Lost in Transit: On the Road to Jakarta

I should have noticed her before, but I didn’t. Perhaps it was because of the unfamiliar surroundings – Abu Dhabi airport. Perhaps it was because there were hundreds of other people of colourful nationalities milling around waiting for flights. A few Europeans, several groups of Muslim pilgrims and a lot of what appeared to be migrant workers on their way to work or home. Perhaps it was because I was tired. It was gone midnight and I had already spent three hours waiting for my second leg flight to Jakarta. The computer enhanced female voice of the flight announcer ensured no one fell asleep.

But there she was. Standing right next to me as I sat down to watch the BBC World Service news. She could only have been 10 years old. She had a far eastern complexion and dark hair. My parental instinct kicked in when I realised she was standing alone and not responding to the airport staff who periodically came up to speak with her.

The men in uniform clearly felt awkward and didn’t want to touch her, so they gently coerced female passengers nearby to speak to her. They urged her to go with them but she would not comply. They spoke in Arabic but she could not or would not reply. They offered her drinks and food. She refused. I spoke to her in English but she would not respond to me either. I felt utterly helpless.

They searched her plastic bag. It contained some clothes and papers but no ID, no passport, no ticket. How could she have become stranded on the secure air side of the airport terminal? Then it dawned on me. Had she been abandoned? Who could do that to a child? What would drive a parent to leave a child in an airport terminal? Then she was gone, although her meagre belongings remained left on the seat.

As I pondered, it became a picture of why I was making the journey of 7278 miles each way to Jakarta in order to give a 25 minute talk. The international conference to be held at the University of Indonesia was commemorating the 60^th anniversary of the Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe) under the title “Freedom and Right of Return” . While Israel celebrates 60 years as a sovereign nation, Palestinians lament 60 years of occupation, exile and denial. Like the young girl in Abu Dhabi airport, Palestinians have been abandoned by the international community. Their lands seized, their olive trees uprooted, their homes demolished, their villages erased from the map, their basic human rights ignored, denied or marginalised. That was whi I was going to give a 25 minute talk about Western complicity in the Nakba, and from a Christian perspective what our responsibility is in the Middle East.

On the second leg from Abu Dhabi to Jakarta, I counted two other Europeans and maybe 300 Indonesians on the flight, returning home from working in the Gulf region or a pilgrimage to Mecca. Half way across India we turned back because of a medical emergency and made an unscheduled landing in Bombay which delayed us for two additional hours. It reminded me of the inconvenience and delay caused to the Samaritan who stopped to help the man who ‘fell among thieves’ on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem.

Eventually arriving in Jakarta, 24 hours after departing London, we were given VIP treatment getting through passport control. And during the conference we were given a police escort for our fleet of vehicles delivering us to and from the university each day.

Participating organisations and NGOs included the Centre for Middle East and Islamic Studies, University of Indonesia; the International Union of NGOs defending Palestinian Rights (Iran); Neturei Karta International - Orthodox Jews who oppose Zionism (USA); the Institute for the Study of Christian Zionism (me); The United Ulama Council (South Africa); the Muslim Brotherhood (Egypt); Bethlehem Bible College (Palestine); Innovative Minds (UK) together with other speakers from Norway, Lebanon, Australia and Switzerland. Members of the Indonesian parliament and various Middle East ambassadors mingled with journalists, reporters, students and faculty from the university.

The conference explored five key elements:

1. The History and Origin of the Conflict over Historic Palestine.
2. The Right of Return: Its Legal and Moral Principles.
3. One or Two State Solution: The Quest for Equality.
4. Referendum by Native Palestinians: Resolving Conflict.
5. The Right of Resistance: Its Moral and Legal Principles

During the conference I was interviewed by The Jakarta Post, Tabloid Jumat and Adnkronos.

On this anniversary of the 60^th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba and of Israel ‘s Independence is it not time to resolve the conflict? If Israel continues to refuse to comply with UN Resolutions, end its military occupation of Palestine and withdraw the illegal settlements and return to the June 1967 borders, and if the international community lacks the political will to impose the Road-Map Two State solution, then we must call for One State for all.

Perhaps it is time to campaign for Palestinian emancipation, for equal rights with Israelis and above all the right to vote. Israel wants to be a democracy, a Zionist State and keep the Occupied Territories. It can have two but not all three. It can be a democracy and Zionist State by withdrawing from Palestine (Two States). It can be a democracy in all the land and give up Zionism (One State). Or it must recognise that it is a Zionist State in all the land but not a democracy (Pariah State).

Will the Palestinians remain like that young girl I met in Abu Dhabi airport, ‘lost in transit’ for another 60 years? That is up to you and me.

My prayer is best expressed in this song by Garth Hewitt.

May the justice of God fall down like fire
and bring a home for the Palestinian.
May the mercy of God pour down like rain
and protect the Jewish people.
And may the beautiful eyes of a Holy God
who weeps for His children
Bring the healing hope for His wounded ones
For the Jew and the Palestinian.