Doris Shahedah was born into a long established Arab Christian family in Jerusalem during the finals days of WW II, When fighting broke out during conflict between Jews and Arabs for the control of Palestine, her family was forced from their home and fled to Jordan. They were told they could return when the fighting ended. When they tried to return they had to settle in East Jerusalem far from their former neighborhood. Doris's mother pled with authorities to be permitted to at least see their former home. She was never permitted to visit and died with a broken heart.
Having been born during the time of turmoil Doris's citizenship was classified as "indeterminate status." It was only recently that she was granted Israeli citizenship. As the wife for many years of an Episcopal priest who is an Israeli citizen it was unnecessarily difficult.
Doris was astonished to learn that our group planned to visit the West Bank city of Jenin and stay with Palestinian families. Having lived for a few years in the U.S. she has a positive view of Americans, She has found them to be warm hearted and kind. However, she has continued to be saddened by their lack of knowledge about the problems of Arab Christians in Israel and the difficulties created by the occupation of
Palestine by Israel. She said she felt no hope about things improving in her life time.
We talked about our plans to attend the olive festival planned by the Fair Trade cooperative and to visit the Jenin refugee camp. We also planned to pick olives.We told her our group had come to learn more about the conflict and to meet peace makers.
During the evening her husband talked about the necessity of non violence as a solution and the need for justice with love. There were many questions from our group about options for change.
At the end of the evening Doris said our group represents a flicker of hope that others in the rest of the world will learn more about their plight and try to find ways to institute change.
Suzi Pifer
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