City of David and Encounter

We did a variety of things today but only two really stick in my mind as engaging and fully worth typing about. I will however quickly highlight the others for you.

We started the day later (9:20am-what a nice change!) by going to the Sabeel Center which is a Palestinian Liberation Theology organization. Omar spoke with us and provided us a new Arab Christian perspective. Omar had some great personal narratives that he shared with us, though I found the session overall less than engaging and found myself wondering more how our guide Yael and guard Barki were reacting to hearing his perspective on the conflict and what motivates the Arab people living in Palestine.

We then moved to a tour of the Supreme Court, much better than the Knesset, thought the women spoke very fast and was often out of breath. The design and intentionality behind the structure itself was amazing. The description of how they enact the judicial branch of the "democracy" was very interesting compared to the US version of democracy. NOTE: The rest of this is for my GA, one Ashley Sciora (as this is not one of my engaging parts of today but I thought she would like this info!) I am not going to pretend to know what a full and true democratic state would look like (I never took a political science course in college and I think middle school or AP US History was my last academic look at government) but I think they could be slightly missing the mark (or I could be privileged and very US centric). The Israeli judicial branch operates as follows: Across the country there are 32 magistrate courts, then 6 district courts, then the supreme court (with 15 justices, governed by a chief justice-which is essentially the one with most seniority). There are NO JURIES, as they wanted their court system to be fully professional and NOT to have people judged by their peers. Courts hear civil and criminal cases and whether you start at magistrate or district depends on the level of sentence that could result if you are guilty. If you start in magistrate you can only appeal to district and if you start in district you can only appeal to supreme. HERE IS THE KICKER....there are no real requirements on being a supreme court justice-you don't even really need to be a lawyer-you just have to be knowledgeable in law. You have to be at least 18 and be qualified. You could petition in, be recommended or any other avenue then you go throw an interview process. They can operate up to 5 courts at one time because only 3 justices hear any one case (not sure how they are assigned). Oh and the are VERY strict with the justices and where they enter and the hallways they access. They want ABSOLUTELY no contact between justices and lawyers, justices and press, justices and defendants (they even have their own law library, separate from the lawyers and retired justices). You all can talk or comment amongst yourselves-but do others think this is democracy?

Now on to my favorite parts of the day...City of David. More than anything I have greatly enjoyed when we are walking around and Yael is explaining the site and narrating the experience. We watched a rather nauseating (literally) 3D movie about the history of David and how we acquired/built the city. Then we got to walk through some underground tunnels that could have been how David's soldiers attacked the city by gaining access through water tunnels. It was some really exciting hiking and cool to see that perspective on the city.

We then had 3 folks from a group called Encounter which is aimed at bringing grass top American Jews to Israel to engage in listening to Palestinian narratives and encountering them as people. What are grass tops you are asking-they are not grass roots leaders, nor are they top level leaders, they are right in the middle upcoming Jewish leaders who want to create constructive change. This group talked a great deal about listening and hearing the stories of the Palestinians. They were super engaging and open to questions from our group and the group was very engaged with them, on a personal story level-not on a programmatic how do you do it level. I really wish that I could experience a program like this or that I could work for a program that is as committed to a social change cause (and this is the first time in my life I have ever really wanted to work for a non-profit, except maybe Habitat). So dear Encounter, should you ever need a Christian from North America-you just let me know!

So what is the change for today? I think more than anything I remembered today how lucky I feel to be doing the professional work that I am. In my small way I am trying to help educate students how to be more critical thinkers and to listen first to understand others and then to be understood yourself. I also hope that student are learning that there is more to leadership than being a outspoken person with a title, I aim to really impress on them the ideas that true change comes from anyone with a passion and that you don't need a formal title to lead, you just need to authentically you and integrate your values into your everyday life (integrity). Seeing the passion the Encounter participants had made me remember that the more passion and feeling you put into your work the more others will be excited and engaged by it and want to participate in your mission with you.

OTHER RANDOM FACT OF THE DAY (learned in Israel but in no way Israeli or Jewish, and also NOT learned in courses that awarded me a Bachelor of Science in Biology): FACT: Cows and goats produce milk only after giving birth, similar to human. So in order to get the milk you must impregnate said animals continuously so they lactate and it can be taken from them. THANK YOU REBECCA BEELS! What would I have done without this knowledge? I may have gone with Carolina's philosophy that cows produce milk because they moo...False!

Off to the north tomorrow-the Kinnert (Sea of Galilee) and then to Tel Aviv...goodbye Jerusalem, it has been an amazing experience and one that I will never forget!