Over the course of many decades, peace groups have been branded terrorists by governments including my own. While I do not know of exact evidence, throughout my life, I have heard that government spies infiltrated groups like the American Friends Service Committee and other Quaker organizations in order to monitor their activities. Some of the stories even suggest that these government infiltrators have pushed peace groups to violence in order to validate later anti-activist governmental action.

While in Ramallah, Palestine, I spent some time with a friend of mine from Earlham College. She had grown up in Palestine, attended the Ramallah Friends School and graduated from Earlham the previous year. My friend and I met each other through mutual friends while singing in the college gospel choir. When I came the West Bank we planned to meet up. At the time of our preliminary planning I didn’t realize what our visit would mean… to either of us.

Imagine ghost town. Set in the old Western style with tumbleweeds spinning down the street, two men step out into the empty road. Pistols are drawn. The shadows hold their breaths. Freeze. Replace the western façade with stone; the windows are welded shut instead of boarded up. Tumbleweeds morph into black plastic bags and Coca Cola bottles. The two men hold machine guns and dress in military attire. They point their weapons, not at each other, but instead at the shadows.

I had come back to Janin after my class had visited atheatre which was located in the refugee camp. The people and history of the theatre had grabbed my attention and an invitation to the world première of Alice and Wonderland (Palestinian style) had sealed the deal of my return. Now, almost two weeks later, I was back. I was alone and I had no idea how to find the theatre.

We toured around Nazareth in the morning. I'm looking forward to spending more time in this beautiful little town. My father mentioned at one point that during his travels he visited here and schemed to climb Mt. Taber. On his way up he realized that he didn't have enough daylight to finish his trip and was invited into hospitality by a random resident of one of the nearby villages. I'm hoping that when I come back up here, I can have my own attempt at the mountain... though light fades quickly in this winter season.

You have to be kidding. The sign reads "This Jeleveh vehicle crossing enhancement was funded by the American people through the US Agency for International Development to foster greater trade and economic development of this area."

Once we made it through the check point it was time to head up to Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is beautiful. We got to see many of the religious sites and even take a boat ride. If the boat hadn't raised the American flag and played the American National Anthem in our honor (everyone on board was American) and if the boat hadn't played cheezy praise music by Elvis... the ride would have been perfect.

We traveled up to the mountain where Abraham was saved from sacrificing Issac. Living near by is a Palestinian Jewish community of around 750 who are decedents of the Samaritans. Jews, who have always seen the mountain as scared instead of the temple in Jerusalem, live in this small community and practice sacrificial rituals unknown to the rest of the world. I found it amazing to find a group of people who preserved not only rituals but also an ancient language.

The road we took was narrow and most of it did not have sidebars to stop vehicles from tumbling to the crevasse below. At some points the road was not wide enough to allow two vehicles; most of time the curves were blind. This road, as of August 2011, will be the only road that Palestinians are allowed to drive on from Ramallah to Jericho. The route takes about an hour and is very dangerous. The original road, a route that takes less than 20 minutes, connects a series of Israeli settlement throughout the West Bank and will be closed for exclusive Israeli travel. In addition, all Bedouin communities camped within 1/2 mile of the Israeli road will be force to move by August.