Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

Itinerary

Subject to Change. PDF copy available for download here .

Wednesday 12/28 – Depart Chicago at 6:00pm

Thursday 12/29- Arrive Ben Guiron Airport, Tel Aviv at 4:10pm
Transfer to Nazareth and overnight at St. Margaret’s Guest House (through Sunday pm.)
7:00- Evening meal
7:30- Welcome and Introduction to Program.

Friday, 12/30 - Nazareth/Haifa
Breakfast - 6:30 or 7:00 each day; departure from the guest house 1 hour later.
Meetings with Archbishop Elias Chacour, and Maha El-Taji of the Compassionate Listening Project in Haifa  
Tour Nazareth, Church of Annunciation & Mary’s Well Old City (Synagogue)
Dinner will be at 7 each evening; devotional and group process immediately after.

Saturday, 12/31- Nazareth/Jish/Biram
Meetings with the Arab Association for Human Rights and International Christian Committee in Israel
Tour the destroyed Palestinian villages of Jish & Biram

Sunday, 1/1 - Sea of Galilee
Tour the Mount of Beatitudes, Tabgha, and Capernaum, take a boat across the Sea of Galilee, Jordan River
Free Time (If possible visit Druze of the Golan)

Monday, 1/2 – Coastal Plains /Bethlehem
Visit Sindyanna of Galilee - Women’s Fair Trade Project
Tour Cesarea Maritima, Jaffa and some of Bethlehem   
Overnight in Bethlehem for remainder of trip.                             

Tuesday, 1/3 - Jerusalem
Tour Mount of Olives / Gethsemane, the Via Dolorosa / Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Facts on the Ground Tour led by Israeli Committee Against House Demolition; Meeting with Musalaha Ministry of Reconciliation

Wednesday, 1/4 –Jerusalem
Tour the Wailing Wall / Al Aqsa Mosque & Dome of the Rock.
Meetings with B’tselem  or Allegra Pacheco, OCHA; Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center

Thursday, 1/5- Hebron
Meetings with the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee / Christian Peacemakers Team and tour the Ibrahim Mosque
Lecture and discussion with Munther Isaac on Theology of the Land
Meeting with a resident of an Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territory
Tour Deheishe Refugee Camp

Friday, 1/6- Bethlehem
Celebrate Orthodox Christmas in Bethlehem

Saturday, 1/7 - Bethlehem
Meetings with Rev. Mitri Raheb and UM Liaison Janet Lahr-Lewis at International Center of Bethlehem; Fr. Jamal Khader (Kairos Document Palestine); and Holy Land Trust
Tour Church of Nativity, Shepherds’ Fields

Sunday, 1/8- Free Time in Jerusalem or Bethlehem
Bus will leave Bethlehem at 8 am.  Those wishing to go to Jerusalem will visit the Armenian Quarter, St. Mark Church, St. Peter in Galicantu, Mount Zion (Dormition) and spend free time in Jerusalem
Those who stay in Bethlehem will spend the day with local Christian families.

Monday, 1/9- Ramallah
Meetings with Journalist Amira Hass, Palestinian Christian Activist Jean Zaru; and Defense for Children International or back to Jerusalem for meeting with Breaking the Silence

Tuesday, 1/10- Return to US
7:00am- Leave hotel for departure
Arrive Chicago - 8:39pm

Trip Information

Flyer

Please share this flyer (click the word 'Flyer' above) with your church, friends, supporters, and any other interested persons. This is trip is not exclusively for Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary students. We welcome students from any of the Association of Chicago Theological Schools and anyone (student, clergy, laity, etc.) who may be interested in joining us.

Cost

Important Dates

• September 23, 2011
  • Payment #1 Due - $500
  • Emergency Contact Info, International Travel Release, Registration Form, and Copy of Passport Photo Page Due
• October 5, 2011
  • Pre-Trip Meeting 11:45am-12:45pm
• November 10, 2011
  • Payment #2 Due - $1000
• December 7, 2011
  • Pre-Trip Meeting 11:45am-12:45pm
• December 10, 2011
  • Payment #3 Due - $1200
• December 28, 2011 - January 10, 2012
  • Trip Dates

Forms

Click the links below to download the necessary forms for the trip. Forms need to be printed, filled out, and returned to Rhonda McCarty in person or by mail at: Rhonda McCarty, 2207 Maple Avenue, Apt. BSMT, Evanston, IL  60201

• Emergency Contact Info
• International Travel Release
• Registration Form

Course Credit

This trip is open to students from Garrett-Evangelical or any of the Association of Chicago Theological Schools (ACTS) for course credit. Garrett-Evangelical students have the option of taking it as a three credit hour course, which will also fulfill their cross-cultural experience requirement, OR they can take for one credit hour to fulfill their cross-cultural experience requirement.

If you have any questions, you can contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information.

Course Credit

Students desiring to earn three elective credit hours for the trip must register for the course. Garrett-Evangelical students can do this through their myGETS account. Students from one of the ACTS schools should contact their registrar on the procedure for cross-registration.

Students who register for the course should be aware that the cost of the trip does not include the cost of tuition and books for the course. 

The course syllabus is available here.

Cross-Cultural Experience

Garrett-Evangelical students desiring to use the trip to fulfill their cross-cultural experience requirement ONLY, do not need register for the course. However, students will need to fill out the necessary forms for the cross-cultural experience requirement. These students will also be required to complete a 15 page paper. The course syllabus is designed for students who are taking the course for the three-hour course elective academic credit but it does include information on the required paper for the cross-cultural requirement. 

Learn More

For those who are particpating in the trip, and for those who simply want to learn more, below is a list of recommended readings and descriptions of the people and organizations we will be visiting in Israel and Palestine.

Recommended Reading (To Top)

People (To Top)

Elias Chacour

Archbishop Elias Chacour is well-known to many American United Methodists who have partnered with him to support the school he founded in Ibillin, Israel. Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary was honored to have him as the Commencement speaker in 2008.  He is also the author of two popular “gateway” books into the perspectives of Palestinian Christians:  Blood Brothers and We Belong to the Land. Today, he spends much of his time sharing his story abroad, raising awareness of the geo-political history that has profoundly shaped his life.

Elias Chacour was born November 29, 1939 in the village of Biram in Upper Galilee in Arab Palestine to a Palestinian Christian family, members of the Melkite Catholic Church, an Eastern Byzantine Church now in communion with Rome.

At the age of eight, his entire village was evicted by the Israeli authorities. He and his family became refugees in his their own land. Like other such refugees who were able to remain in what later became Israel, he was granted citizenship by the new country, but not with equal rights to Jewish citizens.

Chacour settled in Ibillin as a young priest in 1965. Aware of the limited educational opportunities for Palestinian children living within Israel, he began to shape a vision of a school for all the children of Israel. The school was begun in the early 1980s and has steadily grown ever since.

Chacour has received many International peace awards, including the World Methodist Peace Award in 1994, and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on three occasions.

Maha El-Taji

Maha El-Taji is a Palestinian-American residing in Haifa, Israel. She is a certified Compassionate Listening facilitator and in 2004, co-led the Israel-Palestine Compassionate Listening delegations with CL founder, Leah Green. Maha is a lawyer with a Masters in International Human Rights Law and a PhD in Near and Middle Eastern Studies.

UM Liaison Janet Lahr-Lewis

Janet Lahr Lewis is a missionary with the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church serving in the Middle East as liaison between ecumenical groups, Israel and Palestine.

Focusing on advocacy and activism, Janet's responsibilities are numerous, including serving as a primary contact for VIM teams and United Methodist visitors, circulating updates about developments in the ongoing crisis, and suggesting courses of action, particularly for Ums seeking to follow General Conference Resolutions on Israel and Palestine. She educates visitors about the realities of the situation, organizes conferences, develops media campaigns, offers worship opportunities, hosts delegations to the area and oversees other special events.

Jean Zaru

Jean Zaru is a Palestinian Quaker who was a founding member of Sabeel, the ecumenical Palestinian Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem.  Ms. Zaru was instrumental in the establishment of the Friends International Center in Ramallah, where she has been a leader in the Palestinian Quaker community and a pioneer for women’s equality.

She is author of two books: A Christian Palestinian Life: Faith and Struggle and Structural Violence: Truth and Peace-Keeping in the Palestinian Experience. Zaru also served on the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and on the Working Group in Interfaith Dialogue of the WCC. In addition, she has been a member of the International Council of the World Conference for Religion and Peace. She served as president of the Board of Directors of the Jerusalem YWCA, member of national board of YWCA Jordan and YWCA Palestine, and was vice president of the World YWCA. She is a volunteer consultant for the Middle East Council of Churches, especially on the topic of Islam and human rights, as well as other church organizations.

Amira Hass

Since 2000, Amira Hass has been the only Jewish Israeli reporter living in Occupied Palestine - formerly in Gaza City, and now based out of Ramallah. She is a correspondent for the Israeli daily Ha'aretz. Hass has written two books, Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land under Siege and Reporting from Ramallah: An Israeli Journalist in an Occupied Land. Hass was the recipient of the World Press Freedom Hero award from the International Press Institute in 2000, the Bruno Kreisky Human Rights Award in 2002, the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in 2003, the inaugural award from the Anna Lindh Memorial Fund in 2004 and Hrant Dink Memorial Award in 2009.

Organizations (To Top)

The Compassionate Listening Project

 The Compassionate Listening Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching skills used to heal polarization, cultivate healthy relationships, and build bridges between people, communities and nations in conflict. At the heart of the Compassionate Listening Project is the belief that the capacity to listen to ‘the other’ is a foundational skill to create and sustain healthy relationships, resolve conflict, and to help usher in a world where the loving essence of every human being can thrive.

 International Christian Committee in Israel

The International Christian Committee in Israel (ICCI) was established in 1950 by Christians and humanitarian organizations in the West to meet a responsibility felt by its members towards the Palestinian people after the tragedy faced by them, especially of the refugees after 1948. The ICCI supports land reclamation, the opening of roads to agricultural land, irrigation projects, and the construction of water and sewage systems in order to strengthen the networks and capacity of partners who cooperate with the ICCI in developing each village. In addition, The ICCI also works with women by helping to raise women’s consciousness to their position and rights in society, and by encouraging women to take an active role in local and national, political and social activities and responsibilities.

Defense for Children International

Defense for Children International (DCI) is an independent non-governmental organization that has been promoting and protecting children’s rights on a global, regional, national and local level for 30 years. The DCI movement was founded in 1979, the International Year of the Child, at a time when few international structures were dedicated to a rights-based approach in addressing the many challenges facing the world’s children. DCI has been at the forefront in the drafting process and international lobby for the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and its work continues to be embedded in these fundamental principles. At the global level, the DCI movement is united in its commitment to working for children’s rights in juvenile justice. DCI works to protect, defend and advocate for the rights of children and young people in conflict with the law.  Within Palestine, this often entails working with Palestinian children who have been arrested by Israeli authorities, during and after their incarceration.

Sindyanna

Established in 1996, Sindyanna of Galilee is a non-profit organization led by women striving for social change by helping Arab growers and producers in Northern Israel and from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Their work is based on the belief that a solution to the Middle East conflict begins with creating real economic opportunities. In addition to their support for the olive industry, Sindyanna empowers women by combining their commercial activity with work in the community. Their focus is on values such as land preservation, environmental considerations, and commerce according to the principles of fair trade.

Israeli Committee Against House Demolition

ICAHD is a non-violent, direct-action organization established in 1997 to resist Israeli demolition of Palestinian houses in the Occupied Territories. Founder and director, Jeff Halper, is an American-Israeli Anthropologist, carefully under-girds the work of the organization with research with poignant analysis of the “facts on the ground.”  His articles make this seemingly complex problem understandable.  Maps that show how the settlement project has been a carefully orchestrated “matrix of control” make it clear why this organization has felt the need to expand their original vision to include resistance against – land expropriation, settlement expansion, by-pass road construction, policies of “closure” and “separation,” the wholesale uprooting of fruit and olive trees, the Separation Barrier/Wall, the siege of Gaza and more.

ICAHD works closely with both the Israeli peace camp and their Palestinian partners, as well as with dozens of civil society organizations world-wide in three interrelated spheres: resistance and protest actions in the Occupied Territories; efforts to bring the reality of the Occupation to Israeli society; and mobilizing the international community for a just peace.

Musalaha Ministry of Reconciliation

Musalaha is a non-profit organization that seeks to promote a Christian model of reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians rooted in the life and teaching of Jesus. It endeavors to encourage reconciliation, first among Palestinian and Israeli believers and then beyond to their respective communities. Musalaha also facilitates bridge building among different segments of Israeli and Palestinian societies according to biblical reconciliation principles.

Holy Land Trust

Holy Land Trust (HLT) is a not-for-profit organization established in Bethlehem in 1998. HLT seeks to empower the community through mobilizing its strengths and resources in order to address the challenges of the present and create real opportunities for the future.

Through a commitment to the principles of nonviolence, the Holy Land Trust seeks to strengthen and empower the Palestinian community in developing spiritual, pragmatic and strategic approaches that will allow it to resist all forms of oppression and build a future that makes the Holy Land a global model and pillar of understanding, respect, justice, equality and peaceful coexistence.

Director Sami Awad is active in spreading this vision by speaking both locally and abroad.  Hopefully the group will get to meet with Sami personally.  In the meantime, his understanding of the situation – its root causes and possible solutions - like that of others listed here is easily accessible by internet, including several youtube videos.

Breaking the Silence

Breaking the Silence is an organization of veteran combatants who have served in the Israeli military since the start of the Second Intifada (2000) and have taken it upon themselves to expose the Israeli public to the reality of everyday life in the Occupied Territories. It endeavors to stimulate public debate about the price paid for a reality in which young soldiers face a civilian population on a daily basis, and are engaged in the control of that population’s everyday life.

Bat Shalom/Jerusalem Center for Women

In 1989, a meeting was convened in Brussels between prominent Israeli and Palestinian women peace activists. The meeting initiated an on-going dialogue that in 1994 resulted in the establishment of The Jerusalem Link comprising two women's organizations—Bat Shalom on the Israeli side, and the Jerusalem Center for Women on the Palestinian side. The two organizations share a set of political principles, which serve as the foundation for a cooperative model of co-existence between our respective peoples.

Bat Shalom is an Israeli national feminist grassroots organization of Jewish and Palestinian Israeli women working together for a genuine peace grounded in a just resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict, respect for human rights, and an equal voice for Jewish and Arab women within Israeli society.

(To Top)

Support

There are a number of ways to support our students on this trip. First, your thoughts and prayers in the time leading up to, during, and after the trip. Second, you can also financially support our students. It is our hope that no one who is desiring to go on the trip will be prevented from coming due to financial constraints. If you are able to provide financial support, we ask that you click the button below and restrict the gift for the 2011-2012 Israel/Palestine Trip. All gifts will go directly towards off-setting the cost of the trip for Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary students.