News,
articles and documents from the Holy Land
Issue No. 195 - Tuesday, 18 March 2003
Dear Friends, Brothers
and Sisters,
I am sure that you are waiting with great worry to see what will happen in the next days concerning a possible war on Iraq. Here also everybody is worried even if we are far away because many are concerned that it will have serious consequences on us. How?
We do really
fear three things which might happen:
- A general
curfew on the whole Palestinian Territories during the time of the war as they
did for forty days during the first golf war.
- A confusion in
the whole region if Iraq attacks Israel and if Israel responds.
- Escalation in
the Israeli aggression on the Palestinian People including a possible partial
transfer to Jordan or anywhere else.
This last point
means, that they will benefit from the occasion when the world is busy in
Iraq.. Israel might increase its military aggression and achieve the goals she
wants. There are plans for the transfer of the Palestinian people, there are
parties in the Israeli Knesset with this agenda, even Sharon himself was always
speaking about Jordan as alternative country and homeland for the Palestinian..
You don't have to forget that their dream is to have a pure Jewish state from
the sea to the river. But I would like to assure you the Palestinians are more
aware in these days and are not ready to do as they did in 1948 and 1967 where
more than half of the population fled the country and now living in 66 refugee
camps all over the Arab world. People are more determined to stay and will
never leave their homes and villages.
It seems that
the war will start soon and all the efforts to prevent it went with the wind… I
still think that the only one who can still prevent it at the last moment is
His Holiness the Pope, and I hope that he will go to Baghdad or to Washington
to convince both Bush and Saddam that it is an unnecessary war. Today I was surprised
that a French parliamentarian ask the Pope to go to Baghdad as a human shield.
One on my German friends who is an advocate went today to Rome especially to
make some efforts in this same direction. I encouraged him even if I told him
that it might be too late.
I was thinking
of the possibility that Saddam accepts to go out from Iraq in order to prevent
the war, the destruction of his country and to save the lives of many innocent
civilians from his people. If I were him I would have accepted the proposal in
order to take some rest and enjoy a good time anywhere in the world especially
in Switzerland if the can give him asylum, especially that he is since 25 years
in the same problems and I think that the alternative will be to be killed or
captured or fugitive. I liked the idea of that mayor of the Italian city who
welcomed him there, and I thought if he doesn’t go there and he prefers to stay
in the region we give him asylum in Taybeh because it was in the old testament
a city of refuge, for this reason Jesus himself came here before his death
because he felt protected. But, will he accept this proposal? And if he accepts
will the Israelis allow him to come here??!
Out of this
subject, I want just to tell you that we had the pleasure and the honor to have
Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini in Taybeh for three days. He spent last week end
with us because he preached a spiritual retreat to our French sisters and we
captured the occasion to have him speak to our community after the via cruces last
Friday and he did a short commentary of the verse of Jn 11: 54 about the stay
of Jesus and his disciples in Taybeh/Efraim. He also celebrated the Sunday mass
in our parish and delivered a very deep and precious homily that I translated
to the community. He was very impressed by our hospitality and promised to
return in the future.
You will find in
today’s Olive Branch the following documents and articles:
1) A press release by Pax Christi
International urging visits of Annan to Iraq and the Pope to the United Nation.
(It seems that this international organization of chatting is dieing or is already
dead!! Therefore, I have already called since long time that it should be
closed).
2) Open Letter to President Bush from Samia
Khoury who is a concerned Palestinian woman (It seems that he will not have
time to read it because he will be very busy with the war).
3) Letter from Bethlehem (50) by Toine van
Teeffelen in which he is describing the atmosphere in Bethlehem BEFORE THE WAR
STARTS.
4) Toine van Teeffelen is doing a series of
interviews in collaboration with the Jerusalem Times. The first interview is with Dr Bernard Sabella,
director of the Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees of the Middle
East Council of Churches and lecturer at Bethlehem University.
5) George B. Sahhar is writing about “The
Other Side: Israeli Soldiers from a Palestinian Perspective”.
6) The Truth about the
murder of Rachel Corrie, the American peace activist who was killed by an
Israeli Bulldozer two days ago. (All my respect and appreciation for her
sacrifice of herself).
I don’t know why
the Americans didn’t do anything against Israel as they are now doing against
Iraq? Or this is the double standard policy of the first super power in the
world?! We hope that they will have enough time to resolve the main problem in
the world: the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Here, is the heart of all
instability in the world.
Even if all the
indications show that this horrible war will break out soon, I hope that it
will not happen because it will be a real disaster if it happens. The most
valuable gift we need is PEACE especially in the Holy Land in the whole region
and in the world. Let’s pray for peace in these dangerous days.
Best wishes
from Taybeh Fr.
Raed Abusahlia
PAX CHRISTI
INTERNATIONAL URGES VISITS OF ANNAN TO IRAQ
AND THE POPE TO THE UNITED NATIONS
Brussels,
17 March 2003
As the United States and Great
Britain, supported by Spain, make final efforts to win U.N. Security Council
backing for military action in Iraq, the international Catholic peace movement expressed
once again its strong support for a peaceful and diplomatic solution to the
crisis. In a communication to the U.N. general secretary on Friday, Pax Christi
International urged Kofi Annan to make a personal visit to Baghdad in a last effort
to avert the impending war. Annan's mission, explained Pax Christi international
secretary Etienne De Jonghe, would be to urge with finality the Iraqi
government's immediate and comprehensive disarmament in full cooperation with
UN weapons inspectors.
Pax Christi has consistently supported the Roman Catholic Church's many efforts
to help resolve the Iraqi conflict peacefully. In recent days, Pax Christi
has been appealing to Pope John Paul II to come to New York in order to address
the Security Council. Pax Christi USA, as well as a delegation of U.S. church
leaders, have already delivered a similar plea to the Pope at an earlier
occasion. Representatives of Pax Christi USA, Pax Christi International
and several U.S. Catholic organizations and congregations have
been in contact with Vatican representatives to explore the plan. As the probability
of war grows nearer, a papal visit is still viewed by many as a crucial and
definitive attempt to avoid a humanitarian crisis of immense proportions.
Open Letter to President Bush
Samia Khoury
A concerned Palestinian woman
March 15, þ
2003
Thank you Mr. Bush for your recent statement on the Middle East. Beautiful
rhetoric indeed. But what else is new. We have heard those same words in June
2002, and in previous years as well. Yet no concrete steps have been taken to
solve the Palestinian Israeli conflict which has been on the UN agenda for over
fifty years. On the contrary, the conflict is being aggravated by Israel’s
impunity as it perpetrates its occupation of our land in defiance of
international law, and by its outrageous record of human rights violations.
Ironically, the resolve for finding a solution, and the promises to establish a
Palestinian State get renewed whenever there is a crisis which threatens your
interests in the region.
“The clear principles that your efforts are guided by”, are basic rights of
all people. But you seem to forget Mr. Bush that the Palestinians are under
Military Occupation, and so there is no way we can “live in dignity under free
and honest governments” when we have no control of our political or civil rights.
You are so right Mr. Bush in saying that “people who live in freedom are more
likely to reject bitterness, blind hatred and terror.” It is the occupation and
state terrorism that is breeding hatred, bitterness, and desperation. That is
why we are demanding that the Israeli Military Occupation and the dispossession
of a people of their rights and homeland must come to an end. It is only then
that we can “ turn our energy toward reconciliation, reform and development.”
And you are just as right by saying that “there can be no peace for either side
unless there is freedom for both.” How can we have freedom under a military
occupation, whereas Israel has a choice to live in freedom, if it frees itself
from occupying another nation. You are not being fair Mr. Bush. You are
demanding of the Palestinians as victims of the gravest injustice in modern
history, to acquiesce to the dispossession process while you allow Israel to
resume its the expansionist policy. That certainly is no way to achieve peace.
The whole region Mr. Bush has been living under the threat of this looming
war which you and your partner Mr. Blair are planning to wage against Iraq. You
are adamant that Iraq has to abide by the Security Council resolutions, and you
are blaming France for splitting the security council through its threat of
using its veto power. France plans to use its veto power to avert a devastating
war to the whole region, whereas the USA administration has constantly used its
veto power to assert the Israeli occupation. Israel could not have maintained
the occupation for over thirty five years without the unequivocal support of
the USA in defying UN security Council resolutions.
Will you Mr. President have the courage to force Israel to withdraw from the
Occupied territories in accordance with Secuity council resolutions 242 and 338
or else!!!!!! No, we are not asking you to wage a war. The region has seen
enough suffering and devastation. So please Mr. Bush be fair; give us a break.
It is not the issue of a new Palestinian Prime Minister, and the road map for
peace, which for all we know could be an endless process like its predecessor
the Oslo Agreement. The issue is the Israeli Prime Minister and his refusal to
end the occupation, which is killing us all; Palestinians as well as Israelis.
Letter from Bethlehem (50)
Toine van Teeffelen
March 18, 2003
BEFORE THE WAR STARTS
We live strange,
somehow unreal times. So many people feel pressure on the breast or have a
headache because of this restless waiting for the war in Iraq to start. Suzy tells
me about a teacher at St Joseph who feels as if there is no bukra
[tomorrow] at all, as if there is just an abyss. Another colleague confessed
that he, like so many others, zaps from one news channel to another at home,
all the time hearing about a positive diplomatic development that is
immediately dashed by a negative development. He thus keeps himself frustrated
and would "explode" if there was no way to get his worries out.
Because he does not want to burden his wife and children, he shares his worries
with his colleagues at school. For that reason he likes to go to school, he
sarcastically tells his colleagues. They in their turn sourly thank him for the
trust he puts in them.
Suzy's classes
tell her that they do not wish to think about the war at all. They even do not
want to read the list of civic instructions prepared by the East-Jerusalem
YMCA. The war is like a black hole for them that only invites negative thoughts
and feelings which they want to avoid, and, anyway, it's impossible to predict what
is going to happen in the near future, they say. Black humor is much practiced
at the school. "Get some energy, take vitamins every day," says one
teacher to the other. The careless response: "We'll all die soon anyway,
so the vitamins will just survive me." Suzy says that she is relieved to at least have finished the
mid-semester term "before the war starts." We all use that expression
very often. It gives an awkward feeling to speak about a war as if it is
primarily an interruption of one's own daily business. "I'll see you soon,
Inshallah [if God will]," she says when I leave, knowing that a war
is likely to coincide with a long curfew in the West Bank and Gaza. Imagine
that people will have nothing else to do than watching the war on their TV
screens at home. And how strange and bitter it is that for many the war will
somehow come as a welcome release of the built-up emotional tensions.
*
* *
We all are
rushing to do the necessary things before the war starts. I went myself to the
Dutch embassy to pick up Tamer's new passport. While standing in the early
morning queue in front of the Bethlehem-Jerusalem checkpoint, I met a
Palestinian friend, a technician, who also had to do an errand in Tel Aviv. One
of the soldiers shouted that women should cross the checkpoint first. "A
gentleman," somebody in the queue whispered. Upon arrival in Jerusalem, my
friend waved a quick hand gesture to point out a route to circumvent the guards
or soldiers who were checking passers by at the entrance of Yaffa Street.
"If you can circumvent them, always do so." He is apparently
well-informed about the ins and outs of traveling. In the collective taxi to
Tel Aviv, while we are exchanging small talk in English, I suddenly realized
something uncommon. My friend was systematically avoiding the names of
"Bethlehem," "Palestinians," or any other term that would
betray that we were from the West Bank or that he is a Palestinian. Instead, he
was talking much about "Israel", "the country" and the
"Holy Land," apparently because others, Israelis, in the taxi might
be listening too. Among other things he relayed his recollections of the Gulf
War in 1990; how he was in Germany at the time (it was his last time "to
leave Israel"), and how his friends there advised him not to go back to
the country because he might face great risks. He told them: "I don't mind
to die, as long as it is with my family." While listening, I am struck by
the ease with which many Palestinians are talking these days about dying.
Somehow being left without rights and without future seems to degrade life
itself.
On the way back
from the embassy, I took a taxi whose Jewish driver recalled the times that he
as an Israeli visited Bethlehem's grocery shops and restaurants. He started
blaming Arafat for the present situation but stopped when seeing that I
withdrew from the conversation. Despite Mary's worries about Palestinian
attacks against Israeli buses, I took an intercity bus and decided not to read
the morning paper but rather to enjoy the spring-like sun, and doze off a
little. Back at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem I had a talk with a Dutch doctor
running a socio-medical center in the Old City. She proposed to coordinate
joint fieldtrips of school students from Jerusalem and Bethlehem. "The
Palestinians in Jerusalem nowadays have less of an idea what it is to live in
the West Bank. For instance, staff at my clinic who live in Jerusalem do not
really understand the sour faces of their colleagues who come in the morning
from Bethlehem or Beit Jala. They don't know what a hazard it is to make
traveling arrangements and to sometimes wait for hours at checkpoints."
The roads are of
course a permanent hazard for Palestinians. At Damascus Gate I saw the familiar
view of dozens of dirty and dusty vans, many of them former police cars
re-painted and re-used as collective taxis. The parking lot is black of car
smoke, and in fact the clothes of the drivers have darkened, too. There are no
good toilet facilities. In one corner the thick smell of strong coffee blended
with the smell of urine. Since several months the police oblige drivers not to
allow passengers in who don't have valid permits or IDs. I watched the drivers
arguing who would go to Bethlehem and along which way. The passengers pressured
themselves into the narrow seats of the taxi only to be asked a little later to
step into another one, and then into yet another one. When the final driver
checked the papers of his passengers, an old man explained that he didn't have
a permit but that he just arrived from Mokassed hospital, and that he possessed
up-to-date hospital papers. Why should the police bother him, an old man who is
doing nothing? "Forget it," said the driver nervously. He said it
happened to him that police arrested a woman in his car who just came from an
emergency at the hospital. His car had now been confiscated twice for periods
of 30 days because he carried "illegal" passengers. He also paid
thousands of shekels. He now has signed a paper at the police station stating
that he will pay a fine of 30.000 shekels in case he is caught again. So he
does not want to take risks anymore. Afterwards I talked with him about his
predicament. He spoke good English; for sure he got a good education but
circumstances forced him to work as a taxi driver. His problem was, he said,
that he didn't have "friends" among the police who could make things
easier for him.
On the road, I
saw drivers sometimes giving a sign to each other, to warn each other that a
police check is coming, or that they have to make a detour. Palestinians, an
expressive people, have this talent of quickly communicating visual signs with
the fingers of their hand and the turns of their wrist.
*
* *
My own modest
traveling problem is the need to get out of the country to renew a three-month
tourist visa. A previous application for a renewal of the work permit was lost
in the offices of the Israeli Civil Administration (the civil department of the
army). While waiting for the renewal of the work permit it was better, so was I
advised, to stay legally in the country by extending the tourist visa. And it
was preferable to go out of the country by plane and come back before the war
started. I quickly organized a brief trip. Mary asked Jara to daily pray for
the visa extension since foreigners nowadays have sometimes difficulties to
enter Israel. Afterwards, I heard that she did the praying in earnest even
though she of course didn't understand what a visa is.
Indeed, I got
the three months. A Dutch colleague on a work visit who happened to be in the same
plane received just two weeks. My (Jewish) travel agent in Jerusalem sighed
upon hearing about the costly event. She told me that her thirteen-year old son
wanted to dress himself as a priest during the Purim holiday. This holiday, in
commemoration of Esther's clever tricks during the Babylonian Diaspora, is
marked by Jewish youths dressing up like in carnival. "In the past he
chose to be a rabbi, or a whore, or whatever, and now he just wanted to be a
priest, for the fun of it. But when he wore a large cross his school mates told
him he better should change his tenue. Israeli society becomes
xenophobic."
*
* *
So we are
waiting. Sunday night Mary and I visit a silent vigil of a few hundreds of
people protesting against the war in front of the Church of Nativity. Mary
hears that some new-born Palestinian babies have been named after French
president Chirac. A colleague who works in Gaza but stays in Jerusalem says
that she wants to quickly go back to Gaza "before the singing starts, if
you know what I mean." Jara asks why Michael Jackson dresses himself like
a woman. Tamer is suddenly able to crawl from one corner of the room to
another. He sheds his head and blows kisses in the air. All the time he makes
the sound of "aja" [he came], and Mary interprets that he must
be happy that I am back from my trip. There is again bad weather predicted
these days. "The world is upside down, we got snow in spring, we have
leaders who don't listen to their peoples, and while the world is against, the
war is coming," says Mary.
INTERVIEW SERIES
Dear friends,
The organization
of which I am a board member, Arab Educational Institute, has launched an
interview series together with The Jerusalem Times about the religious
identity of Palestinians.
The series is introduced as follows:
"Given the enormous pressures under
which the Palestinian community presently lives, including those of
fragmentation and isolation, there is a need to reflect upon what brings and
keeps Palestinians together as a living community with its own identity. What
role does religion play in this, and how are or should the religious aspects of
Palestinian identity be expressed or communicated in major societal fields like
education and the media? How should it be effectively communicated to an
uninformed audience abroad?
These and related questions are explored by Katharine
Maycock, a British scholar who worked as a Quaker Peace and Social Witness volunteer
at the Arab Educational Institute in Bethlehem."
The first interview in this series is with Dr
Bernard Sabella, director of the Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees
of the Middle East Council of Churches and lecturer at Bethlehem University.
Toine van
Teeffelen
Interview with Bernard Sabella
The Jerusalem Times, March 7, 2003
"I actually
believe we have a heritage of Christian-Muslim coexistence. We share with one
another the culture, the language, the music, the food, the geography, the
environment and the Holy Places. We have a common history, we have a common
heritage and a common experience. In this context our experience as Muslims and
Christians is different from the experience of Muslims and Christians let us
say in Malaysia, or Nigeria, Indonesia or the Philippines, or even in
Australia, or Canada or the USA or Europe. It is a unique kind of experience on
which we need to capitalise. Because it is very important to spread a message
to the West about this kind of experience that the West doesn’t know about.
This is especially important now, because there are politicians in the West who
are using Islam and especially militant Islam as a justification to attack and
to spread stereotypes. The Muslims we know are not the kind of Muslims that
Western politicians are talking about.
"I’m not
exaggerating, we have a beautiful picture of coexistence. I was in Australia
for a month and when I mentioned that, some Australians couldn’t understand it.
I said ‘but this is our experience of living in peace in good neighbourliness
with our Muslim neighbours’. And I told them that the National Authority encourages
this kind of pluralist orientation. And that President Arafat keeps insisting
on having Muslims and Christians together especially at events and social,
cultural and other developments. And they were surprised and said ‘we didn’t
know that’. And I think the West doesn’t know that. This experience that shows
Islam in the colours of living together with other religions is unfortunately
missing in the West nowadays.
"After
September 11th, I got a French journalist who said ‘Dr Sabella,
aren’t you afraid?’ ‘Afraid of what?’ I said. ‘Of the Muslims doing something
bad to you.’ 'I answered: You must be kidding. What do you mean? They are my
Palestinian brothers and sisters. We grew up together, we live next to one
another, we go to school together. What are you talking about? This is your
mental idea of things, it is not my experience, not my cognitive view of the
world around me. So don’t tell me about this.’
"In this context, to be
a Palestinian Christian simply means that I’m living here as a Palestinian, and my religion is Christianity.
So the two mix together and I feel that I belong to the Land and the Land
belongs to me as much as any Palestinian. This is what it means to me. I see no
complexity or conflict between the two. Period. Never, never in my Palestinian
life, history, experience was there any problem with my Christian identity. And
this is something that I think speaks of the openness and magnanimity - in this
case - of Islam, of the Islam we have experienced in Palestine. So I feel
completely a Palestinian.
"This is
not to say that there are no problems in Palestinian society. Basically
Palestinians are a very religious group, extremely religious. And sometimes I
tell my students at Bethlehem University that I wish that all the religiosity of
Palestinians, both Muslim and Christian, were put to good practice. We are
fantastic, we are a people at prayer, but often we do not apply the spirit of
the prayer. And because we are so much under pressure, all of us, then we start
infighting and become insensitive. So I think we need to transform the
solidarity that comes from us as a people at prayer into a kind of social
solidarity that reflects the best in Palestinian culture and society.
Can you elaborate on some of the problems between the
communities?
"Sometimes
you get sensitivities over the fact that you have a real estate at a certain
locality and that there is a conflict over it or there is a business and there
is conflict over who has the right to be there or not to be there. And if it
happens to have Christians and Muslims involved then some people read into it
automatically a religious dimension, which in fact doesn’t exist. It is exactly
like someone from Nablus having difficulty with someone from Jerusalem, then it
doesn’t have to become a problem between Nabulsis and Jerusalemites.
"Religious
labelling has social, economic, political causes in each locality and the more
you have the meeting of religions as in Bethlehem or Nazareth, the more that
meeting of religions becomes prone to religious labelling on both sides. I
think the less understanding we have of the causes the more likely we are both,
Muslims and Christians, to use religious labelling. If we want to understand
the dynamics of relationships in a town like Bethlehem or Nazareth we have to
understand the root causes - economic, social, family and other root causes. We
cannot just simply say they are doing this because they are Muslims or they are
not doing it because they are Christians. That’s really simplifying matters and
really confusing them at the same time because then the religious dimension
becomes the cause of the problem while the cause of the problem is not
religion. It is using or abusing religion to explain or to hide the real
causes.
You mentioned
problems of real estate. What would be the source of this?
"You may
have someone who argues this land is ours because we have been here for a long
time or because of this or that reason. Now a small family has the land and has
deeds for the land. It happens that the tribe or a group who is more powerful
numerically does not believe that. They may be right or they may be wrong. That
is why it is important to have a system of law. It is important to have a
working court system and it is important to treat the individual Palestinian as
an individual Palestinian and not as a Christian or a Muslim belonging to this
extended family or to this nuclear family.
"I am not
saying that the cause of a Christian or Muslim family who claims they are being
discriminated against, or being forced to relinquish property that belongs to
them, is not a just cause. What I’m saying is that there is power politics here
that is not religiously based. It is based on human nature and social
relationships and not on religion per se. And now that gets confused with the
religious principle and with the religious background of the contestants to
this piece of land.
Do the expression of a Muslim identity and a Christian
identity support or weaken the case for Palestinian national unity?
"I think we
have some questions here concerning the relationship between an Islamic
identification of the Palestinian cause and a nationalist identification. And
both are present. It is clear that for Palestinian Christians, the preference
is for the nationalist presentation because the argument is very simple from
our point of view. When you talk about the nation, you talk about the people -
Christian, Muslim, whoever. When you talk about the religious identity, then
you talk about the broader identification, which in a sense puts the
non-Muslims or those who do not belong to the particular religion in a corner
or aside. He or she is put in a position to ask, ‘How do I belong’ and that was
the dilemma in which some Christians were living and still are living. As a
Palestinian and as a Palestinian Christian I have nothing against the Islamist
political ideology. I may have some reservation on some [issues], for e.g.,
justifying the use of force – because my Christian faith teaches me not to use
force. If I am a true Christian then I have to subscribe to that. But it
doesn’t make me less Palestinian. There are also Muslims who subscribe to the
same methodology. Islam is not a religion of violence. Here again in our
specific context you are talking about resistance and about ending occupation.
But resistance could be effectively non-violent; it may take longer time to
achieve the objective of ending occupation but it will achieve it. So we must
not altogether disregard the importance of non-violent resistance. I have no
problem as a Palestinian Christian with the Islamic parties that exist in
Palestine. But my preference is definitely for a secular nationalist identity
that would put me on par – on balance with my Muslim compatriots. This is my
preference and I don’t hide it.
Would you
encourage activities or
projects that actually serve to develop inter-religious
relations?
"I feel we should publicise more the
grounds, the current grounds that unite us as Muslims and Christians, as well
as Jews. I think this is very important. I think we have to have a kind of
comprehensive vision together of what we want to do. We cannot be exclusive. So
I encourage all kinds of activities that promote openness to one another. I
would welcome Jews who would join this effort and who would champion the cause
of justice. We either do the future together or we perish together. I think
what is happening now is that we are going into a path of such exclusivity that
in the final analysis we may really end up in disaster after disaster in
dealing with one another. Therefore we have to open up, talk, participate, look
at the good things, the good heritage, the common grounds that unite us Muslims
and Christians, and wherever is appropriate, also Jews. This is a struggle. We
want our liberation, we want our independent state, we want East Jerusalem as
our capital.
"Important is also real life experience. Look
at the private educational system – it has been going on so long. Muslims and
Christians studying together. What better project do you want? This is the best
project because it teaches us how to be together. It is a beautiful project, a
live project. I am talking about the experience of going to school together,
having Muslim and Christian teachers, Muslim students and Christian students
intermingling with one another, living our lives out together. It teaches us
how to respect one another, how not to censor one another. When my children
bring their friends home and they introduce me to them, I really do not know
where to place them, in terms of their religious background, and that is
wonderful. Going into our sitting room one evening and finding over eight
youngsters together identifying each in his first name as a person is a natural
thing to do. If you would have asked me to tell you who is Muslim and who is
Christian, I would definitely be at a loss. This means that we are a healthy
society and we are interacting with one another as people and not as
stereotypes and it is rewarding to see our kids doing this sort of interaction
among themselves, thus reinforcing our traditions of good neighbourliness. I think
this is beautiful. I cannot say we should come up with projects [for developing relations between Muslims and
Christians]. We are better off by experiencing life
together and by respecting one another not as Muslim or Christian but as a
person who has a firm belief in his or
her religion, and therefore we grow to appreciate one
another better. I am not for artificial projects and programmes. We are living
the experiential life projects every day: how to go by checkpoints, how to avoid tear-gas,
how to manage the curfew, how to end occupation and achieve our independence.
Next interview with educator Sana'a Abu Ghosh
The Other Side: Israeli Soldiers from a Palestinian
Perspective
By: George B. Sahhar
I recall from a
long time ago, an Israeli lady who owned a pastry shop in the area between New
Gate and Jaffa Gate. The small street where the shop was no longer exists. New
buildings came up instead. We went there over the course of many years, and it
seemed that the lady- now I realize that she spoke with an Austrian accent- was
always very nice. After many years, we grew up, and I recall one day when we
went to her pastry shop, she said to us with her broken English and heavy
accent: “Oh, you is small, you is grow.” She was expressing her delight to see
us time and again, year after year. Nowadays, as I am stopped at the
checkpoints, I roll down the window to show my I.D., usually after a long wait.
I wonder, whether the soldier with a gun and an aggressive look might not be
the grandson of that fine old lady in the pastry shop.
To describe
Israeli soldiers from a Palestinian point of view is to decipher tense and
contradictory emotions, and to try to make sense out of a senseless situation.
A Palestinian waiting at the checkpoint to go and visit elderly parents, a
woman going to hospital to give birth and not allowed to do so, or a student
trying to arrive at school, are all aware that the soldier standing there is
frightened. Yet, that awareness of his fear does not give legitimacy to the
actions carried out by the soldiers.
The harassment
by the soldiers confirms the Palestinian perception that the soldiers are
confused persons who do not know what they are doing, or why they are doing it,
although they pretend otherwise. Because of such harassment, the Palestinian
loses the image of the soldier as a person with a family, children, and loved
ones, but seems him instead as an imported humiliation machine. At the
checkpoints the silence is so intense, that neither side looks the other in the
eye, and the humanity of the human being is lost in the quagmire.
It is difficult
to describe Israeli soldiers as seen through Palestinian eyes. The oppressed
bleed quietly, either spiritually or physically, and thus are not allowed or
unable to speak freely, and when they speak, they do so as a show of
resistance, in defiance of the oppressors’ de-humanizing procedures.
There is a need
to put this inhuman interaction into words, as a testimony to history, to the
contemporary world, and to Israelis themselves, if and when they decide to
listen. This does not mean that the experience must be marketed, but rather
means that it be transferred from a general feeling that something is wrong, to
something specifically tangible and communicative, despite the pressure that
hinders critical thinking.
Even though
Israeli soldiers treat the Palestinians as non-persons, some Israelis still
consider it irrelevant to ask how Palestinians perceive these soldiers. The
view is always different from inside the Merkava tank and the watch tower.
However, such a historical situation must not end there.
In order to
break the vicious circle, priorities must be clear. Should Israeli soldiers
pursue an image of invincibility even if the sanctity of human life is
violated? If the answer is yes, then how do either Palestinians or Israelis
maintain their sanity? If the answer is no, then we will be on our way towards
the post-Merkava era. Why is it difficult for us to be human beings and to
respect the sanctity of human life?
Is it just a matter of personal choice? Or does it require a paradigm
shift? Maybe we need a miracle.
The
Truth about the murder of Rachel Corrie
March 16, 2003
In Rafah, Gaza Strip today Rachel Corrie, a
23-year old American woman from Olympia, Washington, who was a volunteer with
the International Solidarity Movement, was killed by the Israeli Army.
Rachel was standing in the path of the bulldozer as it advanced towards
her. When the bulldozer refused to stop or turn aside she climbed up onto
the mound of dirt and rubble being gathered in front of it wearing a fluorescent
jacket to look directly at the driver who kept on advancing. The
bulldozer continued to advance so that she was pulled under the pile of dirt
and rubble. After she had disappeared from view the driver kept advancing
until the bulldozer was completely on top of her. The driver did not lift
the bulldozer blade and so she was crushed beneath it. Then the driver
backed up - effectively running over her again. The seven other ISM
activists taking part in the action rushed to dig out her body. An ambulance
rushed her to Al-Najar Hospital where she died.
The Eviance:
go
to the following URL and look at the pictures.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/humanrightswire.shtml
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Source: http://www.evergreen.edu/news/mar03/rachelcorrie.htm
Rachel
Corrie
1979–2003
It is with the heaviest of hearts that I inform you that Rachel Corrie was
killed on Sunday, March 16, while trying to stop a bulldozer from tearing down
a building in a refugee camp in Gaza. Rachel, a senior at Evergreen, was most
recently a student in “Labor and the Environment,” “Common Ground,” “Local
Knowledge” and a contract entitled “Public Art and the Middle East Conflict.”
She was not enrolled this quarter. Rachel was known to many in the Olympia
community. She grew up here and graduated from Capital High School. She was actively
involved in many area activities. Rachel is described by faculty and staff as a
shining star, a wonderful student and a brave person of deep convictions.
Rachel will be remembered at a gathering sponsored by the International
Solidarity Movement at 7 p.m. on Sunday, March 16, at Olympia’s downtown
Percival Landing.
We have been in
contact with and extend deepest condolences to the Corrie family. We are in the
process of contacting the many faculty members with whom Rachel worked. As more
information about memorial services becomes available, we will share it with
you. Vice President of Student Affairs Art Costantino
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