News,
articles and documents from the Holy Land
Issue No. 165 - Saturday, 27 July 2002
Dear Friends, Brothers
and Sisters,
We hoped that things will be better after
the signs of hope we had before the last bombing of the residential area in
Gaza, when almost all the Palestinian organization including Hamas wanted to
proclaim a cease-fire. Every time we a progress an event like that form both
sides occurs and some more weeks are lost while the daily lives of the normal
poor people become more and more complicated. Therefore, we launch a new cry on
the ears of both sides and in front of the eyes of the whole world: please stop
it soon, because this cycle of violence and counter violence will continue
according to the mechanism of revenge and retaliation. Wise men should
understand that at the end, and even after months and years, after more killed
and injured people from both sides, they have to sit down together and
negotiate a deal of peace because there is no other choice… Why then don’t they
do it soon and immediately before it becomes too late when a high price is paid?!
You will find in
today’s Olive Branch several important documents:
1)
Three
documents about the news of the visit of Rev, Jesse Jackson to the Holy Land
with a religious delegation.
2) Short Bethlehem Update from Toine van
Teeffelen.
3) Statement from Bethlehem Municipality By
the mayor of Bethlehem Mr. Hanna Nasser, about the confiscation of lands in
Bethlehem area.
4)
Israeli army
seizing lands in Bethlehem belonging to the Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate.
5) Is It Not High Time? By Dr Harry Hagopian, a very interesting article
with vision.
Wishing you a
good reading of these documents and renew my call and appeal to all of you so
that you pray and act for a just peace in the Holy Land… your small efforts may
make a differnce.
Best wishes
from Zababdeh (My natal village where I am now to replace our parish priest who
is in Toronto). Fr.
Raed Abusahlia
Rev
Jesse Jackson with religious delegation visiting the Holy Land
Rev Jesse
Jackson will arrive to Jerusalem this Saturday, July 27, and stay until
August 1st. It will be a religious delegation talking non-violence and reconciliation.
It's been invited by various people including the PA and the Middle East
Council of Churches, with much discussion held with Shimon Peres and a lot of
prior consultation with Konrad Raiser of the WCC.
The group will consist of Jesse Jackson; Rabbi Leonard Beerman, an old friend
of mine from Pasadena, California, who was with us in the first Ronald Young group
who toured the Middle Eastern countries in 1985 and were the origin of what has
since become the U.S. Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East; Rev.
Bernice Powell-Jackson, who is Executive Minister of the United Church of
Christ Justice and Witness Ministries; myself; Rev. Dr. Grainger Browning, who
is Pastor of an African-Methodist-Episcopal parish; Rabbi Steven Jacobs, a
long-time friend of Jesse Jackson's who was with us when we went with Jesse to Belgrade
in 1999 to ask the freedom of three young American prisoners and re-open some
diplomacy during the Kosovo war; and Dr. Nazir Khaja, Vice President of the
American Muslim Council.
Jerusalem Journal
Sister Mary
Late this
afternoon the Middle East Council of Churches welcomed Rev. Jesse Jackson to
this land so torn apart by violence. Rev. Jackson, along with American
Catholic and Protestant clergy, Muslim religous leaders and rabbis, held a
press conference at Notre Dame Hospice in Jerusalem bringing a message of hope,
a message of reconciliation, reconstruction and peace. Rev. Jackson
stated that he knows there are groups of both Palestinians and Israelis who
have been active in the peace movement at the grass roots level. He urged them
to make more bold and direct actions for peace.
Rev. Jackson's
group has a full itinerary throughout the rest of this month, meeting with
political leaders of Israelis and Palestinians, with peace activitists,
visiting with university faculties and students, visiting hospitals and refugee
camps, traveling in the West Bank to Ramallah and Bethlehem, mingling with
people and visiting the shrines and basilicas of the Christian community, then
into the Gaza strip to see first hand the suffering of the people there.
Throughout all this his message will continue to be one of hope as he and the
religious leaders traveling with him work not on behalf of any government, but
as independent religious leaders seeking to be bridge builders -- bridge
builders for a mutual recognition of our humanity and the humanity of the
"other". "Hope", as he says, "is a great weapon
against fear and despair".
Rev.
Jackson: U.S. call to change PA leadership undemocratic
By Ha'aretz Service and Agencies
U.S. civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson kicked
off a Middle East peace mission Saturday by criticizing U.S. President George
W. Bush's call for a change in Palestinian leadership. "That's an
undemocratic idea," he said.
In an interview on Channel One television, Jackson said that,
"I support the democratic position. We must respect democratic principles.
The Palestinians must choose their leadership just as the Israelis must choose
theirs."
He said that in his expected meeting with Palestinian Authority
Chairman Yasser Arafat, he would stress to the Palestinian leader that
non-violence was not a sign of weakness. "Non-violence is a form of
resistence, not a form of concession," he said, and claimed that Arafat
could follow in the footsteps of Ghandi, who also utilized non-violence as a
form of resistence.
Jackson said that the U.S. supported his mission, but that it
was not doing enough to end the conflict. "It [the United States] supports
the position of ending the intifada, ending the occupation and ending the
settlements," he said, and added that the U.S. did not use enough
incentives to entice the sides to stop the violence. "We are not getting
the desired effect," he stated.
Earlier Saturday night, at a press conference in Jerusalem,
Jackson said, "There is a broad body of people in the region who we met
across the years - religious leaders, peace activists, youth, university
students and professors - who must have a place at the table," Jackson
said at a news conference in Jerusalem.
The 60-year-old leader of the Chicago-based Rainbow/PUSH
Coalition heads a delegation representing several religious faiths who will
meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders, rights groups, victims and religious
leaders during the five-day visit.
"We are independent religious leaders seeking to be bridge
builders and seeking to expand the dialogue," Jackson told reporters in
Jerusalem at the start of his visit.
Jackson is scheduled to meet Arafat as well as Foreign Minister
Shimon Peres on Sunday.
He is tentatively scheduled to meet Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
during the visit, which will take in trips to the West Bank cities of Ramallah
and Bethlehem and the Gaza Strip.
Jackson said the United States ought to do more to bring peace
to the region, a destination for billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid,
saying, "We're not getting a return on our investment."
His visit was due to have taken place in June but was postponed
after a Palestinian car bombing of an Israeli bus killed 17 people in the
southern Galilee on June 5.
Update
Bethlehem
Toine
van Teeffelen
July 26,
2002
Here in
Bethlehem we had a different regime this week; instead of a full-time curfew we
now had each day, except Friday, opening hours from nine in the morning till
two in the afternoon. On Friday there was a full closure. The expectation is
that next week the number of opening hours will increase to allow for a certain
normalization of people’s work. Other developments this week are less of a tank
presence on the streets and more stability in the opening hours. Last week,
there were all the time last minute changes in especially the closing moment,
which made daily planning quite frustrating. So there is a bit of improvement.
Nonetheless, after the killing of the Hamas leader and many civilians and youth
in Gaza, the mood is somber. What to do when the Israeli leadership does not
want peace?
One remarkable
phenomena is that teachers, youth leaders and others put much voluntary effort
in developing improvised summer activities for children and youth. Due to the
curfews from March on, there has been little of the usual organizational
planning for such summer activities. But, in general, people have less energy
and focus after all those months.
Statement
from Bethlehem Municipality
By the mayor of
Bethlehem Mr. Hanna Nasser
Despite the
explicit denunciation by the international community and disregarding the
successive Security Council resolutions, the Israeli Government is still
proceeding in its settlement and expansions policy. At present, the Israeli
authorities are engaged in constructing a 33 meters wide road with parallel
deep trenches and tick barbed wire within the northern borders of Bethlehem.
While separating
our town from its northern lands, the project isolates the whole Bethlehem
District and the southern part of the West band from Jerusalem. The citizens of
Bethlehem as a result to this oppressive act, were deprived access to their
arable land rich in olive and fruitful trees whereas our town was shut out in
front of the sole remaining zone for its natural growth.
Among the lands
confiscated from the Bethlehemites to open the road, were two plots of valuable
land by Bethlehem Municipality. The first with an area of 27 dunums of Joroun
Al-Homos location used as storage to our municipal equipments was halved by the
road into parts, besieged by trenches and barbed wire which prevents us even
from reaching those equipments, and the second with a area of 13 dunums at
al-Wata location.
However, the
most serious worrying news were that leaked by the media following the visit of
the Israeli PM Arial Sharon, Minister of Defense Benyamin ben Eliezer, Foregin
Minister Shimon Peres and high ranking officials in the Israeli Defense Forces
to the construction site last week, reporting the possible intention of the
Israeli Government to move the existing military checkpoint north of Bethlehem
to the south of Rachel Tomb. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz daily in an article
titled “Tachel’s Tomb” published in its Website since July 21st 2002
has clearly pointed out to this matter. This simply means the expansion of
Jerusalem boundaries to reach Rachel Tomb in the heart of Bethlehem on the
account of confiscating additional thousands of dunums from Bethlehem lands,
demolishing of dozens of residential and commercial buildings including a big
building owned by the Mayor of Bethlehem Hanna Nasser as stated in the
forementioned article, effective elimination to Bethlehem economy not to
mention the suffocation of the daily and social life of 3000 inhabitants living
in this most vital commercial and touristic area in Bethlehem which covers up
25% of the town’s approved master plan.
I must say that
95% of those people are Christian citizens. Should this expansionist project be
enforced, it will definitely cause the loss of these citizens to their
properties and possessions saved over long decades which constituted their only
assets and their sources of income. I am genuinely afraid therefore that this
will drive the majority of them to emigrate outside their homeland seeking
safer places and more convenient atmospheres to live in, where human rights are
respected and whereby they can guarantee the daily bread of their children.
In fact, these
hostile practices perpetrated by Israel do not at all help in building bridges
of trust nor do they serve stability or the cause of peace in our region.
By bringing this
information to your attention, I sincerely appeal to you to use your good
offices and pressure the Israeli government to refrain from this flagrant new
aggression on our Holy Town of Bethlehem.
I shall highly
appreciate any help rendered in this respect.
Israeli army seizing lands in Bethlehem
belonging to the Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate
Dear
Armenian & Concerned Friends:
Peace-seeking
greetings to you all!
The Israeli army seized last week lands in Bethlehem belonging to the Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate.
The land under dispute consists of 35 acres in an area referred to by Armenians as Baron Der. It lies north of the Aida Palestinian refugee camp, and south of the Tantur Ecumenical Centre. To the east of this grove is the fortified Israeli shrine of Rachel’s Tomb, the biblical matriarch, which is considered one of the holiest sites in Judaism.
Baron Der, with its 165 agricultural acres and many olive trees that date back hundreds of years, was purchased legally in 1641 as the site of a summer residence for the Armenian Patriarch and as a rural retreat for the Armenian monks in the Holy Land. The olive trees supply the traditional oil that lights the lamps over the birthplace of Jesus Christ in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem as well as over the tomb of Christ in the Church of the Resurrection (Holy Sepulchre) in Jerusalem. The land is also honeycombed with caves and Byzantine tombs that constitute part of much larger archaeological troves in the Holy Land.
The Israeli plan proposes a 40-metre barrier that would splinter this Armenian property and also result in the occupation of land on both the Jerusalem and West Bank sides of the dividing line. The barrier is meant to be part of a 350-km security wall being currently built by Israel around the West Bank and parts of Jerusalem in order to separate the Palestinian territories from Israeli-held areas.
However, this plot being confiscated by Israel also straddles one of the most unstable political fault lines separating Israel from the Palestinian territories. In fact, many community leaders and observers in Jerusalem posit that this land seizure falls within the larger ambit of Palestinian land seizures by Israel across the whole West Bank. It has much more to do with an attempt to expand the Israeli borderline into the Palestinian-controlled West Bank so that Jewish worshippers would enjoy a direct link and much easier access to Rachel’s Tomb.
The emergency seizure orders were issued late last month. Israeli officials have advised the Armenian officials that they are irreversible. Consequently, the Armenian Patriarchate has petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court. To date, the case is still pending, and no judgment has been forthcoming.
However, my hands-on legal / political experience of such cases in the past would suggest that the land has for all intents and purposes been lost. It is not often that such military seizure orders are revoked or rescinded by a court of law. However, there is always an outside chance that the situation could be reprieved somehow. But this requires all friends to turn their emotive words into concerted action. Officials, clergy, non-governmental and church-related organisations as well as individuals should be mobilised to protest against this seizure.
Can this be done, or will Armenians drum up the usual froth that will disappear quickly and without much trace? This one-page document [and other articles] provides the necessary information. Here are five peaceful suggestions for Armenians across the world if they are intent on becoming proactive within a very civilised and non-violent discourse:
Ø Fax / email the Israeli embassy in your own country with your expression of deep concern over this seizure;
Ø Address your comments to the Editor of your national or local paper(s) for possible publication;
Ø Impress upon the Republic of Armenia and the Catholicosate of Holy Etchmiadzin the need to redouble their efforts through diplomatic and ecclesial channels in a more assertive and clear-cut manner;
Ø Contact your Church officials and ask for their moral support to the Armenian Church in the Holy Land which constitutes one of the four Sees of the Armenian Orthodox Apostolic Church world-wide;
Ø Use your range of contacts - on a leadership or private basis, whether face-to-face or cyber-wise - in order to encourage people to work discreetly in pressing the Israeli government to relinquish its order;
Ø Channel your wisdom, consternation and sorrow into positive feedback.
For your information and possible use. As ever, harry-bvH:
Is It Not High
Time?
Dr Harry Hagopian, KOG-KSL
Justice
without might is helpless, might without justice is tyrannical
Blaise Pascal, in Pensées (Section V:
Justice and the Reason of Effects), 1660
He is a man of remarkable let alone admirable courage! His name is Rami Elhanan, and his daughter Smadar was murdered by a suicide bomber on 4 September 1997 as she was walking in Ben Yehuda Street in central Jerusalem.
Five years on, Rami and his wife Dr Nurit Peled-Elhanan have become outspoken campaigners for peace in Israel. At a time when Israelis and Palestinians are struggling for new responses to the ongoing violence in the Holy Land, Rami articulates a rare inclusive vision for peace. But how does he manage to find enough resources within himself to respond in this peace-seeking manner toward an implacable foe that robbed him of his precious daughter?
In an interview with Justin Huggler of the Independent daily newspaper in Jerusalem on 21 July 2002, Rami Elhanan provided his sobering response! ‘The two sides are completely blind to each other. The Palestinians do not see the Holocaust. The Israelis do not see the suffering of the Palestinians. My mission is to try to close the gap, to break the endless cycle of violence.’ Reminiscing over the recent history of escalating violence, he continued, ‘We [Israelis] consider ourselves victims. But the guy who murdered my daughter is a victim of the 1967 occupation and the continued denial of freedom to 3.5 million people who have no civil rights.’
Smadar’s parents are part of the constituency of unsung heroes in Israel and Palestine who are fighting against desperate odds to institute peace between those two peoples. They form part of a movement called ‘Bereaved Families for Peace’ which brings together Israeli and Palestinian families who have lost loved ones. Last April, they placed 1000 coffins outside the UN HQ in New York and covered each coffin with both the Israeli and Palestinian flags.
What is striking about this Israeli man of peace is that he has the moral courage to utter the unutterable in the midst of a war that has already scarred the collective psyches of Israelis and Palestinians alike. He is also quite forthright about the ultimate solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. ‘We [Israel] will withdraw to the pre-1967 borders, the Palestinians will get the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, there will be no right of return for the Palestinian refugees and Jerusalem will be divided. The only question now is how many people will die before this happens.’
Mr Elhanan - whose father-in-law was the daring IDF General Matti Peled - was called up as an Israeli army reservist in the Yom Kippur war of October 1973. Today, however, he gives lectures at Israeli schools, calling for peace and an end to the occupation. He talks as freely about the 1948 Arab refugees as he does about the Barak proposals at Camp David II in July 2000. He shows Israeli schoolchildren maps of the offer made to Chairman Arafat by the former Israeli Prime Minister. It has large swathes of the West Bank that were held back from the Palestinians by the Israeli Jewish settlers. ‘This was the greatest secret of all’, he observes, ‘because Barak never allowed any maps to be made. I sometimes suspect Barak was not willing to give anything at all - he was giving a proposal he knew the Palestinians would not accept! But from the Israeli point of view, he gave a lot. He was like the Persian prince who went through seven gates of hell to save the princess, and at the last one he turned round and the princess stayed behind.’
So who is to blame for the frightening political stalemate that has gripped this conflict and yielded to physical violence? ‘The first ones to blame are the Americans’, opines Rami. ‘They are the people who are standing aside while two children fight, waiting for them to kill each other. [] This is the enormous price of not making peace.’
Indeed, the latest fatality figures reflect the enormous price being paid by the men, women and children of the Holy Land. Until a few days ago, the figures stood at over 2010 casualties - including 266 Palestinian and 61 Israeli minors whose lives were snuffed out violently as a result of the indiscriminate use of firepower by one side or the other.
Last week, another moral dimension was added to those peace-seeking efforts deployed by many main-line Christian churches. Two open letters were published simultaneously in the United States. Dated 12 July 2002 and addressed to President Bush by forty American evangelical Christian leaders, the first letter concerned itself with peace and justice in the Holy Land. It called for the critique ‘of both Israelis and Palestinians on the basis of biblical standards of justice’. The second letter, dated 15 July 2002, was signed by a number of retired American clergy who advocated that the principles of international legality be applied equally to both Palestinians and Israelis in the conflict.
Referring to the Hebrew prophets in expressing their abhorrence for, and condemnation of, terrorism and violence, both letters urged the US Administration to focus on the substantive issues that have robbed the region of hope for so long and to implement an even-handed policy ‘of equitable support’ in order to secure peace with justice.
So where does the ‘process for peace’ move to at this stage of the asymmetrical conflict?
On the political front, a diplomatic offensive unveiled last week envisages an international protectorate for the Palestinian territories. It would oversee a radical reform programme and lead to eventual statehood for Palestinians. This offensive involves the quartet from the EU, Russia, the UN and the USA as well as a number of regional Arab states. It aims to thrash out three elements as part of a broader goal meant to revive the stalled political process:
· Chairman Yasser Arafat would appoint a caretaker Prime Minister, enjoying recognition and stature both at home and abroad, who will assume day-to-day responsibilities. This idea reflects a growing consensus that Chairman Arafat lacks a political strategy over how to end the violence, initiate reforms and eventually return to the negotiating table. It also coincides with the German Middle Eastern plan that was submitted a fortnight ago suggesting that the tenure of such a person should last until elections are held in January 2003.
· The UN Security Council would appoint an envoy wielding executive powers to oversee the implementation of Palestinian political reforms and the establishment of security co-operation between Palestinians and Israelis. Although this would be tantamount to placing the Palestinians under a protectorate, EU diplomats believe that such a framework could work so long as it offered Palestinians the prospect of real statehood in the very near future. But concurrent with these measures, Israel would lift the closures, stop confiscating Palestinian land or build special security roads for the settlers, and cease building illegal settlements.
· EU member-states, the UN and Russia also believe that Washington must now play its part in persuading Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to accept three rudimental principles. They include an exchange of land for peace, a future Palestinian state that is politically and economically viable, and an Israeli commitment to stop setting revolving new demands as a pre-condition for fresh negotiations.
But politicians are not alone in re-visiting their assessments. The International Crisis Group (ICG) is a leading independent think tank that counts HRH Prince Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan among its Board members. Rob Malley is its Middle East Programme Director as well as a former key aide and close adviser on the Middle East to former President Bill Clinton. He drafted an executive summary, a set of recommendations and a recent op-ed in which he called on the US to lead a multinational force that would oversee the implementation of an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, monitor the borders of a future Palestinian state and deter attacks by either side. According to Malley, an international police presence as well as civilian administration in the Old City of Jerusalem would complement such a force. This recommendation for sending monitors to oversee any peace accord has long been supported by the EU - with backing from the Palestinians but opposition from Israel. However, Israel might agree to such a monitoring presence so long as the USA leads it and so long as Israeli concerns over security are fully taken into account.
The conclusions of this document, which has found resonance with many politicians, academics and activists, reflects a growing awareness by the international community that any peace agreement has little chance of success unless underpinned by a robust monitoring force. But I also believe that it equally underlines a growing realisation that piecemeal, step-by-step and incremental initiatives or approaches to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - as unveiled only recently by President Bush - have become redundant and are doomed to failure.
In the current environment, any attempt to reach a ceasefire or to rebuild confidence must be marked by a bold and proactive departure for past US policy. America must commit itself to a specific final political settlement plan rather than merely tinker with a process that might produce a settlement someday! An overall package is needed now that ‘seeks to rebuild the fabric of trust, resume security co-operation and renew the bargain originally struck at Oslo’. The Oslo bargain had targeted increased security for Israel in exchange for increased control by Palestinians over their daily lives. However, this bargain flopped, not least because the Palestinian leadership did not prepare its people for the concessions that were proposed over Jerusalem, refugees or land swaps. Conversely, the last three Israeli Prime Ministers backtracked on the Oslo peace accords, postponed the phased withdrawals and built new illegal settlements.
On 20 June 2002, a hearing took place at the European Parliament on ‘EU-Israel Bilateral Relations in the Framework of International and European Law’. Entitled ‘Israeli Violations of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law in the Occupied Territories’, Professor Jeff Halper performed an article-by article dissection of Israeli violations of the IV Geneva Convention that forbids an occupying power from making its presence a permanent one.
In his presentation, the Israeli Coordinator of the Committee Against House Demolitions concluded, ‘The occupation poses a bold challenge to the international community, whether to its elected representatives as in this chamber or to the civil society as represented by the NGO’s and faith-based organisations testifying before you today. In an era of global transparency, of mass media, instantaneous news coverage and the Internet, can a new Berlin Wall be built that locks millions of Palestinians behind massive fortifications, Israel’s $100 million “security fence”?’
Halper added, ‘Decades after the end of colonialism and a decade after the end of South Africa apartheid, will the international community actually sit passively by while a new apartheid regime arises before our very eyes? And in a world in which the ideal of human rights has gained wide acceptance, could an entire people be imprisoned in dozens of tiny, impoverished lands, denied its fundamental right of self-determination? Until we all act according to the ideals and rules we ourselves have created, the answer will remain blowing in the wind.’
In one of its wry forebodings, the ICG Report had also stated, ‘The hardening of positions on both sides and the toll of [now twenty one] months of ever-escalating violence severely diminish the prospect for success of any initiative at this point. But without a sustained and concerted political / security initiative by the international community, with the United States at its head, the further escalation and regional spread of the conflict is a virtual certainty.’
But surely the proof of the pudding is in the eating? Will Palestinians and Israelis manage their anger or channel their frustration toward a durable, comprehensive and just solution? Or will the pain that is convulsing them both be allowed to fester into spasmodic and more painful sores? And equally importantly, will the current US Administration show the political mettle to see through such a comprehensive plan that merges the Taba proposals with the pan-Arab [Saudi] plan? Or will it bend to the internal as much as external lobby pressures that have made such a freedom-loving, pioneering, vibrant, prosperous and powerful country a pariah for a huge segment of the ‘Old World’?
It is sometimes claimed that older or retired people are usually more eloquent and less fearful in expressing their moral indignation or experience-based criticisms over issues of endemic concern. In that vein, the retired American clergy concluded their letter of 15 July 2002 with a quotation that is as mindful of the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament as it is of the late Pope Paul VI when they asserted that ‘If we want peace, we must work for justice’. Perhaps the US and UK governments, two major middle eastern players that tend to attach their foreign-policy stances into faith-based and ethical standards, will heed their clarion call?
If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to
your friends. You talk to your enemies
General Moshe Dayan (1915-1981)
© harry-bvH @ 22 July 2002
Links to the two church
letters can be found on the web site of the Holy Land Ecumenical Foundation:
Ø http://www.hcef.org/news/news/index.cfm/dsp/NewsView/itemld/757.htm
Ø
http://www.hcef.org/news/news/index.cfm/dsp/NewsView/itemld/761.htm
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Thank you for your understanding & with best wishes from Jerusalem Fr. Raed Abusahlia |