News,
articles and documents from the Holy Land
Issue No. 172 - Saturday, 28 September 2002
Dear Friends, Brothers
and Sisters,
Today,
the Palestinian people marked and celebrated the second anniversary of the
Intifada which began on the 28th of September 2002. In my parish
which is a very calm small village, our students at our school chose to mark it
with a serious of activities including speeches, songs, setting-in and a
conference also. I was astonished that such teenagers are capable to organize
the program for the 5 hours by themselves with great sense of responsibility and
political and national commitment. I noticed that even small kids in their
speeches that they wrote themselves, they used to repeat “Until which time this
situation will go on?” and also “why all this is happening and nobody is
standing with us?”.. This means simply that they are tired and depressed, but I
didn’t have the feeling that they are hopeless but I felt that they are determined
to go on until the end, which means the independence and the freedom.
But, the
question is how can we achieve this goal with our actual weakness in front of
the strongest army in the region? What is the alternative way out of this
situation of conflict and chaos while we see that there is no political vision from
both sides especially that the military solutions and violence proved failure?
I see that we have new signs of hope through the beginning of a nonviolent movement
all over the Palestinian cities, and we saw that during the whole last week
when the thousand of Palestinians broke the imposed curfew during the night and
organized spontaneous peaceful marches and manifestations. I do really hope
that this kind of resistance will continue in a very organized ways and be
adopted as a strategy. I have always called for such way since years.
I hope
that this coming year will mark the end of this conflict and will create more awareness
of the necessity of a just solution for this situation which is going on since
a century.
You will
find in today’s Olive Branch the following documents:
1) Peace Hopes Fading in Mideast, Says Vatican Newspaper: L'Osservatore Romano Comments on Death of 14-Month-Old.
2) 1st
Strike Against Iraq Would Be Hard to Justify, Says Cardinal McCarrick
Reflects U.S. Bishops' Thinking.
3) Our
dear friend Toine van Teeffelen is writing about “A POPULAR MOVEMENT IN
PALESTINE: THE CASE FOR EDUCATION”.
4) He
sends us also the invitation of the activity of the students of Bethlehem area:
“Let Our Children Go To School, Lift Suffering Upon
Our Children”
5)
Samia Khoury
is commenting the position of Israel “Defying
UN Resolutions: Double Standards in Iraq and Israel”.
You
have a lot of things to read, and I hope that you will find always new things
and new ideas, because my goal is not to depress you as many of us are depressed,
but to show the other side of the coin and the other face of the story, with
the hope that this will make a difference and give hope to the hopeless
helpless peoples of this region.
With
my best wishes for a better news in the near future Fr.
Raed Abusahlia
Peace
Hopes Fading in Mideast, Says Vatican Newspaper
L'Osservatore Romano Comments on Death of 14-Month-Old
VATICAN CITY,
SEPT. 27, 2002 (Zenit.org).- Recent
Palestinian suicide attacks and Israel's sharp reprisals make peace ever more
distant in the Middle East, contends the Vatican's semiofficial newspaper.
A front-page story headlined "Hope for Peace Endangered" in the
Saturday edition of L'Osservatore Romano reports on the death of a 14-month-old
Palestinian girl. The child died Thursday from tear gas as she was carried in
the arms of her grandmother, who was shopping at a Hebron market.
"Little Gharam Manaa, who died in the smoke of the bombs thrown to enforce
respect for the curfew, is the emblem of peace suffocated daily by
violence," the article states.
"The 'kamikaze' attacks on the one hand, and the hardening of 'security
measures' on the other, have had as their only result the raising of the level
of conflict," the article continues.
"The clash of arms has drowned the voices of those who struggle to have
the crisis addressed through diplomatic confrontation," it states.
"Both fronts blame the adversary; it is a sterile dialectical exercise to
try to hide the inability to hear theses different from one's own, running the
risk of discovering that reason is not just on one side."
Since Sept. 28, 2000 -- the day Ariel Sharon walked on the esplanade of the
Jerusalem mosques, triggering the Palestinian intifada -- violence has killed
more than 1,800 Palestinians and more than 600 Israelis.
1st Strike Against Iraq
Would Be Hard to Justify, Says Cardinal McCarrick
Reflects U.S. Bishops' Thinking
WASHINGTON,
D.C., SEPT. 27, 2002 (Zenit.org).- Restating
the position of the U.S. bishops' conference, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick urged
lawmakers to avoid war with Iraq unless American life is in immediate danger.
"Right now we would say a defensive war under certain circumstances is
permitted," the archbishop of Washington told radio station WTOP,
according to the weekly Catholic Standard (www.cathstan.org/news/current/index.shtml).
"When you look at Iraq, I guess if the president really has that kind of
information that we're in real proximate danger from Iraq then you could make a
case," the cardinal said.
"I don't think the bishops feel that the case has been made yet," he
added. "That's why we're saying to please go slowly, please try to see
exactly what the situation is before we do something which we would have to say
would not be moral."
Archbishop McCarrick appeared with news anchor Mike Moss on Monday's news
special, "Ask the Cardinal," fielding questions on possible military
action against Iraq, clerical sex abuse, stem cell research and the shortage of
priests.
The cardinal said that, even in a defensive war, a country ought to follow such
rules as proportionality of means and avoidance of civilian casualties. He
added that a first-strike attack would be extremely difficult to justify, in
the absence of circumstances such as clear knowledge of biological weapons.
"I think what the bishops hope is that as the president and Congress talk
about this, that we might have the opportunity to weigh in with the moral
values -- that that would be something they would consider also," Cardinal
McCarrick said.
A POPULAR MOVEMENT IN PALESTINE: THE CASE
FOR EDUCATION
Toine van Teeffelen
In the
background of the siege of Arafat’s compound we could hear these weeks about
some remarkable initiatives in Palestine reminding of the popular movements of
some decades ago against dictatorships in Eastern Europe or South-America.
Reports spoke of the deafening noise of pots and pans in Ramallah, silent and
impressive mass prayers by peasants in a field near Nablous, parents and
teachers in various cities who collectively broke curfews to guide their kids
to school. Some months ago plans of breaking curfews were already circulating
and debated in the area but it now seems that Palestinians have reached a point
that they act and join emerging forms of popular resistance. The reasons for
this change in attitude can be possibly traced to two clusters of factors: the
changing nature of the occupation and changes in the general political
environment.
Nature of occupation
The three-decade
long occupation of the West Bank and Gaza has never been benevolent nor
accepted by the Palestinian population but in various periods there have been
different degrees of restrictions on daily life. Over long stretches of time,
the occupation was a sophisticated controlling institution that tapped from a
variety of resources to enforce the population’s compliance. Not force alone
was activated; it rather worked alongside a myriad of dependencies including
Palestinian labour in Israel, a complicated permit system, friendly relations
with local mukhtars and other proxies, the extension of ‘favours’ (which one’s
neighbours did not receive), and an elaborate network of probably tens of
thousands of collaborators.
Right now, the
occupation has by and large fallen back on pure, visible, and arbitrary force
against the population as a whole. Most clearly in reaction to the suicide
bombings, the Israeli army has stepped up degrees of control over daily life
that have become unbearable. At checkpoints and other Israeli-Palestinian
contact points, Palestinian civilians are continuously humiliated in classical
colonial style. After two long years the vast majority of the population have
been irreversibly damaged in their personal and family interests; in their
possessions and lands, their own or their children’s education, and their work.
However, the
more plain force is exerted, the sooner the limits of an army’s deterrent and
adaptive capacities are reached. In the last couple of weeks the fear threshold
among Palestinians has significantly been lowered. My personal impression is
that the curfews are nowadays felt to be without real ending and that they have
become so completely arbitrary and dehumanizing (civilians treated like mice in
a cruel experiment) that they are not anymore accepted as facts.
Political
environment
The political
environment is changing too. Threats against the civil population are palpably
present. On the ground, the ‘normal’ process of land confiscation and
settlement building is continuing unabatedly. But in addition, the scenario of
‘transfer’ has been so intensely debated – including ‘variants’, such as
internal vs. external transfer – that it has somehow become part of legitimate
public discourse in Israel and conservative circles in the US. A will to change
the political map of the Middle East in the wake of a war on Iraq may lead to
an acceptance of changing the demographic ‘map’ as well. Many people in
Palestine regard ethnic cleansing during or after a war on Iraq a real
possibility.
In the face of
such threats, Palestinians do not feel that their leaders are having the power
to move things into a different direction. While the Palestinian Authority and
Arafat are recognized as the Palestinian representatives, they find themselves
cornered in the international political arena and under political scrutiny at
home. There is no clear viable political road towards an agreement. Under the
circumstances, many Palestinians feel that there is an urgent need to become
themselves political actor again. Creating a popular movement could make a
difference, locally and internationally. Commemorating two years of Intifadah,
the Palestinian press is now full of articles about the need to go back to the
popular roots of the Intifadah.
Strategy
A popular
non-violent movement would need coordination and strategy. At this moment, such
strategy is largely absent. The popular actions are locally and often
spontaneously organized, with widespread media attention only in exceptional
cases.
One possibility
for such a strategy is choosing a broad societal field for a sustained
concerted action that targets the international public. Such field could be
medical, economical, educational or otherwise.The advantage of choosing a
societal field for a public campaign is that such a field provides a very human
illustration of the effects of occupation. For a broad international public
that message would have more impact than general political statements. Let’s
take as an example the field of education. (I am myself working in it, and so
am familiar with its potential).
For next week
Wednesday (2/10), authorities, religious leaders and NGOs have announced a
demonstration in front of the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem in which
children, parents and teachers will demand the right of education. Apart from
inter-religious prayers and speeches, a banner with the text “Let Our Children
Have Freedom” will be attached to helium-filled balloons and lifted into the
air. Solidarity with education in other curfewed Palestinian towns will be
proclaimed. While people in the Bethlehem area are ‘privileged’ to be able to
go out of their houses – unlike in other cities – students and teachers here
too face problems in reaching schools, for instance when they have to cross
checkpoints or settler roads.
In Ramallah,
Nablus and other cities, people lately took the initiative to organize forms of
“underground education.”. People challenged the curfew and offered their space,
time and expertise to create alternative educational options at homes in case
schools were out of bounds. It is not only the urgent need for education that
guides them but also knowledge of history. Teachers tell that their school
communities are sure of one thing: students should not once again loose years
of education as happened during the first Intifadah where underground education
got publicity but was not done systematically. That lapse had a great impact
upon the youth who afterwards were severely handicapped in their education. In
my own environment in Bethlehem, I see schools pressured by parents to make
emergency curfew plans detailing how teachers and parents should call each
other so that children are able to continue their studies as much as possible
at home.
Palestinians
have always been proud about the levels of education attained against all odds.
Visitors have been impressed by the persistence and improvising capacity young
and older students (and teachers and administrators) display simply in order to
realize the right to education. So many children and teachers come exhausted at
schools after being forced to take journeys through the hills or after long
waiting times at checkpoints. A sustained popular and public movement in
education in which activities are coordinated across the cities and regions
(for instance, similar activities conducted simultaneously, such as the making
of noise or the holding of vigils) would have real potential. People are
presently motivated. It is imaginable to have local or regional committees with
teachers, parents and representatives of the Ministry of Education. When
face-to-face coordination is impossible, email has to do the job. Such
committees could organize, document and write about local public actions. After
all, education is a field in which everyone has a direct or indirect stake, and
in which massive participation is not impossible.
While it seldom
happens that Palestinian youth – who are in fact the large majority of
Palestinian society - are public spokespersons, a prolonged action in support
of the right to education could give the floor to young Palestinians who are
versed in different languages. They could be involved in writing and public speaking. Creative forms of
raising one’s voice could become part of extracurricular programs which could
also encouragie knowledge and discussion of the history of popular protest in
Palestine. Students could make the texts of their placards and banners as they
are presently asked to do for the Bethlehem action. An international committee
of well-known personalities might support the campaign. In this way, a broad
movement with very concrete and human demands could expose the brutality of the
occupation, move the international civil society and – hopefully - play some
role in helping to prevent that Palestinian civilians become expendable pawns
in a new Middle Eastern war.
-------------------------------
Toine van
Teeffelen (Bethlehem) is working in various extracurricular projects in
Palestinian education, and involved in United Civilians for Peace, a Dutch
monitoring initiative. He is also a board member of the Arab Educational
Institute (Bethlehem, affiliated to Pax Christi and Euro-Arab Dialogue from
Below) and PYALARA (Palestinian Youth Association for Leadership and Rights
Activation, Al-Ram).
INVITATION
Let Our Children Go To School
Lift Suffering Upon Our Children
The Governor of Bethlehem
in Cooperation with
The Directorate of the Ministry of Education in
the Governorate
And the Council of the Church Leaders and the
Islamic Institutions
And in Coordination with
The Private and Scout Institutions,
Municipality and Village Councils and Camp Committees
Invites you to participate in
A Public and Students Gathering
At the Manger Square-Bethlehem
On Wednesday 02/10/2002
Programme
01:00 Departure of students from the Schools towards the Manger square/The
Church of the Nativity
01:15 Gathering
of the Participants at the Manger Square
01:15 Opening
Ceremony-Moment of silence in memory of our Martyrs-National Anthem
01:35 A prayer by a representative of the Council of the Church Leaders
Release of Balloons
01:40 A speech by the Governor
on behalf of the Institutions, Municipality and Village Councils and Camp
Committees.
01:50 A
speech by His Excellency the Mayor of Bethlehem
02:00 A speech by the Director of the Directorate of the Ministry of
Education on Behalf of all The Learning institutions in the Bethlehem area.
02:10 A
speech by one of the students on
behalf of the students’ population
in the Bethlehem area
02:15 A prayer by
a representative of the Islamic
Religious Leaders
02:30 End
of Gathering
Defying UN Resolutions:
Double Standards in Iraq and Israel
by Samia Khoury
With the summer holidays over, I found myself pondering over what issue to focus on after all that has been happening in our region during these last few months. Then, listening to Condoleezza Rice recently, I was sure that a war will be at our doorstep very soon, especially after Mr. Sharon urged the USA not to delay the strike.
It was almost a year ago, after the tragic and sad events of September 11th, that tension was starting to build and the threats to strike Afghanistan in retaliation were getting louder and louder until the inevitable did happen. But did the devastation of Afghanistan end the "terrorism" or rid the world of Osama bin Laden? Certainly not. So will the spirit of revenge and unleashed evil continue to prevail while the world is watching in silence as the USA plans to wage another war to get rid of Saddam Hussein. For what reason? Is it revenge, or a personal vendetta for unfinished business?
We had a very meaningful poster hanging in my son’s room when he was a teenager entitled "WHY???" It showed a photo of a young soldier kneeling with his gun on his side and surrounded by thousands of helmets representing those fallen soldiers. Almost 20 years later, I continue to ask this question: "WHY???" Is there any justification for war, especially in an era where the arms of mass destruction have become so threatening, whereby nobody will be spared, whether guilty or innocent. And most likely it will be innocent children and women who will continue to be victims of war. Can there be a just war? Who decides? And what is the criteria or the justification? Other than Mr. Blair and Mr. Sharon, there are no supportive voices, neither in the Middle East nor in Europe, for this prospective war.
Yet we all feel that it is bound to happen, because it is the superpower that is calling the shots, and it can easily get away with it and justify it to suit the mood of "the war against terrorism." Mr. Bush says the USA has no option but to go ahead with this offensive. People who have no options are the powerless, helpless, poor and marginalized. But the United States with all its power and might has all the options available at hand. Maybe it will help to suggest some options such as wisdom, compassion, reconciliation, humility and justice. So it would be a disaster to choose the option of arrogance, revenge and war.
Unfortunately, the voice of the United Nations, opposing war, has not been loud enough or strong enough — the way it was expressed by Mr. Annan simply said, "It is not a wise step." Surely it is not a wise step. I could have said that myself. So what? The United Nations must do more than that. It has a moral responsibility and should simply prevent the war, especially when the people of the region have not yet recovered from the devastating effects of the sanctions imposed on Iraq eleven years ago.
I am not writing as a politician because I am not one. And because in politics moral values do not always count and very often get trampled upon. I am writing as a concerned human being for the future of our region which has seen so much blood, devastation, deprivation and oppression. The children are my main concern. What future are we offering them? How much education can they get with all the closures and the curfews? What values will they adhere to with so much oppression and violence encompassing the region? And how much fun and space do they have to grow up in? So I will continue to speak, write, and work for justice, peace, and moral values until there are no double standards in dealing with issues of the same nature, and no one country should have the privilege to defy United Nations resolutions. If the United Nations is the body that determines solutions for conflicts then the United Nations better live up to its responsibility. Unfortunately, even on the regional level the Arab League has been just as impotent as the United Nations.
It is very clear that many leaders around the world have failed to fulfill the hopes and aspirations of their people. Those leaders, even if they are dictators, should be accountable to their own people. No leader, not even a leader of a superpower should assume the right to dictate to any country, no matter how powerless or remote that country is, who it should elect for its leader. The world seems like a game of chess these days, with Mr. Bush and Mr. Sharon being the sole players while the international community is watching as the pawns are moved from one area to another until the magic word of "checkmate" is pronounced.
Democracy by brute force is no democracy, and democracy is no justification for waging war. This kind of logic always reminds me of the story of the man who ran to salvage his wife from a beast that had attacked her. In the process, the man punched his wife’s eyes, fractured her skull, broke her arms, tore her clothes, and a lot more before the beast retreated. Happy for salvaging his wife he proudly said, "See, I saved you." The devastated wife, hardly able to raise her head, answered, "I am sure the beast could not have done all that to me."
If defiance of UN resolutions is enough reason for waging a war against a country then for sure Israel should not be spared. But it has, and it has been encouraged to defy UN resolutions by the unwavering support of the USA and its veto power. The application of one set of rules and conventions to any one government and not the other will only add to the frustration and anger that brings about more violence in any conflict.
When Mr. Bush announced last month that the administration was going to oppose any additional foreign aid for Egypt to protest Cairo’s prosecution of the human rights campaigner Saad Eddin Ibrahim, it sounded very legitimate. Indeed, Mr. Bush would have been commended for such an action if Israel were treated likewise. On the contrary, the USA administration seems to increase its financial support to Israel whenever Israel gets criticized for its violations of Palestinian human rights and for its ill treatment of international activists who come to be in solidarity with the Palestinians. Besides being harassed, jailed and deported, many of those activists are not allowed into the country in the first place.
Ever since the elections of the Palestinian Authority took place in 1996, many Palestinians have been disenchanted by the performance of the Authority. A lot was desired, and many people, especially those in civil society organizations, were urging the Legislative Council to do something about it. We knew we had a long way to go to develop a legal infrastructure. Maybe it helps to understand that ever since we were dispossessed more than fifty years ago, we have never been in charge of our own affairs on our own independent soil. We were always somebody else’s problem or burden: the Jordanians, the Egyptians, the Lebanese, the Israelis, and even the United Nations. And the set of laws that were available to the Authority as a starter were a worn-out collection of what was left behind from the British Mandate, Jordan, Egypt and the Israeli Military Orders.
After Oslo, the hopes for peace, liberation and independence withered away due to the failure of Israel to implement the Oslo Accords, which were initiated under the slogan of "Gaza Jericho First." As we commemorate the 2nd anniversary of the Intifada at the end of this month, we realize that the situation is worse than ever. The peace agreement which the PLO forged with Israel brought neither peace for the Palestinians nor security for the Israelis. It has become very clear that peace and security cannot be achieved under Occupation.
Yet in spite of all that failure and the ongoing devastation, deprivation, siege and brutality, the Palestinian Authority, never wanting to be blamed for the failure of the peace process, is still pursuing the path of negotiations with Israel — but unfortunately only on security matters, and basically the security of Israel. This is bringing us back to square one under a similar slogan, "Gaza Bethlehem First." As if we haven’t had enough with Gaza Jericho First and the rest of the step-by-step arrangements, such as the Ywe agreement, the Mitchell Report, the Tennet plan, Zinni, etc., all of which are now history.
Hardly had the Palestinian police been redeployed in Bethlehem when the Israeli Minister of Defense announced that Israel would freeze this arrangement because the Palestinians had not met their commitments on security matters. Mr. Sharon, with all his army, was unable to grant Israel the security he promised them, so now the worn-out Palestinian police with a destroyed infrastructure was expected to do that job. This sounds like a very bad joke, but I do not think it was meant to be one. In fact, it is simply an evil game that will bring about nothing but more frustration and devastation for all. Neither will Mr. Arafat achieve liberation for his people nor will Mr. Sharon grant security to his people, and peace for the region will be further away than ever.
How much more should the Palestinians suffer and still be expected to make more concessions and compromises on their own rights for freedom and liberation? Leaders who fail to fulfill the aspirations and hopes of their people have to be honest to themselves and to their people and admit their failure. But no leader, no matter how magnanimous, will accept an outside power to coerce him into admitting that failure. So considering Mr. Arafat irrelevant is not going to help bring about a change in our system. Even those in the opposition will refuse this logic out of respect for the dignity of their own people and the leader who was elected democratically by the people, even if his term is overdue.
So if the USA administration is really concerned about bringing an end to all this conflict it should pressure Israel first to end the Occupation. Once the Occupation comes to an end, the USA administration and the international community could then help the Palestinians have their democratic elections. There is no way elections can be held when the Palestinian Territories are under Occupation and each area is under siege and separated from the other areas.
May the memory of the very sad and horrific events of September 11th deter the USA administration from inflicting further devastation and suffering on innocent people. So let us pray for wisdom and compassion to guide the world leaders into the path of justice, peace and security for all.
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 Read all her articles: http://www.thewitness.org/agw/agw-khoury.html
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Thank you for your understanding & with best wishes from Jerusalem Fr. Raed Abusahlia |