In April, Revd Maggie Hindley spent a month with CPT in Hebron,
in the occupied West Bank. Maggie’s reports on their work,
witnessing to the daily deprivations of the Palestinian people,
were circulated by email and on the church notice boards.
Maggie also sent us this prayer for Hebron, written by the first
foreigner to return for CPT after the pandemic.
So, farewell for now, beautiful Hebron.
I am thankful for the hills that surround you,
for your ancient stone houses and your limestone streets,
for the Old Souk,
for the tomb of the Patriarchs,
for the choruses of Calls to Prayer,
for your blown glass and ceramics and leatherwork and
keffiyas
and the craftspeople who design and make and sell these
lovely things;
for your old, old story,
for giving us Abraham,
father of faith, of adventure in old age,
and of disputatiousness with the Divine.
I am thankful for your people –
longsuffering, hospitable, adaptable, courageous, angry –
and for their beautiful resistance to oppression.
I regret
my collusion, sometimes, with the powers that maintain
your oppression,
my wish, sometimes, to turn from your suffering,
my reluctance, sometimes, to speak out when others
blame the victim,
my unconscious conviction
that I know best, that I am best;
my weariness with the struggle
to bear witness to the injustice
that squeezes the life out of your people, day in and day
out.
I regret, and I ask your forgiveness.
Beautiful Al Khalil,
I long for your freedom and your peace.
May the dreams of your children –
that they may walk your streets freely,
that they may be safe from bullets and tear gas,
searches and detention,
that they may build fine schools and hospitals,
and prosper like citizens of any other city –
may these dreams be realised in their lifetimes
or – better – in mine.
City of Beautiful Resistance,
City of Faith,
may your light shine.
I bless you from the depths of my being.
Please pray for Al Khalil’s
CPT team of young
Palestinians as they return
from training in Jordan to
the realities of school
patrols, checkpoints and
tear gas.
