milk.
Hebron is a Palestinian city. It is - like Bethlehem - a city of historic meaning. Biblically, Abraham brought his flocks and herds south to Hebron. He bought a field in Hebron to bury his wife Sarah. When Abraham died, he was buried there. Abraham's son, Isaac along with his wife Rebekah lived in this area and they also were buried there. After Isaac, Jacob and his wife Leah (not Rachel) were also buried there. These Patriarchs are recognized by both Muslims and Jews.
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| Muslim side with the Tombs |
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| Jewish side, looking at Abraham's tomb |
It's an interesting division based on their mutual recognition of the significance of these Patriarchs.
Hebron is an old city. It's been inhabited by people for over 6000 years. Not only the Patriarchs, but David served as Israel's King for his first seven years in Hebron (he was King for 40 years).
Our day in Hebron ended with a meal of Kabobs and some amazing vegetable dishes with Pita and Hummus.
If you have any questions as we go along, please write a comment below.
Peace
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