Eric Gabourel is pastor of Providence Christian Center in San Francisco, CA and serves on the Leadership Team of the PCPF. 

Recently I made a journey to Palestine with Sabeel's 2nd International Young Adult Conference. The conference-tour was designed to expose the participants to the complexoppressive system of Israel's military occupation of the West Bank. Standing in solidarity with the people of Palestine, we experienced check points, visited numerous refugee camps, saw dozens of colonies (settlements), but the most disturbing oppression to me was the West Bank barrier. The barrier, which was initiated in June 2002, is referred to by the Israelis as the Hafrada Wall. Hafrada is the Hebrew word that's the equivalent to the Afrikaans word Apartheid. This massive concrete structure surrounds the entire West Bank dividing Palestinians from their families, farm land, humanitarian services, and Jerusalem.

That which is most crucial to the building of this wall is that its construction on Palestinian land is against international law. On July 4, 2004 the International Court of Justice declared that the wall violated international humanitarian and human right laws. Israel was also told to halt construction and to dismantle. Despite international criticism the wall is still being erected.

In my many conversations with Palestinians the argument made was that if Israel wanted to build a wall it should be built on Israeli land. The green line, which is the 1949 armistice line demarcating Israel’s border, would be more acceptable. Despite this argument the Palestinians are generally opposed to this wall because of the humiliation and restriction of movement that it causes. There are several check points along the wall giving entrance into Israel. On July 23, 2007 I waited in line for about two hours at the Qalandiya check point in Ramallah in route to Jerusalem. It was late in the morning and the main traffic had already cleared out.

At these checkpoints the Palestinians are treated like inmates in a state penitentiary. The wall of concrete and barbed wire towers over the people in line with commando fortresses ready to discipline any “stray cattle.” There is also a series of revolving steal gates with a green and red light above them. At any given moment the light at one line can turn green while all others are red. In this hot crammed environment, some people who have tried for months to get a three hour permit from the Israeli army to go to Jerusalem try to get through even if they have to switch lines. It was as if the people were being pitted against each other.

While waiting in line I met an elderly lady who was expelled from the village of Imwas when she was thirteen years old. Imwas was the village of Emmaus in the Bible where Jesus was invited to the house of two of His disciples (Luke 24:13-32). The village of Emmaus was considered to be holy by the Palestinian’s because of Jesus’ miracle of disappearance, but the misfortune of Emmaus is that the village itself disappeared under Israeli occupation. During the Six Day War in 1967 the Israeli military commanded the inhabitants to leave at gun point and decimated the village with explosives and bulldozers. The purpose of destroying the village was to clear the way for a road to be built...not even the church was spared. Land grabs and expulsions still happen till this day.

Another misfortune is that this wall has been built completely around some villages. Qalqiliya is an example of this tragic phenomenon. There is only one entrance/exit in this encircled city. The walls zigzag shape that causes some villages to be encircled is a reality because Israel built settlements in the West Bank near the 1949 border. By keeping those settlements on the outside of the wall the settlers that live there will not have to deal with or see any Palestinians. A major problem is that when this happens several acres of Palestinian farming land is confiscated. A most alarming example is the village of Aboud.       

I spent some time in Aboud with the Palestinian Pentecostal Christians who were members of the Church of God (Cleveland, TN). One of the members shared in anguish that his livelihood was taken from him. Aboud is mostly an olive farming village and this mans olive farm of three acres was confiscated when the Israeli’s began construction on the wall. Again, the wall will be placing the neighboring Israeli colony (settlement) built on confiscated Palestinian land on the other side of Israel's dictated border.

Later that same day I went with some of the young men from the Church of God on top of a hill. From the top one can see the cityscape of Tel Aviv. I asked them if they ever go there to hang out or have coffee. Their response was a laugh…then they proceeded to tell me that they are only allowed to go there once a year on special occasions. One of the young men stated that he loved the Mediterranean Sea, but could count how many times he had been there even though it was only twenty minutes away.

The Hafrada Wall is an affront to God and humanity. God’s intention is not to segregate Jews and Arabs, but to unite them. The Scriptures declare that, “Jesus himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit
(Ephesians 2:14-18).

Despite this clear message, the Christian Zionist in the West tell the Palestinian church that if they want to be good Christians they should give their land to Israel and move further East. In my time of fellowshipping with the Palestinian Pentecostals of Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Aboud I inquired about their eschatological beliefs. None of them were dispensationalist.  I proceeded to ask them if the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948 was a fulfillment of prophecy, their answer was given very carefully. One pastor/theologian stated that as Christians they could not allow the devastations of the occupation to effect their interpretation of Scripture. Having stating that, he went on to say that after an honest assessment of the entire Holy Bible he found no where that stated that the a Jewish state had to be established in order for Jesus to come back again. He went on to interpret the passages that dispensationalist use to form this idea offering a non dispensationalist
interpretation and at the same time affirming that the gifts of the Spirit were for all time.

We Pentecostal Christians in the West must make it incumbent upon ourselves to establish a line of communication with our Pentecostal brothers and sisters in the Middle East. In doing so let us have open ears to hear what they can teach us, rather then thinking we always have the answers and that it is us that needs to teach them. Many of the Pentecostals I had contact with in Palestine were highly educated and very theologically savvy.  As we build this line of communication let us also pray and nonviolently work for the destruction of the dividing wall of hostility that oppresses them. This is a prayer in line with how Jesus taught us to pray, for the kingdom to come, for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Let us therefore pray, preach, and work for the Good News of the Kingdom of God to go forth fostering justice, peace, and reconciliation.