In 2019, a copy of the July issue of the Smithsonian Magazine came across my path. I was intrigued by the cover story “Two Tour Guides—One Israeli, One Palestinian—Offer a New Way to See the Holy Land” written by Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and novelist Geraldine Brooks. Through the article, I learned about Mejdi Tours, a socially conscious travel company offering tours of Israel that are hosted by both Palestinian and Israeli guides. I was so moved and intrigued by the article that I tore it out and kept it for the day that Dan and I might be able to tour Israel.
The idea for Mejdi’s founders, Aziz Abu Sarah and Scott Cooper — both peace-building practitioners, is that travel is powerful as a catalyst for opening eyes and hearts to various perspectives in the places that are visited. Travel shouldn't just be a consumer experience but an immersive privilege — seeing into the lives of people and their unique lands. Through Mejdi Tours, visitors are introduced to varied outlooks — not only in Israel but in many other places in the world. Mejdi is the Arabic word meaning to honor or respect. They “honor the people of the place.”
In the feature article, Brooks highlights her experiences in the days that she spent with the Mejdi travel group in Israel and Palestine. She reflected at the end of her piece that tourists came away from their experiences with the same kind of broader viewpoint that she had gained when she was a correspondent in Israel in the 1980s. There was a compassion for and a deeper understanding of the viewpoints of both people groups. The article is thoughtfully and thoroughly composed and is definitely worth a read — even to understand the basic history of the Israeli and Palestinian perspectives. Brooks shares:
I first visited Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories during that uprising, in the winter of 1987. I was a young correspondent for the Wall Street Journal… I empathized with the Palestinians, many still children, risking their lives to protest poverty and daily indignity. But I also felt the crushing anxiety of Israelis, especially Holocaust survivors and terror victims, and I sympathized with soldiers, many of whom despised their new duties skirmishing with civilians. I also grew frustrated, in the safe comfort of European and American cities, with the smug certainties of friends who could feel sympathy for only one side. Either all Israelis were brutalizing oppressors or all Palestinians were bloodthirsty terrorists. I wished my acquaintances could spend even a week doing what I did, listening to stories from both sides that were often equally harrowing.
Today, I looked up the article online and read it in relation to the current climate where thousands of Palestinians and Israelis have died due to terrorism and reprisals. I choose not to watch the news (it helps that we don't have network TV) as someone who's very visual and empathic. I don't need to see film footage in order to understand the gravity of the situation. I prefer to read the headlines and occasional deeper articles and only glance over photos. It's a choice I make to care about those being affected, but in the way that doesn't flare up my sensitive nervous system.
I appreciate the way author Mel Robbins put it in a recent post:
How much time you spend watching the news does not equal how much you care. You can care deeply and not watch the news… Focus on showing that you care with your actions rather than by the content you're consuming.
I'm not immersing myself in the unfolding tragic situation, but I am engaged with supporting those who are suffering and afraid. We have an acquaintance in Israel whose updates have been informative toward how to pray. She lives in a diverse community where Christians, Jews and Muslims are supporting each other as they can. There is light in Israel and Palestine right now too, but we are not hearing about that on the news as the focus is on informing the world of the horrific loss of life and the escalating humanitarian crisis — and rightly so.
Where I live in Southern California, prayer vigils are being offered. I wasn't able to attend an Interfaith Council prayer vigil last Thursday night because of a prior commitment, but that is the type of thing I feel is so critical at times like these: people of many backgrounds coming together to grieve and intercede in prayer for the victims and to send out the intention for peace and healing across our planet.
I'll be attending an online meditation and prayer event tomorrow morning at 10am PDT offered by Ashok Gupta the founder of The Gupta Program (which I've been working with in my recovery). Anyone can attend via this link to register: Meditation and Prayers for Peace; and Developing Emotional Resilience. The invitation explains:
Many of us have been profoundly affected by the suffering occurring right now during this time of conflict. Especially since so many innocent civilians are caught up in the situation. However you have been affected please join us live for a special event with Ashok to support you and others through this challenging time.
Our awareness that so many are suffering and vulnerable right now can make us feel powerless to help and fearful of what may come. Yet I recall a scripture that says we are “given the spirit of power, love and a sound mind.” With our Israeli and Palestinian brothers and sisters in a place of terror and sorrow, we can hold them up energetically and spiritually with our love and send spirit armies of compassion to help them. It may seem simplistic, but it is love in action as we do what the Spirit leads us to do with the resources we have.
Prayerfully,
Jen