Friday - A very full and emotional day

This morning started with worship with Jim and Jean, then moved into a bible study with Rev Dr. Naim Ateek titled "The Promise". Dr Ateek review with us all the scriptures from Genesis that imply and are used to justify the sense of entitlement that the Zionist Jewish community towards this land. He then went on to identify other readings from Deuteronomy the identifies the rights of other tribes to the same land. He talked about the fact that many of these came from an oral tradition which were not written for many years and sometimes generations. He talked about the bible being self correcting, unfortunately parts can be used to justify some actions if not put together with other readings. After the Bible study we moved over to the Freres School in the Old Town where we spent the balance of the morning in focus groups. Each of us chose two, with the topics ranging from "Mapping Wars inside Syria", "Christian Zionism" and many others including the two that I attended - "Women's Issues in the West Bank" and "Jewish and Democratic: The Impossible Plan for Israel". The range resource for each topic was very well chosen and all who attended felt it was time well spent.
After Lunch we met back in the Conference Centre to hear Mr. Gerard Horton discussing "Breaking a Generation: Children in Israeli Military Detention". We learned about children who are arrested, questioned and detained for 2 to 6 months for throwing stones at various friction points. We then loaded on buses and moved to the Ofer Prison where we held a vigil which included more questions and answers with Gerard and then a time of silence, prayer and song. Upon our return to the Notre Dame Centre we spent an hour debriefing - much needed after a full day. The evening was culminated in a lovely dinner.