Hell, Holy Land holidays and hope

If you're an ACCESS Ministries school chaplain, don't bother looking for your CEO or Bishop, come September. They won't be there. Or, if you're a Ridley theological student wanting a lecturer's advice in November, you'll be out of luck. For the Bishop, the lecturer and the CEO, will be on a "comprehensive sightseeing tour." They will be sitting in an "air-conditioned private coach," with all "porterage" covered, seeing "the Bible come alive" in Israel.

It works something like this: A smart travel agency identifies a couple of leaders, with good access to a potential market. They create an itinerary and offer the 'chosen ones' assistance with their costs, if they agree to promote and "lead" the tour. No organization does it better than the agencies promoting the Holy Land, and "walking where Jesus walked" vacations.

ACCESS for example, is a travel agency's dream come true. The Chair, a high profile Bishop, the CEO, and the 12 church Board members, have access to some 67 Local Government area chaplaincy committees. They also have the support of 3,400 volunteers and 212 chaplains operating in some 1000 Victorian state schools, as well as clergy mailing lists supplied by the Board members.

Off they go to Masada, a place "loaded with symbolism". Then Bethlehem, "perched on a hill," with lunch at the "elegant American Colony Hotel." They will visit Yad Vashem and the Israeli Museum, a boutique winery as well as a drive through Nazareth.

However, I believe that such holidays lack integrity and border on being dishonest and deceptive.

ACCESS's Mission Statement asserts that "it serves people authentically without discrimination." It cares "for the educational and personal well being of all people," and prides itself on its partnership with churches. However, it's Holy Land tour is a denial of those very values.

For more than four decades, the Palestinian churches have pleaded with Western churches not to ignore them. They cry for a partnership with visiting church groups. They weep in frustration, anger and profound sadness, as yet another Christian group is waved through Israeli controls without harassment, too busy to stop and listen. They go from the bus to the Church of the Nativity, "then to a prearranged shop where agents get a 40% commission . . .they even tell them which toilet to [use]." And then they're gone.

The Director of the Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism, Caesar D'Mello, says, "the majority of pilgrims to the Holy Land go there and return with little reference to the Palestinian people." A well known Christian leader returned from such a tour, confessing he couldn't remember meeting an Arab Christian.

Responding to questions on whether or not it was meeting with Palestinian churches, ACCESS replied, "we appreciate and understand that Christians hold different views as to the merits of travel/tourism/study in the 'Holy Land' and the Middle East, but we provide the service, giving full details in the brochure, so that we do not impinge upon the conscience of any participant."

Australian Christians do support the value of Holy Land holidays, as do Christians in Israel and Palestine. Given the pledge and core values of ACCESS, it's not clear why the "conscience of participants," takes precedence over the wishes of Christians and churches in the Holy Land. Why discriminate against the Palestinians? Why no partnership? The issues of conscience for Australian Christian's who participate in such tours, are twofold: Firstly, do they take seriously the wishes of the Palestinian churches? Secondly, do they wish to further the political and economic oppression of the Palestinian people?

The feelings of the churches in the West Bank and Israel are very clear: "Come and see," is their plea. Our history, they say, "is linked with the early church established in Jerusalem," and their presence, "has never been disconnected with this land." There are some 50,000 Christians living in the West Bank, including Gaza and East Jerusalem. There are another 160,000 in Israel.

Too many people, they say "come to the Holy Land as spectators, touring holy sites. . . not caring or realizing that for the Palestinian Christian, these are living places of worship. Reflecting the pious practices of the Pharisees, they search for a personal blessing, seeking to renew an egocentric, individualistic faith."

When ACCESS (Victoria), St. James Institute (Sydney), Ridley Theological College (Melbourne), or individual pastors and priests, take Holy Land tours under the tight control of a travel agency itinerary, what they see, according to the Palestinian church, "only reinforces their prejudices, preconceived notions and limited understanding of a complex situation."

What such tour leaders and participants fail to understand is that, "tourism. . . is used by the Israelis as a tool for occupation and dispossession. External tourism agents that collaborate in this process are complicit in facilitating gross human rights violations and injustices. They are in fact supporting the trading in, and profiting from, stolen goods, stolen lands and broken lives."

A recent Palestinian tourism investigation concluded that "the monopoly held by the Israeli travel sector and its state policies continues to cripple the growth of the Palestinian travel sector."

Ttherefore, can the Australian Christian tourist be neutral? No. "If you are neutral in situations of injustice," according to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, "you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality."

So how is it then, that an organisation such as ACCESS, with a ministry full of children, use the excuse of not offending the 'conscience' of participants, when it goes out of its way to avoid learning anything about the hell suffered by Palestinian children?

Why would they deliberately shield chaplains and teachers from the facts? It is estimated that "74 percent of Palestinian children in East Jerusalem live below the poverty line, 80 percent of the people in Gaza depend on food aid, and children in nearly a third of all families in the occupied Palestinian territories experience anxiety, phobia or depression."

Why would it conclude that it would be better if their chaplains knew nothing of the recent report, "Palestinian Child Prisoners: The systematic and institutionalised ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities?" (Defence International Report-Palestine).

The Principal of Ridley is courageously traveling Australia, pleading with Anglicans to recognise that they stole land from the original Aboriginal inhabitants, and that the time has come for repentance and compensation. Yet the Ridley tour will drop by the Shepherds Field, and ensure that its group learns nothing of the appropriation of Palestinian land. The tour ignores Beit Sahur, its tax revolt and its non violent struggle.

The St.James Institute group, after visiting the Knesset, the Israeli Museum and Yad Vashem, will gently nod off to sleep, undisturbed by the cries and anguish of another Palestinian family whose house has been demolished down the street.

How is it that these tours lead by bishops, priests and pastors, can find time to visit boutique wineries, indulge in shopping and float in the Dead Sea, but can never find time to share in worship at St.Georges Cathedral or any other church? How do the Boards of these organisations support such travel?

How does all this happen? Is it the fault of the travel agencies? One travel agency noted that, "evangelicals never request visits with Palestinian Christians." Are organisations like St. James Institute and ACCESS and their leaders, lazy, insensitive, or unconcerned? Or, is it what the National Council of Churches of Australia calls, "indifference?"

By all means, visit the Church of the Nativity, but it's deceptive and dishonest, if ACCESS decides that it would offend the "conscience of participants," if they were to meet with Palestinians and hear about the devastating effect of the 8m wall surrounding Bethlehem, or hear Israeli soldiers recounting stories of, "tightening control over the civilian population and instituting fear." (Breaking the Silence).

What is it about "conscience" which prevents the ACCESS tourists from hearing and understanding "the cry of hope in the absence of all hope?" ("Kairos Palestine: A moment of truth - A word of faith, hope and love from the Palestinian suffering," 2009).

"You Westerners," said, Father Elias Chacour, "have been coming to the Holy Land for centuries to visit the shrines, the dead stones. But you do not see the living stones - the human beings who live and struggle before your eyes. I say 'Wake up"' what matters are the living stones!"

There's no such thing as a 'neutral' Holy Land holiday. You're either a part of the machinery of oppression and struggle, or an agent of solidarity and hope.