The following account was filed by Michael Oliphant, a South African Ecumenical Accompanier based in Bethlehem.

Asalaamu alaykum, shalom, peace!

If your wonder years were during the seventies, you would remember Mike Batt of Tubular Bells fame. One of his less popular songs was 'The Ride to Agadir' which stirred my imagination and evoked images of battles in the desert and rides on caravans of camels - rides that we all have needed to take - risky rides into the unknown 'for the ashes of our fathers and the children of our sons'. Since then I have dreamed of making such a journey and then I was in the middle of it. This time though the journey was the ride to Tulkarem a name which evoked in me similarly exotic locations in the desert.

The ride to Tulkarem started my journey of 10080 minutes in paradise. From Jerusalem travelling north the journey is uneventful until one hits the mountainous region surrounding the city. It is then redolent of Agadir and journeys and battles for honour. Anyway I was on a bus and there was no enemy but it felt good to live a childhood dream. The beauty is breathtaking and the bus ride hair raising, villages on every hilltop. People are living here. The city itself is alive! It vibrates at its own speed and moves to its own rhythm. Many journeys were undertaken from here, most notably to the Mediterranean Sea not 15 kms away. The ubiquitous wall has put an end to that. The cruelest thing of all is that the sea continues to render the city unbearably humid. So residents suffer the humidity without the option of heading seawards to counter it with a splash in the ocean. I am told that if Tulkarem is alive now, it was positively bristling once not too long ago. Israelis and Palestinians cooperated economically as Tulkarem provided services and goods and Israelis provided New Israeli Shekels. The wall has put an end to that too.

I visit a Dabkha studio and see young boys ranging in age from 6 or 7 to 19 and 20. As they increase in age, they grow in dexterity. The dance is technically exacting and physically demanding and they add variations which set their moves apart from others. I see that Dabkha is a key marker and maker of identity. It is also a group thing and they move as one on and off the Dabkha floor. As they dance to the exotic rhythms, we who watch are mesmerized and seduced into joining - if only to make fools of ourselves. Dabkha is not simply about steps and moves. It is a substitute for the sea, and freedom and life opportunities - so like our own experience of, and our obsession with dance in South Africa. Dance makes life bearable however bad that life is. They push themselves harder and further in their quest to feel alive truly alive and to find meaning and advantage finally fall to the floor in exhaustion - laughing, demanding water from the little ones who rush to serve their heroes!

On Thursday night I am to celebrate the Mass in a Greek Orthodox Church - the only church in Tulkarem. There is only one Christian family in the city and the church was completely run down. Then Dawood and his family and his friends who were almost exclusively Muslim, lovingly restored the church. The Electrical engineer was Muslim and proudly showed me his work. The hall is still not restored and looks like the church once looked. The restoration was not simply cosmetic. The walls were stripped down to the stone and replastered, the ceiling redone and the woodwork restored. That night at six, I believe the kingdom was advanced just a little bit as an African Anglican celebrated the Mass in a Greek Orthodox church that the Patriarch had celebrated the Mass in the Sunday before, to a truly ecumenical congregation including a contingent of Muslims. That night news filtered in about the Pope's speech in Germany and on the Sunday morning following this moment, we would receive news that the church had been razed to the ground. I cannot begin to describe my personal devastation so I could only just begin to imagine theirs. There is a good news end to this. That day the community, predominantly Muslim, met in solidarity with Dawood and his family and the leaders pledged to raise funds personally and to rebuild the church. Ecumenism had triumphed over stupidity.

I left Tulkarem overwhelmed by the Palestinian hunger for life and the pockets of hope which I find as I go about this country. They have so little to be grateful for, yet they are grateful and drink deep of the little stream that flows their way.

Saturday I am back on the road again. We are going to the Tayibeh October Beer fest which is held in September. This time the journey is only to Tayibeh near Ramallah but via the Abu Dis check point. This means we are making the journey within the West Bank and not going via Israel which is an option only for the very few who have permits. This checkpoint is notorious for its arbitrary delaying tactics especially for students attending the nearby Al Quds (Al Quds is the Palestinian name for Jerusalem) University. The checkpoint though is only the beginning of a journey through hell. The road is called Wadi Naar or hell road or fire road. It is all of these things and then some and it is for West Bank Palestinians only. Its declines are stomach turning and its inclines vertigo inducing and the hairpin bends just leave you with a hangover - the sort of one you get when you have mixed wine and beer in copious amounts, something that I, of course, have no first hand knowledge of. As a road it is disastrous; the scenery as always is nothing short of spectacular. People are forced to travel this road every day as they commute between Jerusalem and Ramallah. We drive briefly on the Israeli road and the difference is sickeningly obvious: flat, multi-laned, smooth surfaced. The young people we are with from the Arabic Education Institute comment on this.

We are on our way to Tayibeh for a retreat which I am to conduct, as well as a visit to the beer festival - a truly brilliant and inspired combination. As we leave the AEI compound in three service (pronounced serveees)Taxis and head for Beit Sahour, our minds are full of the events of the past week - the martyrdom of the young 14 year old in Manger square in Bethlehem, the reaction to the Papal address in Germany and its implications for Christian/Islamic relations. We are also conscious of the general feeling of despondency pervasive amongst the young in Bethlehem not to mention the discussion on forgiveness with the University group the day before and the reactions to the topic. The week has been eventful and we were aware of so much. We are all in need of debriefing especially the young people. There are twenty of us including the AEI director, Fuad, the assistant director Anton, Berit and Michael from the Ecumenical accompaniers programme. The journey to Tayibeh itself adds to the weight of our feelings.

It is dusk when we reach Tayibeh. We are to sleep at a home for the elderly which is jointly run by the Latin, Melkite and Lutheran communities in the village. We have supper and then we begin the 'retreat'. The address deals with two key Islamic fundamentals, Tawhid and shirk. Tawhid expresses the oneness of God and by extension the unity of the real and its counterpart shirk that expresses fragmentation - the opposite of what God is and what reality and people end up becoming. The retreat is an opportunity to gather all of these strands into one coherent whole - all the aspects of our lives so that we too may be integrated - just as God is one integrated whole.

We then walk into the village led by Jenny who leads the procession in walking and singing all the way into the centre and back to our home for the night. We laugh and sing all the way there and back during which time Abu Teddy has occasion to practice non violent conflict resolution. Then we gather on the lovely veranda area of the house with a view of the Jordanian nightline in the distance to play games and then sing traditional songs until midnight, beautiful songs about freedom and Il Quds and the wily ways of women and one especially for Michael, the words of which he still does not know.

Around midnight we retire ahead of an eight am start for breakfast. Then we depart for the Latin Church in Tayibeh. We too are to be included in the service by the parish priest who graciously invites us to participate with other visiting clergy who are there for the Tayibeh October Beer Festival -which is held in September of course. He asks Michael to concelebrate the Eucharist and to do a prayer intention and for a young person to pray a peace prayer with the International Peace Day in mind. Dima, a young Palestinian woman reads this prayer for peace and Michael prays a blessing on Palestinians, Israelis, the wall, the children and the gunners and their guns and then concelebrates with a group of Roman Catholics from Europe and Australia and me from Africa always breaking the rules. It is truly a blessed and great ecumenical moment. In the midst of this news reaches us that the church in Tulkarem has been destroyed. And we are all concerned that the great strides that have been made in interfaith relations might, at the very least, be compromised.

I spend the next two days in Jerusalem and return on Tuesday to Bethlehem. On Monday however, I find myself in a strange lecture convened by a peace group called Peace Now. The lecture is given by the editor of Haaretz which is the only sensible paper in Israel. He is a sensible man too and clearly understands the issues and the breadth of the injustice. It is in Hebrew and they have kindly given us an interpreter. It is strange in that the meeting is made up of elderly Jews or more accurately Israeli's. This is an important fact. Not all Israelis support the Israeli state and its methods, its wars and its obsession with separation and division. There are a sizeable body of academics and others, notably women who have taken up the cause of a just Israel. It was inspiring and good to witness and I have met many of them and work alongside them. Machsom Watch monitor the checkpoints, Women in Black demonstrate every Friday at midday and get spat at and have abuse hurled at them. We are particularly close to Tay'yush which means togetherness and work alongside them in the villages. They coordinate legal interventions and support people on the ground. One cannot make sweeping statements about Israelis or Jews aside from the fact that the one does not equal the other. I know and have met some good people here too.

On Tuesday we meet with the Arab Education Institute (AEI) - the new graduates/employees group. They meet weekly for reflections on non violence and then talk about their difficulties in the work place. A number of the attendees are employed within institutions that fall within the ambit of the Palestinian Authority. They are teachers, healthcare workers, and municipal workers and have not been paid for seven months.

At this point I want to introduce an important word in the Palestinian lexicon: Sumud. It is important in that it describes the Palestinian spirit or geist. Regardless of the situation, Sumud kicks in and regulates the response to the threat or danger and humanity kicks in and lifts the communal spirit and makes coping possible - coping at all costs. This has the effect of presenting a deception that all is okay. More importantly it also engenders sharing widely amongst family members: better to have 20 families sharing 3000 shekels than 19 families going hungry. You would instantly recognize this as ubuntu. It is the Palestinian people's greatest blessing and greatest curse. I have known about the Israeli and western withholding of funds to the PA, but I have never seen the evidence on the ground. Today in this meeting for the first time I hear of the hardships families are experiencing because Hamas won the election. So as you look from the outside in, everything is fine, yet it is not and has not been - apart from everything else - for seven months. And here is the rub: they have all continued to work in spite of that. 'We dance as we weep'. The casual visitor is just not privy to the deep pain; the immense difficulties.

Later that night we would go on to the Alternative Information Centre in Beit Sahour and tonight instead of the usual format of a speaker, we have music, traditional instruments, traditional songs, but with a new found zestiness and a baseline to die for. And in the audience, mostly women, all dressed and made up enjoying an evening of cultural intercourse. All of the difficulties subsumed for a moment, and beauty reigns. Sumud kicks in. People are living here! This is paradise and I have had 10080 minutes of it. God is good!

The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) was launched in August 2002. Ecumenical accompaniers monitor and report violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, support acts of non-violent resistance alongside local Christian and Muslim Palestinians and Israeli peace activists, offer protection through non-violent presence, engage in public policy advocacy, and stand in solidarity with the churches and all those struggling against the occupation. The programme is coordinated by the World Council of Churches.

The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 342, in more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works co-operatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly, which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by General Secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist Church in Kenya.

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