News, articles and documents from
the Holy Land
Issue No. 144 - Wednesday, 10 April 2002
Dear Friends, Brothers and Sisters,
It seems that we
are dead-locked in a very dangerous situation which don’t have an immediate
solution, especially in Bethlehem and in particular at the Nativity Church,
because as far as the Basilica is under siege, the whole Bethlehem area will
remain under strict curfew and siege which will lock 100.000 people inside
their homes for more days. The 250 persons, including the Franciscan priests
and sisters, are their since 8 days in a very bad condition because they don’t
have water, electricity, medicine a some few more food is remaining which will
finish with the next days. Further more, they are day and night terrorized by
the tanks, soldiers, snipers who are surrounding the basilica from all sides
and sometimes they are shooting sound and light bombs. It seems that
negotiation on this issue are not progressing because the Israelis are
insisting on their surrender in order to arrest them all and after security screening
the might release them, even president Moshe Katsav today wrote a letter to the
Pope telling him that "Under the circumstances, I regret
that with all the respect and consideration we have for the Christian holy
places, we have no alternative but to prevent armed Palestinian terrorists, who
have murdered innocent Jews, from escaping and continuing their acts of
bloodshed," Katsav told the Pope.
The
situation might become worst if things continue like this. Already today an armeinan monk was shot and seriously wounded in the Church of the
Nativity compound in Bethlehem, but he didn’t die because he was evacuated by
the army after recognizing their mistake. But yesterday another man was shot
and wounded and still bleading inside. The day before yesterday a another young
man was shot dead and after all the necessary intervetions with the army they
didn’t permit the Red Cross to evacuate his body to the hospital, and
therefore, they were obliged to burry him inisde the compound of the Basilica
after two days of his death with the intention to tranfer his body later on
because he is a moslem and from Gaza. You see that the humanitarian side of the
bloody war is not respected at all and this is a clear violation of all the
human values and the interenational convention about the protection of
civilians during war. This is hapenning everywhere, and it happened also in
Nablous and especially in Jenin refugee camp were hundreds of bodies remaind on
the streets for several days and ambulances where not allowed to enter the camp
to evacate it.
You
will hear a lot of these stories in the next days when the war finished and you
will discover that massacres were committed in front of the eyes of the world…
but let me just share with you a small experience which happened with me
yesterday: You know that every single town, village and refugee camp in the
Palestinian territories is under complete closure and siege, and people
sometimes cannot move outside of their villages and go to work. One of our
parishes which is 25 Kms far from Ramallah called Aboud is one of these serious
cases, it is under closure since more than one month, and shops lack essential
food supplies, and even some of the 400 families cannot afford to by food
because simply they don’t have any more money. Therefore, yesterday, and after
three days of coordination with the Israeli army, I was able to send them a camion
of 5 tons of food which was offered by one of our parishes in Galilee called
Shafa Amr, it was a real adventure to use our diplomatic car in order to accompany
the camion and cross the checkpoints and deliver the food to our parish priest
who will take care of distributing it to needy families. You see that people
here are deprived of their essential rights to move, to work and to have food
and medical care that they badly need more during difficult time like the war
we are living in these days. It is a real hardship to live in the land under
these conditions of life imposed on a whole nation!?!?
You
will find in toady’s Olive Branch some articles and documents:
1) THE LETTER FROM BETHLEHEM (20) written by Toine van Teeffelen who is describing their
life under the re-occupation in Bethlehem.
2)
Letter
of support and solidarity from the Council of Churches in the
Netherlands.
3) Ethnic Cleansing in the Land of Christ's
Birth By Dr. Maria C. Khoury. Even if the word is very strong but it is true,
and this is what is happening right now in Jenin. A whole camp where 15.000 people
used to live is wiped out from the face of the earth and its population are thrown
out and becoming refugees for the second or third time.
4) PRELIMINARY REPORT about the visit of the WCC Deputy General
Secretary to Jerusalem.
5) “Issues versus Events!” by Dr Harry
Hagopian. Even if the title is strange but it is interesting to read.
6) A terrible photo from Bethlehem under
fire and smoke.
We hope that these will be the last days
in the dramatic tragedy in the Holy Land for both peoples. We tope that Mr.
Collin Paul will be able to make a difference if his administration will make
firm pressures of Mr. Sharon and side with the truth. We hope that the bright
light of a new day will come soon after this long darkness of hate, death and
destruction.
Pray with us for that. Fr.
Raed Abusahlia
LETTER FROM BETHLEHEM
(20)
Toine van Teeffelen
5/6 April 2002
Friday morning
early I go out to sniff the air in the garden. Suddenly a group of Israeli
soldiers appear and ask whether I am from the University. “No, I am from
Holland,” I say illogically, thinking that the word “Holland” helps to keep
them out of the house, our main worry. Fortunately I just have to show my
passport and they continue their walk. It is strange, how morning silence can
be so threatening.
Today, the
fourth day of the occupation, the municipality announces that the soldiers will
allow the people a few afternoon hours to leave our cages. But when it is two
o’clock, the big moment, we hear shooting. Later on there is a rumor that three
persons some 100 meters further down the university road were slightly injured
by shots when they left the house. Maybe the Israelis wanted, in announcing the
measure, to impose their own time (there is an hour difference between Israel
and the West Bank).
After an hour
Jeanet and I leave home, but when reaching the gate we observe a soldiers’
patrol passing whose commander tells us to wait for another five minutes.
Afterwards, a boy shouts that it is safe on the road. When we finally leave,
Jara starts crying and wants us to come back. I tell her that we will be back
soon and that there is no need to worry. Jeanet and I walk up the university
street, and see a concentration of tanks and armoured vehicles on the
university hill. Soldiers wave us to go either left or right, not straight. I
shout whether we can make a turn to reach Bethlehem downtown through Bab al-Zqaaq
where the Jerusalem-Hebron road meets the road to Beit Jala. Yes, that is
possible, the soldiers sign. There is a cat which slowly crosses the street in
front of a tank. We follow the street to the right towards Bab al-Zqaaq,
walking fast. The street asphalt is damaged by the many heavy tanks and
vehicles passing by. Will the roads ever be repaired? Sand comes up through the
holes in the broken asphalt, and clouds trail the cars that now hesitatingly
appear on the streets. Ana bachaaf (I am afraid) whispers somebody. A
group of foreign visitors pass by, carrying their luggage. Several groups of
foreigners are still in the area, especially in the camps, to share the
suffering of the people and perhaps to form a human shield in case of attack.
We reach Cinema, opposite the taxi station. More people show up; they look
bewildered as if they open their eyes after a prolonged stay in a dark room.
Journalists try to interview passers by who speak the right language. I see
Fuad, the director of the institute, who explains to an interviewer how every
house in the central Madbasseh street received bullets or worse. We quickly go
into a pharmacy, our main destination, with a long list of medicaments Mary and
her mother need. With several people waiting, the pharmacist’s wife runs
through the shop to bring the articles. It reminds of the service at a Dutch
fried patato stand during high season. Nobody knows how much time is left for
shopping, and the shopkeepers want to be sure that they can help everybody.
There is also a long queue in front of the supermarket. There’s no bread,
Jeanets asks across the queue whether there is flour. Yes, there is. While
waiting, I talk with a lecturer at Bethlehem University who tells that the
military commander who initially approached the Brothers’ administration was
courteous but that the man was replaced the other day by somebody who barely
spoke English and behaved far less politely. When Jeanet is finished, we leave
and get a lift from two acqaintances from Beit Jala. One after another car
stops to offer walkers a drive. Human solidarity is a natural habit among
ordinary people here.
*
* *
When home, Mary
asks me to bring a digital camera from a friend who does not live far from our
place but who temporarily left for Jerusalem. We want to make photos of our
newborn baby, Tamer, and send them to family abroad as well as in Bethlehem
itself. Jara now insists to join. Mary explains that after Jara saw Jeanet and
me leaving, she got courage and now wants herself to go out too. I hesitate,
but Mary gives the green light. Watching the tanks at the university, Jara
tightens her fist while holding my hand but continues walking. She receives
some sweets from somebody who spots us entering our friend’s house.
After returning
home, I find out that we don’t have a computer disk for the camera. It is half
an hour before we will be locked up again and I quickly walk down the
university road to go to our own house opposite Azza camp. Suddenly there is
shooting, and I see the kids from the camp running homeward. They probably
challenged a tank or a patrol. The days before the invasion I saw them playing shaheed;
they chanted slogans and carried a kind of coffin over their heads in which a
martyr was supposedly buried. I hesitate whether to continue. The inhabitants
of the house nearby wave to come inside. Some of them discuss that I’d better
take a walk through the gardens, and climb over a wall. After silence returns,
I take the main road again and reach my house. The telephone is ringing. Mary
is on the line. She thought for a moment that I was shot, and asks me to take
another route back. I water the plants outside. The neighbours sit quietly in
the garden, enjoying the splendid weather. They ask whether it is wise for us
to stay outside our house since when soldiers want to enter and nobody opens,
they blow up the door. I return home, where Mary tells me that she took a glass
of arak {alcohol with anis] immediately after she had talked with me, to
calm down. She was really afraid., the shooting sounded so close and there were
no other people on the street except me.
*
* *
Next day,
Saturday, we hear from friends in Beit Jala that local soldier patrols
announced the curfew during the evening, mocking the population: “Dear people
of Beit Jala, you are good people, have sweet dreams.” During the day I play a
little with Jara in the garden but feel restless. I don’t want her to sense
this. Jara is in fact in a rebellious mood and says that she wants to put some
grass on the street so that the tanks will slip. She plays the princess who
sleeps and waits for a kiss from the prince to open up her eyes; however, when
I kiss her, she says that she had already died. Jeanet and I take the laundry
inside, but when heavy shooting suddenly breaks out somewhere not far away,
Jara, Jeanet and I quickly run inside the house. Now Jara knows it is not a
game. The days that we could tell her during shootings and bombardments that St
George cleaves the skies on his thunderous horse are over. The last news, Mary
tells, is that scores of people are killed in Jenin. The Church of Nativity is
still beleaguered. I feel a desperate question coming up: How to find a way of
talking with the Israelis after all what has happened?
Letter of support and
solidarity
from the Council of Churches in the Netherlands
Amersfoort, April 10, 2002
To the Heads of Churches and Religious Leaders in
Israel and Palestine
Dear brothers,
The
Council of Churches in the Netherlands wants to express its solidarity and
support with the ecumenical and inter-religious initiatives for peace during
the Ecumenical Peace Pilgrimage, as far as these activities may to be held due
to military restrictions. We are aware of the enormous threats and difficulties
which you encounter in your work for a peaceful solution and we pray for the
safety of all participants.
We
welcome these initiatives as signs of hope and as expressions of a sincere
commitment to the restoration of the broken relationship between people of
different religions and divergent political convictions. We are aware of your
efforts to walk together in a non-violent March for Peace and we feel connected
with your worship services.
We join
our voices with the prayers of all people of good will for the end of all
violence and for a comprehensive peace, based on justice and security for all
the inhabitants of Israel and Palestine. We pray God for wisdom for all
political and religious leaders in the region and in the international
community, that they may be enabled to create real opportunities for peace.
As
Christians, we just experienced during the celebration of Easter the strength
of the forces of life and love over against forces promoting death and
destruction. Our wish is that this or a similar experience may encourage you to
continue your admirable non-violent efforts for peace in these difficult and
complicated circumstances. We remember you and your peoples in our prayers.
With warm greetings,
on behalf of the Council of Churches in the
Netherlands,
Rev. Ineke
Bakker,
General Secretary.
Ethnic Cleansing in the Land of Christ's Birth
By Dr. Maria C. Khoury
The slaughter of Palestinian people continues this week especially in the
refugee camps in Jenin where Sharon is not willing to listen to the president
of the United States and get out of the Palestinian territories. Sharon
continues his campaign against terror by terrorizing over three million
Palestinians with his brutal and inhuman tactics. Sharon is trying to clean out
the Holy Land of all Christians and of all Muslims to make sure he not only
guarantees a Jewish state inside Israel created in l948 but also in the
Palestinian territories occupied in l967. The Oslo Peace Agreement that
promised the Palestinians a homeland is absolutely dead.
Many people have a heard time understanding why Arafat gave up such a
"generous offer." That is all you hear in the international media,
the Israelis are so generous and Arafat is the terrorist. Personally, the last
six years I have been living here I just like to give you an idea what type of
Palestinian state was giving to Arafat. I live in the village of Taybeh, it is
marked area C, it will stay under the total control and occupation of the
Israeli army because of the illegal settlements all around me although it is
part of the territories occupied by Israel in l967. I need to go to school in
Ramallah (ten minutes away), marked as area A, turned over to Palestinians when
the Palestinian Authority was given this generous offer following the l993 Oslo
Peace Agreement. In order for me to travel from a Palestinian village under
Israeli control to a Palestinian city under Palestinian control I must go
through four checkpoints that means facing soldiers ! with guns daily and
armored jeeps and tanks. The point is that the Israelis gave the Palestinians a
bunch of different cities instead of a Palestinian homeland with Israel
controlling the major roads in and out of those cities. Not to mention they
control the airport and the seaport for import and export purposes. This might
sound absurd to you, but please believe me it is easier for me to go to Athens
roundtrip than to go to school and work everyday. I am about to loose my mind
so I went to Athens this weekend to prove my point. I couldn't go to school
anyway because currently it is a military zone.
The Israelis never intended to turn over East Jerusalem to the Palestinians
either, which was occupied in l967. What does this mean. For me as a Christian,
if I want to travel from my Palestinian village to the occupied old city of
Jerusalem to pray on Sundays in the Holy Sepulchre, I am not allowed. And also,
if Muslims wish to go and pray on Fridays at their religious Holy site, it is
forbidden. The generous offer the Israelis gave Arafat was not practical at all
because they wish to keep the 250,000 illegal settlers in the West Bank at
their comfortable settlements that look like a suburb in Texas. While the
settlers have the best of everything, the rest of us, for example, especially
in the summer time, can go four days in a row, no running water while the
settlements have water running twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. The
other generous offer that Arafat was so foolish not to accept is each and every
single time we need to travel out of the coun! try we must have a piece of
paper called a permit to travel to the airport to visit our family and friends
in other countries. To get a permit is a nightmare and extremely time
consuming. The last trip to Boston, took my father-in-law exactly three days in
a row, from 8 am to 3 pm to obtain his permission to travel from our village to
the airport at 74 years of age. Of course you never know anyone at anytime can
really turn into a terrorist because actually we can't handle the prejudice,
the racism and the injustice imposed by Israel on Palestinians.
The other "generous offer" Arafat refused to accept are all the
Palestinian refugees that were forced out of their homes and their lands in
l948 and l967 did not have a right to return. While please bear in mind that
any Jewish person living anywhere in the world has a right to return to Israel
even if they never had a home there at all. Does this sound fair to you? Is
this just? Why can Jewish people return to Israel and the Palestinian people
forced out of their home in l948 in Jaffa and still holding the key to their
front doors do not have a right to return. Why are the Israelis above the law?
Don't both Israelis and Palestinians have a right to exist? Why do the Israelis
get extra privileges? Are we not all part of the human race?
To you understand the difference between September 11th and
resistance to occupation? September 11th was a pure act of violence,
a total crime against humanity. The seventeen year old Palestinian girl that
blew her self up in Jerusalem, killing innocent people (that we do not condone
and we are strictly against such suicide bombs) is in fact giving a desperate
message to the world. She does not have apache helicopters and tanks and guns
to ask for her freedom and independence thus she gives the only precious gift
God gave her, life itself to resist occupation and seek freedom and
independence for her country. If people had a homeland and future they would
not go and blow themselves up. But they are deprived of each and every single
right that the rest of us take for granted. Occupation is the root cause of
this terrible violence happening in Israel.
In this great and holy Orthodox lent, my point is not to help you understand
suicide bombers, maybe you can't unless you live with them and see their
suffering and their daily struggle. I would like to leave you with the message
that God calls each and every ones of us to serve Him and give glory to Him
while we live here on earth. If God gave you power use it to help the
unfortunate. If God gave you education, use it to help others understand. If
God gave you money, help the poor. If God gave you great wealth and
materialism, feed the hungry. God asks us to use our gifts and talents to bring
Glory to Him who gives us eternal life. As ethnic cleansing takes place in the
Holy Land, pray for God to show His mercy and pray that we may have strength to
bear witness for Christ in the Land of His birth. I give up asking you to
contact your government officials because we are experiencing a massacre of the
worst type and no one seems to be able to stop it. I only ask for your prayers.
God will listen and peace will come to the Holy Land.
Visit of the
WCC Deputy General Secretary to Jerusalem
2 - 4 April
2002
PRELIMINARY
REPORT
The
WCC Deputy General Secretary Mr. Georges Lemopoulos visited Jerusalem from
April 2-4, with WCC International Relations Programme Executive Ms. Salpy
Eskidjian. The main purpose of this visit was to meet with the Patriarchs and
Heads of the Churches and Christian communities of Jerusalem to discuss the
present situation in Palestine/Israel and details of WCC and other ecumenical
efforts in this regard. The visit was undertaken as an expression of WCC
solidarity with the churches of the Holy Land and their communities. It was
also planned to work out practical details related to ecumenical programs
undertaken by the WCC together with its partners to seek an end to this tragic
situation.
A
key element of the delegation visit was a first meeting of the WCC with the
newly enthroned Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, His
Beatitude Patriarch Irineos. Among the topics discussed were the important role
of the Patriarchate in the WCC and its contribution to the wider ecumenical
movement; the status of the Special Commission on Orthodox Participation in the
WCC; the re-establishment of the Jerusalem Ecumenical Centre and concerns of
the Patriarchate. Lemopoulos was extremely pleased with this encounter which
took place in a warm, honest and fraternal atmosphere. HB Patriarch Irineos
welcomed WCC efforts in supporting its member churches in diakonal, interfaith
and international matters and assured the delegation of his support for strong
relationships and links with the WCC. His Eminence Archbishop Aristarchos,
chief secretary of the Holy Synod, was assigned to continue the co-operation
with the WCC on behalf of the Patriarchate. The WCC delegation was saddened to
hear that the Israeli government had not yet recognised the election of the
Greek Orthodox Patriarch. The delegation offered the WCC’s good offices to
intervene if called upon.
With
the Patriarchs and Heads of churches, as well as local and international nuns,
monks and clergy, the members of the WCC delegation joined in a peace march to
the residences of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and of the US Consul General in
Jerusalem, Mr. Ronald Schlicher. The church leaders walked from the Old City on
a cold and rainy morning amidst an angry crowd and drivers, holding olive
branches and white ribbons. The marchers carried a message of peace and an
offer to mediate an end to the violence and the siege of the Palestinian towns
and villages. They prayed for peace, pleaded for an end to the violence and
offered their good offices as mediators. To the dismay of the church leaders
and those with them, the US consulate and the Prime Minister ignored their
presence and their offer of assistance.
The
next morning, in response to dramatic reports coming from the Church of the
Nativity in Bethlehem, the church leaders of all Christian traditions present
in the Holy Land marched once again together to Bethlehem. They were confronted
with tanks, guns and the Israeli Defence Forces who refused to allow them to
cross the checkpoint to visit their churches, clergy and people in the
birthplace of Jesus, one of the holiest sites of the Christian world.
International
journalists marched with them and all church leaders gave extensive interviews
condemning Israel’s re-occupation of Palestinian towns and villages, its use of
excessive force, inhumane treatment of civilians, and its blatant disrespect of
holy sites, churches, monasteries and Christian institutions.
The
WCC delegation had extensive meetings with the Armenian and Latin Patriarchs,
and the Bishops of the Episcopal and Lutheran Churches. It also met with the Chairperson of the
PLO Higher Ministerial Commission on Church Affairs, Dr Emil Jarjoui, local
human rights defenders, Palestinians in Israel, medical and emergency relief
staff, representatives of international and local church-related organisations,
and the Jerusalem Inter-Church Committee (a representative body of the
Patriarchs and Heads of Churches of Jerusalem). They met, too, with HE Sheikh
Jamil Hammami, a participant in a WCC-related interfaith dialogue group. It
regretted that no meetings with Jewish religious leaders who also participate
in the interfaith dialogue group could be arranged. It had requested to meet
with Deputy FM Rabbi Michael Melchior and Rabbi David Rosen but received no
direct reply until just before the delegation left for the airport, when it
received a message from Geneva that Rabbi Rosen had responded to the WCC
request and welcomed a meeting with the delegation. This will be followed up by
telephone as soon as possible.
Due
to the warlike situation and total siege, meetings could only be held in
Jerusalem. The delegation regretted that it was unable to meet with many other
Christian and Muslim leaders, or with colleagues and friends from Bethlehem,
Beit Sahour, Beit Jala and Ramallah.
The
discussions focussed on the present tragic situation, the needs and appeals of
the local churches and Palestinian communities for strengthened WCC and other
ecumenical efforts to alleviate the suffering of the local population living
under a cruel military occupation. The delegation heard eyewitness accounts of
Palestinian families confined to their homes under a total curfew in fear and
humiliation. Medicines, water, electricity and food are desperately lacking.
Their private homes are being violated, their belongings being looted and
stolen. In some cases families were still living with the bodies of dead
relatives for whom permission for burial had been denied. The Church of the
Nativity, a sacred place for Christians around the world, was under threat of
military attack. The delegation heard repeatedly that the IDF was destroying
the civilian infrastructure on the pretext of arresting “militants and
terrorists.”
The
delegation condemned the terrifying loss of Palestinian and Israeli lives. It
experienced first-hand the extreme fear of the Israeli civilian population and
the heightened level of intolerance on both sides. It was disheartened to see
young Orthodox Jewish children pelting Arab cars with stones as they entered
East Jerusalem. It also heard reports on the “transfer policies” of the Israeli
government that are supported by Knesset members and ministers from members of
the Labour and Likud party alike. In this are to be found the seeds of racist
policies that apparently intend ethnic cleansing and to spread more hatred. The
delegation believes that Jewish religious leaders and members of the Israeli
civil society who have engaged with the WCC and /or local churches in
interfaith dialogue and peace work should take a courageous stand and speak out
against such policies and acts of intolerance. Their voices are critically
needed now. Mistakes of history should not be repeated. Unless they join
moderate Palestinians, including the Christian religious leadership, in calling
for non-violent resistance to end the occupation, the only voices heard will be
those of the extremists on both sides.
The
delegation condemns all acts of violence against civilians, calls for the
cessation of racist policies, all provocative language and indiscriminate
killings, including the desperate acts of suicide bombers.
The
delegation echoes the unified voice of the local church leaders in endorsing
the right of a people to resist the violence of military occupation and to
struggle for its end by non-violent means. In this respect, the delegation is
all the more convinced of the importance of its member churches and all
national, regional and ecumenical partners joining together, following the
WCC’s and the local churches’ calls for a united international ecumenical
response, in the campaign in 2002 to “End the Illegal Occupation of Palestine:
Support a Just peace in the Middle East”.
The
churches of the Holy Land and all Palestinians are in urgent need of an
objective and permanent international presence. The WCC should continue and
accelerate its efforts to establish the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in
Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), despite the extremely dangerous situation and the
fact that many international delegations are now being turned back when they
seek to enter Israel. Plans for the accompaniment program will be reassessed on
the basis of the discussions held in Jerusalem. The EAPPI should focus on
co-operation with existing grassroots solidarity groups and the Christian
Peacemaker Team in Hebron.
The
State of Israel, the Occupying Power, has obligations under international law,
in particular under the Fourth Geneva Convention. It cannot be allowed to
continue to violate them with impunity. The WCC has called for an end to the
silence and immobility of the international community and has appealed to its
member churches to speak and act urgently and in unison through their
respective governments to press for an international presence in the midst of
this conflict. The delegation heard from all those it met that this is an
immediate priority in the present situation.
Geneva, 8 April 2002
Issues
versus Events!
Dr Harry
Hagopian, KSL-KOG
On
this barrier of war, we proclaim the Gospel of Peace, the Gospel of the
Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace. We invite all the churches
of the world to proclaim it with us.
Their Beatitudes the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in
Jerusalem
Israeli Check-Point outside Bethlehem, 8 April 2002
Later on this week, General Colin Powell’s meandering diplomatic odyssey will finally take him to Jerusalem where he will find a potent blend of fear, anger, despair, pain, recrimination, confusion and bereavement!
Colin
Powell will also be greeted with a host of statistics translating the mixed and
unsettled feelings of Israeli women and men. An opinion poll in the Jerusalem
Post Weekly showed that 72% of Israeli respondents supported PM Ariel Sharon’s
military campaign, whilst another in the Yadiot Aharonot indicated that 50%
expected the levels of terrorism to remain largely unchanged. In the same
newspaper, though, another 73% mentioned that Israel should re-enter into
negotiations for the establishment of a Palestinian state once the violence is
halted. And a Jaffee Centre poll signalled 46% of Israelis favouring the
‘transfer’ - a euphemism for expulsion - of Palestinians from the territories.
There was also widespread support for an enforced unilateral and physical
separation between Israel and the Palestinian territories - reflected in PM
Sharon’s statement about instituting a territorial ‘buffer’.
However,
the Israeli relentless military onslaught against a whole Palestinian people
and their land will not provide long-term security for Israel. Conversely,
Palestinian unremitting suicidal attacks against Israeli civilians will not
create a state for Palestinians either. Yet, tragically enough, those violent
events are obsessing the imagination of many leaders and obscuring the issues
that are causing them. Caught up in this lopsided asymmetry between justice on
the one hand and military might on the other, both Palestinians and Israelis
are hapless and traumatised victims.
So it is essential that US Secretary of State Powell mark the crucial distinction between the grave issues that are the root causes of this conflict and the sad events that are their manifestation. Much as he should address those events in order to douse the violence, he should also re-generate a critical political process that would address the issues.
But what are the issues that would promote peace and spare both peoples further bloodshed and suffering? Simply put, the single obstruction for any peaceful settlement is the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. Its key lies in an Israeli withdrawal from those occupied territories and the establishment of a Palestinian state. Let me make two remarks about the nature of this future state that is the battleground of a savage war between two peoples today.
· The entity that was created by the defunct Oslo process and offered to Palestinians at Camp David II reminds me of a blob of Swiss cheese. Israel is the big blob, whereas the small holes in it represent the disconnected Palestinian towns and villages. This strategy meant that the dense Palestinian population centres have been isolated from each other and every single daily activity by Palestinians subjugated to Israeli will or whim.
· A Palestinian state born after an Israeli withdrawal from occupied lands should be contiguous let alone viable. This means that its borders would form a geographical continuity whereby it becomes possible to connect one end with another and to travel within it or out of it without disruption. Its identity would also be viable so that it would enjoy political freedom and economic integrity without Israeli heavy-handed interference. It would have sovereignty over its people, land and natural resources and therefore become sustainable and self-supporting.
Is it possible to achieve such a goal whereby two states - Israel and Palestine - would co-exist side-by-side within internationally recognised borders, be run by their own democratically-elected leaders, and live in peace, security, tranquillity and equality? I believe this irenic scenario is realistic as much as inevitable. I would further posit that one appropriate mechanism for its implementation would involve the UN Security Council enshrining the pan-Arab [Saudi] Peace Plan into a resolution that becomes binding and enforceable under International law. This ‘land for peace’ formula would thus guarantee full peace and unfettered security for Israel along with its Arab neighbours.
This conflict cannot be solved by a military war that only masks the events and symptoms. It calls for a genuine political process that would tackle the issues. Former UN Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar said last Saturday that it was essential to de-personalise the conflict and re-centre the political discourse on the issues themselves. Indeed, if the primary issue of the occupation were dealt with, all parties would discover the security of peace and spare themselves harrowing pictures like those of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem surrounded by billows of fire!
© Harry-bvH @ 9 April 2002
Bethlehem 2002
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