News, articles and documents from
the Holy Land
Issue No. 130 - Saturday, 2 February 2002
Dear Friends, Brothers and
Sisters,
Time
is running and the sufferings of the Land and is peoples are growing after day.
I feel that this is a waste of time, waste of energy, waste of human lives,
waste of opportunities, waste of everything good in our lives. Enough is
enough. I am sorry to bother you with these black thoughts, but it comes out of
my heart because I don’t see any way out of this cycle of violence since there
is no vision or hope of a nearby possible solution and amelioration in this
bloody situation. Everybody is tired, both sides are tired. Everybody wants
peace and both sides want need peace and there is no peace. Therefore, I see
that a real and serious intervention of the international community should be
very fast and efficient in order to help both sides to end violence and go back
to the table of negotiation.
Therefore,
I see that the last statements of Archbishop
Jean-Louis Tauran, Vatican secretary for relations with states, of sending
International Observers, are great and important, and I hope that it will be
taken seriously in consideration. I know also very well that the World Council
of Churches held last days in Geneva a consultation meeting to discuss the
proposal of sending Civil Observers from the Churches. Fr. Maroun Lahham, the
rector of our Seminary represented the Latin Patriarchate in that meeting. A
very long document was prepared to be discussed. All these ideas are very
important, but we need more: we need a new peace plan with a time table and a
clear framework, otherwise, everything will be only lost time. Therefore, I see
that the French initiative or the Italian one of Berlusconi should be adopted
by the EU or the UN in order to be stronger.
After
this analysis, allow me to share with you’re the following documents which will
give more light about the situation from different persons who have different
points of view:
1)
The
news given by Zenit about the Vatican wanting International Observers in
Middles East in response to the ongoing violence.
2)
In
her Jerusalem Journal # 45, Sister Mary give us some hope of some change in the
Israeli society, she reports about the initiative of the Rabbis for Human Rights in
planting Olive Trees in the Palestinian villages where the Israeli Occupation
Forces had destroyed them.
3) In his Letter from Bethlehem (12), Toine
van Teeffelen suggest three sources of hope in the present situation?
4) In the letter from a High School student
from St Joseph in Bethlehem, Yara Obayat launches a message to the world and to
the Israelis: “Why can’t you realize that we are all human beings who
deserve a chance to live a normal, safe and a free life”.
5) I share with you’re the news of “Israeli army group refuses to
serve in West Bank” hoping that this movement will grow among the
other soldiers, because really I have a pity for them when I see them executing
the policies of the occupation with their heavy weapons.
6) It also my pleasure to send you an
article about the Arab Christians in the Arab world written by Prince Talal
Ibnu-Abdel-Aziz Al Sa'udi (member of the Royal family in Saudi Arabia). It is
worthy to be read because he knows how valuable our presence in the Arab world
and amidst the Islamic countries.
I hope that you will enjoy reading some
of what I send if you find it useful and interesting.
With my best
wishes from Jerusalem “One & Undivided” Fr.
Raed Abusahlia
Vatican
Wants International Observers in Middle East
Response to Ongoing Violence
VATICAN
CITY, JAN. 27, 2002 (Zenit.org).-
A top Vatican aide asked that international observers be sent to the Middle
East, given the violence ravaging the Holy Land.
Archbishop Jean-Louis
Tauran, Vatican secretary for relations with states, told Vatican Radio on
Saturday, "The Holy See has been thinking of this proposal for more than a
year, as one cannot witness passively the daily deaths of Israelis and
Palestinians."
"Every morning we hear news of this really sad war," he added.
"Once again, it is necessary to help both sides find the path of reason, especially
of negotiation."
In his Saturday interview, Archbishop Tauran referred to Mideast violence and
said: "This is why we have thought of the presence of observers, or at
least of a structure of dissuasion that will allow both sides of the conflict
to silence their arms and reflect on their common destiny. One cannot think of
peace while holding weapons."
According to the archbishop, his appeal is all the more urgent in the wake of
religious leaders' Day of Prayer for Peace, held in Assisi last Thursday.
"Through the wonderful testimonies we heard, we were able to discover,
like all those with the Pope, that only peace is holy, not war; a very
important message," he observed.
"Another aspect I would like to emphasize is that the meeting reminded the
world that religion, with a capital 'R,' has its place in society as the indispensable
factor for public dialogue. It is necessary to stress this forcefully, after
last Sept. 11," the French archbishop emphasized.
Jerusalem Journal # 45
Sister Mary
2 February 2002
Rabbi Arik Asherman, Executive Director of Rabbis for Human Rights, once said, "Parallel to the peace process, Israel committed human rights violations in the occupied territories, destroying homes and cropland, expropriating land, and treating ordinary Palestinians like criminals. With every violation, more Palestinians lost faith in the peace process until frustration spilled over into uprising. American Jews and Israelis don't realize what is going on because they have not seen what we have seen."
In an effort to
remedy the issue of lack of knowledge, this week Rabbi Asherman, along with
Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom, coordinated activities of about 75 persons who met in
Jerusalem. Many of the participants were American Jews, but there were
other people from various European countries. One of the basic goals of the
week was to plant olive trees in the Palestinian villages where the Israeli
Occupation Forces had destroyed them. It wasn't easy work to begin with, and
the blessing of the winter rains made it all the more difficult; nevertheless
we planted olive, almond and other fruit bearing trees in various villages in
this land.
Although this
may seem hard to believe, some 30,000 olive trees, along with over 130,000
fruit trees and vines have been uprooted since October 2000, risking the
livelihood of Palestinian farmers for years to come. The Israeli Occupation
Force often uses "security" as an excuse for collective punishment,
and settlers engage in vigilante actions to seize even more Palestinian land.
In the village of Der Istiya, the Israeli Army uprooted 1,500 trees after an
Israeli settler was injured by a stone. Direct action by the Rabbis for Human
Rights and Israeli activists helped bring the case to Israel's high court,
where the army admitted only 10 trees needed to be removed for security
reasons!
Besides tree
planting, on Friday we went to the hills south of Hebron where the cave
dwellers of the Yatta area had experienced the destruction of their dwellings
when the Israeli Occupation Forces brought in huge Caterpillar bulldozers to
collapse the roofs of the caves, fill in the wells and terrify the people who
had been making their living by subsistent farming for themselves and their
flocks. One young Israeli woman who had joined us for the day was overwrought
by what she saw and heard there.
It has been the
mission of the Rabbis for Human Rights to be the voice of conscience, bringing
human right violations to the attention of the Israeli public and pressuring
the Israeli authorities for redress for all in this land. We who planted
olive trees are grateful for the experience, even though many participants
will be trying to process their experiences of "unreported news" for
a long time. The American Jews are returning with the "unreported
news" of what is happening in Israel, for now they have seen a bit of
what the Rabbis have seen. They will soon be sharing their experiences
with their congregations...no easy task is ahead of them.
Letter from Bethlehem
(12)
By Toine van Teeffelen
Last night
shooting once again started in the Bethlehem area. The Israeli army raided
houses in Artas, a village to the south of Bethlehem, to search for, arrest and
injure supporters of Islamic Jihad, apparently in connection with the suicide
bombing in Jerusalem last Sunday. In retaliation, Palestinian gunmen shot at
Gilo, the Jerusalem settlement located in the West Bank.
Mary tells me
that at Bethlehem University she talked with a student who observed soldiers
beating a young man’s hand at the main checkpoint to Jerusalem. The young man
cried and begged for mercy.
When you
nowadays talk with people in Bethlehem, you sense a distinct feeling of
despair. There is little chance that there will soon be a removal of the
roadblocks and checkpoints, which suffocate people’s freedom of movement and
the economy. At a private school, a teacher tells me that over 40% of the
(largely middle class) parents are unable to pay school fees. One can imagine
how the situation is among the poorer sectors of the society. Parents are
asking their children to do work, like selling chewing gum, before they go to
school. Of course the desperate political and economic situation generates more
and more desperate acts.
There is also
speculation about a quick, almost magical fix of the situation one way or
another, always a sure sign of despair. Right now Jordanian involvement is what
many hope for, it is the political talk of the town, but I have the feeling
that this is false hope. There is no indication that Abdallah would want to
govern the West Bank, even if the majority of Palestinians would wish him to do
so. Creating false hope or illusions has for a long time been something of an
industry in the conflict, part of an effort to ease or manage tensions rather
than finding solutions, and creating often an unbearable gap between talks of
peace on the one hand and the reality on the ground on the other.
Are there
sources of hope in the present situation? I would suggest three:
- A slowly growing peace movement,
both in Palestine and Israel. Last year witnessed a great many smaller and
larger peaceful demonstrations in Palestine, in which locals and
internationals worked hand in hand. The Grassroots International
Protection of the Palestinian People (GIPP), a coordinating network of
over hundred NGOs in the West Bank and Gaza, and various groups of internationals
in Palestine, present a hard-core structure to these demonstrations, which
are probably going to expand this year with more marches and non-violent
challenging actions directed at key checkpoints. In Israel, a new peace
movement is forming itself with a focus against the occupation and
directed towards important issues including refusal to serve in the
occupied territories, the organization of food convoys to besieged
villages and the rebuilding of demolished houses and replanting of
destroyed trees. Although there are many church-related initiatives, I
would wish that there is an initiative to organize the international
churches in a common solidarity effort such as once was the case during
the liberation struggle in South Africa.
- Nowadays there is a clear vision of
a peaceful solution: a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza
with East-Jerusalem as its capital. Although political and ideological
conflicts about the detailed character of such a state are far from over,
it is very clear that any prospect of peace would imply a two-state
solution based upon international legality. On the other hand, denying
such a solution, as the present-day Sharon government is trying to impose
upon Palestinians and Israelis, is a recipe for war.
- Palestinian society, although in
severe distress, does not disintegrate and is not likely going to do so.
At one point, it was speculated that many people, especially Christians,
would leave. In the Bethlehem area, like elsewhere in Palestine, only a
limited number are in fact leaving. There is also not a massive
collaboration with the occupation. People keep their dignity and pride.
They still take care of each other, are concerned, and above all try to
continue with their daily life despite the accumulation of problems each
family faces. Moslems and Christians are basically not divided. It is also
very clear that Hamas and the Palestinian Authority do not wish to start a
civil war. While Palestinian society is geographically fragmented, it is
not fragmented in spirit.
A letter from a High
School student from St Joseph in Bethlehem
Yara Obayat
17 years old
It was a difficult life but it was quiet nice without this much of sorrow and pain, without these many tears and heartbreaks. It was not a perfect life but we could still breathe, laugh and dream of our future. But now, it’s different! Our dreams turned into nightmares that we still see and experience every night. We are deprived of our basic rights as human beings, mainly to live safely and peacefully. We do not feel secure within the walls of our own homes. We face the horror of death every moment of our life; we are only thinking about who is going to die next.
For so many times I wished that all these
things that are happening to us would turn to be only a nightmare. I had hoped
that one day I would wake up, open my eyes and discover that everything was
just a bad dream. I do not exaggerate when I say that I am living
with no hope at all; I don’t have the slightest hope for a brighter tomorrow.
My tears run down my cheeks every time I see the pictures of martyrs hanging on
the walls, leaving me with no hope, no desire and no energy to move on with my
life. The Obayat family lost eight martyrs who were killed recently during this
second Intifada. What’s happening in my country frightens me and puts me in
great pain. As a young girl, I have the right to think of going to the
university to finish my studies, my future career, and other things that are
normal for a teenager. But things like that don’t occur in my mind at all, and
I’m just obsessed with the idea of how to survive first before I do anything or
plan my future. I am deprived of every hope to dream like other teenagers in
the world. I seek protection and the right to live in peace. Both the Israelis
and the Palestinians have lost loved ones through brutal violence, and every
side blames the other. Every person in this life has the right to life, and has
the right to live in dignity while enjoying his/her freedom. The question that
should be asked: “ what’s the reason for all the violence that surround us?”
The answer is obvious to me: it’s the occupation. Israeli soldiers and settlers
kill us on a daily basis, and I think that if they stop their violence against
us then the suicide bombings will stop against them. The Israelis are not the
only ones who should live safely; Palestinians too should be granted the right
to live the same. Then there might be a chance for a real peace.
I have a message to the world: Let the Palestinians live safely like the
other people. Occupation is frightening; it’s all about death. We are terrified
to leave our homes because we know that we might never come back. We see death
everywhere. Why can’t you realize that we are all human beings
who deserve a chance to live a normal, safe and a free life.
I say to the Israelis: Stop killing us and stop provoking us to
retaliate to your violence. You occupied our homes and lands, and you took our
freedom away from us. God created all of us and we are all equal, why do you
think that we are lesser than you?
I am proud of being a Palestinian as well
as being a member of my family who sacrificed many martyrs for the sake of
Palestine. I hope that one day occupation will end, and I swear to do
everything to make my country better.
Israeli army group
refuses to serve in West Bank
By AVI MACHLIS
Financial Times (London)
January 28, 2002
JERUSALEM--A
grassroots group of 52 Israeli army reserve officers has stirred controversy in
Israel by publicly pledging that they will refuse to report to duty in the
occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The group strongly criticized
Israeli policy in an opening statement placed in Israeli newspapers at the
weekend.
The advertisements were accompanied by large feature articles in the popular
press and sparked discussion on radio talk show programs yesterday. It was the first significant
sign of dissent from within military ranks during 16 months of fighting with
the Palestinians.
Throughout the Intifada,
deadly Palestinian terrorism in the heart of Israeli cities, such as
yesterday's suicide bombing in Jerusalem, has hardened Israeli opinion. Public
opinion has rallied behind Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, as he dispatched
aerial strikes, sanctioned assassinations of suspected militants and approved
house demolitions to shut down the uprising.
The petitioners, combat officers self-described as staunch Zionists committed
to the Jewish state, said that during their recent tours of duty they received
orders "that had nothing to do with the security of the state" and whose "only purpose was
to perpetuate control over the Palestinian people".
"We will not continue to fight a war for the peace of the
settlements," said the advertisements, which attacked policies aimed at
"controlling, expelling, starving and humiliating an entire people".
The army brushed off the officers as a fringe element that did not
signal any broader dissent.
"Since the start of the violence, we have seen increasing willingness and
high motivation to serve on the part of regular soldiers and reservists,"
said a military official.
Media experts also doubted whether the officers' letter marked a turning point
in public opinion. It could, however, inject a new dynamic into public
discourse and the group's leaders say they hope to spearhead a popular movement
that will refuse to take part in the continuing military crackdown.
Israeli combat reservists are called up for active duty several weeks each year.
There were also indications that Israeli media were starting to break their own
silence. At the weekend, Israel's Channel One public television aired a report
in which two Israeli soldiers admitted to harassing and humiliating
Palestinians regularly at checkpoints in the occupied West Bank.
The army says it needs these checkpoints to keep Palestinian terrorists out of
Israeli cities, but Palestinians call the roadblocks collective punishment and
say soldiers are often abusive.
Arab Christians
Prince Talal Ibnu-Abdel-Aziz Al Sa'ud
(member of the
Royal family in Saudi Arabia) writes about Christians.
Arabia-on-line, Wednesday 30, January 2002
The immigration
of Arab Christians from the Arab World to the West is a significant setback for
the future of Arab society. The Christian presence, as an authentic strength,
preserves diversity and helps to maintain a balanced view.
As a result of the steady and longstanding trend of Arab
Christian immigration, the Arab World suffers a very serious human,
social, cultural, political and economic loss.
The immigration of Arab Christians is a very difficult reality, which has
a great impact on the destiny of our Arab World and will change the
nature of the area, the basis of its flourishing, its safety, and its internal
stability. This is why Arabs, Moslems and Christians alike, must decide to face
and actively address this phenomenon.
As is the case with the huge crisis facing the modern world in general and
the Arab world in particular, we must first examine the reasons that gave rise
to this immigration, which damages Arab society.
Arab Christians formed one of the
bases of both the old and modern society. In the
early days of Islam, they formed a cultural,
political, and military column in the Arab State, which expanded to the East
reaching India and to the West reaching Spain. Arab Christians were
also the energy that forced Islam to expand outside the Arab Peninsula and
Syria. Their presence in the Arab world was very important for the
development and growth of Islam and its extensive land acquisition within
the old world.
During the renaissance period (19th and 20th centuries), the Arab Christians
played an active role in rebuilding the characteristics of
Arabism and its civilization, opening it to the other rising
civilizations, particularly during the Arab decline. The Arab
Christian enclave nurtured a link between deep cultural traditions of Arabism
and the progressive thinking of modernization.
The Arab Christians, due to their wide-range cultural background, created and
continue to encourage developments in Arab culture and thinking. Their
immigration would deprive the Arab World of this rich diversity and would
peel off away a large share of its cultural and ethnic origins.
When we talk about the Christian presence in the Arab World we do so with hopes
that they will remain. Arab Christians are among the
original structural founders. The continuation of their
existence in the Arab world would help to prevent the expansion of racism and
extremism, and would thus prevent the kind of violence that
leads to historic disasters.
Their commitment to stay would act as a response - in action not in words - to
the Israeli idea of the "one-religion-state," the pure
race, and the elected people. It would also challenge the basis of Zionist
thought, founded on iron, fire, blood, and tears. More
importantly, their presence confronts the Israeli idea of disregarding the
Arab population altogether.
The presence of the Arab Christians would strengthen the modern state
through the diversity of its elements and would inspire Arab
unity, thus ending racism within the state. Moreover, their presence and their
social, cultural and economic contact with the Christian West strengthens the
Arab cause worldwide. Arab Christian immigration is a serious setback to the
Arab people, making them vulnerable to a future climate that refuses inter-
faith dialogue and communication.
Preservation of the Arab Christian presence is a hope that can only be
realized by adopting and implementing democratic practice when dealing with
human beings, their rights and individual
creativities. Their preservation will also enrich the Arab social structure and
the Modern Arab State, helping to destroy the pattern of civil war
like the events in Lebanon in 1840, 1860, and 1975, in Sudan, and in what
we fear will happen in Egypt.
Finally, Arab Christian preservation would help end the great
loss in scientific, cultural and intellectual creativity in the Arab
World. This also means safeguarding the elements of economic strength in trade,
industry, banking, and professionalism.
In conclusion, if Arab Christian immigration continues, it will form a
deep blow to the core and future of our society. It must be our immediate
task to prevent this immigration and to strengthen the presence
of the Arab Christians in our United East.
|
Important note to our dear readers We really hope that you enjoy what we send you and find it
useful. If you need further information, please feel free to contact us at: nonviolence@writeme.com
Thank you for your understanding & with best wishes from
Jerusalem Fr. Raed Abusahlia |