TOPSHAM

Joanne Hardy, a retired educator and country innkeeper from Topsham, recently returned from an Interfaith Peace-Builders mission to Israel and Palestine.

Hardy, along with 31 other members of a delegation from around the U.S., landed in Tel Aviv, Israel, on May 21 for a 12-day journey through Israel and the occupied territories of the West Bank.

The Interfaith Peace- Builders (IFPB) delegation met with Palestinians, Israelis, human rights groups, cultural religious groups, peace activists and a United Nations contingent to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“One of the more inspiring places we visited was the Nassar Family Farm outside Bethlehem,” Hardy said. “This Palestinian Christian family has lived on their piece of land for close to 100 years. It is in an area of the West Bank that is under full Israeli control. … Their road is blocked, they have no running water, and their tents and cistern are under demolition orders.”

“Yet the Nassars still have hope — they refuse to hate,” she said. “(They) are determined to break the chain of evil, stating ‘You cannot overcome evil with evil.’”

Since 2007, the Israeli government has increased settlement efforts on the West Bank, including Bil’in. That effort has spurred Palestinian protests against what they believe is an illegal seizure of land they claim to be their own.

Another Palestinian family, refugees from East Jerusalem, was evicted from land that they had legally owned because, after Jerusalem was annexed in 1967, the land returned to Israel, according to the Israeli law of returns.

The family recounts that more than 100 police officers evicted the family from their home in less than two hours one morning (three days after the family was given a 10-day eviction notice) and they lived on the streets for almost six months after that.

“But the perseverance,” Hardy said, “the impressive strength the family showed was inspiring.”

“What we don’t hear about here in the U.S. is that there are a number of Israelis who don’t agree with the way the Israeli government is acting,” said Hardy.

On her trip, Hardy learned that many Israelis agree that “something has to be done” about how the Israeli government treats Palestinians.

Whole villages of Palestinians allegedly are evicted because their properties are dubbed “archaeological sites,” Hardy said. Those Palestinians told Hardy that the Israeli government then would sell tickets to visit the sites but wouldn’t let the Palestinians into the site, even if they bought a ticket.

The most important thing to do now that she is back, Hardy said, is to get the word out about the human consequences of the ongoing dispute between Israelis and Palestinians.

“The most important thing that people can do is get educated,” she said. “Know the whole story about something — like the situation in Palestine and Israel.”

Hardy, a member of the Mid-Coast Presbyterian Church, plans to attend the denomination’s general assembly this week to argue in favor of divesting from companies that assist in the demolition of Palestinian homes, such as Caterpillar, and companies that assist in security issues, including Motorola and Hewlett Packard. Caterpillar was recently removed from the TIAA-CREF list of socially responsible businesses.

One member of Hardy’s delegation, a Quaker from St. Louis, has relatives in the West Bank and planned to visit them. When their plane landed in Tel Aviv, however, police stopped her and asked a number of questions. They pulled her from the group for a further 10 hours of questioning. She was then sent to a holding cell, where she was able to contact the U.S. Embassy, whose first question to her was, “Are you Jewish?”

When she answered negatively, an embassy staffer told her that they couldn’t help her, and any aid they could offer would make things worse for her relatives. She was then sent home, unable to meet with her relatives.

This experience hit home for Hardy because she could barely imagine what it must have felt like to be considered a “terrorist” while on a peaceful delegation. She said the Israeli government’s harsh treatment of the Quaker woman set the tone for the entire delegation.

A week before the delegation arrived, the Israeli government and Palestinians announced a historic agreement on the rights of Palestinian prisoners, approximately 2,000 of whom remain imprisoned or detained without trial by Israel.

This treatment, according to a press release from IFPB and Hardy’s accounts of her trip, led to the prisoners refusing food for periods ranging from 20 to 76 days.

Before this agreement, the Israeli government regularly imprisoned Palestinians without filing formal charges against them. Prisoners were routinely tortured, according to Hardy, who met with family members of prisoners.

“Everyone has someone they know, someone they care for, who is in prison for no reason other than ‘security,’” she said.

May marks the annual commemoration of the latest onset of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so Hardy was able to witness a number of nonviolent demonstrations, in addition to talks about the development of relations between the two groups.

This was Hardy’s second visit to Israel. She first traveled there in May 2008 to seek firsthand knowledge about the Palestinian situation, but she has been involved in social justice issues all her adult life.

IFPB’s mission is to give U.S. citizens the opportunity to see and understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in person and to empower these citizens to educate their local communities and to advocate for better U.S. foreign policy when they return to the U.S,” according to a release from the organization. The mission on which Hardy participated marked the 40th IFPB educational journey to the Middle East since 2001.

“We have to get the word out,” Hardy said. “We (the delegation) have an obligation to tell everyone about what we witnessed and what the conditions are like over there.”