*from Bill Ury -
*
November 15, 2006
Dear Friends,
As I fly home from Jerusalem, I am happy to report to you that
the first Abraham Path Study Tour has successfully completed its
mission. Twelve days ago, my colleagues and I, over twenty of us
from ten countries, began our journey in Urfa in southeastern
Turkey, the place where many believe Abraham was born in a cave.
We travelled by bus from Turkey to Syria, Jordan, Palestine and
Israel, retracing the footsteps of Abraham. The day before
yesterday, after passing by Jericho and Jerusalem, we reached
the West Bank city of Hebron/Al-Khalil, where Abraham is buried
in the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Our journey began in a sacred
cave and ended in another, goi ng from womb to tomb, so to
speak. On a personal note, after years of dreaming of this
Abrahamic journey, I am feeling grateful, enriched, moved, and
humbled
The purpose of our Abraham Path Initiative, as you may remember,
is to study the possibility of creating – or rather recreating –
an historical route, a path for travellers and pilgrims, that
might last for generations. On this trip, we have sought to
deepen our understanding of the obstacles, which are very real
and not to be underestimated. Conflict and violence in the
region, multiple international boundaries, worldwide perceptions
of insecurity deterring visitors, volatile political situations,
stretches of inhospitable desert, lack of infrastructure for
tourism in the countryside – these are just a few of the
principal obstacles we have encountered.
However great the obstacles may appear to be, the potential we
have discovered in our study is even greater. The Path can serve
as a catalyst fo r mutual understanding across cultures and
religions, including sister city exchanges, fostering an
alliance of civilizations. It can serve as a magnet for tourism,
service projects, and economic development. And it can become a
focus for books, newspaper articles, and films that highlight
the rich heritage of this region and the deep hospitality of its
peoples.
On our trip, we had a chance to consult with a wide range of
leaders from deputy prime ministers to ministers of tourism,
governors, mayors and parliamentarians, to university presidents
and scholars to muftis, patriarchs, imams, bishops and rabbis to
business leaders and of course the heads of many NGOs. From our
consultations with national leaders at the highest levels and
local leaders, governmental and nongovernmental, we emerge, if
anything, more hopeful about the long-term benefits such a Path
could engender and the local and national support it could enjoy.
We experienced first hand the story of Abraham, who is present
not only in places where his memory has been revered for
centuries, but also alive, as we found, in the hearts of
ordinary people. In the village that lies astride the ancient
Mesopotamian ruins of Harran, where Abraham heard the call to go
forth, the mayor and it seems almost the half the town is called
Ibrahim. People invoke his name in daily life and in daily
prayers. He is a companion and friend, a symbol of hospitality
and faith. I remember in particular one visit we made to a cave
associated with Abraham that is inside a private house in a poor
neighborhood. The site is tended by an elderly widow, the owner
of the house, an animated soul with a bright smile who charges
nothing for the visit. “If you want to bring a rug to add for
the floor, that would be good,” she beams as she talks
delightedly about Abraham and sings his praise as an intimate
friend of God.
We also came to appreciate more deeply how travelling the Path
is not just about the stories of old, but about the tragic
present-day conflicts among the children of Abraham. In Syria,
where we met hospitality and welcome as tourists, we were
requested not to have meetings to discuss our project because of
the delicate present political situation in the aftermath of
last summer’s war in Lebanon. In Jordan, our conference was held
in a hotel ballroom which, as we were reminded by our hosts
during the meeting, was the very same room where almost exactly
a year earlier, forty innocent people at a wedding were killed
by a suicide bomb. In Bethlehem, the deputy mayor took me aside
to tell me how three years ago, he and his family were driving
and tragically caught in a crossfire and his twelve year old
daughter was killed and he himself was wounded. “But I forgive.
I am for peace. I support this Abraham Path Initiative.”
Everywhere we met hospitality – the hospitality of Abraham –
courtesy and warmth from people and invitations to pe ople’s
homes. Nowhere did we appear to be unsafe, whatever our prior
fears and concerns had been. All the countries along the way are
eager to receive more tourists, seeing tourism as a vital
foundation for their economies. In Palestine, the number of
tourists has greatly decreased since the intifada began in 2000,
and is just beginning to recover a little. Where once there were
long lines to visit the birthplace of Jesus, now there are
virtually no lines at all. One story comes to mind. At the
destination site of Abraham’s tomb in Hebron/Al-Khalil, our
group, as a symbolic gesture, placed at the foot of an olive
tree a sprinkling of soil that we had collected from Harran and
all the places we had visited retracing Abraham’s footsteps. A
local man stood there watching us and asked, “What are you
putting near my tree?” After we apologized and explained what
the earth was, the man was touched and vowed that he would tend
that soil for years to come. “But please don’t just brin g
earth,” he said. “Bring people.”
And that is our aim and hope — to bring people. It is to serve
both hosts and guests, enabling each to learn about the other
and allowing both to benefit enormously, as we did on our
journey. What the Abraham Path has going for it are some of the
most extraordinary and revered sites in the world from the
Ummayad Mosque in Damascus to the Holy Places in Jerusalem to
the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The Path serves like a
golden necklace on which are strung rare jewels of astonishing
beauty and power. Add to this the intense global interest in
these lands – whether because they are a cradle of civilization,
the sites of the stories of the Bible and the Koran, or the
stage for the wrenching present-day conflicts of the children of
Abraham. Not least of course is the compelling and deeply
meaningful story of Abraham, known to three billion followers of
Islam, Christianity, and Judaism – fully half of humanity.
In a fundamental sense, we are not creating the Abraham Path,
for it already exists. We are merely connecting the dots and
dusting off the footsteps. And the travelers are beginning to
come. Around the world we have discovered in the last three
years of our study process, there is enormous interest among
people, particularly the young, in coming to walk and visit the
Path. We share the strong sense that our study tour is just the
leading edge of a coming wave – and it may arrive sooner than we
imagine.
Those of us who are working on the Path have come to understand
the virtues of flexibility, patience, a step-by-step approach,
and a consultative approach. We have a deep commitment to
rooting the Path in the local communities through which it
passes. We acknowledge that, while those of us from outside the
region can study and connect and serve, the real leadership and
organization of the Path will come from those who are its hosts
in the region. While holding the large r vision, we will seek
the strategic opportunities for moving it forward that exist at
any particular time.
One of our purposes on the trip was to discern the next steps in
the development of the Path. We received a great many
suggestions from our hosts: a dedicated week to celebrate
Abraham in Urfa and Harran, including a walk by youth between
the two cities, a proposal to open the first way-marked
multi-day segment of the Abraham Path in Jordan, a walk with
youth from around the world including Israelis and Palestinians
from Jerusalem to Hebron/Al-Khalil. We are studying the
possibility of having these walks all take place within the same
two week period in the fall with a global delegation moving from
walk to walk along the Path. At the same time, people from
around the world could join in Abraham walks in their own
communities. The walks could be accompanied by such events as
interfaith dialogues, music concerts, academic symposia, and
tourism trade fairs.
One step at a time, the Path is being created. We have already
begun mapping the Path on the ground and begun to create the
beginnings of a guidebook. As our working motto goes, “less
talk, more walk.”
Developing the Path will require a lot of work; we are still in
the very beginning. We invite your involvement and support in
walking the Path with us, literally and metaphorically, in your
communities and in the Middle East. If you have any questions or
offerings, please contact my colleagues Josh Weiss at
josh@abrahampath.org or Martha Gilliland at martha@abrahampath.org.
One thing is certain: this initial journey along the Abraham
Path was life-changing, an adventure of the body, mind, and
spirit for everyone who was on it. And it marked a definite step
forward for our common dream. No longer can skeptics easily say,
“You can’t go from Harran to Hebron.” Because we have – and
countless others, including many of you, we hope, will do the
same in the years to come. As one of our hosts announced on our
last day in Jerusalem, “with this first study tour, the baby is
born.”
My colleagues and I are deeply grateful for your ongoing support.
With respect,
William Ury