From Milwaukee to Bethlehem: A woman's courage amid Gaza crisis
"I think it’s important that someone is telling the story to my community,” a graduate of Whitefish Bay High School said
"I think it’s important that someone is telling the story to my community,” a graduate of Whitefish Bay High School said
"I think it’s important that someone is telling the story to my community,” a graduate of Whitefish Bay High School said
From Milwaukee to Bethlehem: A woman's courage amidst Gaza crisis
As of Dec. 8, 2023, the latest numbers show 17,487 people killed in Gaza and 1,147 killed in Israel.
But in that dangerous part of the world, some 6,000 miles from Milwaukee, a local woman who works near Bethlehem, has decided to stay.
For the last two years, Maddi Froiland has immersed herself in the culture and the people of the Holy Land.
“They are my best friends, and I love them,” Froiland told 12 News Joyce Garbaciak over Zoom.
Froiland, a graduate of Whitefish Bay High School, now lives and works between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, doing communications for the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
And while war has raged in Gaza about 40 miles away, the 26-year-old has decided to stay.
“People would understand if you wanted to leave that area,” Garbaciak said. “It’s an incredibly volatile part of the world. Why are you deciding to stay?”
“If I felt like my life were in danger, I would definitely leave,” Froiland said. “But I think it’s important that someone is telling the story to my community.”
The story of her Palestinian friends, who she says are rounded up by Israeli soldiers.
“Daily raids on the refugee camp in Bethlehem, where they just usually take up to 20 men to the prison without cause, without conviction, without anything like that,” she said.
The story of fear.
“It’s not really a fear for my own life,” Froiland said. “More of a fear of what could happen in front of me.”
And the story of an area trying to recover financially.
“Everyone is feeling the economic impact,” Froiland said. “Especially Bethlehem, but also Jerusalem really relies on tourism economically, and there are absolutely no tourists here.”
When Hamas attacked Israel Oct. 7, Froiland learned about it on social media.
“Things I’d never seen before and I didn’t understand at all,” she said. “Nobody expected this. It was insane how fast it happened.”
And the trauma compounds.
“Every day waking up to video worse than the last,” Froiland said. “Just disbelief about the horrors and the mass amount of death that I can’t even comprehend anymore.”
And now her memories of Christmas in the Holy Land will change too.
She said a bagpipe parade is traditionally part of Christmas festivities.
But this Christmas Eve, the participants will march without music. Froiland said there will be a display grieving the loss of life and calling for a ceasefire.
“I think it will be very powerful,” Froiland said. “Because it’ll be Christmas in Bethlehem and everyone around the world is celebrating that very city and look at what the people in that city – what they’re crying for the world to hear.”
Froiland plans to be in that part of the world until next summer. She will then leave to begin graduate school.
She encourages people to contact their Congressional representatives and push for a ceasefire.