Standing with the Farmers of Gaza, in Their Fields

Lent 1, Sunday, March 1, 2009
1 Peter 3.18-22

“Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous…” (1 Peter 3.18)

Always, suffering….from the beginning, we are told in our holy book. Some suffering is simply part of being human—we are ill or we grow old. Other suffering is the result of not living in the way God intends for us. Because the world’s bounty is not shared equally with all, people suffer. Because we are not able to forgive our neighbor, we suffer. It’s the way of the world.

Standing against the way of the world also brings suffering. The world does not deal kindly with those who protest its ways. Resisting injustice brings condemnation. Jesus’ death on the cross at the hands of the Roman occupiers puts this kind of suffering at the center of the Christian life.

Today in Gaza, a month after the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, Palestinian farmers are still being shot at while they harvest their crops in their fields. Israeli soldiers patrolling the border fire at the farmers in northern Gaza almost daily.

And international human rights workers (HRWs) are standing with the people of Gaza, walking with them in their fields, standing with them in their suffering. In defiance of the continuing Israeli attacks on farmers trying to harvest their crops, these human rights workers, wearing bright yellow vests and carrying megaphones and video cameras, accompany the farmers to their fields each day. Their bodies shield the farmers from the snipers’ bullets and their voices through the megaphones proclaim to the soldiers that these are unarmed farmers, not terrorists, and they are not alone.

On Tuesday of this week, Palestinian farmers from the village of Khoza, near Khan Younis, and the human rights workers accompanying them, were fired upon by Israeli forces. The farmers and HRWs were attempting to work on land around 300m from the ‘Green Line’.

One of the human rights workers reports, "We were accompanying farmers to gather peas from their lands. The farmers, for the most part, were elderly men and women with their sons. There were many farmers spread out over a large area. We were only in the fields for about five minutes before the Israeli forces began firing. I believe the firing was coming from four army jeeps and a Hummer. The shots were coming very close, and were sniper-type of shots.”

Before the shooting started, the soldiers had sat in their Hummer for about 30 minutes, watching the farmers harvesting their crops while the yellow-vested human rights workers stood lookout. As the farmers began to leave the field to return to their village, the soldiers started firing. See video of the attacks: http://www.freegaza.org/

"We are accompanying these farmers to harvest their crops because they have a right to their land. Palestinians who live or have land within 1 kilometre of the Green Line are being driven out by Israeli military violence. We consider this to be a form of ethnic cleansing. Withinternational accompaniment, these farmers are able to harvest their crops with a much greater degree of safety than if they were to come to these areas alone" Andrew Muncie (Scotland) —International Human Rights Worker

On February 18, a deaf farm worker, Mohammad al-Buraim, 20, was shot in the right leg as farmers, together with the international human rights workers, attempted to leave, having worked on their land for 2 hours in full view of the Israeli forces. Mohammad al-Buraim supports his family of 16 persons, but he will not be working for some time; the bullet penetrated his ankle and landed in the tire of the truck he was pushing because it was disabled. The photo shows Mohammad at al-Naser hospital.

Gracious God, comforter of those who suffer, lead us in ways of freedom and justice so that our lives stand against the suffering that can be prevented. Amen.