News, articles and documents from
the Holy Land
Issue No. 136 - Tuesday, 12 March 2002
Dear Friends, Brothers and Sisters,
Never we had
such huge amount of continuous violence in the Holy Land, even the 1967 war
finished in 6 days without this amount of casualties and destruction…
Therefore, I arrived to this conclusion: that we are not making Intifada
(uprising) but a real war, but with one difference with any traditional wars
were you find two armies very will equipped and prepared for war, here you have
a civilian population under occupation in front of a whole very will equipped
army with the most sophisticated American weapon used in the field of the
battle. But, nevertheless, I see that the strongest army in the Middle East and
maybe the forth-stronger army in the world will not win the war because they
cannot defeat the will of a whole nation. We are experiencing the begging of
the end of the last and only bloody occupation in the modern time and in the
whole world, I say this and I am confident that is part of the historical
determinisms that never an occupier won a battle against an occupied nation,
because the right of the might will never defeat the might of the right.
Now let me share
with you three events:
Last Sunday the
Patriarch Michel Sabbah celebrated the mass at St. Catherine’s Church in
Bethlehem which was attended by a lot of people from all the denomination even
Moslems including the civil and religious authorities in the city. He wanted to
launch two messages: a message of solidarity with the local population both
Moslems and Christians, he wanted to tell them that the church is near to them
and will stand always with the truth. The second is a message of peace for both
Palestinians and Israelis, therefore he called the Israelis to make pressures
on their governor to stop it’s occupation of the Palestinian people and land
because their security is in their hands and linked to the security and peace
of the Palestinian people. After the mass we marched though the empty streets of
Bethlehem to the completely demolished Police headquarter where we had a short
prayer for the victims and for peace. It was a real pain to see such a huge
destruction in that entire neighborhood, many houses were affected but the huge
explosion of the American Missiles launched by F 16 airplanes. After words we
visited the school of St Joseph’s school which was also hit by another missile
and the nearby Bethlehem University which was hit with four other missiles for
the second time leaving lot of destruction in the newly inaugurated Millennium
Hall and nearby library (see the press release).
One of the worst images we images we saw
last days on the TVs was the scene of gathering more than 1200 young men
between 14 to 40 years old at Deheisheh refugee camp which was visited by Pope
Jean Paul II during his historical visit to the Holy Land where he said that
the suffering of the Palestinian people was very long and should strop soon. It
seems that it didn’t stop at all. This is the scene described by Gush Shalom
statement: “Suffocating indeed. The images were there the whole day, on Israeli
as well as international TV networks alike. Soldiers preparing for entry into
Qalqilia on the West Bank, being issued with plastic handcuffs by their
officers; the soldiers inside Qalqilia like those already at Dheishe Refugee
Camp using the handcuffs to tie up hundreds of Palestinian men - young to
middle-age - and then cover their eyes with strips of cloth before marching
them into a building where they are subjected - outside the cameras' field of
vision - to "interrogation." These pictures reminded me of the Nazi
concentration camps were Jews where gathered and detained. The parallelism
might be very strong and disproportion, but is quiet the same especially because
it is practiced by the same people which suffered a lot against an innocent
people. The Israelis have done a big mistake in this scene, they used a black
and while blindfolds which reminds us with the same color of the clothes the
Jews used to dress in that camps. I remember that in 1999 when I was studying
German we visited Dakhuo concentration camp nearby Munich, I was very touched
to see that horrible place, and I remember that I wrote in Golden Book of the
quests these words: “I am very sorry for what happened here, but I am afraid
that this same people is doing the same thing with my people, please don’t
repeat this tragedy”.
The third event:
Last night the Israeli army shelled in the center of Gaza a workshop in a store
belonging to the Latin Patriarchate adjacent to our convent, church and school.
The three missile fall on that store and pierced the walls through and hit our
school and down and hit our
kindergarten putting fire on two flours leaving huge damage. I know very well
that they didn’t want to hit our Church even if they know that it is nearby; I
know that they said that they targeted a weapon factory which is not right at
all, because it is unbelievable that we rent a store nearby a schools and a
church to a weapon factory, we know very well and we saw that on the TVs and we
received report from our Parish priest Fr. Manauel Musallam that this poor man
has simple machines to produce radiator of the central heating systems.
Therefore, we condemn this act and we wait for an explanation form the army and
we thank God this was during the night and no one was injured and harmed even
if the house of our priest and the other three Rosary sisters is some meters
far from the place of this explosion. We ask also our Austrian friends from the
Order of the Holy Sepulcher who funded this school and kindergarten to know
that it needs reparation before continuing the 250 kids in the Kindergarten and
the 1000 students in the school return save to continue their study.
You will find
several up-to-date documents about the whole situation:
1) Second PRESS RELEASE from Brother Vincent Malham about the Intensified Attacks on Bethlehem University.
2) Two reports from Rev. Mitri Al-Raheb about the occupation of the Israeli army of his Dar Al-Kalima school in Bethlehem: Palestinian Children have the Right to Education and Wellness; Shattered Beauty: Dar al-Kalima School Vandalized by the Israeli Army.
3) LETTER FROM BETHLEHEM (16) by Toine van Teeffelen gives more details about what is going on in Bethlehem area.
4) Nadine Ali, a student from Saint Joseph School in Bethlehem share with us some papers from her diary.
5) While my dear friend Ghassan Andoni from Rapprochement Center in Beit Sahour writes “An open letter to Israelis”.
6) And my dear friend the Israeli writer By Israel Shamir has different ideas in his last article: “NOT ANOTHER PEACE PLAN”.
If we want to send you all the details of what is happening each minute we will need thousands of books and you will have time to read it, therefore we ask you at least to help both our peoples from writing more bloody papers and books and stop this history of destruction and occupation in order to open a new paper and new era of Justice, Peace and Reconciliation in the Holy Land.
Best wishes from Jerusalem the
City of unfound Peace. Fr.
Raed Abusahlia
PRESS RELEASE # 2
Intensified Attacks on Bethlehem University
10 March 2002
The Israeli army intensified attacks on Bethlehem University last night, 9 March, this time firing three wire-guided missiles onto the campus. Two projectiles targeted US-funded Millennium Hall, one striking a corner classroom and penetrating structural reinforcement, the other crashing through Classroom 302 (as on the previous night), leaving windows, walls and ceiling in shambles. The third missile hit another new facility, the Ireland-funded Palestinian Heritage Center, located in the University Library. This explosive weapon pierced a hole through the façade, damaging windows, showcases, artifacts and books. Security guards at the entrance to the University barely escaped being injured or killed.
As we at Bethlehem University experience these threatening attacks and watch the systematic destruction of our buildings, we share these reflections:
1. It is ironic that US taxpayers' money continues to support military weapons (reportedly 1 missile = $180,000) aimed at endangering the lives of eight US citizens living on campus at the University (as well as several UK and Palestinian citizens) and destroying Millennium Hall, principally funded by the US Government through its USAID Office of ASHA (American Schools and Hospitals Abroad).
2. Israeli army retaliation to periodic shooting by Palestinian gunmen in the neighborhood is, in our opinion, entirely disproportionate and morally indefensible. Moreover, it would appear that Bethlehem University is being directly targeted by these reprehensible attacks and we do not understand why.
3. Despite doing everything we can to protect ourselves by flying the Vatican flag, appealing to local, national, consular and ecclesiastical authorities and by strengthening security measures on campus, we find ourselves in an isolated and defenseless position.
4. We will make every effort possible to resume classes when feasible and safe. More than ever before we believe it is imperative to afford a university education to young Palestinians and to do everything in our power to give them encouragement and hope for a better future. When classes are in session, our students and staff make heroic efforts to reach the campus, sometimes traveling for hours, oftentimes suffering insult and humiliation. They deserve a chance.
We are deeply grateful for your efforts in support of our University and for a just peace in the Holy Land.
Brother Vincent Malham, FSC President-Vice Chancellor
Palestinian Children
have the Right to Education and Wellness
It is Monday March 11th. It is a school day, but no children are in their
schools neither in Bethlehem nor in most of the Palestinian areas. The 240
children of the Dar al-Kalima Model School are no exception. It is only two
days ago that three Israeli tanks occupied the premises of their new school. We
sent an urgent appeal on Saturday to get the tanks out, and many of you
responded immediately. That same afternoon, and as a direct result of the
pressure put on the Israeli Authorities, the tanks were removed from the
premises.
From the ICB compound and across the valley we saw the school and observed the
tanks withdrawing from School's site. Yet, we were prevented form reaching the
site. The whole area was put under curfew by the Israeli army. No one was
allowed to move, not even ambulances. Our church made several requests to the
Israeli Authorities to give us permission to visit the site and inspect the
damage. On Sunday morning, permission was granted to drive to the school in the
Bishop's car. After the Sunday service, we headed towards the school and drove
through a "ghost town" of empty roads. After a three-minute drive on
the main road we encountered the first "surprise." We were shocked to
see Bethlehem's only "highway," known as the Jerusalem-Hebron road,
torn down by the deep trenches that the Israeli bulldozers made. To reach the
school, we had to turn back and look for another access. We soon discovered
that the Israeli military forces destroyed all access roads and dug deep
trenches. While parking by one of these trenches, one family offered us to
drive through their garden. We did so and were able to get to the school after
an arduous drive. During the whole drive, our Bishop was on the line
negotiating with the Israeli Army. They wanted to know what each of us was
dressed like. After they took detailed information about our looks and
clothing, they decided to allow the car to park in front of the school, but not
to let anyone get out. They told us that it was our security that they were
worried about, since surrounding us were Israeli snipers who have orders to
kill at sight. So here we were at the school site, looking around and observing
some of the damage done to the terraces and garden. However, we were more
concerned about the amount of damage done to the classrooms, student files,
children's artwork, the computer lab, and Wellness Center.
While writing this update, the Israeli army reoccupied Dar al-Kalima Model
School and Wellness Center. Around noontime, the tanks rolled into the premises
and soldiers were seen entering the school buildings. We also have reports that
snipers were positioned on the roof. Israeli soldiers were also seen destroying
the helicopter landing area that is next to the school, which we often use as a
parking area when we hold our school events. We are afraid that the Israeli
army may use the school as a detention camp for the hundreds of civilians that
it has and continues to round up from the neighboring Deheisha Refugee Camp and
surrounding villages. Schools are for educating people and should never be used
to imprison them. As no one is allowed to get close to the site, we do not as
yet have a full picture of what is going on in and around our school.
The physical and moral damage done to the site, the destruction of the access
roads leading to the school, the psychological harm done to the school's
children and the children from the neighboring refugee camps is of deep concern
to us. The Dar al-Kalima's deep commitment to quality education, healthy and
well community, and to non-violent creative resistance is being challenged by
this occupation. Nevertheless, we are determined to continue providing children
with a place for wellness, which will help them to overcome all of the traumas,
including those created by this latest attack. We hold to our vision of
securing a safe educational haven for Palestinian children, one that will allow
them to shape a better and brighter future for themselves.
Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb
Pastor of Christmas Lutheran Church- Bethlehem
General Director, International Center of Bethlehem
Dr. Nuha Khoury
Dar al-Kalima Coordinator
For more information and pictures <http://www.annadwa.org/tanks/right_to_education.htm>
Shattered Beauty:
Dar al-Kalima School Vandalized by the Israeli Army
This morning as the news came that
Israeli troops have withdrawn few meters away from the site of our Dar
al-Kalima School, Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb and the School's headmaster Dr. Charlie
Haddad, decided to try reaching the premises despite the warnings in the news
that snipers are still in the area. They were met by the school's guard, Mr.
Jawad Abed Al Jawad, who yesterday was one of the hundreds of the detainees
from the Deheisha Refugee Camp in Bethlehem. Upon entering the school, the
three of them were met by scenes of damage, greater than was originally
anticipated. Preliminary assessment of the damage to the infrastructure, which
was done in a hurry due to the threat of sniper-attacks, is as follows:
* Seven (7) broken windows including one that had iron protection, which was
bulldozed.
* Eight (8) massive iron doors were shot at and destroyed. One of these doors
took 24 bullets to open.
* Four (4) interior wooden doors are destroyed.
* A tank hit the northeast corner of the School's building.
* Great damage was done to the rooms of both the counselor and social worker,
which are part of the Wellness Center.
* The door to the Chapel and Assembly Hall was broken.
* The wooden cross at the entrance of the School was taken down and destroyed
as well as the ceramic cross, which was a gift to the school from Bishop Rambo
from the United States, who was a member of the fact finding delegation of the
ELCA.
* A number of our children's artwork and paintings were trampled upon.
* Several interior walls of the building are damaged by bullet holes while
others have graffiti writings in Hebrew saying which troop was the one
occupying the building.
* Signs of forceful entry into the offices of the headmaster and the secretary.
* Telephone lines were damaged.
* Damage was done to the garden and the driveway and some of the trees at the
front of the Wellness Center were driven over.
Despite the damage that was done to the school, which can only be described as
an act of pure vandalism and hatred, we are thankful that the damage did not
reach the Kindergarten, the classrooms from 1-10, and the computer lab.
Nevertheless, we are still concerned that the Israeli army may return to the
buildings to continue the destruction of our property. The fact that the
Israeli tanks are less that 100 meters away form the school make us believe
that the damage that the school has suffered may be just the beginning of what
will come. The fact that other institutions of learning, such as the Bethlehem
University in Bethlehem, have suffered great damage to their infrastructure
makes us believe that Israel has a plan to destroy the Palestinian educational
institutions, including those owned and run by the Churches.
These acts of vandalism by the fourth strongest army in the world makes us
wonder what is so offensive about the Dar al-Kalima School, which our students
have proudly decorated with writings and artworks that talk about non-violence,
peace and dialogue between peoples? What is so offensive to an Israeli soldier
about a child's painting of a clock that teaches him to organize his day,
leading him to throw it to the floor and step on it? A great deal of energy and
effort went into designing the colorful doors to create a child-friendly
environment. Why is this hatred for places of beauty? All of these questions
are for the Israeli society to answer.
We are worried about the reaction of our children once they see all the
destruction done to their school. What would this do to all of the values of
non-violence, which we have been trying to instill in them? This act of
destruction is one small example of the Israeli government's loss of
perspective and sanity. The Israeli army has proven that it can destroy doors
and windows, but never will they be able to break our spirit. We will continue
to teach our children never to accept injustice and to work diligently towards
building a better future for the coming generations of Palestine.
Therefore, we call upon all of our friends to help us in these trying times to
do the following:
1. Send letters to your respective governments asking them to end occupation
and the destruction of the Palestinian people.
2. Send letters to your respective ministries of Education to ask them to voice
their objection to what is happening to Palestinian institutions of learning.
3. Call upon your governments to support sending International Peace Keeping
forces to Palestine to protect the civilians from the Israeli military
hostility.
4. Write letters to newspapers and televisions in your countries, demanding
accurate reporting of what is truly happening in the Holy Land and the
massacres that are being perpetuated against the Palestinian people.
5. Find a school in your community that would be interested to write a letter
of support to the children of the Dar al-Kalima School. They can send these
letters to the following e-mail address: wordsofcomfort@annadwa.org <mailto:wordsofcomfort@annadwa.org>
We are confident that you can play an important role in bringing justice and
reconciliation to this part of the world. Join hands with us in nurturing the
seeds already planted and with God's strength and your support we will succeed
in reopening the school, replanting the garden and opening the Wellness Center.
Dr. Nuha Khoury and Ms. Viola Raheb
For more information and photos, please click on the following link:
http://www.annadwa.org/schoolattack/shattered_beauty.htm
Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb
General Director
Tel: ++972 2 276 4696
Fax: ++972 2 277 0048
Web: http://www.annadwa.org/
LETTER FROM BETHLEHEM
(16)
Toine van Teeffelen
It is Tuesday
morning 12 March when I leave my house to make a brief daily walk in Bethlehem
for orientation purposes. The morning is the best period since there is little
shooting then. I peep around the corner of the Jerusalem-Hebron road, and, yes,
the tank near Rachel’s tomb is still there. At the shop where I buy extra daily
food (there are rumors that vegetables run out), the shopkeeper has put all the
bottles on the floor to prevent more damage in case of an explosion. A child in
front of the house sternly ask me my ‘hawiyeh’ (permit), imitating an Israeli
soldier. I put on a broad grin, and he relaxes. Some kids offer Eelco, a
colleague from United Civilians for Peace (UCP), a view of the tank in exchange
for one shekel.
Like in so many
other towns and refugee camps in Palestine, Bethlehem and its camps Dheisha,
Aida and Azza have been hit hard during these days. While Mary stays at home in
expectation of the delivery, her office at Bethlehem University – she is
curator of the Tarathuna, the university heritage center that houses books and
artifacts of Palestine – has been visited by a tank grenade, and the wall next
to her desk shows a hole with a diameter of about half a meter. The grenade had
hit the book shelves, but fortunately no fire broke out. Eelco took pictures of
the scene and the glass spread over the floor. Several other buildings,
including the new Millennium building, were similarly hit. The Tanzim are
shooting around the university area, it seems to Gilo, or to tanks, and Israel
fires rockets and also sprays the area rather randomly with bullets. Many
houses around the university were hit. The house belonging to family of a
colleague of Mary was hit too by a rocket and the inhabitants narrowly escaped
death.
Many people have
fled to family in the area (it is difficult or impossible for Palestinians to
leave Bethlehem), especially those living around the military headquarters on
the Hebron-Jerusalem road that have been reduced to rubbles, and, of course,
the inhabitants of the refugee camps. The mayor has also been forced to stay
the night elsewhere. Many hundreds sleep in cars or under the arcades of the
Manger Square in front of the Church of Nativity. Since time immemorial the
Church and the area around it have been considered a kind of safe haven,
although during the June War in 1967, and also more recently during the
invasion of Bethlehem end of October last year, the Church was shelled, and a
young man died there hit by an Israeli bullet. Many are afraid; one woman
living close to the military headquarters remained stiff in her body after
hearing the bombings. One can guess how children react.
*
* *
I fight a
headache which does not stop these days. It is difficult to distract oneself
from the preoccupation which the situation demands. Almost every hour I listen
to the BBC news and in between I keep my ears open to hear if there is shooting
close or far away, or whether the Apache helicopters or the little drone with
its irritating buzz are still in the air. As if to protest against the
unwelcome noises, the birds whistle happily in the spring-like weather. To get
the monotonous rhythm of shooting out of my mind, I listen to songs of Schubert
every once in a while.
UCP colleagues
in Ramallah call to say that last night they were forced to stay in the shelter
of their house and are subject to an around-the-clock curfew. A difficult
experience since they do not know how long the curfew will last, and shooting
and tanks are sometimes close. The Israeli army does not allow staff of the
Dutch representative office to evacuate the Dutch nationals from Ramallah. Nor
does it allow the entrance of ambulances, in Ramallah or in the Gaza camp
Jabalia. It is not unlikely that a number of the thirty Palestinian dead of
this Tuesday have died due to lack of timely or proper medical care. On TV I
see the now familiar images of the many hundreds of men in the refugee camps
being handcuffed and blindfolded, sitting or standing in queues.
In Dheisha south
of Bethlehem, the father of an acquaintance of mine died during the occupation.
I still remember how he used to maintain a friendly grin when I visited him in
the early eighties. Because the family was not allowed to leave the camp, they
had to bury him next to the house. Especially the house to house searches in
the camps, accompanied by electricity and water cuts, must have been
frightening for the women, old men and children who stayed in the house after
the young men were rounded up.
*
* *
Last Sunday, the
Patriarch Michel Sabbah conducted an interdenominational mass in St Catherine’s
Church during which also the authorities, including Moslems, were present. I
have the feeling that the various authorities and leaders cooperate well in
Bethlehem. They are present where and when you expect them to be present, and
the evening before the invasion the mayors, Bethlehem district governor, and
the members of the Palestinian Legislative Council made a joint televised
appeal to the population to stay cautious while doctors were asked to be
available around the clock. After the mass, the clergy, leaders and believers
went to the military headquarters where a prayer was conducted next to the
rubble. After that, the patriarch visited some of the houses in the
surroundings that have also been severely affected.
Fuad’s wife and
son had a supermarket there, now largely destroyed. The evening of the first
bombing of the headquarters, his son Teddy was there and luckily escaped
injuries or worse when the glass, bottles and cans tumbled down. Also a cousin
of Mary and his family lived there. He stayed in his house during the second
bombing attack when most of the furniture fell apart. Later on somebody visited
him, watching him silently and alone among the destruction around him, tears in
his eyes.
*
* *
Mary is mainly
worried about her delivery: How to go to the French hospital when the Israeli
army would occupy the area or when there is shooting? A few months ago she was
interviewed by a foreign journalist who made a series about pregnant
Palestinian women in Bethlehem, apparently with the purpose of making a kind of
parallel with the Virgin Mary’s delivery. The journalist insistently asked her
what she would do when there was an occupation of Bethlehem at the time of the
delivery, as if to press the comparison further. Mary felt quite uncomfortable
but we now face a reality which is close to occupation. She is still haunted by
the interview. Mary and I now sleep with my family in law, that is closer to
the hospital, and we all can comfort each other. Yesterday I myself had an
unhappy dream whereby my computer mail inbox, after pressing ‘get message’,
showed continuous ‘SOS’ messages which did not stop coming in, as if the mail
system ran out of control.
*
* *
Jara is OK, remarkably. While schools are
closed, she stays home but is always active. During the evening, when I return
home, she orders me: ‘Spelen!’ (Dutch for ‘play’) and for over an hour
we play doctor and patient, a wedding dance party and a home-making ceremony.
She wants her brother to be named Thaer (from thawra =
revolution). Mary and I are not enthusiastic. At one point she noticed a
thunderous sound, a shell entering the university, and confessed: ‘Ana
khaayef ‘ (I am afraid). I told her that there is no need to be so but she
said in a determined voice, ‘No, I am afraid.” Afterwards she seemed to forget
and continued playing.
Some papers torn from my
diary
Friday 8 /3 /2002
Well,
my friend, this evening there is no need to revise tomorrow's exam since there
is no school tomorrow! But hey don't be so happy! It's not a day off! It will
be the first day out of school for unlimited period!
Last night the
Israelis recaptured the refugee camps in Bethlehem! At midnight I suddenly woke
up by a sound of bombing and shelling. When I turned on the light I found that
my mum and sister were sleeping in my room because it is the safest room in the
house! My mum tried to calm us down by saying "Well girls it's not the
first time. It will be over in a few hours. Go back to sleep. "
We tried our best to go back
to sleep hoping that the following day would be better! But in the morning, the
streets were like a grave; there were no cars, no pedestrians, nothing! The
Israelis were still in the refugee camps and Beit Jala.
I feel very stressed today
although there wasn't much shooting but I guess I know the reason! During the
whole day there has been an airplane hovering in the sky of Bethlehem taking
pictures of the area; it has a steady loud sound! It's just like having the
washing machine on all day! Don't you think it bothers? It didn't only annoy me
all my friends whom I called complained about the same thing. It drove
everybody crazy.
Nadine Ali
Saint Joseph School - Bethlehem
An open letter to Israelis
Written By: Ghassan Andoni
I would like to give you the benefit of the doubt and think that after 35 years of occupation you still have no clue of what is going on at your backyard. You have never appreciated the level of tolerance and patience from the side of Palestinians towards your military occupation. Instead of grasping the chance and moving towards a decent conclusion of the conflict, your greed increased, your domination was tightened, your level of control was and still is suffocating, and your inhuman dreams of taking more when we were not able to give any expanded. I do hope that you still remember the times in which Palestinian cheap labor turned you into bosses, in which we were your second major market, in which you enjoyed consuming our water, in which you expropriated most of our lands, and in which we only looked at you with sad eyes and waited for you to cease.
Do
you still remember what did you do when we were quite, did not resist, appealed
with sad eyes to the human inside you and the “good well” of the world? I am
sure you do. Facts on ground cannot be hidden. What you cannot understand is:
you cannot kill the hope and steal the future of a proud nation and expect them
to be thankful. No matter how much you are drunk with power, you can never win
this war.
Do
you know what was more painful than all? It was listening to your officials.
Take for example your “United Jerusalem” Hero (Ehud Ulmurt), in his systematic
campaign to kick us out of Jerusalem and flood it with all others, when ever we
stayed silent or quietly complains, his argument was: “See, I told you stop
worrying about Palestinian reactions, stop thinking that our campaign in
Jerusalem will lead to a conflict or bloodshed. Arabs are either happy with
what we do or know deeply inside them that they cannot challenge us.” Yet,
whenever we could not tolerate your inhuman policies, whenever we protested or
demonstrated our anger and dissatisfaction his argument was: “see, I told you,
we should not allow them to dictate to us what to do and what not to do. We
have to do more to convince them that “Violence” from their side will not
work.” You were all happy to call this policy “The Zionist Response”
That
was your typical way in dealing with us. If we stayed quite you squeeze more
and if we resist you do the same. What would you think this would lead us to?
The only possible way open to us was to escalate resistance. When you totally
close the door for hope and when you blindly increase the brutality of your
occupation, you create the foundations for an open war. This was the mistake of
all occupiers and it is yours as well.
Whenever
we cried that your colonies are suffocating us, you either ignored us or
accused us of being anti-Jewish. You always thought that imposing hard facts on
the ground is the way to deal with “Arabs”. Whenever we shouted that Jerusalem
is also very dear to us, you escalated the plans to force us out of the beloved
city and ban us from even visiting. You always thought that this is the right
thing to do. You always thought that it is natural for Palestinians to adjust
to the needs and greed of Israel. You never bothered to pay any attention to
what your “needs” are doing to us and wither or not we can live with them. This
is not new, this is not special for you, all occupiers reached this stage of
blindness and this is exactly how all of them had already lost.
Your
problem is even greater. Different from the British or the French, you cannot
take your things and leave. As much as we are in your backyard, you are in
ours. If you can open your eyes and minds, you can see that you can only live
if we can as well.
Even
when you started to be aware that forcing us out of our country is not
possible, and when you realized that we are too many to be annexed, you wanted
us to adjust even more. Your demand was unbearable. It was: you have to step
off our backs and we need to continue sitting on yours. Even after this long
period of direct military occupation, you wanted us to accept being half
humans, enjoy half human rights, exercise half civil rights, and accept to not
have any national rights. We thought, and out of your history, you would be the
most sensible people towards the rights of people living inside or being
controlled by other nations. We were totally proven wrong. The only lesson you
learned out of your tragedy is: it should be some one else and not us. It was
not: it should never happen again to anyone.
You
know what, humanity suffered a lot from the ones who have the power and
accordingly act as superiors to all others. Can you look at the mirror and
recognize what you see? Can you halt for a while and examine what does your
claims and the definition of your rights does to others?
Can
you cease being clever and think everyone else is stupid? When we were engaged
in peace talks to find a way for peaceful coexistence, you never negotiated
with us. You negotiated among your selves and reported to us. Your reports
were: “this is the deal take it or leave it,” you always thought of us as
minors, inferiors, a problem among the many that you face. At the same time,
you thought we were blind. You thought we could not see how much you exploited
the negotiations period, that we could not notice that the area occupied by
your colonies have doubled and the number of your “ambassadors” to our side,
the most radical fanatics of your society (you call them settlers) have doubled
as well. Remind you that we could not be blind because if we could not see the
fancy European stile homes on each and every hilltop around us, we could feel
how those colonies and the roads serving them are turning our lives into hill.
You
know, the sense of superiority is always linked with arrogance. Do you know
what it means for an elderly respected Palestinian to be humiliated and looked
at in a disgusting way by your arrogant armed teenagers? Have you ever
encountered this feeling from before? Have you ever looked at us as people who
have pride and dignity? Looking at our experience with you, I just doubt it.
One
thing you have to be sure of. We cannot tolerate being held hostages until you
decide among your selves what you want and what are you going to do with us.
I
do not know how to appeal to you. I have been trying for 15 years. I do believe
that prior to being able to conclude this bloody conflict we need to look
carefully in the mirror to define who we are and try to step in the shoes of
the other to be able to see beyond ourselves.
I
hope we still have the time to do so.
Ghassan
Andoni
===================================================
The Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement between People
64 Star Street, P.O.Box 24
Beit Sahour - Palestine
www.rapprochement.org
NOT ANOTHER PEACE PLAN
By Israel Shamir
In
the quid pro quo trade, Israel is for the quid. Quo can wait, as it waited last
fifty years.
It is warm in the low hills bordering the
plain; purple-dark lupines, a favourite flower of March, run along the dirt
track from the refugee camp to a nearby quarry. The place is swarming with
soldiers, who assist the security in the selection job. Men are separated from
their womenfolk; they are handcuffed by mass-produced plastic handcuffs,
standard black sacks on their heads. They are taken to the quarry, beaten, some
are shot, and some are tortured. Their houses were demolished by huge
Caterpillar machines. Twenty men are executed by 8 o’clock. It is another
morning of ethnic cleansing in Palestine.
In another world, twenty miles away, Israelis
fight with heavy road traffic. It is another day of shopping and entertainment.
In the Qiriya government buildings, politicians and officials discuss the Saudi
Peace plan. HRH Prince Abdullah proposed to Israel full acceptance of the Arab
world in exchange for full withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967.
Israeli responses show the true difference between opposing streams of Israeli
public opinion.
Brutal Sharon and his right-wing followers
flatly reject the proposal. They do not give a damn about Arab recognition.
Liberal Peres of Labour party replies as
follows: Yes, we gladly accept the Saudi Peace plan. It is a great plan, and
Prince’s idea to recognise and accept Israel is a wonderful thing. Surely we
won’t give up the lands or withdraw, but the plan is good.
In the quid pro quo trade, the Jewish ‘Left’ is
for the quid. Quo can wait, as it waited last fifty years. Israeli Right is not
all that much interested even in playing the game of ‘peace process’.
The purpose of this game is to calm the frayed
nerves of contemporaries, who became witnesses of an unpleasant thing, a
Palestinian Holocaust. It is hard to live without hope, and that is why fertile
minds invent new proposals, new frameworks and discussion tables. While the
proposals are being discussed, the Holocaust goes on. Palestine is destroyed,
Palestinians murdered and tortured, and it is still the first stage of the new
an-Naqba. In today’s (12.03.2002) Haaretz[i][i], Amnon Barzilai reports on the new
opinion poll carried out by Jaffe Institute for Strategic Studies. According to
it, 46% of Jews in Israel support mass deportation (transfer) of the Palestinians.
If the question is asked in more ‘soft’ form, the support for the Final
Solution raises to 60%.
Nazis never openly declared their intention to
massacre Jews and Gypsies, they spoke of ‘deportation’ and ‘transfer’ as of
their ‘Final Solution’. Even in 1938, these ideas have not had such
wholehearted support in Nazi Germany, as they have now in the Jewish state.
But what is the Jewish state? Is it Israel, the
small sliver of land in the Middle East? How would it be able to bend the will
of Europeans and Americans? The Jewish historian, Solomon Lurie, author of the
fundamental study of anti-Semitism in antiquity, spoke of a ‘non-territorial
Jewish nation-state’. Now this powerful non-territorial state stretching from
New York to Moscow accepted Nazi doctrine as its policy and genocide as its
praxis. A good example is provided by the Jewish American law professor from
Harvard, Alan Dershowitz, who writes in Sir Conrad Black’s owned Jerusalem Post[ii][ii]: “the first act of [Palestinian]
terrorism should result in the destruction of a small village which has been
used as a base for terrorist operations. The residents would be given 24 hours
to leave, and then troops will come in and bulldoze all of the buildings”. It
was the standard practice of Nazi troops in occupied Europe.
Provided that Dershowitz and others of that ilk
taught American students for a generation, while Black and his comrades-in-arms
busily promoted this agenda, it is not strange that the US gives its full
support to the Judeo-Nazi war machine. Rumours of the impending US attack on
Iraq and Saudi Arabia were designed to freeze the neighbouring Arab nations in
the state of horrified expectation.
Apparently they succeeded. The Saudi Prince
Abdullah probably understands as well as anybody in the Middle East that any
‘peace proposal’ will be utilised by Zionists in order to stall the talks and
to go on with their homicidal plans. But he apparently felt his first duty was
to his people, to the Saudis, threatened by the Damocles’ Sword of the US Air Force.
There is not a slight chance for this or other peace plan, be it Zinni, Tenet,
or Mitchell plan. In 1970-72, a whole set of peace proposals were produced by
Jarring and other statesmen. Israel used the time to beef up its Bar-Lev line
along the Suez, while stalling or rejecting proposals. The pattern repeated
itself after Madrid and Oslo.
The Judeo-Nazi plans are laid out. The media
they control stifles reporting and discussion of the Palestinian Holocaust, the
US Armed Forces provide them with total protection. Their hand cannot be
stayed. Not by the ritual peace proposals, anyway.
Instead of this waste
of words, HRH Prince Abdullah
and other leaders should move their country’s currency deposits from dollar to
Euro and gold. Non-Islamic interest-taking banking must be outlawed as other
form of loan sharking. We can do the same, and add a full-scale boycott of
newspapers and professors supporting the genocide in Palestine.
Mankind still has a chance to save Palestinians
and to save oneself. Dershowitz, Black and Co should be treated as accessories
to Sharon’s war crimes, and the Jewish state must be deNazified, as thoroughly
as Germany after 1945.
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