The 2017 Just Faith Delegation traveled under the auspices of the Interfaith Network for Justice in Palestine and was co-sponsored by American Muslims for Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.
Read eyewitness accounts, reports from meetings, and experiences with Palestinians and Israelis below.
Exclusive content is also available on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook under the hashtag #justfaith17.
While 23 members of the delegation arrived safely, 5 were prevented from boarding the flight to Israel. The Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders were possibly singled out for their public support of the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) on the state of Israel. Upon arrival at the Lufthansa check-in counter at Dulles International Airport, an airline employee informed the group that the Israeli government had told the airline not to let them board.
At a time when Israeli forces increased the daily repression of Palestinian civilians, including those exercising their freedom to worship, to speak, and to protest, this interfaith delegation sought to respond and act in solidarity. Israel's actions to bar faith leaders and activists from witnessing and lending an interfaith voice for peace is concerning.
This delegation was Eyewitness Palestine's 62nd, successfully exposing more than 1,200 people to the daily realities facing Palestinians in their quest for justice.
We believe in the power of eye-witness experience and transformation. Given the opportunity to speak directly with Palestinians and Israelis, delegates return to the United States better informed, more energized, and with a deeper understanding of the possibilities for true justice in the Middle East.
Dear all my relatives, friends and barely acquainted friends who support the Zionist project of Israel,Please sit with me for a while, I have too many stories that scream to be told.
A twelve year old boy picks up a stone and throws it at a fully geared soldier. The boy is sent to a prison for 20 years. Maybe bargained down to 18. His family will not be able to visit because they will not get permits to travel.
Returning home from Palestine this week has been illuminating and challenging to see the interconnectedness between my state and the homeland of Palestinians, a place equal in size and 5,860 miles away. I have noticed striking similarities in the way that farmers here take pride in being from Maryland, raising their children and tending to crops in the same place for generations, similar to the way that Palestinian farmers claim nine centuries of heritage in one place. I feel despairing to imagine if all the farmers in my county were forcibly displaced at the rate Palestinians have been, over 95% of the indigenous population. I have also seen that Maryland has largely erased its genocide against the Native American peoples, the Iroquois-speaking tribes of my county, while Israel denies the on-going ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
Read MoreHow are they getting away with this? This rhetorical question dogged me for days as I learned about the intricacies of Israel's occupation of Palestine: Concrete slabs 26 feet high tearing through Palestinian neighborhoods and farmlands. More than 100 permits required for ordinary tasks like building a room in your house. Palestinian children being sentenced to five to 20 years in prison for throwing stones, a common form of protest.
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