On Monday I was told that we were having a pizza party that evening at 6pm at Mundo's. I was clear that I was invited, but I didn't know what the occasion was. Since I knew where the pizza place was, I decided to walk rather than take up room in someone's vehicle. Silly me, I showed up at exactly 6 pm. Others came after 15 – 20 minutes. That just seems to be the Arab way. The view from the back room of Mundo's is fantastic. You overlook the valley and at night the lights form the shapes of residential areas, highways, and settlements. The pizza was very good. We sort of chipped in together to get pizzas and some people got sandwiches.

The people who were invited to this pizza party were guests at Bethlehem Bible College: The president of BBC, Bishara Awad and his wife Salwa; Jonathan Kuttab, the chair of the board of BBC; several who deal with fundraising in the UK and US; international volunteers helping out at the college; and a few others and me. We had a great time. After we finished eating and were sitting around chatting, Jonathan Kuttab came over and sat next to me. I enjoyed getting a chance to talk with him about his views on Palestine and Israel – and Obama and the US.

Since I was going to be away on my class day, I decided to give a mid-term exam. I had to write it early in the week, then have the academic secretary translate it for me into Arabic. I have access to the Arabic Bible through BibleWorks and a great software program called Arab Bible. So I tried to include the Arabic terms rather than rely on Amira to figure out which word I was referring to by my English.

On Wednesday (Nov. 12) I managed to arrange a ride into Jerusalem, where I was to be picked up at Notre Dame along with other Sabeel Conference attendees and taken to Nazareth for the first part of the conference. I was accompanying a couple who volunteer in the gift shop at BBC and were taking a load of merchandise to be included in a Christmas sale at the American embassy. When we came to the checkpoint, the soldier at first waved us on, but then he must have caught sight of all of the boxes in the back of the van and yelled out to us. He then began questioning us and had us pull off to the side. Another soldier was brought over. He began questioning us about all of the merchandise. He said there was a problem, that this was against the law, and taxes should be paid, etc. This went on for 10 minutes. We had the entire list of everything being brought and the document for the American embassy. The soldier either got exasperated or someone else told him to let us through. But we were allowed to go merrily on our way.

I was delighted that the driver managed to take me directly to where I needed to go, even though I didn't know exactly where I needed to go. After an hour or two wait along with the growing number of people getting dropped off, we loaded up the bus and set off for Nazareth. It was a familiar journey traveling east from Jerusalem. We passed the rugged terrain of the hills of Judea and dropped down to enter into the Jordan valley, passing Jericho along the way. But then we turned north, heading toward the Galilee.

We had an anxious few minutes at the Israeli checkpoint. We were flagged off to the side. The driver had to open the baggage compartment and go inside with his papers. They brought a German shepherd to sniff our luggage. Apparently the dog didn't find anything offensive, and we were allowed to continue.

It was a long drive to Nazareth. We stopped once for a bathroom break. The camel penned at the side of the building shared some of his flies with us. We took a few dozen to Nazareth along with us in the bus. After figuring out all of the logistics for getting people and their luggage to their various hotels, we finally joined together at the Basilica of Annunciation for a worship service. The basilica was very beautiful. I especially enjoyed seeing Greek orthodox iconography with Arabic script. Bishop Boulos (Paul) Marcuzzo gave the homily. After the service we gathered for a time of refreshment and fellowship.

I decided to stay, not at the Golden Crown hotel, but at the less expensive Grand New Hotel. The accommodations are quite suitable. I have been having interesting and informative conversations with people attending the conference. Many of them are from the UK, but also a good representation of attendees from North America. There are also people from other European countries, as well as Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, and some other places I'm sure I'm overlooking. People come from many Christian denominations both catholic and protestant. There is a good contingent of British Friends with whom I've become acquainted.  Best of all are all of the Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters who are attending the conference.

The first day of sessions on Thursday was a marathon of panels about the situation of Palestinians living within Israel. Some panelists described the situation as apartheid. Palestinian Israeli's are discriminated against by law. It affects every aspect of their life within Israel. The afternoon ended with a panel including Rabbi Arik Ascherman, the executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights, who is a progressive Israeli but a defender of Israel's identity as a Jewish state. He described himself as a "cultural Zionist." For him Israel's claim to the land is not more legitimate than the Palestinians but also not less legitimate.

On Friday we were divided into three or four different groups and taken to different areas of northern Israel where Palestinian villages had been depopulated and demolished as a result of the formation of the state of Israel in 1948. To introduce the theme, we were delighted to hear of the work of Eitan Bronstein, an Israeli and founder of Zochrot. His organization advocates for Palestinians among Israelis by supporting the right of return for Palestinians and spreading awareness of the Palestinian life and culture which existed prior to 1948. He showed us some pictures of their work. He told the story of one Arab woman who came to visit Israel from the US. She inquired about the village where her parents had originally lived before leaving in 1948. Zochrot helped her locate the village and took her there. She was on the cell phone with her parents getting directions so that she could walk through the overgrown rubble and actually find the spot where her parents' home had been. It still moves me nearly to tears now as it did when I saw the picture of this young woman sitting on the stones which had once been her family's home before being forcibly evicted, not only from home but from the land of their ancestors.

We first visited a site near Nazareth where about the only evidence of the village is the Muslim cemetery. We had to walk through a field, pass through a fence gate, and pick our way between simple burial plots. In this instance, we learned that one way to tell where a Palestinian village had been located is to look for olive trees and cactus. Cactus was grown as a fence around property and olive trees were a basic part of Palestinian diet. On the converse, you can also detect sites of demolished Palestinian villages by pine trees. Apparently pine trees are not indigenous to the region. But these trees make excellent cover to hide the ruins beneath them. They also have the ability to grow roots into the ground which break apart the stone structures still existing below ground. We could see in the distance a hill side covered with pine trees, all of which had been a Palestinian village before the inhabitants were forced to leave.

We were told of various ways in which the Palestinians were evacuated and displaced. In one village soldiers went to different areas of the village and killed groups of young men as a warning for everyone to flee. In other cases they were given little time to gather belongings and leave, sometimes walking great distances with nothing more than a blanket. In yet another instance, soldiers pinned down the inhabitants whenever anyone tried to leave their home to get water from the village well. Eventually they had to leave or die in their homes.

This was the experience at Ma'lul. We trekked up the winding road that leads to the top of the hill where this village had once thrived. Besides the rubble that lays at the feet of hundreds of pine trees, there is only the mosque, the Melkite church, and the Greek orthodox church still standing. There is a sign placed by the Israelis at the top of the hill indicating that there had once been a Christian/Muslim village on the site but that the inhabitants had abandoned it. What was rather amazing was for us to come across several Israeli families from a nearby kibbutz having a picnic next to the ruins of the Melkite church. It is a peaceful spot and quite beautiful, but it is the beauty and serenity of the death of a people with stones laying everywhere as though they were grave markers noting the location of a way of life destroyed by violence and cruelty.

After boarding the bus again, we went on to some other sites. One area we drove by. Here again you can see the remains of the village scattered throughout the pine trees. We went to one area that is now completely built up. We visited a Greek Orthodox church and then a Russian Orthodox church. These Palestinian Christians know that beneath all of the modern Israeli homes and businesses lay the foundations of their village and their way of life. Now they are a small minority. It is interesting that some 30,000 Russians who came to Israel were allowed to emigrate because they had Jewish ancestors. What the Israelis didn't bother to check was whether these Russians were still practicing Jews. In fact they were all Russian orthodox. Surprise, surprise.

There is much more to learn and experience both here in Nazareth and next week as the conference continues in Jerusalem. I feel very fortunate to be here.