VOX
A Christian Voice - a Human Concern

“If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea: Even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.� (Psalm 139:9)

THE SONG OF A CAGED BIRD - By Erika Beckman 

Having worked in Bosnia-Herzegovina just after the Balkan war in the 1990’s, I have become used to hearing people’s tragic stories of war and suffering. I often thought I got to hear more than I would have preferred; stories of prolonged torture, cold-blooded slaughter and sexual abuse in concentration camp-like settings. At the same time, I realized that this was a healing process for them; being able to share their suffering and pain with a neutral party who had not taken part in the war and who would not take offense.

However, when I returned to my home country and retold these stories to other people I often felt that they were surreal. Such cruelty and inhumane treatment could surely not exist in the 20th century.

When I stood amidst friends celebrating in the city center of my home town as the 21^st century dawned, I thought to myself that it is just as well that the last century is over, as it has brought so much pain and suffering to people.

My hope was that the world would, by now, have come to its senses and that wars, injustices and suffering would be a thing of the past. But not even a year into the ‘new age’ I visited Israel-Palestine and got to see firsthand the second Intifada break out. This ought to have shattered my optimism, especially as I watched the situation grow from bad to worse. But I still cannot stop believing that one day there must be peace, somehow.

Having spent almost two months in Israel-Palestine now, I have come to mentally collect stories of people I meet and their fates, just as I did in the Balkans. And though the situation here is different, it is the same stories I hear, over and over. Stories of suffering, pain and loss. However, it scared me to realize that I retell some of these stories without thinking, without feeling the pain that those experiencing them must have felt, without my shoulders slouching or my voice rising up in anger against the injustice. How is it that I am not as touched now by the stories I hear as I was with the first story told to me when I arrived two months ago? My conclusion is that these experiences are all light years away from my own reality.

But the other day I heard a story that was different, that cast a light on the situation here which even I, who has lived in a nation where there has been peace for the last 200 years, could understand and take to heart.

I was with some Palestinian friends of mine who live in Abu Dis (on the outskirts of Jerusalem) - a young professional couple in their mid-thirties who are trying to raise a family on two sides of the Wall as he holds a West Bank ID and she a Jerusalem ID. Their youngest son was turning three and I was invited to his birthday party, along with the extended family. I noticed a small birdcage in their home and the father told me how, since his childhood, he has loved birds and raised them as a hobby.

When he was younger, he used to spend days on end in the hills just outside of Abu Dis, catching a native Palestinian bird and returning with his trophies home to rear them and breed them. In his teenage years, he also made a living out of this, catching the birds and selling them to people as pets.

Then the father proceeded to tell me about the years he spent in prison, accused of being a ‘security threat’ to the state of Israel. This was just as he was entering adulthood and before he started a family of his own.

After some months in prison he was told that he could receive visitors, mainly his family. His family called beforehand to ask what he wanted them to bring, and he said: ‘Can you bring me a photo of my birds?’ They replied, wondering whether he didn’t want photos of them instead, but he said: ‘When I am out of here in some years time, I can see you all, but my birds will die before I can leave this place. I will never hear them sing again’. His love for his birds, his dear companions, whom he would not be able to see again, was touching. For me, this story put a face to life under occupation. The sharing of his feelings, his worries and his longing in all the hardships he faced, made it more understandable to me. So while ‘all’ is yet not ‘well with the world’, (as the old German proverb goes), humanity has not closed its ears to what is going on, and we who witness the pain and suffering here will not close our mouths. Somehow, soon, there has got to be peace.

Erika Beckman, from Sweden, is currently serving on the Ecumenical Accompaniment
Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) in Jerusalem.

About VOX

Vox is an electronic newsletter representing a unified Christian voice of Church related organizations (CROs) who consent to this initiative. Vox's rationale is to monitor and report on the humanitarian situation on the ground in the Palestinian occupied territories. Vox was initiated in March 2003 at the start of the Iraqi war in order to continue providing news about the ongoing deterioration of Palestine's life conditions.

Vox embraces The East Jerusalem YMCA, YWCA of Palestine, DSPR (Department of Services to the Palestinian Refugees, The Middle East Council of Churches), the Near East Council of Churches Gaza, Sabeel Liberation Theology Center, Justice and Peace Commission Jerusalem, Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem, Caritas Jerusalem and the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).

Vox appeals to the world's Church leaders to pray and act to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinians as a consequence of the extremely harsh measures and policies imposed by the Israeli occupying forces. Vox urges all national leaders, international governmental and non-governmental institutions to take action and pressure Israel to abide by international humanitarian law.