• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Mosaic MennonitesMosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our History
    • Vision & Mission
    • Staff
    • Boards and Committees
    • Church & Ministry Directory
    • Mennonite Links
  • Media
    • Articles
    • Newsletters
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Bulletin Announcements
  • Resources
    • Conference Documents
    • Missional
    • Intercultural
    • Formational
    • Stewardship
    • Church Safety
    • Praying Scriptures
    • Request a Speaker
    • Pastoral Openings
    • Job Openings
  • Give
    • Leadership Development Matching Gift
  • Events
    • Pentecost
    • Delegate Assembly
    • Faith & Life
    • Youth Event
    • Women’s Gathering
    • Conference Calendar
  • Mosaic Institute
  • Vibrant Mosaic
  • Contact Us
  • English

Jurassic Park?

What if we pick the olives for the farmers?”, he asked as they sat in the Beit-Sahour cafe over a plate of hummus and pita.

“You’d get shot!”, she said with surprise and caution in her voice.

He conceded to her point, but remained disturbed by his memories. That morning he had walked through an olive grove nestled in a valley outside Bethlehem. As the trees parted in front of him, he reached an impasse. Scoured through the valley lay a fence as far as the eye could see.

Fences are, of course, few and far between in the cultivated hill country of Palestine, and this one in particular, seemed very much out of place. So much so, he thought, it seemed likely that the land had never seen one like this before; and neither had he. For this was not just one fence, but three, with a road burned through the middle.

He wondered what place such an obstacle had dividing the valley so boldly. If someone did not want the farmers to access their fields, that someone had surely succeeded. The barriers began just in front of him with heaping coils of razor wire. Behind that lay open ground which ended against a high chain-link fence which was also lined with more razor wire on top. Just beyond that fence stood a fence similar the previous, but with the added “security” of exposed high voltage wire strung across it like something out of Jurassic Park. Past this was a road way, buffeted on either side by raked sand. This was prepared, he concluded, so as to catch the slightest inconsistency of an intruding footprint or evidence any un-groomed impression in its surface.

Another fence provided a bookend for the ghastly production on the opposite side of the road. It’s height and wire, dwarfed by the previous lines of defence, clearly revealed which side of the fence was meant to be “secured,” and he was on it.

Beyond the snaking concentric lines of the barrier, the olive trees, many older that any living man or woman could possibly remember, stood silent. The soil beneath them, rich from years without harvest and the branches above, laden with their ripening burden of perseverance.

They were finished the meal and as they got up to leave he thought to himself, “there must be a way.” Those weren’t even his trees and fields. The land meant little to him as a means of income or for supporting a family as it did for the farmers who owned it, yet he felt the waves of helplessness and dispare as if it did. He wished his memories were only memories and not the daily reality for Palestinians. Tragically though, they are real memories, real trees, real fences, real bullets, and real men, women, and children.

Ben Davies

The opinions expressed in articles posted on Mosaic’s website are those of the author and may not reflect the official policy of Mosaic Conference. Mosaic is a large conference, crossing ethnicities, geographies, generations, theologies, and politics. Each person can only speak for themselves; no one can represent “the conference.” May God give us the grace to hear what the Spirit is speaking to us through people with whom we disagree and the humility and courage to love one another even when those disagreements can’t be bridged.

Filed Under: News

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jim Davies says

    August 8, 2007 at 5:23 pm

    I think every parent realized that you (the Nazareth Team) would encounter this. Now you are there and your observations are deep. What I have seen in national weekly news magazines does not illustrate the intense nature of the situation or the local impact on every person in the region on each side of the fence. It’s tragic.
    Lord Jesus, please bring healing. Please!
    It must have been inspiring to overhear that discussion in the café. I’d like to meet that person someday. Maybe I have. In any case, I think we all may know him, because a small part of him is in each one of us.
    I love you my son. Daddy.

  2. Mark Leichty says

    August 8, 2007 at 6:03 pm

    You are a fabulous writer! Thank you for this perspective. I appreciate the fact that you all are getting to experience a Palestinian point of view. May your last few days in Israel be blessed.
    Mark Leichty (khalicia’s dad)

Primary Sidebar

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our History
    • Vision & Mission
    • Staff
    • Boards and Committees
    • Church & Ministry Directory
    • Mennonite Links
  • Media
    • Articles
    • Newsletters
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Bulletin Announcements
  • Resources
    • Conference Documents
    • Missional
    • Intercultural
    • Formational
    • Stewardship
    • Church Safety
    • Praying Scriptures
    • Request a Speaker
    • Pastoral Openings
    • Job Openings
  • Give
    • Leadership Development Matching Gift
  • Events
    • Pentecost
    • Delegate Assembly
    • Faith & Life
    • Youth Event
    • Women’s Gathering
    • Conference Calendar
  • Mosaic Institute
  • Vibrant Mosaic
  • Contact Us

Footer

  • Home
  • Contact Us
  • Delegate Assembly
  • Vision & Mission
  • Our History
  • Formational
  • Intercultural
  • Missional
  • Mosaic Institute
  • Give
  • Stewardship
  • Church Safety
  • Praying Scriptures
  • Articles
  • Bulletin Announcements

Copyright © 2025 Mosaic Mennonite Conference | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use