As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. (Luc 17, 12 to 14).
One of the pictures in the church
Yesterday we were in the church that is build where these people were living. Situated close to the city of Jenin it is a little bit outside the ordinary routine for tourists and pilgrims in this country.
It is Ismael that took is there. We come to Jenin in order to visit him, not forgotten tourist attractions. He lives in the renovated part of the refugee camp. The part which was bombed in 2002. In spite of this the bullet marks are already there on the buildings; Israeli soldiers are doing raids here during the night several times a week. Ismael tells that a boy called Mohammed was shoot in the stomach by a soldier the previous day.
Mohammed survived. Ahmed, Mohammed’s friend and Ismale’s son, didn’t when he was shoot two years ago. He was targeted and shoot by a soldier from 130 meters while playing with a tool gun. The family choose a different way after he was killed. One of Ismael’s brothers was sick and needed organs. They decided to donate Ahmed’s organs to people in need. After this Ismael has been a peace activist and traveled around to do speeches and he has build up a peace centre in Jenin.
The Khatib family
On the tomb it is written: “I am Ahmed from Jenin. I was killed while playing.”
In the following Ismael has maintained the contact with those getting organs from Ahmed’s body. Among them there are four Israelis. They are of course thankful and their parents have promised to try to convince them to refuse to join the army. Ismael hopes that these and other children shall contribute to build bridges between the people in the area.
Not everyone appreciates the speeches Ismael does. One month ago he was in Israel to talk. After this he reckon that he has been but on the black list of the military and he is not allowed into Israel any more. For security reasons. This also means that he will face problems on check points situated within the West Bank. He tells that he will walk in the terrain in order to bypass the check points if he wants to go to the neighbor city Nablus.
A German TV team has followed the family for a while now. The title of the movie they are making is “Heart from Jenin”. Probably recommendable when it comes.
Manna 
