Shalom

A vignette from my day at the kindergarten today...

I emerged from the office and one of the little boys immediately bounded over to me, bursting with energy, and said as sweetly as could be, "Shalom!"

"Shalom?" I replied inquisitively, not quite sure why my little Palestinian friend was blurting out a Hebrew greeting.

"Shalom! Shalom!" he repeated as he lifted up a small piece of Play-Doh rolled like a snake and, pointing it at my face, made the sound of a gun.

Pretty soon, several of the kids were walking around the room holding Play-Doh guns and chirping "Shalom!"
I don't think the story needs much additional commentary, but I think it speaks profoundly to the experience of a young Palestinian boy who has grown up associating soldiers with checkpoints and big guns. A boy whose parents have grown up knowing only the Israeli occupation, but whose grandparents probably remember where they were during the 1948 war - the 1967 war - the 1973 war - both intifadas - well, you get the picture. In the US, we worry about kids getting too much violence from TV and video games. In Palestine, there is simply no way to avoid the fact that your child has grown up seeing soldiers patrol his holy sites, seeing bulldozers demolish homes in his neighborhood, seeing soldiers harass his grandma at a checkpoint.

And so my precious little kindergarteners said sweetly the blessing of peace - "shalom" - while raising their small Play-Doh guns, mimicking that which they understand to be true about the world they live in.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel. Please pray for peace.