Looking for Trouble

From Gaza to Bethlehem by Gerri Haynes, photos by Bob Haynes

(Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility has been sponsoring delegations to Gaza since 1993. In 2009, the group began offering medical service work to the people of Gaza.)

Leaving Gaza is always difficult: difficult to leave our friends knowing that their imprisonment continues, difficult to contemplate how much strength it takes for them to maintain their courage and hope, and then the minor difficult of the transit through the checkpoints. Two friends came early to Marna House Hotel to say “Good-bye.”

Moving across the small segment of land through the Gaza and Israeli checkpoints can take many minutes to many hours. On the Israeli side, every item in our luggage was checked and scrambled. One day later, we are still finding objects in our suitcases that belong to one another! Yet, finally, yesterday, after about 2 ½ hours we emerged and were greeted by the driver sent to us from our friend Daniel of Bethlehem. The day was spectacularly beautiful and we drove the curving road up to Bethlehem – where we will spend nights until we return to the US.

In the afternoon, on our way to dinner with Mustafa Barghouti and his staff from the Palestinian Medical Relief Society in Ramallah, we stopped in Jerusalem to observe the thousands of pilgrims walking from the Mt. of Olives to the Old City, celebrating Palm Sunday.

Settlements dot so many hills in the West Bank – erected on occupied land against international law. Leaving Area C, moving into Area A, the Israeli Qalandia checkpoint was slow, but we arrived in good time in Ramallah. We had a wonderful dinner – planning the next two days of service in Ramallah, Tulkarem and Hebron. We are grateful to Wi’am in Bethlehem for helping us to organize our time in the West Bank and to the Palestinian Medical Relief Society for providing opportunities for us to serve in West Bank communities.