While I’m very grateful for the experiences of the last couple of weeks, I certainly don’t think I’ve suddenly become an expert on Palestine or the Middle East. In any case, as Sami El Yousef said to us in his briefing on Gaza (and this senior Catholic aid and development worker is referred to constantly as “the expert on Gaza”), “There are no experts. We are surprised every day.” (He did not mean “surprised” in a nice way.)

But although while I’m still mostly baffled and troubled by the situation in Israel and Palestine, I’ve been listening as carefully as I can to what our sisters and brothers in the Palestinian Christian community have been saying to us – about their social and political situation, and especially about their experience of participating in the mission of God in their very conflicted region. Listening, and thinking about what they are teaching…