Pilgrims and Student Ambassadors

The following is an article written by a guest who visited Bethlehem University on 16 May 2006 together with a group of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher – Western Lieutenancy:

Not every Pilgrim returning from the Holy Land can boast about dining with Knights, Ladies, and Palestinians. At least not in 2006. Just this past May, members and guests of the ancient Order of the Holy Sepulcher were invited to Bethlehem University ’s Hotel Management Restaurant for a Luncheon honoring them as Patrons and Benefactors. (I fall into the ‘guest’ category.) A Student Ambassador of that Christian/Muslim University joined each table.

With unabashed confidence, Christian Palestinian Tala Karkar approached our table. She has a quick-draw charm, and a rapid style of speaking that undoubtedly was honed by CNN International. Tala, the English Major, set a pace that drew us across our plates in order to hear faster!

Her rhetoric was superb: could anyone imagine living in a city that is surrounded by a thirty-foot concrete wall, in a country that has been occupied longer than the University has existed? Tala wasn’t the first Palestinian who said it was easier for us to come half way around the world and go to Jerusalem than it was for her to travel those few miles. Like most of her classmates, she didn’t go home for visits or week ends for fear of being unable to return to the University for months, or even years. There were more stories; war stories, nostalgia and idealism, yet her tempo remained the same. Never louder, nor softer, her exuberant monotone was flawless.

She was asked what she would like to tell the West about the Palestinian people. Her reply could have been her dissertation. A scrap of envelope was handed to her so that her quote could scale a wall and travel half way around the world.

“We are the future generation of Palestine . We have hope, faith in God and we will keep on struggling for our future, our identity. Our education degrees are our weapon[s].”

July 20 th, an E-mail from Tala: “Did you give them my message yet?”

M.T. Crane

Los Angeles

July 2006