Salaam, Shalom, Hello

We had another jam packed day of activities and meetings yesterday. We began our day with a bus tour of some of the settlements outside of Jerusalem in the West Bank. We drove through Ma'ale Adumim, which is not what you might imagine when you hear the word settlement. It has well planned streets and cul-de-sacs with manicured lawns and a mall and banks and even a branch of the local coffee chain, Aroma. It is, in fact, a city. It really helps one understand the difficulty Israel faces in negotiating a permanent agreement with the Palestinians, in which the majority of settlements would have to be uprooted. 270,000 Jews now live in the West Bank, up from 100,000 just from the early 90's! The era following the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the year I lived here, saw the most rapid growth in settlers. Very upsetting to realize.

We also visited a portion of the Separation Wall in East Jerusalem, where it literally divides one half of a Palestinian neighborhood from the other. It was deeply upsetting to see this manifestation of the conflict. I will post some photos of the graphitti that adorns the Israeli side of the Wall...but for now I will list some of what it said:

Seattle Supports Palestine
Make Love Not Walls
Sharon Bush Blair Terrorists
Scotland Supports Palestine
The Wall will Fall
Witness the Jewish Shame

The most fascinating meeting of the day was with MK Rabbi Michael Melchior who spoke to the need to confront religious differences as a track in the peace process. In other words, he feels it is not possible to make peace between governments with out peace between religions. A seemingly obvious observation, but one that tends to get lost in all the political, military and demographic arguments.

Everyone we've met with so far is in agreement that the US and Israel have little time to waste to make peace with the Palestinians, and that to isolate Gaza would be a political and humanitarian disaster. Everyone is also unanimous in their frustration with the Bush Administration for 6 years of non-involvement in this conflict, which has partly led to the breakdown in Palestinian society. It's very distressing.

Today we are going to East Jerusalem for meetings with several Palestinian leaders. It should be quite interesting to finally hear their perspective directly. Will report in!