News,
articles and documents from the Holy Land
Issue No. 175 - Saturday, 19 October 2002
Dear Friends, Brothers
and Sisters,
I told you last
time that Taybeh is becoming a touristic village since we are having some
pilgrims groups. In fact, we were very happy to host the French knights and
Ladies of the Holy Sepulcher, they were very happy to be with us the whole day
and they almost didn’t want to leave the village. This Sunday I will have
visitors from France, and Journalist from Pax Christi Germany and an Israeli Rabbi
from the movement “Rabbis for the Human Rights”. They will assist to our
Community Sunday mass and will have launch with us. We will discuss together
some common peace initiatives and activities. We hope that these small signs of
collaboration will help both sides to open their horizons towards further
collaboration. I am sometimes asking myself whether such meetings will be
accepted by my community, but at the end I discovered that it opens their mind
to the fact that there are good people from the other side who work for peace
and recognize our legitimate rights.
This week all
the people in the Holy Land and in my village also, will begin the season of
the Olive Harvest. It is a very happy occasion normally because many people depend
on agriculture in general and on Olive Oil in particular, but this year I feel
that they are not so enthusiastic even if they will have a very good harvest
since the product is very abundant. You know why? Because they cannot sell the
product and the prizes are very low due to the closure of the territories and
the difficulty of movement and the Israeli competition. People used to export
the product to Jordan and to other Arab countries, and now this became almost
impossible, therefore, they feel that they are loosing their time, money and
energy. This is destroying one of the main sources of income, especially that the
country is very well-known of olive trees throughout the centuries. It is
estimated that we have in Palestine 17 millions of olive trees. It is really a
real wealth if we can sell it. Imagine, that some of our students, used to pay
their school tuition by giving oil to us instead of money, simply because they
cannot sell it, and every family has a huge amount of oil kept in their houses
for years!
You will find in
today’s Olive Branch a lot of very important documents:
1)
Since the
Patriarch is in Washington taking part in the forth annul meeting of the Holy Land
Ecumenical foundation, I send you the full text of his speech.
2)
Press
Release from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate concerning the Housing project of
Beit Sahour
3)
The Letter
from Bethlehem is an introduction to a non-violent activity at Manger Square
inspired by the women of the Plazo de la Maya in Buenos Aires. It will start in
the second week of November.
4)
Taybeh is
not only well-known because it is the only completely Christian Biblical village
in the Holy land, but also because it has the only local Palestinian beer
production as Dr. Maria Khoury is telling us in her article.
5)
I have the privilege
to enclose herewith the recent article of Dr. Harry Hagopian 'Ideas and
Ideals for Peace' that might contribute to the debate on the conflict
in the Holy Land.
You
see that we have a lot of things to tell you every week, it seems that we are
living an endless tragic story full of sad events… I only hope that we will
have a happy end at the end if there is an end!
With my best wishes from Taybeh Fr.
Raed Abusahlia
Remarks of His Beatitude
The Latin Patriarch
Michel Sabbah
to the Holy Land
Christian Ecumenical Foundation
Washington, D.C.
October 18, 20002
The divine light still burns: The Holy
Land Christians endure
Your
Excellencies,
Sisters
and Brothers
1.
Greetings from Jerusalem, and wishes of peace and justice to you all, as to all
of the Holy Land.
This
yearly conference of the Christian Ecumenical Foundation of the Holy Land
brings us together, to look into the present and the future of the small but
living community of the land of our Christian roots.
The
title or the motto of the Conference this year is the following: “The divine
light still burns. The Holy Land Christians endure”. Yes, the divine light is
there, and therefore we endure. Indeed, we keep hoping because we believe
firmly in God. He is the Almighty, the stronger than any power in this world.
We believe, with the Psalmist, that “He will judge the world in uprightness,
and He will give a true verdict on the nations” (Ps 9-10:8-9). We believe that
He is “a stronghold for the oppressed, in times of trouble” (Ps 9-10:10-11). We
believe in His love and justice, and therefore the divine light still burns,
and the Holy Land Christians endure. They hope, and they say to God: “Rise up,
O God, raise your hand; do not forget the afflicted” (Ps10: 12); in your saving
justice, lead me (Ps 5:8); it is you, and none other, who make rest secure (Ps
4:8).
2.
With this faith, we look to the tragedy of the people in our land, and we look
at it as holy land, full of the memory of God’s history with humankind,
beginning with Abraham, the father of our faith, all of us, Jews, Moslems and
Christians. Our land is full of the memory of God. But, in these difficult
days, we ask ourselves whether God is still present there, not in the land, but
in the living hearts of the believers in Him, because what is happening today
is so inhuman, it cannot be coming from people who believe in God. We look to
the land, to the occupation, to the resistance to the occupation, and to the
infernal cycle of violence, which encircle the daily life of so many human
beings, among whom we find the small Christian Palestinian community.
3.
We look to the land and to its tragedy, and we look to our Christian identity
and to our role in sharing in these sufferings and in contributing to their
healing. Our Christian identity is still not clearly defined to so many who
suffer the tragedy of the land, who endure the curfews, the siege, the
demolitions, and the humiliation which compels them to ask for their bread. At
the same time, neither is it clearly defined to many directly engaged in the
political and human struggle that calls for the end of the occupation and a new
birth of freedom.
First
feature of our identity is to be one, though and because we are many and
divided. We are many Churches in Jerusalem, we have our differences and
divisions, but we are called to be one, beyond differences and divisions. One
heart, one vision of the human being to whom we are sent to serve him in his
difficult days. When human beings are suffering, as they are today in the Holy
Land, Christian Churches are not allowed to paralyze their action and their
message because of their divisions. Overcoming in love our divisions to serve,
to listen to the cry of the oppressed and the poor, will be remunerated by God
one day with the gift of unity that is the true desire of all of us and with
the gift of justice and peace.
Therefore
ecumenism is also a special vocation of this Foundation. It is a foundation for
all the Christians emigrated from the Church of Jerusalem. Every Christian
should feel at home in this Foundation. No one of us should try to appropriate
it for himself. It should remain the place where all Christians meet, reflect
and act, as true witnesses to Jesus Christ in His land.
4.
First and essential feature also is the belonging to one’s people. Any
Christian is part of his people wherever he is. Therefore, Christian
Palestinians are part of their people in all their trials, sufferings and in
paying the price to re-cover their land and their freedom. At the same time,
even as they belong to the land and cling to it with all their might, even as
they make claims for justice and suffer for it, Christian Palestinians believe
in Jesus Christ, in his love and justice. Jesus, the Lord, embodies values that
can make a special contribution to the human resolution of our ongoing tragedy.
He has a spirit that can enrich the Palestinians as they claim their freedom
and their land. An essential element of the Christian Palestinian identity,
therefore, is our faith in Jesus Christ and all his teachings, lived with
authenticity.
Some
people would like to treat Christian Palestinians as if they were exclusively a
religious community without membership in any other human belonging to a
people. They would deny our ethnicity and our nationality. Ethnic and national
identity is a good in which we all share. Our Christian identity does not
detract from our belonging to the Palestinian people. The universality of the
Church does not dissolve our Palestinian heritage or destroy our nationality.
The Church is a communion that embraces and affirms all nations, races and
cultures. We Palestinians are one
human community, one people, in which Christians and Moslems are
united..
5. In our ties to the land and to
the people, and in the struggle for land and freedom, Christian-Muslim
relations are often put to the test by a very malicious temptation. It says:
Moslems do not respect Christians; they do not allow them the necessary space
for life; they are a danger and a source of fear to the Christians, and so on.
Doing so is no help at all to Christian Palestinians. It is rather an
invitation to them to live in fear and to abandon their land and their vocation
in it. Moslem-Christian relations are very intimate bonds between two parts of
the same people. Only the people themselves can handle the huge, continuous
efforts needed to find the best way to coexistence and collaboration. This
relationship is an essential part of the Christian life in any Arab country and
Moslem society. It is a basic feature of our Arab and Palestinian Christian
identity: to live in an Arab and Moslem world is our vocation.
Since
the 11th of September, relations between Moslems and Christians came to the
surface in a very acute way. With the eruption of irrational terrorism, a new
historical moment has begun, in which humankind is invited to a true
purification of historical memories and of present relations. Acknowledging
one’s own sin and hence the true sources and causes of evil is difficult. In
this historical moment Arab Christians are called to purify their comprehension
of their intimate relations with their Moslems co-nationals in order to help
Christians and Moslems in the world come together to build the new world. Our
vocation to live among and with Moslems is a gift to all peoples.
6.
In the building of a new world, Palestinian freedom and a Palestinian state
must be a part. The present situation has been reduced to a military
confrontation, a blind demolition of men and things. We are living nowadays a
very cruel military stalemate that profits no one. The Israelis who continue to
live in fear for their security are no safer, and Palestinians who continue to
struggle for their freedom and independence are still claiming for it.
The
situation in the Holy Land could be very simple, but politics blinds us to its
simplicity. The essence of the conflict is the Israeli occupation of
Palestinian land taken in 1967.
Instead of the Israeli occupation, what the world speaks about now is
the fight against terrorism, the corruption of the Palestinian administration,
and the needed reforms to set it right. These are real problems, but they are
not the main problem. Indeed, suppose that all Palestinian violence stop and
the best Palestinian administration is found, even then the conflict will not
be resolved, because the basic problem will remain unaddressed: Israeli
occupation of Palestinian land and Palestinian claims for independence and
freedom. As long as these basic claims are not satisfied, violence and
insecurity will continue to shake the land.
The military violence that is going
on now – siege, curfews, home demolition, the killing of Palestinians, as well
as killing of Israelis - is simply another unfortunate and useless chapter in
the tragic history of our land. That chapter will be closed one day with the
horrible sum of the victims, the ruins and the hatred on both sides. So much
bloodshed and hatred on both sides could have been spared, if there were more
courage, and more sincerity, to look into the essential question of occupation.
The bloodshed and the hatred can be ended, if all sides would only take the
decision to put an end to it. Then both peoples will have been saved, and will
have begun the process of reconciliation. The present policy of military
solution adopted by the Israeli government is a waste of time and a dreadful
waste of lives. It is a cruel and useless parenthesis in the history of this
long conflict.
The
present route in the pursuit of peace and security is misguided. It is time to
learn from the lessons of history and from the victims of these two past years.
We have matched violence against violence; we have buried victim upon victim,
and we have succeeded only in marching backwards. Israelis live in fear and are
desperate for security. Palestinians live under occupation and long for their
freedom. During these two past years, thousands of Palestinians were killed,
thousands were made prisoners, besides demolitions of houses and agriculture.
If the same military situation remains, more thousands will be killed or made
prisoners, more demolition will take place. But the whole question will remain
as it is: the Palestinian people claiming for his freedom and for the end of
the Israeli occupation, and the Israeli people claiming for their security. It
is time to change. It is time for the Israelis to give themselves the needed
security by allowing the Palestinians enjoy their legitimate freedom.
7.
The Foundation has as its basic aim to create a new living Christian community
among all those who left the land, in solidarity with the churches of their new
lands, especially here in the United States. In order to rekindle the light of
the land in their hearts and doings, in order to help those who are there keep
hoping in these difficult days, the Foundation has also to make grow the
authentic Christian contribution to the healing of the land. I wish to this
Foundation a real success in achieving its noble and needed goals in these
days. We need unity, we need common and more coordinated action, for the good
of those who are here and those who bear the weight of their vocation there. I
thank you for the invitation to be with you this evening; and to all of you I
wish all the blessings of the Lord, with the peace and justice that will heal
all the wounds of our land.
+Michel
Sabbah, Patriarch
Holy
Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation
Washington,
18 October 2002
Press Release from the
Greek Orthodox Patriarchate
concerning the Housing
project of Beit Sahour
The Greek
Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem follows with great interest and concern the
events related to the Greek Orthodox Housing Project in the Municipality of
Beit Sahour following the decision of the Israeli authorities for the
demolition of 100 residences erected within the framework of this project in
land owned by the Patriarchate.
The
Patriarchate, while remaining loyal to its 2000-year old tradition not to
involve in political disputes, is pursing with dedication its two main
endeavors, that is the preservation and maintenance of the Holy shrines in the
Holy Land and the ministry of its congregation’s needs, so as to ensure the
protection and continuation of the Christian presence in the Holy Land.
Bearing in mind
the need of the Greek Orthodox community in Beit Sahour for low-cost housed for
the young generation, the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate, in 1995, offered its
congregation, with a long-term lease agreement, 20 donums, located within the
municipal borders of the Beit Sahour Municipality.
By the time of
order of the demolition, the construction of the residences was almost
completed due to sacrifices of the population to gather the necessary funds,
despite the serious economic difficulties that the region has been facing
during the past turbulent years. The surprise, frustration, pain and agony of
these people, who are the spiritual children of the Patriarchate, is
understandable and shared by all the Greek Orthodox communities. The
Patriarchate will spare no efforts and legal means to support all protect its
spiritual children and their livelihoods in Beit Sahour at this moment of
trial.
We appeal to all
people of good faith, irrespective of race or religion, to support the efforts
of the Patriarchate to protect and preserve the living testimony of the
Christian presence in the birthplace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We also appeal
to cometent Israeli authorities to reconsider their decision for the demolition
of the houses and not to inflict unnecessary and inhuman pain and despair on
the families concerned.
Finally, we
raise our prayers to the Lord that reconciliation and mercy, peace and justice
will finally prevail in His Holy Land, for the sake of all its inhabitants, the
present and the future generation.
Jerusalem,
Tuesday, October 15, 2002.
Letter from Bethlehem
(36)
Toine van Teeffelen
October 19, 2002
Twice a week I
bring Jara to the Peace Center, where she follows workshops on handicrafts,
storytelling and ballet. At the storytelling session she turns out to be the
only one. Few families in Bethlehem are interested in storytelling or reading,
the storyteller complains; why are so many girls going only to the cosmetics
class? She has now put the storytelling session right after the handicrafts
class so as to be sure of numbers. Jara is even more enthusiastic to go to the
ballet class after she got a pink ballet suit. At home she jumps up and down on
the bed making movements which are partly ballet and partly like in videoclip
dancing, with some unexpected shooting gestures in between.
Bringing her to
the Center gives me the chance to quietly observe Manger Square in front of the
Church of Nativity or, as it is locally called, Bab al-Der, what "gate to
the Monastery" means. It is not an imposing square, a little reminding of
the squares in front of the city hall characteristic for some European cities
or towns. Archeologists explain the presence of the place, among other things,
to the existence of an ancient aquaduct that passed right through the square to
carry water from the Solomon Pools south of Bethlehem to Jerusalem.
It is of course
first of all the Church of Nativity with its fortress-like features that
dominates the view. Right at the opposite side, the Mosque of 'Omar with its
slender, high minaret commemorates the gesture of the conquering 'Omar not to
destroy or take over the church after the advance of the Islamic armies in the
7th century. Each time when I leave the Peace Center on Friday, two,
almost hundred meter-long rows of Islamic believers prostrate themselves on the
ground near the place where during Christmas time scouts and servers are
forming a tunnel through which the patriarchs and dignatories arrive at the
church. There seem to be more Islamic believers now than a few years ago. (Last
week, while Jara and I visited a swimming pool in Jerusalem, I met a Dutch
Israeli lady who told me that she knew a carpenter in Bethlehem who, she
claimed, was now leaving the city due to the presence of a Moslem majority. She
also commented that Holland was full of mosques. I could not continue the
halting conversation for long).
The Peace Center
is the third significant building along the square. A friendly and open-looking
building and a center for community-oriented activities, it is built on the
spot where the Israeli army and before that the Jordanian and British armies
kept a protected look-out post. Suzy and I frequent its bookshop which is
unlocked for the rare visitor.
I take a
falaffel at the small shop right behind the square. The owner wanted his shop
never to be removed for the Bethlehem 2000 celebrations and it still serves the
best falaffel in town.
*
* *
The square has
the flavor of busy daily life. Awkward are the many parked cars which are only
removed for special occasions. (In the past, when it was just a parking lot for
tourist buses, it was worse). Opposite the Peace Center are the arcaded
souvenir shops in front of which Palestinian police used to sleep after they
lost their homes when the Muqata' building was bombed and destroyed. A walking
vendor sells tamer, the date juice, out of a large graceful golden
holder.that he carries on his back.
The square is
full of memories, emotions and images of common people who live and lived there
as well as of the many millions of pilgrims who came from all corners of the
earth and crossed the square to enter the church. A mixture of fateful history,
politics and religion, but, above all, daily life. There, on the right, I see
the house of the family who was forced to stay in one room to make place for
Israeli soldiers who wanted to control the square during the siege of the
church. Opposite is the souvenirshop owner, cousin of Fuad, who showed me
photos how his shop was broken in and damaged during the same event. There, on
the right side, is the quiet St George's restaurant, a good place to meet
visitors. In one of the coming days there will be a public commemoration of
Johnny Thaljieh who a year ago was shot by a tank while walking on the square.
And tomorrow Mary and I will bring Tamer to the church and put him on the star,
the traditional place of the birth of Jesus. (Although it will be difficult to
prevent him moving. "How," people ask surprised, "can he be a
child of such quiet parents?") For us, too, the square represents the ebb
and flow of daily life: Jara's baptism, Abou Hannah's funeral, the weddings,
and the few great festive moments when Bethlehem 2000 was celebrated.
*
* *
I walk the
square from all four sides. From Ramadan and Advent time on, a group of
educators is going to have a weekly walk around the square, carrying banners,
beating a soft drum, perhaps dressed in special clothes. We will commemorate
the many school days that Palestinian children and youths are presently loosing
due to curfews, road blocks and other hindrances. It is an initiative taken to
follow-up an earlier demonstration together with religious and national leaders
in support of the right of education. Silent, symbolic, regular walks, to make
the point of the essential needs of common daily life.
________
P.S. In a recent
statement the Arab Educational Institute criticized, along with many others all
over the world, the attacks of Rev Jerry Falwell against Islam. Meanwhile,
Fallwell has apologized for his remarks (among others things calling the
Prophet Mohammed – how original! - a "terrorist").
Palestinian
Beer brewed in Taybeh
Maria C. Khoury, Ed. D.
In the middle of Biblical Judea and Samaria, "Taybeh Beer" is still being brewed following the German purity law of producing an all-natural product and the only micro-brewed beer in the entire Middle East region in the spectacular rocky hill village of Taybeh.
The first and only Palestinian beer, "Taybeh Beer" was launched in 1995 following the Oslo Peace Agreement which gave great hope to many Palestinians living in the Diaspora to return and invest in their country and boost the economy. David Khoury and Nadim Khoury are the two brothers that returned to Palestine with their familes after twenty years in Boston and founded the new microbrewery operating The Taybeh Brewing Company, in their home village of Taybeh, near Ramallah, approximately twenty minutes from Jerusalem. This investment and homecoming fulfilled the life long dream of their father Mr. Canann Khoury who like every Palestinian father hopes his sons would get the skills and knowledge from the West and return to their homeland to maintain their roots and pass on their values and traditions to their children. A dream of passing on to the next generation the beauty and richness of the Palestinian culture which has been overshadowed by the Israeli occupation of the West Bank since l967.
Taybeh Beer is produced according to the German purity law with no preservatives and no additives. The ingredients are all healthy and top quality: malted barley, imported from Belgium; hops, imported from the best place in the world to obtain hops Bavaria and Czechoslovakia; yeast, and pure water, from the local natural spring Ein Samia. Taybeh Beer is all natural and 100% Palestinian. The word "Taybeh" in Arabic means delicious, thus not only named after the small Christian village of 1300 inhabitants that date their roots to the time of Christ.
The current reoccupation of the Palestinian territories and the general closure on all West Bank towns and villages has decreased Taybeh Beer sales by 80%. However, the Khourys are staying committed to producing the first and only premium quality Palestinian Beer and have great hope to overcome the current political and economic crisis in their area. They have faith in a new future in Palestine and Nadim Khoury, the master brewer states their aim is "to try to trade people up from drinking good to drinking best." All is possible if Palestine has freedom and independence believes David Khoury. They will continue to brew Taybeh Beer even if it is in small batches and especially for loyal costumers who are great supports and request Taybeh Beer at popular spots like the American Colony, Embasador Hotel and Jerusalem Hotel restaurants.
Hope is good but lately the Taybeh Beer employees have been shrinking down from twelve to three people working in the brewery. They have experienced the worst of the worst with delivering beer to most locations due to the siege. For only a twenty minute ride, sometimes it takes up to four hours with the checkpoints and having to unload from a Palestinian registered plate truck to an Israeli registered plate truck and at times opening each and every single case for inspection. These procedures cause long delays and extra expenses in running the brewery, which imports all of its raw products through the Israeli port. Prior to September 2000, the markets for Taybeh Beer were in Palestine, Israel and Jordan.
Taybeh Beer is the first Palestinian product to receive franchise and be produced in Germany under the Taybeh Beer license from Palestine. The Khourys feel this fact alone helped them make history and great proof of the high quality of their product. Part of the reason Taybeh Beer gave franchise to Germany is to avoid the Israeli port that always has red tape for Palestinians using it.
This fall, the imported bottles from Portugal were held at the Israeli port for over three weeks costing excessively high port charges and fines. These difficulties living and working under Israeli occupation and also the decrease in the tourist industry because of the political instability has made the company suffer substantial losses. However, the Khourys remain hopeful for a better future and are willing to continue to produce the Palestinian beer in small batches.
Taybeh Beer is produced in three different flavors. The original brand, which is golden, is produced in bottles and draft for bars and hotels having 5% alcohol. The Taybeh Beer Dark was introduced to celebrate the new millennium in the Holy Land. It follows a classic style of the way monks brewed beer in the Middle Ages in order to fortify themselves during their fasting. It is a rich smooth dark beer. Also introduced for the 2000 celebrations in the Holy Land was Taybeh Beer Light, on the lighter side with flavor and character that can compete with the imported beers with under 4% alcohol.
The microbrewery started as a small $1.2 million family investment project with state-of-the-art equipment imported from Canada and semi automatic bottling line imported from Europe. Prior to the current crisis the brewery was producing 24,000 bottles of beer a week. As a service to the community, the left-over grain is given to the local farmers to be used as cattle feed. But all of the efforts and dreams of producing a Palestinian beer still remain at the mercy of Israel's military policy
Ideas
& Ideals for Peace!
Dr Harry Hagopian, LL.D, KSL - KOG
Both when they are right and when they are wrong,
ideas are more powerful than is commonly understood. In fact, the world is
ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt
from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct
economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling
their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back … Soon or late,
it is ideas … which are dangerous for good or evil.
The British economist John Maynard Keynes,
arguably one of the most influential social scientists in the world, once
depicted history in those challenging terms. Indeed, ideas have serious
consequences in history, and sufficiently powerful ideas can bend the course of
history in new and unimaginable directions. Yet, academics and opinion makers
have grown accustomed to think of the engine of history as either politics -
often understood as the quest for power, and itself perceived as the capacity
to impose the autonomous will of one party upon another - or else as economics.
As such, ideas and ideals, passionate visions and moral commitments, as much as
the power of the human spirit, are ostensibly meant to be of interest only to
philosophers - but not inevitably to politicians!
However, the ailing Czech playwright and thinker
Vaclav Havel wrote once that ideas and ideals are the ‘power of the powerless’.
In so doing, he drew close to Christian theology as manifested in the ministry
of Jesus Christ since it is a profound Christocentric tenet that the Word
through whom the world was created remains the centre of the world and its
history. And since the Word has overcome the world (Jn 16:33), those who are
conformed to the Word have a duty to speak out words of truth and address it to
the world in power.
Indeed, where is the sheer power of ideas and
ideals for peace? Why are the words of those who conform to the truth of the
Word being muted in the midst of all the carnage being visited upon the Holy
Land for over two years now? These are just a couple of the questioning
thoughts that crossed my mind last week as I attended a colloquium on Conflict
Prevention organised by a think-tank in London. As I heard Israeli and
Palestinian men and women describing their own situation, and expressing their
reactions to the latest bloody confrontations between unequal protagonists, I
realised once again the degree of polarisation that has beset both peoples in this conflict. No
matter how hard they tried to appear equable or inclusive on the podium, I
could feel in those men and women a pool of negative emotions. Alienation,
hatred, anger, bitterness, frustration, resignation, despondency, defiance,
contempt, loss, indignity and doubt were swirling beneath the polite but
hesitant veneer of academic debate or sound bites.
Is it possible that this land could have
witnessed so much bloody violence in its history and not yet managed to come up
with novel ideas or fresh ideals that carve an ethical egress for peace out of
a seeming impasse? Is it also remotely conceivable that everyone has been
talking about ‘peace’ for so long but practising ‘non-peace’ instead? Have
politicians been nothing better than false prophets who misled the people by
referring to peace at times when there was no peace - just like the biblical
prophets Jeremiah and later Ezekiel in the Old Testament? Jeremiah said, “They
act as if my people’s wounds were only scratches. ‘All is well’, they say, when
all is not well” (Jr 6: vv 13-14). And Ezekiel also told a people whose nation
was in crisis and weary of hearing bad news from their leaders all the time,
“The prophets mislead my people by saying that all is well. All is certainly
not well!” (Ez 13: 10[a]). Have we become totally bereft of ideas and ideals?
Or are we so uninspired in both our tactical and strategic intents that we have
rejected peace for the sake of our own designs, plots and schemes? Where are
those men and women who are meant to produce quixotic ideas and ideals that
dent - let alone bend - the course of history?
Let me start off by taking stock of a modest
number of principles, lessons and reality checks impacting the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict after two years of bitter confrontations. Might
they perhaps help point the way forward?
·
The
State of Israel is an unwavering geo-political reality. It cannot be - and to a
large extent no longer is - denied by Palestinians or other Arab countries. But
Palestinians too are a living but painful reality in quest of statehood, and
they - as much as their quest - cannot be ignored forever.
·
The
process of negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians ought to resume
without prevarication. The parties can call the next round ‘Oslo III’ or ‘Camp
David III’ or even ‘Madrid II’, so long as they abide by the principles of
international legality as enshrined in binding UN Security Council resolutions.
·
The
situation on the ground has changed dramatically over the last two years. It is
no longer possible to revert simplistically to the status quo ante of 28
September 2000 or to claim that it is possible to continue where the parties left
off. That would make a mockery of the last two years of reciprocal
confrontations or sacrifices, and the relative lull in violence will only eruct
once more into an even bloodier explosion.
·
The
repercussions of this conflict are no longer constrained to the
Israeli-Palestinian dimension. The Arab World has been substantially impacted
by it too - be it through their governments, populace or economic interests -
as have many other third party countries. Given the US recalcitrance to be a
sole honest broker, another parallel body - such as the Permanent Members of
the UN Security Council or the European Union - needs to join seriously the
negotiations. I was deeply encouraged by the proposals put forward [yet again]
by PM Tony Blair at the Labour Party conference in Blackpool a fortnight ago
when he stated that the Iraqi crisis could not be dealt with alone without also
addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Now, it is imperative for Her
Majesty’s government to put into practice what it espouses in theory.
·
An
international protection force will monitor the implementation by both parties
of any agreement once it has been concluded, and will thereby also enhance the
prospects of its enforceability.
·
The
basic and ultimate struggle today is for land that was occupied by Israel in
1967 - otherwise said, the eastern sector of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.
Palestinians are only claiming a meagre 22% of historical Palestine, and any
fears that some Israelis harbour about the further expansionist designs of
Palestinians are both anachronistic and unrealistic. As Anatol Lieven, senior
associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington,
wrote only last month, ‘While both Europeans and Americans should feel strongly
committed to the existence of Israel as a state, that should not include
commitment to Israeli rule over the West Bank and Gaza Strip, or to the Israeli
settlements there’. William Pfaff, the veteran journalist in the International
Herald Tribune, also added, ‘European criticism of Israel has not to date been
backed by actions. But if the Europeans were to resort to economic sanctions as
a lever of influence, over time they could inflict crippling damage on Israel’s
economy’.
·
Settlements
- not only the larger blocs but also all the remote ideological as well as
state-subsidised settlements dotted across the West Bank and Gaza - are
inimical to peace. How would anybody anywhere feel if they suddenly woke up one
day and saw a whole colony of caravans parked in their own backyard?
·
The
amount of bitter hatred and extreme polarisation that has surfaced between both
peoples will not disappear without a large degree of effort from both sides -
official, institutional, religious and people-to-people. Although the wounds
might ultimately heal, it will take at least another couple of generations.
·
One
group that has been an unfortunate - and often controversial - victim of those
confrontations is children. Two years into the second Palestinian Intifada,
they are still exhibiting serious psychological problems that are manifested by
symptoms such as bed-wetting, thumb-sucking or separation anxiety.
·
Joining
those children are also the many Jewish or Palestinian mothers who have lost
their sons and daughters. At times, it is true that some of those Palestinian
mothers appear on a high in terms of the pride associated with the sacrifice of
a child for the national struggle. In my opinion, they are simply not
processing their loss. However, once those same mothers go past this artificial
‘euphoric’ phase, they will enter a grieving phase when their psychic wounds
will become far more palpable and far more traumatic. No Jewish or Palestinian
mother, I believe, could freely volunteer her child (ren) for death.
·
Finally,
walking down the path of mutual confrontations is a recipe for mutual disaster.
It will wreak havoc in the lives of Palestinians and Israelis alike. An
alternative is urgently required, and someone needs to show leadership and
vision by taking the moral lead. It is no longer viable to hide behind sheer
platitudes.
So, what can be done? What is the alternative?
Who can take that moral lead? And what does our faith teach us?
In his Sermon on the Mount, as reported in the
Gospels of Matthew and Luke (beginning with chapters 5 and 6 respectively),
Jesus articulated some quite radical views. He said that those who mourn shall
be comforted, those who are peacemakers shall be called the children of God and
those who hunger and thirst for justice shall be blessed. As such, the Church -
in its larger sense as an assembly of believers rather than just the ordained
clergy - cannot be inured or indifferent to injustice. To become peacemakers is
not a discretionary addendum to the Gospel. Rather, it goes to the very heart
of the Christian understanding of its mission and responsibilities.
But this does not mean that peacemaking promotes
violence either. On the contrary, it promotes non-violent methods of
resistance. Those who wish to have a better understanding of such methods of
non-violent resistance need not only subscribe to the writings of the likes of
Nehru Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. They can equally read
modern-day adaptations of those moral teachings from the likes of Father Raed
Abu Sahlieh, a Latin-rite Roman Catholic priest in Taybeh, who has faithfully
advocated non-violent methods of resistance for years.
I wish to share with you today a few seminal
ideas that could be transmuted into ideals and serve as a platform for future
action. My thoughts are predicated on the recent writings of the theologian
Leonardo Boff, the international jurist John Mudley, the political scientist
Jean Dupuy and a host of non-violent activists, missionaries and journalists
who know much more about the situation on the ground than they are willing - or
able - to say in public.
·
Following
in the tradition set by countries such as South Africa, both parties should
start off the process of healing by recognising the injustices and violence
perpetrated upon each other. This is not an exercise in one-upmanship or
comparative proportionality. It is akin to a purification of memory and one
step closer toward paving the way for an apology that ultimately culminates in
forgiveness.
·
A
commitment to pursue a non-adversarial relationship between the two parties
that precludes violence and fosters negotiations on the symmetrical basis of
International law and principles of dispute resolution.
·
Acknowledgement
by both parties of the deep historical and religious nexus of this biblical
land anto tanto with Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Such a step means
that neither party decries the narrative of the other, but elevates the
discourse from one of futile irredentism and negation to one that encourages
inclusiveness and coexistence.
·
Education
of both Israeli and Palestinian societies to curb all aggressive postures,
incitements and negative publicity that only serve to de-humanise the other,
and to empower instead channels of communication.
·
According
to UNRWA figures, there are well over 3.5 million Palestinians refugees. One
third of those refugees still live in fifty-nine camps in Palestine, Jordan,
Lebanon and Syria. Israel should admit the historical premise for those
refugees, and the appropriate mechanisms of restitution could then be activated
for them as well as for their hitherto host countries.
·
The
Old City of Jerusalem represents the jewel in the crown for all three
monotheistic religions. Any resolution should accommodate the religious
aspirations of all three-faith communities on an equal footing.
·
An
acknowledgement that the ultimate outcome of the negotiations will be the
establishment of a sovereign and secular Palestinian state living side-by-side
with Israel in borders that are not only internationally recognised but also
viable and self-governing.
Such hopes, articulated with increasing
frequency by religious leaders such as the Latin-rite Patriarch Michel Sabbah
or the Anglican and Lutheran Bishops Riah Abu El-Assal and Mounib Younan in the
Holy Land, represent a challenge to all peacemakers across the world. But in
the final analysis, the concept of ideas and ideals involves the strength of
the human spirit and the steadfastness of human sovereignty. As George Weigel
puts it, the fundamental human ‘sovereignty’ is not political but spiritual.
The spiritual sovereignty of the human person expresses itself through the
creativity of the individual and the culture of nations, giving rise to a
distinctive form of power. That is the sovereignty believers are called to
cherish, guard and ennoble, as they seek to build the foundations of a house of
freedom capable of meeting the new challenges.
In the Holy Land, is it possible to discover this sense of human sovereignty that falls within the density of the human spirit and its relentless journey toward the transcendent? Can we unlock the key to an intractable conflict in this land? Where do we Christians - clergy and laity alike, in the Holy Land or all over the world - place ourselves?
My quotation from Maynard Keynes at the start of
this article said, ‘Soon or late, it is ideas … which are dangerous for good or
evil’. So my question today is whether we are strong, mature, wise and
faith-centred enough to encourage ideas that are dangerous for good? Can we construct lofty ideas upon lofty
ideals?
The Feast of our Lady Queen of Palestine falls
on 29 October 2002. It is perhaps high time that we use the symbolism of this
feast to acknowledge that the peace of one is the peace of the other, whereas
the deprivation of peace and justice for one is by transfusion the deprivation
of peace and justice for the other.
© harry-bvH
@ 15 October 2002
|
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Thank
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