News,
articles and documents from the Holy Land
Issue No. 86 - Saturday, 21 July 2001
Jerusalem Journal #
26
Sister Mary
21 July 2001
The episode that drew me to Bethlehem this past week was the assassination
of four supposed terrorists there. Three of these men were the target of two
rockets fired from Apache helicopters. One man, Omar Saada, who the Israelis
claim was a Hamas terrorist, was killed along with two other men. When his
brother, Isaac Saada, heard the explosions he ran out of his house into his
brother's yard and a third rocket was launched at him and Isaac was killed instantly.
Isaac Saada was not a terrorist. He was a man of peace; a committed
teacher at Terra Santa Catholic school in Bethlehem who supported his wife and
eleven children on that meager salary. Isaac Saada was also an active
member of the Israel-Palestinian Center for Research and Information, an
organization involved with peace education. Isaac, had just completed,
along with his Israeli and Palestinian colleagues, the writing of a new
curriculum on conflict resolution and negotion for Israeli and Palestinian 11th.
grade students. Now, thanks to the Israeli Occupation Forces, another man
committed to peace education is gone from the Palestinian scene and there is no
one to provide the few sheckels that he brought home to his family.
If you heard or read that four terrorists were killed in Bethlehem last week,
it was pure misinformation. A man of peace was killed and an innocent girl of
four lost her arm due to these assassinations that occured in a country
that does not have a death penalty.
The co-director of the Israel-Palestinian Center for Research and Information,
Dr. Gershon Baskin, is demanding an apology from the Government of Israel and a
recognition of their tragic error. Dr. Baskin is also heading a donation
campaign for the welfare of Isaac Saada family, as a legacy of the peace that
Isaac dreamed and worked for these many years; a man who lived his entire 51
years under the Israeli Occupation of his land.
Then this past week also saw the massacre of a Palestinian family, including a
two and a half month old baby boy from Hebron. Israeli settlers from
Hebron quickly claimed responsibility for eliminating some "lice".
The day after the funeral for this family, the Christian Peacemakers' apartment
received six bullets from the roof of the nearby settlement where the Israeli
Occupation Force is situated. The previous day while on the street in
Hebron, three of the Christian Peacemakers had been attacked by settlers.
BETHLEHEM DIARY (34)
Toine van Teeffelen
July 9 - July 16, 2001
This weekend we moved to
our new house opposite ‘Azza camp in Bethlehem. Some friends we met on the
street told us: “But that is even closer to the shooting.” That may be the case
but it is also conveniently close to Mary’s mother and sister and not far from
her work at the university. We also live more spaciously, and Jara has her own
room now. The removal itself is comfortably completed with the help of some
hired hands and Mary’s cousin who is a carpenter. “Look here, how do I look
with this Kathusya [rocket]?” asks the helper from ‘Azza camp carrying a rolled
tapestry on his shoulder. Unlike the custom here, Mary wanted the rooms to be
painted in bright colors. Jara insists her room to be pink. In the drive is a statue
of the Virgin Mary as you see them in Belgium or France or Mediterranean
countries. The pleasure place is a balcony directed to the east where we
already spent most of the leisure hours. We eat fresh fruit from Jibrin’s, a
vegetable market owned by people from ‘Azza camp who managed to develop a
thriving business.
*
* *
‘Azza camp stretches
from our street towards Paradise hotel. Some 2,000 refugees, or descendents
from refugees, live there in cramped conditions in multi-story gray-dark houses
built of poor material. Last week I had a chance to visit the camp’s youth club
with the help of a member of the institute’s youth group, Mohammed, who invited
me in his characteristically light-hearted and somewhat ironical way: “So you
are going to live next to the camp. Maybe you have never been there. I’ll do
you a favor and introduce you to your neighbors.” While walking through the
camp I’ll see only very few women who wear the mandil (veil). The
Palestinian camps tend to be politically secular though more radical than the
towns and villages. Along the walls are posters of martyrs. One poster shows a
collaborator in the camp who a few weeks ago, possibly under pressure by the
Palestinian intelligence, shot and killed his Israeli liaison. When Israel returned
the body after several days, the family of the man and a doctor held a press
conference in which they showed pictures of the severely mutilated corpse.
Together with Shireen I
attend a dabkeh (folklore dance) performance of some of the camp youth, a
project made possible by the Japanese peace movement. My experience with youth
from the camps and the villages is that if they get a chance to join in an
activity, they do it with almost total dedication and discipline. Here, too.
Some of the girls can’t keep the seriousness on their faces and break into a
smile while dancing. The dance and song themes are derived from the refugee
experience and deal with suffering, liberation and return. While watching I am
suddenly aware that what I observe the Israelis would call “incitement.” In a
neighboring club building youth are making a wall drawing that represents the
nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Why Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I ask
myself – as if the refugees need to be reminded that things can always be
worse? The project leader explains that the Japanese peace movement annually
commemorates their day of nuclear destruction in different places in the world.
During this year’s remembrance day the dabkah troupe will give a
performance in the Peace Center of Bethlehem. Later on in summer, they will
show their skills in Morocco and Paris – if they can leave, of course. There is
a computer lab in the youth club, too. The Japanese effort clearly makes a
difference, the youth are encouraged to be active and to do new things. On the
bare walls hang a few posters of refugees that were especially designed for the
occasion of the Pope’s visit last year.
*
* *
While watching the
posters, I remember the countless images and photos of Palestinian refugees,
their stilled faces betraying weariness, renunciation and bitterness. Years
ago, when I made a study of the portrayal of Palestinians in popular fiction, I
found out that many thriller writers were fond of giving desperate Palestinian
refugees the role of fanatic terrorists. To them was attributed an “explosive”
mixture of traumatic experience, anger and despair. In many of the narratives,
the fact of their homelessness made them easy prey for political manipulation
by evil conspirators. Rather than having their own story, they were thought to
only be able to obstruct somebody else’s story. Many novels depicted the
refugees’ facial features, especially their “hard” eyes, but did not give them
a real voice and humanity. The refugees were described as both unsettled and
unsettling.
This image of the
embittered Palestinian refugee is present everywhere, both in literature and
science. The famous American educationalist Jerome Bruner, whose work I
otherwise admire, once wrote that second or third generation Palestinian
refugees experience such a breakdown in culture and such an impoverishment of
narrative resources that the stories they tell presumably have little
variation. Apparently, according to him they can do little else than thinking
about their uprooting and return. The underlying message is: You know in
advance what they are saying, so there is no need to listen to them. No doubt,
this is a distorted construction of reality. An anthropologist like Rosemary
Sayigh who stayed and lived for many years with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon
has shown through her interviews with women how rich and subtle the narrative
resources of people in the camps are. This is also my feeling. While walking
though ‘Azza camp on a summer evening, you see people sitting outside in front
of the doors and the shops talking, narrating, gesturing. That does not mean
that the collective feeling of injustice is not there. The youth leader I meet
tells that the club’s name is mandaleh (bitterness). Rather than
referring to a generalized emotion, the name is that of a story-teller: Nadji
al’Ali’s popular cartoon figure, a little child who observes and comments upon
distressful situations prevalent in the Arab and Palestinian world such as
political repression, corruption and neglect. As if to emphasize the
embarrassment and bitterness caused by what he sees, he is always depicted with
his back towards the viewer. The facial features should be imagined but not
seen.
The youth leader says
that the refugees of ‘Azza feel somehow different from the other Palestinians
in Bethlehem. There is not a great deal of contact with the native population,
although, unlike other camps, ‘Azza is completely surrounded by a town. But the
very fact of being adjacent to Bethlehem town only serves to underline the contrast.
The refugees are not at home.
Last year, some of the
refugees from the camp joint a journey towards the village from where many of
them come, Beit Jibrin, near Beit Shemesh in Israel. The Israeli authorities
did not allow them to come close. In fact, many Israelis are haunted by the
image of refugees wanting to return. I recently read in Haaretz that
perhaps the major reason why the Israeli public, including a large part of the
peace camp, recently made a nationalistic turn in their political thinking was
the return of the Palestinian demand of the right of return. The refugees’
dream is the Israelis’ nightmare.
*
* *
Silently above the camp
hangs a kite, a mini airplane with two Palestinian flags at the rear. A symbol
of national pride or of the suspended possibility of flying away? With the
youth leader I discuss an old project proposal of our institute which aims, if
nothing else, at least at people’s minds flying away. Beit Jibrin, as said the
place where many of the ‘Azza refugees come from, is located on the historical
road between Hebron and Beersheba, or, seen from a regional perspective,
between Jerusalem and Cairo. Once we thought about the possibility of
reconstructing the route Jerusalem-Cairo as an educational project. Children would
learn about what happened on that route over time, what the monks, traders,
military and of course refugees brought to move from place to place. Students
would see pictures of the route, make exchanges with schools along the route
and, if possible, visit places. Beit Jibrin (in Hebrew Beit Guvrin) is
centrally located on that route. It used to be a strategically located Roman
town, with lands stretching from Ein Gedi along the Dead Sea to Ashkelon along
the Mediterranean. Later on it became an important Arab village. Presently it
is a kibbutz. The school where many of the parents grandparents of our new
neighbors used to study is now the kibbutz’ administrative building. The value
of the project we think of would be that students would mentally rise above
their present-day fragmented condition to gain a broader view of history and
geography. Right now Palestinians from the West Bank can neither visit Israel
nor the Gaza Strip. The project would rest upon the assumption that one’s life
may be imprisoned but one’s spirit is always challenged to fly away.
*
* *
Other new neighbors are
Suha’s parents. Last year Suha joint our exchange program during which she met
a Palestinian in Holland whom she married in Amman this week. A few weeks ago
she wrote the Institute a letter. During the time of the exchange she stayed in
Holland with a “lovely family,” she writes, whose daughter as well as niece
live in a kibbutz in Israel. Suha invited them to come over from Israel to her
place but the shootings prevented that. “Israel did not know that I was having
visitors.” Now she leaves for Holland, and writes that she will “never know if
I will be able to see my home again. Maybe a rocket will hit it in its way.” We
don’t hope so, neither for her nor for us.
*
* *
Upon hearing about
another suicide attack in Israel, Mary’s cousin who came over from Dubai for a
few weeks’, advances her departure to be able to cross the bridge before it
would be possibly closed in reprisal. When she tells Jara about her leaving,
Jara answers: “Kamaan?” (you too) as if she is surprised to hear about
all the people who are leaving one after the other. Her favorite song is Majd
al-Roumi’s Tiri, tiri, ya asfoureh, ana bint zghire hilwe amoura (Fly,
fly, bird, I am a sweet cute little girl). I join her dance and tell an evening
story about a flying tiger who is admired by the rest of the animals.
Israel retaliates to the
suicide attack with quick bombings. Jenin is bombed, says Mary, the bomber came
from that place. “Yes, that sounds very logical,” I answer. Also Tulkarem is
bombed, she says. “That is also logical, that town is not very far from Jenin,”
I tell her. Mary resigns. All we need is a bit more logic.
*
* *
While I am writing this,
the news comes in that four Bethlehem people have been killed by an Israeli
rocket intentionally directed at the house where they were staying. They were
waiting upon the release of a family member who was five years in an Israeli
prison. Two of the killed were Hamas leaders, apparently. The staff at the
Institute are shocked when they hear the names of the killed. Ala’a, a new
worker at the Institute, mourns especially the loss of one of the four who was
a history teacher at Terra Sancta School in Bethlehem where Ala’a studied.
Three of the four belong to the Sa’ade family who have several shops down on
the Bethlehem-Jerusalem road near our former house. Tomorrow will be a day of
mourning in the town.
Solidarity with the Christians in the Holy Land
Fr.
Stan De Boe, OSST
"Tell the people they are not alone, that
the Christians have not forgotten them." This plea by Fr.
Raed Abusahlia,
Chancellor of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem was echoed in each meeting
with
Palestinian
Christians during a recent delegation of Catholic Religious leaders to the Holy
Land.
An eight-member
delegation from the US Conference of Major Superiors of Men and Leadership
Conference of
Women Religious, in collaboration with Catholic Relief Services, was the
highest ranking Catholic delegation in over two years to visit the Holy Land
and have access to the West Bank and Gaza. The mission was designed to be a
statement of solidarity and concern at this time of crisis and to listen to the
Palestinians and Israelis. The delegation met with Christian, Muslim and Jewish
religious leaders; Israeli and Palestinian political leaders; and interacted
with Israeli and Palestinian citizens who are living in fear because of the
systemic violence and the threat of terror that plagues daily life in the Holy
Land.
Of particular
concern to the delegation were the problems facing the small and increasingly diminishing
Christian population of the Holy Land. In 1948 the Christian population in what
is now Israel and the Occupied Territories was 52 percent. Just one year ago,
when CMSM participated an ecumenical delegation, the number was put at just
over 2 percent. In one year, the number of Christians leaving the Holy Land has
lowered the percentage to below 2 percent, and the very existence of the
ancient Christian communities is throated.
One pastor of a
parish near Bethlehem said that in the last three months over 1,000 members of
his parish have left the Holy Land. Most are reluctant to say they are leaving.
One family invited the priest to their home to bless it on a Saturday. After
liturgies on Sunday, when he did not see the family, he inquired about them and
was told that they had left early that morning for the U.S. to escape the fear
and violence. Stories like this are not unusual.
What is also
disturbing is that it is widely believed that these Christians who leave the
Holy Land will not return, like their Muslim sisters and brothers who are also
fleeing. When Christians leave the Holy Land to settle in Europe, the U.S.,
Canada, or Australia, they are assimilated into a culture that supports their
Christian values and welcomes them, their children can attend Christian
schools, and they are part of a faith family. Palestinian Muslims do not enjoy
the same benefit and will almost certainly return to the Holy Land when there
is a solution to the crisis.
There are
several reasons given for the flight of Christians from the Holy Land. The
increased violence during this current Intifada, which started in September,
only highlights the problems that Christians face. The most pressing problems
are the systemic violence, the economic blockades, and loss of visible
solidarity from Christians outside the Holy Land.
Systemic
Violence
One of the key
elements to the crisis in the Holy Land is the systemic violence with Israeli's
expansion of settlements at the very core of the issue. In recent years the
settlements surrounding the traditional Christian areas (Bethlehem, Beit Jala,
and Beit Sahur) have expanded both geographically and demographically. They
have spread from the tops of mountains and hills to the hillsides and valleys,
just yards from the Christian towns. The settlers who live in the settlements are
largely the new immigrants from Russia and religious fanatics who view their
living in the settlements as part of a divine calling to take the land and to
make pure. For "security reasons" Israel has built an intricate
network of roads, connecting the settlements, which Palestinians are forbidden
to use. On either side of the roads 300-foot security zones are cut - homes and
fields are bulldozed, olive groves are uprooted. Palestinians are allowed
access only to designated roads and what would be a few minutes drive from
Bethlehem to Jerusalem could take several hours, given the circuitous route
they are forced to take and the checkpoints they are made to pass through.
The settlements
also provide a place from which Israelis have launched air and missile attacks
on the Palestinian towns. During the delegation's visit we were shown Christian
homes that had been destroyed by the Israeli attacks. The homes, on the
outskirts of the towns are the closest to the settlements and prime targets for
the attacks. Bombs that explode into hundreds of pieces of shrapnel are fired
into these homes and on impact do damage far beyond conventional bombs.
One priest in
Gaza reported that children are terrorized by the nightly bombings. Recently
one child in a school run by his parish was hysterical because the sound of a
moving desk above him sounded like the bomb that exploded near his house just
the night before. On another day when Israeli planes were flying over the
children of the school started crying and looking for shelter, afraid that they
would soon be under attack.
Sadly the
delegation learned of the US involvement in these attacks when we were shown
the shells and parts of bombs found in these homes - all of there were clearly
marked as products of the US. The Palestinian Territory is being carved out and
any hope for a Palestinian homeland with contiguous, secure borders, is less
possible each day as more settlers are moved into homes in the Occupied
Territories and the building in the settlements continues.
During a meeting
with Israeli Minister of Religious Affairs, Godi Golan, he stated that had the Palestinians
accepted the Camp David agreement last September the settlers would now be out
of the settlements and the Palestinians would have that land. The delegation
asked him why the Israelis would not withdraw from the settlements in the
Occupied Territories now, knowing that they are a source of tension and a
reason the violence continues. He responded that the withdrawal from the
Occupied Territories was also dependent on an end to the violence before they
withdraw. It seems the cycle of systemic violence of the settlements will not
end.
Economic
Blockade
The delegates
visited the Palestinian city of Hebron, the second largest in the West Bank and
a particular center of violence between Israelis and Palestinians because of
Israel's confiscation of nearly half the city, including the mosque. On our way
in we witnessed the intimidation and effects of the economic blockade. Israeli
settlers with automatic rifles were preventing Palestinians from leaving Hebron
to get their produce and materials to markets in other parts of the West Bank
and workers from getting to their jobs. Long lines of cars and trucks were
stopped on either side of an Israeli checkpoint and hundreds more Palestinians
who have to walk to their jobs were stopped unable to move because they were
threatened. Israeli soldiers were attempting to control the settlers but the
settlers were armed better than the security officers. These daily occurrences
at Hebron, between Bethlehem and Ramallah and Jerusalem, at the Gaza crossing
are destroying the Palestinian economy.
These economic blockades
are commonly referred to as "closures" and that might be an
appropriate pseudonym - it is meant to bring and end to something - the
Palestinian economy. Farmers bring their produce to checkpoints hoping to get
them to market but after being held for hours in burning heat, produce and
meats begin to rot and are turned back for health reasons. With the loss of
money the farmers cannot provide for their families, purchase the materials
necessary for the next crops and thus become dependent on the social service
assistance provided by international organizations. Workers are made to pass
through the checkpoints and are subject to harassment. Many are prevented from
crossing and unable to hold their jobs. Most Palestinian workers are dependent
on jobs in Israel and usually make up the labor force for construction and
services in Israeli businesses. Because the Israelis are dependent on the
unskilled labor that had been provided by Palestinians, there has been a need
to find laborers from other countries. While we were there a newspaper article
reported on the latest wave of immigration to Israel. The report stated that
many new immigrants are largely non-Jewish unskilled laborers who are being
given the jobs once held by the Palestinians.
Without jobs and
without the means to sustain their families, dependent on foreign relief and development
organizations for assistance the Palestinians are stripped of their human
dignity and many are reduced to supporting the acts of terrorism such as the
recent suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
The delegation
made it clear that we opposed all acts of violence and terrorism, including the
suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, and called on all sides to end the violence, both
the systemic violence and terrorism that erodes any confidence or hope for an
agreement.
Loss
of Visible Solidarity
One of the most
visible affects of the recent violence is the absence of pilgrims and tourists
in the Holy Land. Since September 2000 almost all tourism has stopped. The huge
crowds that were anticipated during the Millennium year never came to the Holy
Land. Manger Square was empty at Christmas and there were few people in
Jerusalem for the celebration of Easter this year. Jerusalem and Bethlehem look
like ghost towns. The shrines are empty and the shops are closed. Over 80
percent of Palestinian Christians depend on the tourist and pilgrim trade for
their livelihood. With no pilgrims and tourists their incomes have been
drastically reduced, if not completely ended. They cannot afford to send their
children to the schools run by the Latin Patriarch. Those who do have jobs
outside of the tourist industry are affected by the economic embargo.
The few
Christians visiting the Holy Land are not allowed to travel outside of
Jerusalem and those who are limited as to where they travel and with whom they
have contact. The Christian community in the Holy Land feels isolated and
forgotten by the Christians outside of the Holy Land. They feel that their
message, their plea for assistance at this time is unheard and unheeded. They
long for a return of their sisters and brothers who will come in solidarity and
bring a message of hope by their mere presence. The delegation pointed out that
the danger is too great for large number of pilgrims and tourists to travel to
the Holy Land. However, the delegation would encourage other small groups of
Christian leaders to show their solidarity through frequent visits and contact
with partners in the Holy Land.
This is a
critical time in the crisis in the Holy Land. The suffering of the small
Christian community might lead to the death of the earliest Christians communities;
some tracing their roots back to the 1S' Century Church. This is not a place of
just Holy Land and Holy Shrines; it is a living Christian community suffering
under the burden of occupation and the violence it breeds. It is a Christian
community that feels abandoned by her sisters and brothers. It is a Christian community
that could disappear if we do not support them.
What
Should Be Done?
The work of
finding a solution to the crisis in the Holy Land has to be done by the
Israelis and Palestinians. But there are steps we can call for to support a
peace process:
Both sides must
end the violence, including the systemic violence of expanding the settlements
and the acts of terror. Israel's right to be recognized by all the
international community must be respected and it must be allowed secure
borders, free from terror, in which the people of Israel must be allowed to
flourish. A homeland for Palestinians must be created, with integral and secure
borders. The economic blockade must end and there must be free access to
markets and employment. Christians outside the Holy Land must find ways of
supporting their sisters and brothers who suffer under the hardships they experience.
Support organizations such as Catholic Relief Services and Caritas Internationalis
that are providing assistance and development for the Palestinian community.
And in the words
of priest in Gaza, "God alone can deliver us from this problem. Pray for
the peace of Jerusalem and all the people."
"A Sort of Homecoming..."
After nine months in Palestine, it was time to go home for a visit. We
headed back to the States in June to see our families and friends, and to talk
with our supporting churches. It was a whirlwind tour – six cities, seven
churches, and 400 people at the various talks we gave. We also got a
little chance to rest, see a Cubs' game, and eat the finest American food -
Krispy Kreme doughnuts and Atlanta's famous Varsity chili
dogs. Surprisingly, culture shock was minimal (probably because we never
did escape the grasp of American culture - even Saudi television replays
American shows). Despite the joy of being back, we had the distinct feeling
that this wasn't quite home anymore. An itch to go home to Palestine was
strengthened by e-mails from our friends, who shared news and concerns about
the deteriorating situation in and around Zababdeh.
We returned at the beginning of July, and set up temporary camp in the village
of Birzeit, home to the university where we are taking a crash course in
intermediate Arabic. The Latin Church here has been kind enough to give us a
place to lay our heads (and to wash our clothes and to study, study,
study). Word got to Zababdeh that we were back in the country, and
friends called, longing to see us. We have very much enjoyed our new town and
new neighbors, but Birzeit isn't quite home either. We needed to get back home
to Zababdeh.
Last weekend we finally caught the taxi for the long ride back north. The
others making the journey with us brought us up on recent news: the electricity
in Zababdeh had gotten down to twelve hours a day before a new motor could
finally be brought in; two Israeli settlers were shot - one killed, one wounded
- on the bypass road around Jenin; the same road is now closed, even to the
other Americans in Zababdeh, meaning the 30-minute trip to Nazareth now takes
three hours; two Palestinian policemen accused of terrorism were shot and
killed by Israeli soldiers near our neighboring village Qabatiya; three other
Palestinians were assassinated by an Israeli helicopter one mile outside of
Zababdeh - everyone heard the noise, some saw the rockets being fired, and one
neighbor had gone to help pull bodies out of the charred remains of their car.
Meanwhile, Palestinian attacks on settlers continue, settler attacks on
Palestinians continue, the Israeli cabinet has gathered an additional
twenty-six names of Palestinians they plan to assassinate, and the US
government claims we've reached a cease-fire. Although we longed to be here,
it's hard to feel at home in a climate that's so chaotic.
And so, we find that even Zababdeh isn't quite like home either. We share with
so many of our neighbors a sense of homelessness, whether literal or emotional.
Where is home? Our teacher calls Nazareth home. In1947, one year after
completing a new house on the family land in Nazareth, his father was sent
Ramallah to teach. After the war, he and his family were not allowed to return
to their new home, and so our teacher was born and raised in Ramallah. Where is
home? One of our good friends in Zababdeh was eight when her family was evicted
from their home in Haifa in 1948. She clearly recalls their flight (and
fright), as well as her subsequent homes in Burqin, Amman, and Zababdeh. Where
is home? Jews, often uprooted by violence themselves, have been coming for over
a century seeking a homeland, but few have found rest in a land so fraught with
conflict. Where is home? Recently, military demolition of Palestinian homes has
accelerated; even those who live in refugee camps have had their meager
dwellings leveled. Where is home?
There is a vision of healing for such a place, offered by the Apostle Paul. Speaking
to the uprooted in Ephesus, he says that belonging to the church means that we
are no longer strangers or aliens, but members and citizens of the household of
God. Such a vision is hope - that the homeless would find rest, those who
have been marginalized and oppressed would find their place, and all of us
would be gathered under one Divine roof, no longer doomed to wander seeking the
shelter and comfort we so desire. Such a vision gives us hope - but it sure
makes us homesick.
Salamaat,
Elizabeth and Marthame
The Robbed Cossack
By Uri Avnery 14.7.01
The Cossacks were settlers in Southern Russia who were granted land by the
Czars in return for their obligation to defend the border. They were known
as fierce and ruthless fighters, and in Jewish memory they became
notorious as the perpetrators of the most abominable pogroms.
Therefore, there is a lot of bitter irony in the old Jewish adage "a
robbed Cossack". It describes a Cossack who not only causes havoc,
murders, rapes and plunders, but also accuses his victims of robbing him. The
perpetrator pretends to be the victim; the robber pretends to be
robbed.
Israel is gradually becoming a "robbed Cossack". An alien
on Mars, following Israeli broadcasts on inter-stellar satellite, would
get the impression that it is the Palestinians who are
maintaining a cruel occupation of Israel and that Palestinian soldiers are
roaming the Israeli towns.
This is explained by the competition for the international media. Each side to
the conflict paints itself as the victim in order to gain the support of world
public opinion, which always tends towards the weak. The
Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become a kind
of championship fight between two grand masters of
victimization.
But the phenomenon is more profound. For generations the Jews were persecuted
in many countries and developed the consciousness of victims. It could almost
been said that most of the Jewish culture created during the last two
or three centuries revolves around this axis. The Holocaust, of course,
strengthened this central motif even further.
The Zionist enterprise in this country should have changed this
pattern. After all, the Zionist penetration
drove the
Palestinians from their lands and turned most of them into
refugees. In this historic struggle, the Palestinians lost: lands,
villages, great parts of the country. This process is
still going on daily.
Now the Palestinians have come and demanded for themselves the
victim's crown of thorns. Nothing offends the Israelis more. It seems to us the
height of Chutzpah, an attack on the core of our national consciousness.
Therefore we react with fury. We describe the intifada as a malicious attack
on our existence. We have brought back from the junk-yard the slogans of
past generations: the Arabs want to throw us into the sea, they want to
take Haifa and Jaffa from us. Forgotten is the
fact that we have the mightiest army in the region, that Israel
within the Green Line possesses 78% of the country, that we now
control the rest of the country (the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) too, that we
enjoy a vast superiority in almost all fields. Forgotten is the fact that
the Palestinians demand for themselves a mere 22% of the country and that the
intifada is an uprising against an occupation that has been going on with
increasing brutality for 34 years already.
Never mind! We are the victims, and we shall bash the head of anyone who tries
to rob us of this title.
And if Israel is the robbed Cossack par excellence, then the
settlers even more so.
True, they are in a very difficult situation. They are being
attacked daily, their families live in constant danger, they are being
killed and wounded. Nobody can envy them.
But it cannot be forgotten that they put themselves into this
situation, with open eyes and deliberate forethought. Even those who
dreamed only about "quality of life" on stolen land and of
amusing themselves in swimming pools filled with stolen water
cannot complain about the rude awakening. Not to mention the hard core of the
settlement movement, the Gush Emunim fanatics and their ilk.
They settled in the midst of a dense Palestinian population, on land
stolen from the people who became their neighbors. After settling, they
expanded; taking over more and more lands, quarreling with
the nearby villagers, talking
highly of "co-existence" while treating the
"locals" with arrogance and contempt. Every Palestinian on
the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, who woke in the morning and
looked through the window saw that the red roofs of the adjacent
settlement had come even closer to his yard.
What did they think, these settlers? What did their leaders and rabbis
think? How did they intend to survive in the middle of a population whose
hatred became stronger from day to day? Well, it's no secret: they
hoped that this population would disappear. Their aim was not only to
settle the whole of Eretz Israel, but also to have an Eretz Israel empty of
Goyim. The "dream" of Rabbi Ovadia Joseph, to which he confessed some
days ago, of a country between the sea and the Jordan in which there was
not a single non-Jew, is not new for them. It had been proclaimed in
the past by the Judea-and-Samaria rabbis, who inspired the
Jewish underground that aimed at blowing up the Dome of the Rock, who sang the
praises of the mass-murderer Baruch Goldstein in public and of the
Rabin-murderer Yigal Amir in secret.
Now the settlers are hanging by the thread of the bypass roads and
cry bloody murder. The army must defend them all, a soldier every meter.
They do not send their children back to Israel, because the danger to the
children is a trump card in their game. Their great hope is that the present
confrontation will escalate to such monstrous proportions
that it will be possible to complete in 2001 or 2002 the work
that was begun in1948 and continued in 1967. The Palestinians will
be removed from the country, their villages eradicated and in their stead
settlements will cover all of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Many of them
believe that this hope is near fulfillment.
The settlers argue that "the state" sent
them there. Their opponents say the opposite is true, that
they held all the governments by their throats and compelled them to
endorse their settlements, sometimes before and sometimes after they
were set up.
Both sides are right. The settlers fulfill a hidden dream in the
Zionist unconscious, and therefore both Labor
and Likud governments supported and promoted them. The army
has gradually become a militia in the service of the settlers.
Many generals and colonels are settlers in their minds, if not
with their bodies. With the advent of Sharon, a symbiosis of the
government, the senior officers and the settlers has come into being, and all
of them stand and shout: "Help!! They are killing us!" And with
the same breath: "Attack!!!"
It's not really the settlers' problem, but the problem of the state.
Beyond all the gibberish about Mitchell, Tenet and the other nonsense, we face
a simple and stark choice between the evacuation of millions of
Palestinians and the evacuation of 200,000 settlers (40,000
families at most). The first option will cause an eternal war against the whole
Arab and Muslim world, and, in the end, the destruction of Israel. The
other option will cause a profound inner crisis, and, in the end, peace.
We have to choose.
Payer for peace in the Holy
Land
|
|
NO COMMENT!!!
|
Important note to our dear readers We really hope
that you enjoy what we try to send you and find it useful, and if you need
any further information, please feel free to contact us:
nonviolence@writeme.com * But, you have to take in consideration
that this newsletter is not an official newsletter of the Latin Patriarchate
of Jerusalem; * Only the documents signed by the
Patriarch himself, express an official position, but all the other news,
articles and documents express the personal opinion of their authors; * I remain the only responsible of the
presentation and the editorials of this newsletter, which is wanted to be a
simple instrument of information without any pretension; * We don’t side with anybody, we only
side with the truth, and strive for human rights, justice, peace and
reconciliation for everybody as usual. Thank you for your understanding & Best wishes from Jerusalem Fr. Raed Abusahlia |