News, articles and documents
from the Holy Land
Issue No. 180 - Saturday, 23 November 2002
Dear Friends, Brothers
and Sisters,
Almost
all the Palestinian territories where re-occupied, closed and many are under
curfew: The Israeli army invaded for the eighth time the Town of Bethlehem and
is imposing a complete curfew of the whole zone including Beit Jala where is
located our Seminary. We had to attend the diaconal ordination of one of our
Seminarian last Friday, but that same morning the army entered the city and
imposed the curfew. Nevertheless, the ordination was done inside the Seminary
and was assisted only by the colleagues of the new deacon. He prepared himself
in the seminary during the last 13 years for this day, and unfortunately it felled
down on a day of curfew… The bishop who ordained him is our Patriarchal Vicar
in Amman who came a day before for the ordination and he also was caught under
the invasion and the curfew and we had to arrange a coordination with the army
in order to let him out from the area because he had to go back to Jordan soon.
Bethlehem
itself is under curfew and the tanks are surrounding the Nativity Church in
order to prohibit another siege of the Basilica, especially that we are one month
far from Christmas.. it seems that we will have anther Christmas under invasion.
The Custos of the Holy Land, Rev. Fr. Giovanni Battistelli should do his solemn
entry to Bethlehem in order to inaugurate the Advent season according to the
tradition, and the whole population of Bethlehem used to take part in this
entry.. I heard that he entered in silence with some of the Franciscan priests
and monks and I hope that he will be able to celebrate the Sunday mass tomorrow!
Even
our village lived one day of curfew last Monday because a women-settler was
killed nearby the junction which is two Kms far from our village, therefore,
the army imposed the curfew and closed completely the village and now we have
to drive another 20 kms extra on the mountains in order to reach that same
point which the only entrance of our village. Settlers erected a tent on the
junction and are staying there for the seven days of mourning and I hope that
they will leave after that because sometimes they stay and build a whole
settlement, which will disturb our village very much and confiscate the land or
our community.
An
English group of Knights and ladies of the Holy Sepulcher visited us last
Tuesday and they had to do these extra 20 Kms to reach Taybeh. They where very
astonished to see how is life like in these land and I am sure that they don’t believe
that such things are done anywhere on the planet especially at the beginning of
the 3rd millennium! I think that our strength is that we are able to
resist and remain firm with such situation and especially to find alternative
way out to continue our life, which means that we are a creative people who
wants to live like all the other peoples of the world.
You
will find in today’s Olive Branch a lot of documents:
1)
Two news coming from the Vatican concerning the situation in the
Holy Land: Curfew May Hinder Christmas Preparations in Bethlehem; John Paul II Appeals for End to Mideast
Violence.
2)
The
Letter from Bethlehem (39)
from Toine van Teeffelen in which he gives us the image of the situation in
Bethlehem in the last days.
3)
Maria C.
Khoury, Ed. D. is describing the situation of the “The Christian Village under
Curfew”.. She is from Tyabeh and writes for us since more than two years.
4)
Samia
Khoury is writing about “The Golden Rule”.
5)
I include
two articles from Israeli peace activist: “REVENGE OF A CHILD”
By Uri Avnery, and “Mitzna's
Victory Must Become Our Shared Victory
by Gershon Baskin. It gives us another image from the other side.
I send you my
best greetings and invite all of you to come and visit us or at least to pray
for us.
Best wishes
from Taybeh Fr.
Raed Abusahlia
Curfew May
Hinder Christmas Preparations in Bethlehem
JERUSALEM, NOV.
22, 2002 (Zenit.org).- The Franciscan Custody in the Holy
Land appealed to Israel to lift the curfew imposed on Bethlehem, since it is
interfering with important religious celebrations.
The appeal was presented today to Israeli army representatives by Father
Ibrahim Faltas, Franciscan Custodian of the Basilica of the Nativity. The
basilica had been under a siege for more than a month last spring.
On Thursday night, dozens of Israeli army tanks invaded Bethlehem. The area was
declared a closed military zone, in response to the latest Palestinian suicide
attack, apparently carried out by a native of the city.
"No one can leave; we don't know what can be done. People are
desperate," Father Ibrahim Faltas said in a telephone conversation with
Vatican Radio.
He explained that the Israeli occupation will impede Catholics from
participating this weekend in the traditional celebration, in which Father
Giovanni Battistelli, Custodian of the Holy Land, solemnly enters the Basilica
of the Nativity, in preparation for Christmas.
The Franciscans hoped to inaugurate the "Peace Door," which was
blessed by John Paul II.
ZE02112201
John Paul II Appeals for
End to Mideast Violence
22-Nov-02
VATICAN CITY, NOV. 21, 2002 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II appealed for an end to the violence engulfing the Holy Land and the Middle East, when he met with leaders of Eastern-rite Catholic Churches.
Highlighting the sufferings of the inhabitants of the region who are "drawn into a dangerous spiral that, humanly, seems unstoppable," the Pope exclaimed: "May God make this spiral of violence cease as soon as possible!"
He made his appeal to 65 representatives who are attending the plenary assembly of the Vatican Congregation for Eastern Churches.
The Pope confided his prayer in particular to Blessed John XXIII, as the 40th anniversary of the encyclical "Pacem in Terris" approaches.
Letter from Bethlehem
(39)
Toine van Teeffelen
November 23, 2002
Thursday morning
we hear about the horrible massacre that was perpetrated in West-Jerusalem and
in which over ten Israelis were killed and dozens were wounded (but who heard
about the eight Palestinians who were killed the previous days in Tulkarem
because they were throwing stones or accidentally found themselves in the fire
range? Mary sharply comments that for many foreigners Palestinians don't really
exist, whether dead or alive). In the course of the day the media announce that
the suicide bomber came from the Bethlehem region and that the Israeli cabinet
is meeting this afternoon for an emergency session. So we can expect curfew.
When taking Jara home from the Peace Center, Mary hears from the staff there
that they are going to bring all work materials into safety and keep back-up
computer files at home. During the previous curfew a lot of materials and all
computers were robbed. I do shopping at the grocery where bread is sold out.
The shopkeeper is visibly worried: "Have a nice evening with the Arabs,
not with the Jews." Even though there is little chance that food supplies
are running out in the short term, people immediately stockpile. Rumours about
an impending invasion build up. Somebody says that the correspondent Shireen
Abu Akleh of the Arab Al-Jazira TV station has installed her studio in
Bethlehem so we should quickly bring in food. At the university Mary observes
students and teachers leaving early. "How many weddings will be cancelled
this weekend?", she asks herself. Suzy tells by phone that one of her
older students ran to her for comfort, crying: "I am not afraid!" It
turned out that another student had teased her after she confessed that she was
afraid for an invasion.
Mary's family
had already planned a restaurant dinner because of Janet's birthday. Is it the
right time now? We decide to go ahead despite the uncertainty. Why to always
pay heed to the rumours? Our neighbour joins and drives us in her car to the
Mexican. She says that her colleagues in Jerusalem immediately offered her
sleeping places so that she could keep coming to her work in Jerusalem.
However, she felt not comfortable with their friendliness. It's very unnatural,
she says, to leave your home so quickly. She wants to stay in Bethlehem as long
as she can. On our way to the restaurant we observe for the first time since
months the street lights working. The municipality is determined to collect the
electricity taxes. The lights are soft yellow, which gives a rather romantic
impression. It's a big improvement, certainly for me. At one late afternoon
while walking in the dark I happened to step in a pit and fall flat on the
ground. At another time I hit my head against an outstretched branch of a tree.
People mocked me: "In some months' time we will not have you
anymore." The waiter is surprised to see us and it takes time before the
food arrives. I eat more than normal. Afterwards, Mary decides that it is
better to go to the pharmacy so as to have enough milk and pampers for Tamer.
Fortunately, there is still one big pack of pampers left in the shop.
Next day, we are
woken up early morning by the muezzin which usually means that there is
no curfew. But there is also no sound of cars and after a while military jeeps
pass by announcing the mamnu'a tajaawil. Mary follows the subtitles on
local TV with the latest news. There are arrests made in Dheisha and Al-Khader
village, the home of the family of the suicide bomber is blown up, and later on
that day and today further reports detail arrests and the demolition of various
houses to the east and south-east of Bethlehem. From a distance of 7 kilometers
we hear a second house in Al-Khader being blown up. In Bethlehem itself the
curfew is in full force but there are not so many tanks and armoured personnel
vehicles on the street as during previous occasions. A military jeep passes by
to shoot a sound bomb in 'Azza camp where youth roam the streets and burn
tyres. At one point we hear loud knocking on the door. Mary is upset; are these
soldiers, or Palestinian militants who seek refuge? No, the neighbour's
children are playing in our entry road.
I take time to
work together with Jara on the educational CD Roms we have. Education should be
at home now, since Jara cannot go to her regular Saturday morning school nor to
the Peace Center where the military have pulled out the Israeli flag, according
to Al-Jazira. (Lately we heard about an initiative in Ramallah to link up
Palestinian school students with voluntary foreign teachers who would teach
them during curfews through the Internet. Some local universities, especially
Birzeit University, have in fact already gained wide experience in distance
learning, out of necessity). I sing my Dutch and English children songs for
Tamer, who is moving his legs so much that we sometimes call him the Train. In
front of the mirror he starts moving his lips as if he wants to say
"mama" or "papa." His temperature went up to 38.5; we call
a doctor but there is no urgent need for a visit, she says. I joke with Mary
that I, as an international, am ready to accompany her and Tamer on the
streets.
How long will
the occupation last? According to the army, it is an unlimited operation. The
people in Bethlehem are optimistic, it will be two or three days, they say. The
Americans put a measure of diplomatic pressure on Israel to leave Bethlehem,
presumably in view of the upcoming Advent and the Christmas celebrations. The
head of the Franciscan Custos has arrived from Jerusalem to participate in St
Catherine's feast tomorrow at the Church of Nativity's Latin section. A strange
idea, his coming over through the silence and emptiness of Bethlehem.
The Christian Village under Curfew
18-Nov-02
Maria C. Khoury, Ed. D.
Rarely does a little peaceful Christian village like Taybeh in the Holy Land go under curfew. In the last two years since Ariel Sharon sparked the Palestinian Uprising, the village has only been under curfew twice and the second time we begged the soldiers to uplift the curfew so we could carry on the planned engagement party that was scheduled at the Greek Catholic Church for a young man named Mohib and his fiancé. The soldiers kindly agreed and the curfew was uplifted so a traditional parade took place with clapping and singing from the family home to the church. But even when the village is not directly under curfew, the entrances to the village are technically blocked off by the Israeli army thus you can't get very far. It is like being a prisoner in an open space. You can imagine there is not much available in a little village in the middle of the wilderness of Judea and Samaria. Sometimes I go to all five little mini markets and can't find a simple item like yogurt. And you wonder why I would even want yogurt but many traditional Arabic rice meals need to be eaten with yogurt thus the children refuse to eat the main course if they can't have it with yogurt.
I learned of the curfew because I have been waiting for my airline ticket to be delivered to me from Jerusalem in order to attend the one-day symposium about Christians in the Holy Land scheduled on November 23, 2002 in Chicago. The driver made it all the way to the outskirts of the village but could not enter to deliver the ticket and I could not go to the checkpoint to pick up the ticket. I am stuck at home one more time as the Israeli army jeep patrols Taybeh announcing curfew. A few hours earlier Palestinian militants attacked an Israeli settler on the road right next to the village. House to house searches will be made until someone is found to pay the price for the killing of this Israeli settler. Why do innocent people have to die daily on both sides? Just yesterday, an innocent Palestinian young lady of twenty-one died in her home from an Israeli tank shell. It is most likely that you will never hear about the Palestinian woman having a tragic death but surely the international news will announce that the so called terrorists have attacked the Israeli women and we will see on the evening news a human side to her life story. Does not anyone ask, the Palestinians that die daily, are they not human? Last week twenty-five Palestinians were killed in one week alone, does not any one wonder if any were brothers, fathers, grandfathers, children, infants, do they all wear the label of "terrorists?" A two-year-old child bled to death in his father's arms shot by the Israeli army, doesn't anyone in the international community question the definition of terror in this new millennium?
As the bloody violence goes on and the Israeli army bombs and destroys people and places in Palestine and Muslim freedom fighters continue the suicide bombs and attacks on settlers it looks like a hopeless situation. The fanatics on both sides are destroying a life for the regular folks. A whole nation must pay a price for their actions with collective punishment. Christians with their non-violence voice are just stuck between two extremes. Christians do not believe in being martyred for their country. This is sometimes held against them because they are pacifists. It is difficult to be a teenager in Palestine and on top of it to be Christian because you will be the minority and you will have pressure to join the mainstream and fight for your country but how do you respond when Christ says turn the other cheek and love your enemies.
We desperately cry out unto the Lord and ask for a peaceful resolution to a problem since l948. How can the world continue to ignore that Palestinian Christians and Muslims do not have some very basic human rights in the land of their birth and in the land of their forefathers. It is an outright injustice and crime to be treated sub human on a daily basis. Since the president of the United States, the Pope, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia could not get Sharon to stop the occupation let us put our hope and our faith unto Christ our God. Express your solidarity with Palestinian Christians by praying daily for justice to come in the land of Christ's birth. "I cried unto thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living. Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I." (Psalm 142)
The Golden Rule
by
Samia Khoury
One of the most interesting sessions of
the strategic planning we were having at Rawdat El-Zuhur this
past month was on the vision for the organization. We were allowed to dream in
the process. And we certainly had big dreams. They did not cost anything, they
did not infringe on the rights of anybody, and it was a good feeling to
envisage new premises and better facilities for the school.
As I sat at home reflecting on such a
fruitful day, I could not help but think of a visioning session for the world.
Who would be the right people to come up with a vision for the world? Will this
privilege be granted to the politicians and the world leaders, or will it
involve teachers, social workers, business people, researchers, professionals,
and religious leaders? Would we as women have a role in such a process? And how
much of our dreams would be feasible?
But then I thought how lovely it would be
if we could get the children to dream about the future of the world. After all
it is their own future, and all through the ages, in any conflicts or
disasters, children have always suffered the most. Despite the diversity in
their backgrounds, children are children. They want to live in freedom, peace
and security. They want a safe and warm shelter which they can call home. They
want to play and to have fun and to go to school every morning without being
harrassed by checkpoints or petrified by snipers. And above all they want to be
treated with respect and love. They want to feel that someone really cares and
listens to their concerns and needs with compassion.
I can just envisage those children
dreaming about a new planet with no wars, no arms and no mines in the fields. A
planet void of hunger, poverty, disease and violence, and with plenty of water
and other resources. A planet with a clean environment, and naturally grown
fruits and vegetables. A planet where people can move from one place to another
without any restrictions, irrespective of their race, gender, or religion, and
where a home is where one chooses to settle down. A planet where children have
the opportunity to express themselves freely, and to go to school where the
learning process is just as much fun as playing a game, and where music and dancing
are a common language for communication.
Are those children asking for a utopia? I
do not think so. In some countries many of those dreams are already realized,
but unfortunately it is the ruling powers in different countries that strangle
children’s dreams. That is why it is the greed for power and money that needs
to be challenged in order to make this world a better place for all.
There are so many devastating natural
disasters that we need to exert our energy and effort to control human-made
disasters. Truly we have no control over earthquakes, hurricanes, floods or
droughts, but we certainly can have control over waging a war or depleting a
natural reserve or demolishing a historical site, or dumping waste and
polluting the environment. Again it is the ruling powers which allow vested
interests to contribute towards these human-made disasters.
The root cause of so many grievances and
disastrous situations is injustice. If there was Justice, there wouldn’t be
wars and the loss of life. If there was a fair distribution of resources, there
wouldn’t be so many poor and homeless people. If there were equal
opportunities, there wouldn’t be so much unemployment and so many illiterate
people. If there was freedom and democracy, there wouldn’t be oppressed nations
and so many refugees and political prisoners.
In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ
expresses the essence of Justice in what has become known as the Golden Rule:
"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for
this sums up the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 7:12). This Rule seems to
be a very logical guideline for the ultimate solution for this turmoiled world,
since it is an ethic of reciprocity in the scriptures of almost every religion.
- Judaism: "What is hateful to you, do not to your
fellow men. That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary." (The
Talmud)
- Islam: "No one of you is a believer until he
desires for his brother that which he desires for himself." (Hadith)
- Buddhism: "Hurt not others with that which pains
yourself."
- (Udana-Varga)
- Hinduism: "This is the sum of duty: do naught to
other which if done to thee would cause thee pain." (The Mahabharata)
- Zoroastrianism: "Whatever is disagreeable to
yourself do not do unto others." (Shayast-na-Shayast 13:29)
- Baha’i: "And if thine eyes be turned towards
justice, choose thou for thy neighbour that which though choosest for
thyself." (Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, 30)
With such a common principle of ethics it
would be very appropriate — not only for the children, but for the world
leaders — to use the Golden Rule as the slogan of their vision for the world.
There is nothing more hurtful to the soul and dignity of a child, an adult or
even a whole nation than the feeling of injustice. A simple injustice in a distribution
of sweets among the siblings of one family can bring a big headache to the
mother. Different grades for the same performance in a class can cause the
teacher to lose her credibility. An extra bonus to one employee and not to the
other for equal work and equal hours can end up with the employer in the court.
But what is the mechanism to redress an injustice that falls upon a whole
nation? For many years, and before the United Nations was established, fighting
a war was the only mechanism availabe. Yet in many cases wars exacerbated the
injustice.
In the case of Palestine, the war of 1948
that erupted as a result of the unjust partitioning of Palestine, ended up with
the Palestinians losing more land to the Jewish state than was originally
allocated for that state. And with the war of 1967 the rest of Palestine — the
West Bank which includes East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip — fell under
Israeli occupation. The injustice continues in spite of international law which
prohibits the acquisition of land by force, and despite the United Nations
resolutions 242 and 338 calling on Israel to withdraw from the Occupied
Territories.
How ironic it was to hear Mr. Bush at the
United Nations on September 12th emphasizing the role of the Security Council.
"We created the United Nations Security Council so that, unlike the League
of Nations, our deliberations would be more than talk, our resolutions would be
more than wishes." Then he goes on to pose the question, "Will the
United Nations serve the purpose of its founding, or will it be
irrelevant?" He should not have made the mistake of asking this question
because in fact it is the U.S. administration that has made the United Nations
irrelevant. It has hijacked its role; its has vetoed its resolutions; its deliberations
have not been more than talk, and its resolutions remain empty wishes. Maybe it
will help for Mr. Bush to remember the Golden Rule, which in simple language
means that whatever is good for the administration, even as a superpower,
should be good enough for the rest of the world.
Samia Khoury is a regular contributor to
A Globe of Witnesses. Her monthly column is Justice
& Liberation. Samia may be reached by email at samia@rawdat.org
REVENGE OF A CHILD
By Uri Avnery
Jordan Times, Opinion (Jordan)
November 18, 2002
Since last
Sunday, a question has been running around in my head and troubling my sleep:
What induced the young Palestinian, who broke into Kibbutz Metzer, to aim his
weapon at a mother and her two little children and kill them?
In war one does not kill children. That is a fundamental human instinct, common
to all peoples and all cultures. Even a Palestinian who wants to take revenge
for the hundreds of children killed by the Israeli army should not take revenge
on children. No moral commandment says “a child for a child”.
The persons who do these things are not known as crazy killers, blood-thirsty
from birth. In almost all interviews with relatives and neighbours they are
described as quite ordinary, non-violent individuals. Many of them are not
religious fanatics. Indeed, Sirkhan Sirkhan, the man who committed the deed in
Metzer, belonged to Fateh, a secular movement.
These persons belong to all social classes; some come from poor families who
have reached the threshold of hunger, but others come from middle class
families, university students, educated people. Their genes are not different
from ours.
So what makes them do these things? What makes other Palestinians justify them?
In order to cope, one has to understand, and that does not mean to justify.
Nothing in the world can justify a Palestinian who shoots at a child in his
mother's embrace, just as nothing can justify an Israeli who drops a bomb on a
house in which a child is sleeping in his bed. As the Hebrew poet Bialik wrote
a hundred years ago, after the Kishinev pogrom: “Even Satan has not yet
invented the revenge for the blood of a little child.”
But without understanding, it is impossible to cope. The chiefs of the Israeli
army have a simple solution: hit, hit, hit. Kill the attackers. Kill their
commanders. Kill the leaders of their organisations. Demolish the homes of
their families and exile their relatives. But,
wonder of wonders, these methods achieve the opposite. After the huge Israeli
army bulldozer flattens the “terrorist infrastructure”,
destroying-killing-uprooting everything on its way, within days a new
“infrastructure” comes into being. According to the announcements of the
Israeli army itself, since operation “Protective Shield” there have been some
fifty warnings of imminent attacks every day.
The reason for this can be summed up in one word: rage.
Terrible rage, that fills the soul of a human being, leaving no space for
anything else. Rage that dominates the person's whole life, making life itself
unimportant. Rage that wipes out all limitations, eclipses all values, breaks
the chains of family and responsibility. Rage that a person wakes up with in
the morning, goes to sleep with in the evening, dreams about at night. Rage
that tells a person: get up, take a weapon or an explosive belt, go to their
homes and kill, kill, kill, no matter what the consequences.
An ordinary Israeli, who has never been in the Palestinian territories, cannot
even imagine the reasons for this rage. Our media totally ignore the events
there, or describe them in small, sweetened doses. The average Israeli knows
somehow that the Palestinians suffer (it's their
own fault, of course), but he has no idea what's really happening there. It
doesn't concern him, anyhow.
Houses are demolished. A merchant, lawyer, ordinary craftsman, respected in his
community, turns overnight into a “homeless”, he and his children and
grandchildren. Each one of them a potential suicide bomber.
Fruit trees are being uprooted in their thousands. For the officer, it's just a
tree, an obstacle. For the owners, it's the blood of his heart, the heritage of
his forefathers, years of toil, the livelihood of his family. Each one of them
a potential suicide bomber.
On a hill between the villages a gang of thugs has put up an “outpost”. The
army arrives to defend them. When the villagers come to till their fields, they
are shot at. They are forbidden to work in all fields and groves within a one-
or two-kilometre range, so that the security of
the outpost will not be endangered. The peasants see from afar, with longing
eyes, how their fruit is rotting on the trees, how their fields are being
covered by thorns and thistles waist high, while their children have nothing to
eat. Each one of them a potential suicide bomber.
People are killed. Their torn bodies lie in the streets, for everyone to see.
Some of them are “martyrs” who chose their lot. But many others — men, women,
children — are killed “by mistake”, “accidentally”, “trying to escape”, “were
close to the source of fire” — and all the
hundred and one pretexts of professional spokesmen. The Israeli army does not
apologise, officers and soldiers are never convicted, because “that's how
things are in war”. But each of the people killed has parents, brothers, sons,
cousins. Each one of them a potential suicide bomber.
Beyond these are the families living on the fringes of hunger, suffering from
severe malnutrition. Fathers who cannot bring food to their children feel
despair. Each one of them a potential suicide bomber.
Hundred of thousands are kept under curfew for weeks and months on end, eight
persons cooped up in two or three rooms, a living hell difficult to imagine,
while outside the settlers have a ball, protected by the soldiers. A vicious
circle: yesterday's bombers caused the curfew, the curfew creates the bombers
of tomorrow.
And beyond all these, the total humiliation which every Palestinian, without
distinction of age, gender or social standing, experiences every moment of his
life. Not an abstract humiliation, but an altogether concrete one. To be
dependent for life and death on the whim
of an 18-year-old boy in the street and at one of the innumerable checkpoints
that a Palestinian has to pass wherever he goes, while gangs of settlers pass
freely and “visit” their villages, damage property, pick the olives in their
groves, set fire to the trees.
An Israeli who has not seen it cannot imagine such a life, a situation of
“every bastard a king” and “the slave who has becomes master”, a situation of
curses and pushes at best, threats with weapons in many cases, actual shooting
in some. Not to mention the sick on the way to
dialysis, the pregnant women on the way to hospital, students who don't get to
their classes, children who can't reach their schools. The youngsters who see
their venerable grandfather publicly humiliated by some boy in uniform with a
runny nose. Each one of them a potential
suicide bomber.
A normal Israeli cannot imagine all this. After all, the soldiers are nice
boys, the sons of all of us, only yesterday they were schoolboys. But when one
takes these nice boys and puts them in uniforms, pushes them through the
military machine and puts them into a situation of occupation, something
happens to them. Many try to keep their human face in impossible circumstances,
many others become order-fulfilling robots. And always, in every company, there
are some disturbed people who flourish in this situation and do repulsive
things, knowing that their officers will turn a blind eye or wink approvingly.
All this does not justify the killing of children in the arms of their mother.
But it helps to grasp why this is happening, and why this will go on happening
as long as the occupation lasts.
Uri Avnery is an award-winning Israeli journalist and writer, a three-time
member of the Knesset and a columnist for the Ma’ariv daily. He is also a
founding member of the Gush Shalom peace movement.
Mitzna's Victory Must Become Our Shared
Victory
Gershon Baskin *
Wednesday, November 20, 2002
We finally had some good news this morning. Amram Mitzna took the Labour Party
leadership with 54% of the vote. While recognizing the need to caution
ourselves from being burned in the past, it seems that Mitzna truly does
represent a new breed of Labour Party leaders. Despite the campaign over the
past weeks when politicians usually work overtime to hide what are usually
perceived to be unpopular views,
Mitzna has been steadfast in holding and presenting his positions. Just
two days ago he restated that he would, as Prime Minister, immediately evacuate
Gaza, including all the settlements and the IDF, he would call upon the
Palestinian leadership to re-enter negotiations from where they ended. He says
clearly that he will remove and evacuate settlements in the West Bank. He
believes that Jerusalem must be a shared city. In short, he knows what is the
price of peace and he is willing to pay it.
Mitzna's victory now presents a challenge to the rest of the peace camp - the
challenge of unity. In order to stand any chance of getting back into power,
the peace camp in Israel must unify its forces. It must speak in one clear
honest and direct voice. It must present the truth of Israel's political
options to the public. It must be a Jewish-Arab united front. There is no
justification for splitting ranks. Meretz, Labour and Arab parties must come
together to run in this election as one united list. Palestinian Israelis
must be allocated 20% of the realistic places in the list. Women must be
represented by the Scandinavian standard of 40% representation.
It is time now - and there is very little time - for members of the peace camp
in Israel to come out of the feeling of despair and trauma. Now is the time to
rebuild. Now is the time to believe once again that peace is possible. Now is
the time for new hope. It is true that changes must also take place on the
Palestinian side. They too must present new leaders with renewed visions of
peace. The election of Mitzna can be a catalyst for change on the
Palestinian side as well. But even if that change takes more time to come, it
is now time for Israelis to stand up and say: enough killing, enough violence,
enough occupation. Even if the Peace Camp in Israel will not win the coming
elections, for the first time in the two worst years in Israel's history, we
will have a real alternative to the policies of violence, settlement and
occupation.
Mitzna victory can be a turning point. Now it is up to us to make the
real difference.
* Gershon Baskin, Ph.D. is the Israeli co-director of IPCRI – the
Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (www.ipcri.org <http://www.ipcri.org/> )
|
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 |