News, articles and documents from
the Holy Land
Issue No. 147 - Saturday, 20 April 2002
Dear Friends, Brothers and Sisters,
For the third consecutive Sunday prayers will not be held at the
Nativity Church and the Christian of Bethlehem will not be able to attend
Sunday Mass, because the Basilica is under siege since more than 18 days and
the people are under strict curfew since the begging of the invasion of Bethlehem.
This is the first time in history that we don’t hear the bills of Bethlehem
sing the joyful song of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ the Prince of
Peace. This is dramatic and needs no comments!
I know that you know everything since you all follow what is going in
Bethlehem because this became a top story all over the world. But until which
time this will last? Until which time the world will remain silent? Until which
time 2 billions of Christians while follow the sad news and say nothing? When
the Taliban destroyed the huge statues of Buddha in Afghanistan the whole world
was upset down, and now when this is happening at the holiest place of Christianity
in the world, nobody is saying anything?! Maybe we have to wait until a
massacre or scandal will take place inside the Basilica, then we will regret
that the birthplace of Jesus became a bath of blood! Or maybe we have to wait
until the Israeli army will destroy the whole compound as they did at Jenin
refugee camp and then the UN will send an investigation committee to write the longest
report which will remain in the archive of the international organization of chatting?!
Please help us to find a way out of this crisis which might last more
weeks until all the people inside will strive to dead from hunger! Especially
that the negotiation between about a solution didn’t until now start even after
19 days. It seems that diplomacy is the art to waste time and politics is the
art to make war and kill innocent people!!!
You will find in today’s Olive Branch several articles and documents hoping
that you will find it useful and interesting even if it is very sad:
1) LETTER FROM BETHLEHEM (22) by Toine van
Teeffelen.
2) Occupation Diary by Mary from Bethlehem,
a student from St. Joseph school.
3)
What is the real story around the church of nativity? Written by: Ghassan Andoni ( a
Christian who lives 100 meters away from the Church of Nativity )from rapprochement
center.
4) American Jesuit in Bethlehem Risks Life
to Say Mass by Edmond Durst.
5)
Greek
Orthodox patriarch finally gets government approval a news taken from Ha’aretz.
At
the end you will find an announcement for THE SOLIDARITY BELL RINGING MARCH and we will keep ringing bills until the
bills of Bethlehem return to ring freely.
Best wishes from Jerusalem Fr. Raed Abusahlia
LETTER FROM BETHLEHEM
(22)
Toine van Teeffelen
12-14 April 2002
The main events
in the small world in which we live are the announcements of the temporary
lifting of the curfew. On Friday afternoon Mary makes a list of things to buy
and we divide the work since we can go out only a few hours and neighbors may
pass by for a visit. After two weeks of curfew there is no milk, fresh fruits
and vegetables, and tahine (sauce of sesam seeds needed to make dibis,
a grape syrop, which is a popular spreading here). Janet and I conduct quick
conversations on the street: “How are you? [bitjannen – terrific] Do you
have water, telephone, and electricity? No house searches?” And away people
are, rushing to finish their errands. At Kattan shop on Manger Road, the
shopkeeper has run out of regular bags and packs my buyings in eight small
Gauloises plastic bags. Fortunately pharmacies still sell pampers and baby milk
powder. The Hazboun supermarket in Madbasseh street is so crowded that Jara
panicks. Some twenty people have to remain outside.
Near the
Lutheran church in downtown Bethlehem soldiers stop people. From here on, some
1,5 km from the Church of Nativity, thousands of people are unable to leave
their houses in Madbasseh, Fawagreh, Wadi Ma’aleh streets and at the eastern
side of the Church. Elias, who is a member in the board of the Arab Orthodox
Society, a charity, tells that he is continuously approached by people in the
downtown area who lack food and especially medicine. A friend of my family who
is social worker says that she now is called by people who lack cash. One can’t
access banks and many don’t have savings at home. Electricity is not working in
many areas; people try to make improvised connections with neighbours if they
can. The families I know do still have water but many others must be without
water supply because water tanks on roofs have been shot or because they live
in tensed areas like for instance Fawagreh or the refugee camps. We hear that
some people in the inner city area, to feed their kids, are cooking a kind of
grass taken from the gardens.
Elias tells that
his sister in law and her husband live in the closed downtown area. At one
point, the husband tried to leave his house. His wife is pregnant and urgently
needs medicine. When he entered the street, he was immediately forced to stay
with his back against the wall. This lasted an hour, then he had to return home
again.
A group of
courageous internationals in town regularly and with considerable risk stage
food convoys towards the inner city. Yesterday, they managed to come as close
as Manger Square and were able to distribute food and medicines, for which the
inhabitants are enormously grateful. At present there more and more
international and Israeli peace movement convoys bringing essentials into the
besieged towns, including Jenin. My own group of the United Civilians for
Peace yesterday accompanied a convoy of the International Church Committee
into Ramallah and more convoys are coming. It is the least what can be done.
Elias himself,
who lives in an area where fortunately the neighbours have access to each other
and can provide help, says that he was left with barely half an hour to do
shopping. In front of his house, some twenty of youth, some of whom he knew,
sat on the pavement for some hours, guarded by soldiers. During the lifting of
the curfew, they were picked up from the street and their IDs confiscated. One
of the youth was handcuffed, blinded and taken away, the others could go.
Elias’ family was too frightened to leave the house.
It is very
dangerous to walk on the streets during curfew. One man from Bethlehem in
desperate need of food took the risk last Tuesday to go to Beit Jala during
opening hours there. He was shot dead at the Baab al-Zqaaq junction some two
hundred meters from our house. Friday a man in Beit Sahour was killed in a rain
of bullets when he simply wanted to open his shop for the soldiers, who would
otherwise blow up his door. I hear of people who for long periods remained
under their beds during gun, helicopter or tank fire. “They shoot at every dubbaane
[fly],” says Janet.
*
* *
The people
increasingly become tired, depressed and nervous. It is not just the paralysis
one feels of not being able to move but also the relentless attack – in the
name of defense – on Palestinian society as a whole. The news reaches a point
that one simply feels powerless. We were astonished to hear that Mary’s uncle’s
lands are presently flattened for an access road to Har Homa, the Jerusalem
settlement to the north of Bethlehem. As if the present occupation is not
enough. It is the cumulation of distressing news, anxiety about loved ones,
concern about properties, and shooting outside which play on the nerves.
It is also
difficult to hear people crying on the phone. Mary is called from Dubai where
Palestinian family are terribly worried about a sister who is in the village of
Birzeit, close to Birzeit University, where Friday house to house searches were
conducted in student facilities. Of course such anxious phone calls go on all
the time.
In a way, many
feel as if they are somehow dying. Yesterday I typed a diary from a
matriculation student at a Bethlehem school. Her main realities and metaphors
are about dying and burial – Bethlehem as a dead place where people are buried
alive in their houses. Many feel terribly hurt by the siege of the Church of
Nativity, a source of pride but now a sign of the total vulnerability to which
the society is exposed. Whether it is one’ house, services, amenities, land, or
religious symbols – everything is threatened to be taken away. A neighbour, who
stays in Jerusalem because of her work, says she refuses at the moment to
change her clothes or buy new ones, as if she is mourning.
The one space
which, at least for us, has not yet been occupied is the home. It is kept clean
very much. We eat the Easter cookies - primarily made for visitors - all
ourselves. Of course, the children greatly determine the rhythm of life, the
regular giving of milk, the bath, the food which Jara does not want to take.
The children keep us busy. In the evenings I don’t try to watch films. Any
escape will turn into a cold shower when reality seeps in.
*
* *
Fortunately Jara
can leave the house in our neighbourhood and meet the neighbours’ children by
climbing through the gardens. Yesterday we suddenly heard loud gun fire from
approaching tanks and Jara quickly clamped on my legs. After a minute she was
playing again. When we call her back home, she starts arguing: “Mama, the tank
is near Gaby [500 meters away, that means far enough]. Don’t be afraid.” She
learns from the neighbour’s children that putting grass on the streets will not
stop the tanks but that rocks are needed. Her main interest is playing the
ball. When the ball falls down into another neighbour’s garden, I run and throw
it back. Jara cannot be consoled. I should have brought her to the ball so that
she could have thrown it back herself.
For Tamer I sing
old songs of Mama Cash, “There Is a New World Coming,” and “Dream a Little
Dream of Me.” When the tanks and APCs pass by I raise my voice. Tamer sleeps
on, peacefully, then hesitatingly opens his eyes to look into the sun.
Occupation Diary
Mary from Bethlehem
Monday
19/4/02
I woke up at
10:00 to prepare myself to buy some food with my uncle. The Israeli soldiers
allowed the people to go out from 10:00 – 14:00. On our way to the market I saw
my lovely Bethlehem ruined. The worst thing is the rubbish which is everywhere
on the streets and which poison the air and create an unhealthy environment.
Today they
entered a building in Doha, an area near Dheisheh refugee camp which is near
our house. They ordered the women and children to go out and then took all the
men, put them in armoured vehicles and drove them away. The women and children
are now on the street, the children slept on the ground. The Israeli soldiers
claim that there were some men with weapons hiding in the building. When they
shelled it, a woman who could not run away was killed. Her baby of six months
was injured.
It is now 12:00
P.M. I can’t sleep because the soldiers are planning something terrible for the
men in the Nativity Church. First a soldier speaking good Arabic started
threatening them through a megaphone: “To those in the Nativity Church, know
your destiny, go out and you will be without harm or loss, you will be safe.”
He kept repeating these words for an hour. Our house is far from the Church but
we could hear it clearly. After that, they played a tape with terrible sounds
which I can’t describe. I still hear them: people screaming, sounds of
machines, hammers, alarms, knocking, barking of dogs. I know we won’t sleep
tonight. I wonder how the people inside the Church feel. I think they are
getting crazy. No one can hear those sounds for long. The soldiers just want to
make them crazy. They keep repeating the sounds for several hours.
I am going to
pray the rosary with my family. We pray it every night, we ask God to protect
those who are in the Church, Moslems and Christians, because they are innocent.
I can’t
continue… I hear bombing, maybe they start bombing the building. Now we are
going to hide somewhere because it is really near our house and it is
dangerous…
I always say a
prayer to God: Our case is clear as the sun but no one in the world wants to
look at it and see the truth. So please, God, I am only asking to let evil not
destroy us. I beg just to be with us and to assure that we will be safe and
return to normal life like others in this world.” Is this too much to ask? We
just want to live.
Tuesday
16/4/02
Today was one of
the worst days. I woke up at the sound of bullets from tanks crossing our
street. The street was empty but they just shoot to terrify people. I studied a
little. Then I went to watch TV to see the latest news. I was very sad hearing
that they arrested Marwan Barghouti. He is a decent men who has faith in our
case and always prefers peace and negotiations with the Israeli side. Now God
knows what they will do to him. His only guilt is that he loves Palestine very
much.
In the afternoon
my uncle wanted to go out for a while and sit in the garden which is behind the
house away from the main street. He went out with his wife and three children
and my little brother went out too. My mother was praying in my room while I
studied. I went downstairs so as to study outside and have some fun. The minute
I wanted to go out my uncle shouted at me not to move because there was a tank
crossing the street. I could hear its sound clearly. Then my uncle’s voice
disappeared. I wanted to look out from the door to make sure it was safe. As
soon as I opened the door a rain of bullets came into my direction. I ran as
fast as a I could and hid behind a huge cupboard in my uncle’s house. I heard
my cousins and my brother screaming but I could not do anything. I thought that
they might die. After two minutes I could move and my uncle came running, his
face white. The children could not move from fear so he held them tight. My
mother was hiding under the desk in my room. She could hear the bullets hitting
the door of my balcony. After a while I went out to the balcony and we found
there a lot of bullets. That was the worst moment in my life. Death was very
near. It is really terrifying. They know we are civilians but they don’t want
to see anything moving.
At 7:00 o’clock,
the soldiers started shooting from all sides at the Church. Two rooms of the
priests were burned. There was no shooting from inside the Church. Windows were
broken. Two men were injured. They
continued shooting and shelling for forty minutes. I started to cry. Where are
the Christians who have dignity and faith? My church in which I praise the Lord
with my prayers and songs, has become a war zone. I wish that I once again pray
in it some day in the future. I always pray that someday I stand in a place
where everyone in this world can hear me. I’ll tell them some words that may
light their hearts and open their eyes to see the truth and defend it. I will
tell these words to all the people who live peacefully and happily in their
independent countries. Just remember when you eat that there are hundreds of
children who die from hunger because they are Palestinians. Remember when you
drink water that there are hundreds of children who drink dirty water from the
ground because they are Palestinians. Remember that when you go asleep that
there are hundreds of children homeless who sleep wearing nothing just because
they are Palestinians.
Wednesday
17/4/02
Today was a bit
calmer. New tanks entered Bethlehem with machines I had never seen before. The
only hope that Palestinians had in Powell’s negotiations with Sharon and Arafat
was that there would be an end to the massacres in Jenin and Nablous. I was
really shocked when I heard Powell saying that Arafat disappointed him. What is
this? He returned to America blaming Arafat. Is he blaming him because his
people are killed by Israeli soldiers? Instead of blaming Sharon he blames the
man who is a prisoner in Ramallah. There are no words which can express my
feelings towards this injustice. Are they blind or are they making themselves
blind? To whom shall we shout, beg for mercy?
There are people
stuck under their destroyed houses screaming and asking for help. The UNRWA was
unable to rescue them because the Israeli soldiers prevented them from
entering. They are left there; no one knows how many they are. Doctors say
there is a strong smell in Jenin, a smell of dead bodies, some of which have
not been found yet.
Today I called
Father Amjad in the Nativity Church to know how the people there are. He was
desperate; he could not even talk to me, he told me. They stay awake all night
and sleep some time in the morning. There is no food. They only drink water and
salt. The sounds from outside make them very nervous. Some of them start
hitting the floor with their legs and scream.
I am desperate
without hope. Our innocent children don’t know the meaning of happiness. They
just know death, war, tanks, fear and suffering. How much feel I sorry for my
people, my lovely country.
Now after Powell
has gone there is no hope that somebody will move. We just hope that God will
do a miracle and stop our suffering.
What
is the real story around the church of nativity?
Written by:
Ghassan Andoni ( a Christian who lives 100 meters away from the Church of
Nativity)
It is amazing
how much one can twist facts. But more amazing is how much people can be
influenced by twisted facts. In relation to the Church of Nativity, two stories
are being widely circulated.
The Israeli
story: a large group of armed “terrorists” entered the Church of Nativity. They
took dozens of civilians including Christian priests and monks as hostages and
are using them as human shields to launch attacks on the Israeli army, which is
surrounding the place. Therefore, Israel is attempting to rescue the hostages
and capture the “terrorists”.
The Palestinian
story: As the Israeli army invaded Bethlehem and Israeli tanks approached
Manger Square, around 240 Palestinians including some armed Palestinians
entered the Church seeking a safe shelter. Armed Palestinians laid down their
arms and are seeking the protection of the Christian clergy inside the church.
Who are the
people inside the church?
All resources
from inside the church including Father Ibrahim Faltas, Christian Lawyer Tony
Salman, and the governor of Bethlehem Mohammad Almadani confirmed repeatedly
that: the vast majority of the people inside are innocent civilians who ran
into the church to save their lives. The armed Palestinians who entered the
church were mostly members of Palestinian Authority tourism Police, policemen
from the adjacent Palestinian police station, and some Palestinians who decided
to fight against the Israeli invasion of their city.
The Vatican
repeatedly announced that all people inside the church are non-engaged and only
seeking a shelter that the church is welling to provide. The Vatican repeatedly
affirmed that there is no hostage-taking situation.
As the siege of
the church continued, Israel employed a continued pressure to force the people
inside the church to surrender. Some methods used are:
- Preventing any
supplies of food. Currently people inside the church are starving.
- Prevent
evacuate dead bodies from inside the church. (Two bodies are still inside)
- Prevent any
medical help for scores of injured people (nuns are dealing with the situation
with primitive first aid means)
- Positioning
snipers all over the place and shooting at any moving target. So far two people
were killed inside the church and two more wounded including an Armenian
Priest.
- Shooting
randomly inside the church. This random shooting resulted in a fire that
destroyed three rooms inside the church. A Palestinian was shoot dead by a
sniper while attempting to extinguish the fire.
- Throwing
rounds of sound grenades into and around the church. This is going on all
daytime and especially at night.
- Transmitting,
through loudspeakers, sounds that are beyond the threshold of pain into the
church.
- Attempted
twice to burst into the church from its eastern entrance. In one attempt they
destroyed one of the church gates using explosives.
So far, and
aside from the suffering of people inside the church, considerable damage have
been done to the church itself. With the little protest and concern from the
side of the Christians all over the world and from the side of the
international community, it is likely that Israel will upgrade its assault and
might cause more substantial damage.
All attempts to
negotiate a settlement to this situation failed. Israel insists on either
complete surrender without conditions or a deportation outside the country.
They are refusing the involvement of any third party in such efforts.
It is extremely
worrying that with the increased pressure on Israel to leave the PA areas,
Israel might attack the church in an attempt to kill or arrest people inside.
It can happen, it might result in a massacre taking place inside the church,
and it might destroy the Church. Something urgent must be done to prevent this
from happening.
===================================================
The Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement between People
64 Star Street, P.O.Box 24
Beit Sahour - Palestine
www.rapprochement.org
American Jesuit in
Bethlehem Risks Life to Say Mass
by Edmond Durst
20 April 2002
American Jesuit Peter DuBrul risks his life every day by breaking the curfew and walking from his apartment to Bethlehem University to say Mass in the town where Jesus was born. As head of the Department of Religious Studies, the 65 year-old Cincinnati native has taught at the university for nearly thirty years. He and his colleagues at the Vatican-sponsored Bethlehem University are quietly and defiantly refusing to leave. For the first time in its 26 years of operation, it was recently occupied by the Israeli army. Although western diplomats have offered to evacuate them, they ask, "What sort of Christian witnesses would we be if we left now?"
The university has not held classes since Israeli missiles smashed gaping holes into its newest buildings and blew apart classrooms. Now, like everyone else in the town, the university is also under a curfew imposed by the Israeli army as part of its determination to punish Bethlehem for its fierce resistance to Israeli Occupation. No one has been allowed out for almost three weeks, except for a couple of brief breaks to go shopping, and many of Bethlehem's Christian and Muslim inhabitants are without food or water. On one such occasion, Ali Farah, 60, a resident of Dheisheh refugee camp was passing near the university in search of food for his family when he was killed by a gunshot in the chest by an Israeli sniper.
Twelve Christian De La Salle Brothers run the university; eight Americans, three Britons, and one Palestinian Brother. From the window of their community's living room, they can see the besieged Church of the Nativity, the site marking Jesus' birthplace. Last week, they watched in horror as heavy gunfire broke out around the church, with Israeli forces firing from all directions. A Greek Orthodox chapel caught fire, and those in the church who tried to extinguish it were shot at by Israeli soldiers, killing Khaled Abu Siam, 23, with a gunshot in the head. The church bell ringer Samir Salman, 42, was also shot dead while walking to his job. His body was later found in one of the church's inner courtyards.
"I think it would be devastating, if the Church of the Nativity was assaulted," commented Brother Mark, who came from the UK to teach English at the pontifical university.
Inside the Church of the Nativity, one of Christianity's holiest sites, 240 Palestinian militants and civilians, including women and children, fleeing the Israeli assault on the town have been claiming sanctuary for the past three weeks. Parts of the church have no electricity or water, and the body of a Palestinian policeman killed earlier in the stand-off is now said to be rotting in a cave within the compound.
About 40 monks in the church, mostly Franciscans, along with a few nuns who are tending to the wounded in the Holy Manger grotto, have volunteered to remain with the Palestinians to prevent a bloodbath. Conditions were said to be deteriorating fast. Food has run out, and almost no water is left. Every night, the church is bombarded with ear-splitting noises from loud speakers hoisted above Manger Square as a kind of psychological warfare.
Michael Sabbah, the Latin Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem, said the Israeli army should withdraw and allow the people inside the church to leave freely. "These people are refugees," the Patriarch said. "They took refuge inside the church. For us, once they have taken refuge, they are human beings. They are no longer fighters.
"An exceptional situation was created that overrides all military codes. They should be allowed to leave unharmed and without threat of imprisonment."
So far, Israel has refused to allow church authorities to take part in the negotiations to end the stand-off. The Patriarch, a Palestinian, argues, "I am not for the Palestinians," he said. "I am for the oppressed."
"This is not a war on terror," he insisted. "It is a war against occupation."
Edmond
Durst taught English for more than twenty years at various universities in the
Middle East.
Greek Orthodox
patriarch finally gets government approval
By Baruch Kra,
“Haaretz,” 16/4/2002
A forum of just four cabinet ministers approved
the appointment Sunday night of Eirinaios I as Greek Orthodox Patriarch of
Jerusalem.
Government sources, however, said that even in this limited
forum, there were serious flaws with the appointment.
The government opposed Eirinaios's appointment as patriarch
because of his close relationship with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser
Arafat. Sources said they have reports compiled by the Shin Bet security
services warning that Eirinaios could hand over church property to hostile
Palestinian forces. The Makor Rishon newspaper recently published a report on
this, prompting Eirinaios, through his attorney, Yaakov Neeman, to sue the
paper for libel.
Eirinaios won the August elections, defeating two opponents,
both of whom Israel backed. Israel opposed Eirinaios's competing for the post
due to "security reasons." He petitioned the High Court over the
government's opposition to his candidacy, and the government retracted it. In
September, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate went ahead with the enthronement
ceremony in Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre which the Israeli government
boycotted.
Under the church's constitution, the "ruler" of the
land must approve the appointment of the new patriarch. Israel, Jordan and the
Palestinian Authority are considered "rulers" of the patriarchate's
land in Jerusalem; Jordan and the PA approved the appointment.
Following further pressure on the Israeli government, the prime
minister's aides asked Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit to sign a document
handing over the decision on Eirinaios's appointment to the Knesset. Sheetrit
signed the document, but his aides later claimed that he had been duped and did
not know exactly what he was signing. The sources also said that Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon did not want his signature appearing on the certification of
Eirinaios's appointment, and therefore, he decided to place the matter in
Sheetrit's hands, even though he did not oppose the posting.
On Sunday night, Sharon called the cabinet, asking for approval
for the establishment of a special team of four minister to decide on the
appointment. Some ministers, including Public Security Minister Uzi Landau and
Education Minister Limor Livnat, opposed the idea, but the majority were in
favor. The forum comprised Sharon, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, Religious
Affairs Minister Asher Ohana and Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit.
Government sources said the government's approval of
Eirinaios's appointment after months of an impasse is linked to U.S. Secretary
of State Colin Powell's visit to the region. Sources in the ministerial forum
also said the decision-making process was flawed, and the appointment was
approved since "the political circumstances have changed."
THE SOLIDARITY BELL RINGING MARCH
MEETING PLACE: The Mar Elias church by the Bethlehem
Checkpoint.
DATE & TIME: Sunday, April 21st. at 12:00 (noon)
The purpose of the march is to walk to the church of
nativity in order to pray for peace. All are kindly asked to present themselves
with family and friends, all carrying bells, at the church of Mar Elias in
order for the procession to proceed to the Church of Nativity.
Show up, this is an opportunity to show your
solidarity!
IMPORTANT: Bring bells and a can of food.
|
Important note to our dear readers We really hope that you enjoy what we send you and find it
useful. If you need further information, please feel free to contact us at: nonviolence@writeme.com
Thank you for your understanding & with best wishes from
Jerusalem Fr. Raed Abusahlia |