A TALE OF TWO CITIES
Keith Buxton - June 2007
(Sources include Bridges for Peace teaching material
and various news reports)
The novels of Charles Dickens give us a keen and sympathetic insight into the plight of the poor in
nineteenth-century England. A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is one of his two historical novels – and the
cities referred to in the title are London and Paris. But the novel is not about cities at all – it’s about
people in those cities.
I want to tell you a brief “tale of two cities” in 21st century Israel – Karmiel in the Galilee, in the
north of Israel, and Sderot in the south, in the Negev…. but separated by just 170 kms in a land that
is only a third the size of Tasmania, surrounded by hostile neighbours occupying territory some 700
times larger. I want to tell you about – not cities – but people in those cities…. people in need to
whom we in Bridges for Peace are seeking to demonstrate the love of God.
Centuries of Christian persecution of the Jewish people have left a deep scar in the minds of countless
Jews. Our Bridges for Peace projects are designed to show them love – whether giving food, repairing
a home, welcoming a new immigrant with a kitchen gift, providing children with a school starter kit,
or simply being there for the troubled and alone …. There are many different ways to show the love of
Jesus.
Matthew 22:37-40 is a foundational Scripture passage here. When asked which is the greatest
commandment in the Law, Jesus replied - “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is
like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two
commandments.”
Matthew 25:31-40 is also very relevant. In the well-known parable of the
sheep and the goats, the King declares - “I was hungry and you gave me
something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a
stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was
sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” A
little later the King says – “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of
the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” The context of Jesus’ teaching reveals that “these
brothers of mine” are the Jewish people.
Karmiel, a city of 50,000 (with many Jewish immigrants
from the former Soviet Union), is only 15 km from the
Lebanese border – during the last war around 180
Katyusha rockets fired from Lebanon landed in and around
the town of Karmiel. The Jerusalem Post reported recently
that the North has the highest poverty rate of any area in
Israel outside Jerusalem. 29% of families and 40% of
children in the North live below the poverty line.
Since last summer’s war, the situation has worsened. One resident said, “Since the war, many people
have lost their jobs or gone out of business. Unemployment in the region is almost double what it is
elsewhere in the country.” This is not surprising when, during the war, it was reported that 10,000
businesses in the North were on the verge of collapse. We now plan to duplicate in Karmiel what we
have been doing for many years in Jerusalem.
We have been distributing food from our Food Bank in Jerusalem, by far the poorest city in Israel,
since 1990 – at present we give around two tons every day to the needy children, old people, new immigrants, Israelis in crisis, university
students and large families. We regularly assist around 20,000 people a
month through our various food programmes. The food is distributed
through soup kitchens, neighbourhood social workers, rabbis, schools
and direct distribution.
Many people walk into the food bank needing assistance. Even if we cannot add them to one of our
programmes, we never send them away empty-handed. We keep a supply of walk-in food packages by
the front door for this purpose. These packages make a big difference in the lives of needy people.
Nargia is an elderly, blind woman who cannot afford the fare for a bus or taxi yet walks a long way to
the food bank for this small package. Guy, a Jerusalem street busker, comes to receive a monthly
package because the 10 shekels a day he receives on the street isn’t enough to feed him.
A widow in Dimona made aliyah (immigrated to Israel) six years ago. She is in her 60s and has no
job. Her son works every so often when he can find a job. Even though they are in such great need,
they take the food they receive from Bridges for Peace and share it with others who have even less.
One of our food distribution points is an organisation that helps street people. A woman on their
programme made aliyah (immigrated to Israel) as a medical doctor from Russia. She had a hard time
adapting to Israeli culture, and in the struggle to feed her family, she made several wrong choices that
caused her and one of her children to get into drugs.
She came for help, and when this organisation gave her one of our food parcels, hope and light came
into her life for the first time in a long time. Sometimes all it takes is a food parcel for someone to
know that God is watching over them. Think of the “cup of cold water” in Matthew 10:42, where
Jesus said - “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is My
disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.” Although we have been making
food deliveries to the north and south of Jerusalem for years, it is time now to set up a more
permanent base in the second highest area of poverty—the North.
But poverty is not the only factor that has stirred us to place an additional focus on the North. It is
the political reality as well. Hizbullah on Israel’s northern border and Iran’s nuclear threat keep
Israel’s military ready for action any day. Wars and
rumours of wars are today a constant topic of conversation
in Israel, where it is commonly expressed that another
major conflict will erupt very soon.
At Bridges for Peace the Lord has impressed us with the
importance of caring for and blessing our Jewish brothers
and sisters. We want to be ready to assist the people in
their time of greatest need. There are many ways to help – for example, recently we painted and
cleaned up a community centre in Karmiel.
But overall our greatest need always remains food. We are grateful for favour granted to us by the
mayor and civic leaders of Karmiel, enabling us to plan the development of an outreach centre that
will be larger than the Jerusalem facility and cost us considerably less.
Romans 15:27 remains for us a pivotal Scripture, where Paul comments on the practical love shown
gladly by believers in Macedonia and Achaia towards the poor among the saints in Jerusalem - For if
the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them
their material blessings.
Sderot (city number 2) is just 2 kilometers from the Gaza Strip
in the south (now an Islamic terrorist mini-state into which
weaponry continues to pour, much of it through some 15 tunnels
from Egypt into Gaza). Unemployment has risen to 14%.
Kassam rockets continue to bombard indiscriminately the
traumatised community, on occasions up to two or three times a
day.
Since 2001, more than 4,500 Kassam rockets have landed in Sderot, killing 11 residents and injuring
dozens more, said Sderot mayor Eli Moyal. Real estate prices have dropped 60 percent, commerce
has collapsed and a recent poll showed that about half of the working class town's residents would
leave if they could. In fact, the Jerusalem Post reported recently that 8,000 of the town’s 23,000
residents have already fled from the city.
A psychologist at a local kindergarten has said that it is a good sign that the children can express
themselves in drawings, building, and random chit-chat about where the Kassam fell yesterday, or
about how loud the explosion was. The kindergarten security guard said that the first words out of
the mouth of her baby cousin were "Shahar Adom" (the Red Dawn alarm code), along with the more
traditional Abba and Ima.
"The anxiety level with the kids is unimaginable," said Tami Sagie, the head of psychological services
in Sderot. "We have a whole generation that was born into the Kassams, children whose first word is
'boom.'" Sagie spoke of teenagers wetting their beds in the middle of the night when rockets hit.
Others regularly sleep with their parents, or find it difficult to concentrate, she said.
Dalia Yosef, head of a project that deals with the Community Protection Services and who works with
children in Sderot aged 2-4, has research data showing that 50% of these children suffer symptoms of
post-traumatic stress disorder which will be with them for many years to come, and that only half of
them have been treated.
Dalia describes stories of teachers - not the children - breaking
down, and not knowing what to do. They are simply not trained and
inexperienced and have no one to supervise them. When the siren
goes off, the teachers have to handle the hysterical children, while
many times, the teachers themselves have children in different
kindergartens and schools, many of which are unprotected. Out of
over 100 kindergartens in the western Negev, in fact, only half are protected.
Questions arise, like how do you deal with four-year-olds who witnessed Fatima Slutsker being blown
to bits, or Maor Peretz losing both his legs? What do you do when the siren goes off and the children
are getting on the bus? Do you run toward the bus, get all the children out, and run back to the
shelter? All in 15 seconds? The daily routine revolves around the Kassam and when and where it's
going to hit.
It's not just the children. Noam Amram, 62, said he has been seeing a therapist since a rocket landed
next to him four months ago. "I still haven't gotten over it. Every noise I hear, I shudder. I can't
sleep. I live in fear," he said.
The residents of Sderot in know full well that they are being used by Hamas as pawns in a deadly
game. You have to understand that it’s a very poor city to begin with, people have to work. There is a
huge problem there with the children. They feel that their kids aren’t protected in the schools – and
certainly not on their way to and from schools. But they have to work and the children are also
scared to stay home alone, afraid to be alone in a rocket attack.
Israeli PM Ehud Olmert knows how badly its operations to try to
get rid of the Kassam launchers will be reported in the Western
media - attacking Gaza in retaliation means walking right into a
trap that Hamas has set, distracting attention from internal
Palestinian strife back to “disproportionate Israeli aggression” –
remember Hizbullah in Lebanon? The western media, who are
relatively uninterested in the Kassam attacks, would give front-page coverage to the Israeli response.
The residents of Sderot (many poor immigrants from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union) are used
to the barrage of rockets as they have fallen on the town for the past six years. During the last week
the missiles have landed more frequently. Sderot is one of twelve Israeli communities that have been
impacted by Christian love and care through our BFP Adopt an Israeli Town Programme.
In each adopted town we develop a relationship with the mayor and the social workers, who help
identify the needs in their town. The news gets out in the community that Christians are helping to
provide for their needs.
It may surprise you to know that many Israelis in these communities have never met a Christian
before. The result? – attitudes to Christians are changing as we share God’s love practically, through
our lives. Our calling at Bridges for Peace is to a ministry of hope and reconciliation expressed
through practical deeds of love and mercy.
The opening words of Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities are: “It was the best of
times, it was the worst of times. . . .” In what for many Israelis is the worst
of times, we are called to bring hope and comfort to these who so often feel
very alone in the world.
And the book’s closing line? It starts with these words: “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I
have ever done.” Our prayer is that all that we do may communicate to our Jewish friends that we
love and care for them unconditionally – because God loves us and calls us to love Him and to love
our neighbour.