After witnessing the plight of the Palestinians, Rachel Baker is telling anyone willing to listen about the issues and complexities that continue to plague efforts for peace.
Carefully choosing her words to describe what her group of 13 travelers saw in the Middle East, Baker, 37, said, "A lot of what we saw were really harmful conditions for the Palestinians."
The Interfaith Peace-Builders and National Peace Foundation cosponsored the trip to Israel and the West Bank that is intended to educate Americans about the continuous struggles of that region.
Last November, President Bush and world leaders encouraged Israelis and Palestinians to reach a peace deal by the end of 2008. As the deadline looms and progress toward peace is barely visible, the experience of the two-week trip, which has been offered several times a year since 2004, casts the good intentions of world leaders in an impossible light, said Baker.
One striking example, said Baker, is the destruction of the olive groves, which provide many Palestinian families with their means to survive.
Not only were the terraced landscapes cleared and destroyed, but pine trees are planted in their place by the Israeli military.
"My interpretation ... is that not only is this Palestinian village no longer there, for me it's almost obliterating the history. If I were to go to visit this place in 200 years, I would have no idea," said Baker, who returned stateside April 16.
Although she had little knowledge of the political turmoil that has devastated that region of the Middle East before she left, Baker said her trip and her experience brought her face-to-face with both sides of the issues and the people in opposition.
Baker and her fellow delegates listened to Israelis and Palestinians. She witnessed nonviolent peace movements and visited the Israeli Holocaust Museum.
At various points on the trip, the wall of separation, which attempts to divide Israelis and Palestinians, was constructed of solid concrete. At other points, it was barbed-wire fence.
At another area, where Baker and her group were immediately approached by Israeli military who were watching the border with video surveillance, people are separated by electric fencing.
Palestinians, who are not allowed to use many of the highways without special permits, must also seek special permission to cross from one side of the wall to the other, although some villages have been separated from their farm land, Baker said.
The delegation also visited a Palestinian refugee camp, which has been in existence since the late 1940s, Baker said. Over time, the tents and cement blocks have come to form more permanent housing as the Palestinians are still waiting to return home, said Baker.
After being confronted with some harsh realities, Baker said she has made opinions, but her disagreements are not directed toward the Israeli or Palestinian people, but the governments and ruling militaries that have allowed the situation to worsen.
As an artist and marketing associate at Pegasus Communications Inc., Baker is scheduled to start classes at the Graduate Theological Union in California this fall.
Coming back from the Middle East, she said, is almost as emotionally challenging as being there.
"It's really hard. I learned a lot, and what I learned is really awful stuff," she said.
"It's been hard for me to figure out how to talk about all this ... in a way people can hear."
Kerri Roche can be reached at kroche@cnc.com or 781-398-8009.
