West Bank

A friend of mine pointed out on his Facebook page that 45.9 percent of Americans blame Muslims for the Christian immigration out of the Holy Land, while only 7.4 percent of Americans cite Israeli restrictions as contributing to Arab Christian immigration.

We have seen the collapse of Mubarak in Egypt and the regime in Tunisia. Turmoil continues in Libya and elsewhere.

For nearly six years, the Palestinian residents of the West Bank village of Bil'in have held a weekly nonviolent demonstration against the separation wall -- a barrier cutting through large portions of

Two years ago, as I listened to the escalating rhetoric of hate in the international media, I became haunted by the thought that Christians, Muslims, and Jews are going to blow up the world.

For many years, Palestinians have engaged in nonviolent actions aimed at resisting the Israeli military occupation and its violent and humiliating policies aimed at suppressing the will of the Palestinians in seeking to achieve their legitimate aspirations.

Last weekend I was at a family reunion where I had been invited to show pictures from my sabbatical in the Middle East last spring.

From the window of my hotel room in Bethlehem, I could see the "security" wall that separates the West Bank from the rest of Israel.