[NOTE: CPT is still seeking clusters of North American families and
organizations who will partner with Palestinian families facing home
demolition. Participants will seek their congregations' endorsement as they
advocate on behalf of these families. Please contact the CPT Chicago office
at the below address or phone number if you are interested in participating.]

In Palestine, to destroy a home is to strike at the physical heart of a
family, the supports and mortar which hold it together and make possible its
bond with future generations.

To rebuild is to reverse this process, to resist the destabilizing and
disintegrating forces ofwhich the bulldozer is only the immediate tool.
Bulldozers hammer at stones and cinder blocks, but the threat is to the
infrastructure of a social order founded on family cohesiveness.

This Christmas season, as we remembered the Bethlehem shepherds welcoming a
marvelous new birth, we were privileged to help modern shepherds rebuild cave
homes destroyed in November and still endangered by encroaching settlements
and military zones. For a few hours on each occasion we felt part of an
extended family as we shared
both labor and bread. We hope to include a larger community of
Israelis and internationals in this project.

Other friends, burdened by a demolition order-- forbidden to
"improve" their property by the simple addition of the missing
bathroom and kitchen-- overcame depressing fear and anxiety to take matters
literally into their own hands, laying block upon block. Family bonds
strengthened as we filled cracks with mortar and watched the walls grow.
Small children, for whom the sound of a soldier is terror in the night, who
had once cried at the approach of a stranger, now began to smile and to
reach out hands to offer a cookie.

In a positive act of resistance, in a determination to live their
human dignity, these families are growing in hope and offering us all a way
to meet oppression and walk through fear. They cannot do it alone, nor can
we. Their hospitality to strangers must teach us to reach out and build
together until the least of us can feel secure and "at home."