News, articles and documents from
the Holy Land
Issue No. 125 - Saturday, 29 December 2001
Dear Friends, Brothers
and Sisters,
After
a very busy week, we still have some more busy days: The busy week with the
time before and after Christmas, but everything went very well even if Mr.
Arafat didn’t come to the mass of Bethlehem, as you notice that his chair was
empty and a “Kufieh” was replacing the man. I liked this idea, because really
the “Kufieh” in black and white represents the whole Palestinian people, and
seeing Mr. Yaser Arafat wearing it, you will think about his people, therefore,
we can say that he became a symbol of his people.
The
days after Christmas, we have this tradition of exchanging visit between the
churches in order to exchange the greetings of the feast, this also is very
beautiful because it shows the cordial atmosphere of fraternity between the
different Churches in Jerusalem.
Nowadays,
we are very busy on finalizing the last preparations for the March of the
Monday. I can say that everything is ready and we expect a lot of people to
take part in it, and the only fear is that the Israeli authorities will not
allow us to cross the checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, they might
not allow us to reach Jerusalem, and as far as we don’t want any confrontation
in order to maintain the pacific nonviolent character of the March, we might
have to change the program at the last moment and do it all at the checkpoint
only in order to show what kind of freedom of movement and religious freedom we
are living in this country. To tell you the truth, what encouraged us to do
this adventure is the fact of the humiliation that we and our people face in at
the checkpoints which are a real disfiguration of our humanity, and the fact
that Jerusalem is closed to all the local people both Christians and Moslems,
since almost 10 years not only since the last 15 months, therefore, we will ask
them to “open Jerusalem” and to “end the occupation” because this is the only
way to live in peace in the land.
We
thank all those who supported the idea and we hope that it will be a success even
if they might forbid us to cross the checkpoint and stop there.
You
will find in today’s Olive Brach:
1)
The
last updates and details about the Justice and Peace March from Bethlehem to
Jerusalem.
2)
A
Christmas Message from Bethlehem written by Susan Atallah in her Letter from Bethlehem
# (10).
3)
Finally
you will read a report about another march, which took place last Friday in Jerusalem,
which was really a success.
This
is enough and more than enough at the end of this year, because you need time
to enjoy the celebration of the new year not only to read our strange news!
In
this occasion, I would like to express to all of you my best wishes from
Jerusalem for a blesses wonderful year 2002, hoping that it will really better that
this one which was very hard not only for us but also for the entire world.
Happy
New Year Fr.
Raed Abusahlia
Public Invitation to take part in the
Non-violent “justice and peace” March
Bethlehem – Jerusalem, 31 December 2001
Dear
friends, Brothers and Sisters,
We
would like to draw your attention to the following initiative on the last day
of the year, December 31, 2001. A “justice and peace” march leading from
Bethlehem through the main checkpoint into Jerusalem will be organised. The
march will culminate in
a prayer for peace in both Al-Aqsa Mosque for Moslems and St Anne’s Church for
Christians, and probably in a human chain around the Old City
walls symbolizing a protective embracement. The president of Pax Christi
International, Mgr. Michel Sabbah, will lead the march in Bethlehem together
with other church and religious representatives.
The non-violent “justice and peace” march is designed to make two simple but powerful demands for the new year: For the sake of Peace: “Open Jerusalem” and “End Occupation”.
In announcing these demands, the marchers
wish to express their deep-felt commitment to end the suffering and violence,
and to work for a peace marked by justice and reconciliation. The march will be
accompanied by international civilian observers who will form a “tunnel of
protection” in front of the Bethlehem/Jerusalem checkpoint. They
will also join the human chain.
During
the march, participants will be encouraged to sing or pray. Local and
international music groups will be invited to play. Participants will hold
olive branches and wear various articles like caps, buttons and ribbons with
the campaign sign. There will be moments of silence to commemorate all the
victims of the violence. Wishes and prayers coming from persons from all over
the world will be attached to balloons and distributed among the participants.
At the Lion’s Gate, the balloons will be released, a gesture to symbolize the
universal right to freedom. There will be texts in Arabic, English en Hebrew to
explain the march’s aims and the non-violent nature.
The Bethlehem-Jerusalem march will fall under the responsibility of the Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem; Grassroots International Protection for the Palestinian People (GIPP); Civil organizations in the Bethlehem area including Arab Educational Institute (AEI), Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between Peoples, Conflict Resolution Center Wi’am, Arab Orthodox Society and the Scouts Troops Leaders in Bethlehem. The United Civilians for Peace (UCP) will take part in the preparations as observer. The march is prepared in coordination with the High Islamic Council of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
You
are cordially invited to take part in this March from the beginning according
the following schedule; otherwise you can join us in the Jerusalem Part only:
9.30
Gathering
at the Junction of Ministry of Education in Bethlehem (Nisan Hall).
10.00
Beginning of the March toward Tantur Checkpoint, we will try to cross it until
Mar Elias Monastery, if we are forbidden we will use the alternative plan which
is an hour of prayer for peace at the checkpoint.
11.00 People gathering on Mar Elias will be
transferred by buses to the New Gate where the people of Jerusalem will join.
12.00
The March will proceed to the Lion’s Gate to Al-Aqsa Mosque and St Anne’s
Church for the prayer for peace.
2.30 We will try to form the Human Chain
around the Walls of Jerusalem, if we are forbidden we will finish the March
with a big gathering in front of the Lions’ Gate.
We appreciate your support and involvement.
Letter from Bethlehem
(10)
Christmas Message from
Bethlehem
Susan Atallah
26th December, 2001
On December 21, the Latin
Patriarch Michel Sabbah, president of Pax Christi International, held mass in
the Grotto of the Catholic Shepherds’ Field in Beit Sahour together with
members of different associations and institutions. With Mary Hazboun’s angelic
voice singing in the grotto, the reading of the wishes and prayers for a just
peace coming from all over the world, and the homily of the Patriarch, the
atmosphere was so very special for me at this Christmas celebration. But there
was this feeling of overwhelming pain that was inside my heart that I couldn’t
get rid of.
Some people might accuse me of
being melodramatic when I say that this year the spirit of Christmas is
different, instead, I keep going back to Jesus’ Passion especially the part in
Gethsemane. For people who don’t know, “Gethsemane” means “oil press” taken
from the Hebrew words “gath shemen”. In Luke 22:39-46, Jesus asked his
disciples to pray not to be put to the test and then He went to pray alone
saying, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me.
Nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine.”
I’m not a theologian but two
things affect me the most in this part of Jesus’ life in the Bible:
The first, the verse that
describes Jesus’ agony that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of
blood. The second, when he was left alone to suffer, even by his own disciples.
Let me tell you that we can relate so well with Jesus anguish and suffering,
and that we have prayed so many times that God might one day take the pain, the
suffering, and the humility under occupation away from the Palestinian people,
and we are still hoping and praying. At the same time, we give in to God’s will.
Should we fight to gain our freedom or should we give in? I don’t know. What I
know is that we are trying to go on with our lives with as much dignity as we
can, and I think that God is giving us the strength and power to continue with
whatever mission we are assigned to do in our lives.
Why am I talking about Jesus’
Passion and Resurrection instead of talking about Christmas and the birth of
Jesus in Bethlehem? Because I feel that the Palestinian people are being
crushed under the oil press called occupation in this land, and that we are
suffering alone. We feel abandoned to suffer our lack of freedom, and we feel
alone to lick our wounds and are expected to move on with our lives without any
hope in the near future. I can’t deny the fact that more people are
sympathizing with us now and support the Palestinian fight for independence,
and they work hard to spread our cause. The fact of the matter is who’s
listening to their pleas and which government has put aside its interest and
has done something tangible to put an end to the violence so far?
When the so-called Security
Council met to condemn the Israeli violation of human rights and to provide
protection, we were hoping that this time it will do the job it was founded to
do: Peace and Justice in the world. But it seems to us that when it comes to
the Palestinians’ justice, it is paralyzed with the U.S. veto. We have watched
the American president’s condemnation of terrorist attacks on Israel and he
even interrupted his weekend to open up the White House and accuse Palestinians
of being terrorists, but unfortunately, he never did the same when Palestinian
children are killed; well, the American government felt sorry for the killings!
That was it. It’s as if the Palestinians don’t count.
We don’t need people’s pity and
their feeling sorry for us, we only want them to implement justice and
comprehensive peace for everybody, for both the Israelis and the Palestinians.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I hear people putting all the blame on the Palestinians, ignoring what the Israeli government is doing to provoke violent actions against the innocent Israeli civilians being killed by suicide bombers. I do condemn these attacks on civilians and I don’t justify them, but when it comes from Palestinians nobody believes us, and they don’t want to even listen to us.
Why don’t people ask themselves
why these terrorist attacks are taking place. One reverend from the United
States wrote that his twenty-year-old-support for Pax Christi will end with the
march from Bethlehem to Jerusalem that will take place on 31st
December, 2001. Why? Because of the terrorist attacks against Israeli
civilians. He accuses Pax Christi of siding with the Palestinians. Well, for
him and for those people who don’t know what the purpose of the march is I say
that it’s a peaceful message to the Israeli people that we want peace by
holding olive branches. We want our freedom by ending the occupation, and we
want to open Jerusalem for everybody including the Palestinian Christians and
Moslems. Jerusalem is not only for the Jews. It’s a cry for help and world
intervention.
When I first read the
reverend’s email message I was shocked. What’s so wrong about wanting the end
of occupation? How can anybody who wants a just peace be accused of desecrating
the name of the Lord, as this reverend claims? He says that he’s ashamed of
having been involved with this organization. To him I say: “I think that you
should read the Bible again and learn that Jesus came for the poor people, for
the sinners and for the oppressed. I’m a Palestinian Christian
and I’m proud to be one because I can relate to the message that Jesus came to
spread and I understand the political situation in which Jesus lived through.”
I don’t claim to have more faith than other Christians in the rest of the
world. I didn’t write this to change the mind of this reverend because his mind
is already set, but I’m writing this to tell the Christians like him that they
have eyes but they choose not to see and they have ears but they choose not to
hear. Why don’t those people who claim to be Christians come and live in the
Palestinian areas and then make up their minds about whose side to take. They
don’t even have to take sides, but they have to be able to understand the
reaction of people under occupation since they have no clue what the word
means. And when we try to walk to Jerusalem from Bethlehem, that’s if we are
allowed to pass the checkpoint, it means that we want everybody to know that
the majority of the Palestinians acts nonviolently against the occupation, and
the minority fights using violence. Just read the world’s history and learn
about the different ways that people used to fight.
One more point, Israel defends
its “security” using the American Apaches and the F16s and bombs Palestinian
civilians, crushing their homes and killing their children and leaves them
homeless in retaliation to the suicide bombers’ attacks. Violence breeds
violence, when will people get it into their heads and let it stay there for a
change. Unless the occupation ends, and until the rights of the Palestinians
are acknowledged, there won’t be peace in this land. The Israelis should stop
looking down at us and stop dehumanizing us. The problem is that some people
think that Israel does not occupy this land because it’s theirs to begin with.
The three million Palestinians who have been living here for centuries should
just pack and leave. This is a lame excuse for defending occupation of three
million Palestinians and making them live without dignity because their lives
don’t count.
And for all those people who
cheered and cried when they watched the movie “Braveheart”, I tell them, watch
it again.
Today was a ray of
sunshine in an otherwise bleak Middle East.
Report written by
Gila Svirsky
About the March of Women in Black in Jerusalem
At 9:30 a.m., the organizers were still discussing whether the march should be
held single file or two-by-two, as the police refused to grant us a permit to
walk in the streets, wanting to contain us on the broad sidewalk. By 10:30
a.m., we saw there would be no hope of containing the vast crowd that had
showed up.
An amazing 5,000 people, most dressed in black, turned up for today's events,
beginning with the March of Mourning for all the victims -- Palestinian and
Israeli -- of the Occupation. Responding to the call of the Coalition of Women
for a Just Peace, people from all over the world found their way to the vigil
plaza today. When the signal came to begin, we were all mixed up with each
other -- Israeli, Palestinian, European, American -- and began a slow, solemn
walk, in silence (mostly), with only a funereal cadence sounded by two women
drummers at the center of this long procession. Although the extreme right
wing staged a counterdemonstration at the beginning of our route, their small
number (about 30) and angry shouts only served to dramatize the power of our
own dignified presence.
We led with a huge banner, "The Occupation is Killing Us All", as
well as hundreds of black hands with white lettering "Stop the
Occupation", and scores of signs calling for peace, a state of Palestine
beside the state of Israel, and sharing this beautiful city of Jerusalem, loved
so long by so many. It was an unseasonably warm and balmy winter morning,
and we were suddenly feeling hopeful and powerful marching together this way.
Although the police were trying to keep us all walking on the sidewalk, soon we
burst our seams and spread out into the road, blocking traffic along the
route. And Ezra, long-time supporter of Women in Black in Jerusalem,
walked among us, handing out a thousand red roses to Women in Black until the
roses ran out, though the women did not.
We made our way slowly toward the broad, new plaza just outside historic Jaffa
Gate, one of the main entrances to the Old City of Jerusalem. By the time
everyone arrived, we had filled up the plaza completely, with spillover inside
the gate and along the roads leading up to it. Past the stage,
participants could see as backdrop the beautiful Citadel, rising from the walls
of the Old City, with the Valley of Gethsemane spread out beyond in a
breathtaking view.
The entire program was moderated in Hebrew and Arabic by Dalit Baum and Camilia
Bader-Araf, co-MCs. They acknowledged the Knesset members who had joined
us for the events -- Muhammed Barake, Naomi Chazan, Zehava Galon, Tamar
Gozansky, Anat Maor, Issam Makhoul, and Mossi Raz -- as well as the delegations
from Belgium, Canada, England, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and the
U.S. Marcia Freedman, former Israeli MK and long-standing Woman in Black,
read the list of 118 locations around the world where solidarity events were
planned for the same day (from Adelaide to Zaragoza -- see our website for the
full list).
Speeches opened with Shulamit Aloni, first lady of human rights in Israel and
former government minister, comparing our struggle to end the occupation with
the struggles led by Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, reminding us that
although the task is arduous, it will inevitably be crowned with success.
She was followed by other powerful speeches -- Nurit Peled Elhanan, winner of
the Sakharov Peace Prize, awarded by the European Parliament, and mother of
Smadar, 13 years old when she was killed by a terrorist bomb in Jerusalem;
Zahira Kamal, courageous Palestinian activist for peace as well as the rights
of women and workers, who found a way to outwit the closure in order to reach
Jerusalem and address this rally; Luisa Morgantini, irrepressible Italian
member of the European Parliament and devoted supporter of the women's peace
movement in the Middle East; Khulood Badawi, chair of the Association of Arab
Students in Israel; and Vera Lichtenfels, a 17-year old Portuguese peace
activist, representing youth all over the world who are working for peace.
These speeches were eloquent and inspiring, but I myself was especially moved
by the ceremony of torch lighting by 13 Israeli organizations who have shown
extraordinary commitment to activism for peace and human rights. Each
representative lit a torch about one aspect related to their work -- the
killed, the wounded, the homes demolished, the trees uprooted, the children
whose lives were fractured, as well as the efforts of those who refuse to give
in to the despair, but keep on struggling to transform this nightmare into a
vision of peace and partnership (see below for the names and descriptions of
these organizations).
These are words that one simply doesn't hear in this region, so publicly, by
Israelis and Palestinians together. And then we held a concert rarely
heard in the Middle East -- a "peace happening" of Palestinian and
Israeli performers. It opened with the Elisheva Trio -- 3 talented black
Jewish women from Dimona, singing peace songs in soul and rock arrangements.
There were readings of poetry and plays, a performance piece, and an amazing
duo of young Palestinian rappers from Lydda/Lod doing Arabic and Hebrew
political lyrics. Ending it all was a hopeful reprise by the Elisheva
Trio, with many in the crowd holding hands, swaying, and singing together.
When the concert was over, few wanted to leave and let go of the feeling that
peace is really possible. Fortunately, we didn't really have to, because
Peace Now was holding its own optimistic rally just inside Jaffa Gate, with
Palestinians and Israelis signing a Peace Declaration and releasing doves into
the sky over the city. Palestinians and Israelis wandered in and out the
streets of the Old City trying to hold tight to the beautiful warm thaw in the
air, within this long winter of violence and tragedy.
This evening, I watched Israeli TV to see if anything was reported about the
hope for peace that had swept through Jerusalem today. I saw nothing
about either the Coalition of Women for Peace or the Peace Now events, though I
did hear that the Coalition action made the radio news several times
today. We are used to this by now, and it brought to mind the words of
Shulamit Aloni earlier today: "Even though Israel's 'patriotic'
media seek to ignore you, there is no doubt that your voice will be heard and
that a great many others will join your cause. You will break through the
silence because yours is a vision of freedom, justice, and peace."
May it come to pass. Today I feel more hopeful than I have for a long, long
while.
Thank you to everyone all over the world who joined us in solidarity today,
whether in vigils, through contributions, or in your hearts.
Shalom, salaam,
Gila Svirsky
Jerusalem
|
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 |