Have You Been There? –B. Plitt Now have you been there, have you really, been there? Have you crossed the Allenby Bridge by day to Jordan When such passage through the terminal seems endless in time, Where your success depends on the whim of a youth Who knows you not by name.

Have You Been There? –B. Plitt Have you seen the city of Jericho, who walls came tumblin’ down? Been replaced by the new one made of wire and steel So as not to threaten the ones who farm their lands beyond? Have you driven up from the Dead Sea, Passed the shanties of the Bedouin who flee Not because they are reckless and feckless But because they simply are not free?

Have You Been There? –B. Plitt Have you passed the new Settlements that form new walls to the East, Of the City that once was the home of the Holy Three? Have you passed through the gates of that City Whose babe was born long, long ago? And is now a place surrounded that even the wise men can’t go. Have you experienced the check points that are meant to secure, But instead separate one’s trees, one’s work and family?

Have You Been There? –B. Plitt Have you traveled up from Ben Gurion, on up to Galilee, Raced down passed the city of Jericho, across to Jerusalem – Tel Aviv, Without even a trace of the secrets held within Nearly four hundred miles of concrete paid by you, and my kin? Have you slept in the cave of the shepherds, pulled olives from their trees? And tried to take them to markets, Lined with walls as far as the eye can see? Have you been there? Have you really seen?

Have You Been There? –B. Plitt Have you been to the old city of Hebron, that has endured death and desolation, Walked down its old streets, passed the market shops Now shuttered below from their clients, and stormed from above. By the garbage and epithets of their new owners”, who treat them as trash? Have you been to the temple of worship where the bodies of the patriarchs abide? And reflect on the three great religions Whose path are more closely aligned than imagined? Have you been there?

Have You Been There? –B. Plitt Have you stayed with the families in Beit Sahour, Whose Christian heritage is fading? Not only because they’re sealed off from their roots In the villages that were long ago invaded, Because they can’t make a living, they and their families must go. Have you walked the camps around Bethlehem? Whose numbers near 20,000 or so, and whose children wander the alleys Shooting cap guns and throwing stones to and fro, Fighting an enemy they have seen take way their fathers and brothers and so?

Have You Been There? –B. Plitt Have you gone to the gates of Gaza - Rafa, Eretz to name just a few? Where inhabitants live like prisoners surrounded on all sides and from view? Where the glass windows of the crossing at Eretz appear As some mall we might see in the land of the free, Deny the tales within. But the truth lies for those to hear, with over a million and a half humans, Trapped by the fence that denies them their sense of dignity, Like shooting fish in a barrel, vulnerable, exposed without liberty. Have you seen the hungry children there, The men unemployed and depressed, Because they have no meaning, no life, And so they have much stress.

Have You Been There? –B. Plitt Have you been to Metzer-Miser a Kibbutz and village, Jew and Arab too Who co-existed for 50 years or more with lots of things to do? Have you seen two peoples who refused to be enemies Through times of good and sorrow; Or when the water that had been transported traveled beneath the wall and back, To restore the situation that both desired and lacked? Have you seen the fence be melted by a will sustained this day That has overcome grief, fear, the horrors that such an occupation lays? Have you been there? Have you seen?

Have You Been There? –B. Plitt So take a trip and see for yourself, Rely not only on our media, lobby or me. Travel with those who know, or maybe the INFPB? While we hope new leadership and experience will stimulate peace with justice, We can not afford to sit and watch, Another day that lies wasted, eight thousand miles away. Until the promise to respect their captors they have little of life left. A State that denies so much, must really have alternative motives For which they feel is their destiny. The captors have lost their souls it seems Who can blame those within for their rockets, When a generation of children, have nothing To dream, strive and to reach and in their future to see. So take a trip and see for yourself…

Have You Been There? –B. Plitt Have you been there? Have you really seen?

Have You Been There? –B. Plitt Pray for a Just Peace