When I lived in Israel there were no Palestinians. There were Jews and there were Arabs. I never heard the word Palestinian until it referred to Arabs whose land was won by Israel during the Six Day War and wanted it back.
While I was teaching in Ashdod I was engaged to a Madrich Gadna at the same school. A Madrich Gadna was a person who taught the mandatory high school class in which young men and women were trained to be soldiers. Once Israel mobilized for war he left and became a tank commander in the Sinai Peninsula. When he returned to Ashdod he brought me a paper he had found. It was a spelling test of an Arab student that confirmed what I had come to believe. Arabs hated Israel and wanted to obliterate it. The spelling paper was full of words used in war time: bombs, explosives, war planes.
I came back to the US sure of one thing. Arabs were the enemy of Israel and therefore the enemy of me. I had no place in my heart for Arabs.
Thirteen years after the war I had a sudden and revolutionary experience with Jesus Who changed everything. Almost everything. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son. We know the words, but is it our truth? Arabs are part of the world. Did I love them as Jesus did? I was about to find out.
During a meeting of Women with a Vision Debbie said, "Cheryl! I want you to meet Maryam, a Christian Arab." My smile remained on my face but I felt my eyes freeze. I muttered something, but of this I was sure. I would not meet Maryam. I had absolutely NO desire to meet Maryam. Maryam was an Arab, Christian or not. No. I did not put 'meet Maryam' in my Daytimer.
But God.
A few weeks later our son Nathan wanted to buy a notebook and wanted to buy it from Grandpa Pigeon's. . Those were two unlikely desires. Nathan didn't care about school or notebooks, and he didn't like cheap stores. This was a set-up. We walked into Grandpa Pigeon's and got in line behind a young woman and a slightly order man. I heard them speaking a language I recognized as Arabic. My love of people overtook my mindset against Arabs and I asked, "Where are you from?" The young woman answered that she was from Bethlehem. I knew immediately that she was a 'Palestinian' because if Jews lived on the same block they would say, "I live in Israel." Since this woman named the city instead of the country, it told me she didn't recognize Israel as a state. She introduced her uncle and said he was visiting. Then she said, "I am an Arab but I'm a Christian." The smile on her face was dazzling. I said, "I am a Jew but I am a Christian." Suddenly the environment around us became electric. Simultaneously we began shrieking in delight, jumping up and down and hugging each other. I told her my name. She said, "My name is Maryam." Yes, the very same Maryam I had vowed never to meet.
Maryam and I became best friends. For the first time ever, I listened. I listened I listened. Things I had refused to consider were IN MY FACE. I heard about atrocities. I heard about houses that had been taken. I'd heard about checkpoints, and violations, and beatings by Israeli soldiers. I listened. The wall I erected around my heart with the big sign "No Arabs Allowed" crumbled.
Not only did I accept Arabs into my heart, I started LOOKING for them so I could listen to them. I came to realize that Palestinians above all, want to be heard.
In three weeks Neil and I are going to Phoenix to stay in the home of our dear friends John and Maryam Yatim. God has a plan. And this time I am going to embrace it!
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