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1)
The latest article of Dr. Harry Hagopian in which he begins with a Prologues of Pessimism since the title is “The Valleys of Death ...
Revisited!” but it seems that after proposing Two Options, Two Futures? He reaches certain Epilogues
of Optimism?
2)
A very short letter to the editor of
the Daily Telegraph written by Mr. Afif Safieh
3)
The Bethlehem Diary # 29 of Toine van
Teefleen..
From
this issue on I will try to indicate you some important links to sites or
articles that I find interesting for your knowledge, and I begin today with a
link to a full report about Tourism in the West Bank, that you find by
clicking on: http://www.arij.org/paleye/tourism/index.htm
BETHLEHEM
DIARY (29)
Toine van
Teeffelen
May 28 –
June 4, 2001
These
days are tense. It is a strange pressure. The days are without shooting and
shelling, but it is as if people are waiting for it, as if it can come any
moment. The news tells that places may be hit which were never hit before.
After the horrible massacre in Tel Aviv among the Israeli teenagers, the
Israeli government decided not to take immediate military retaliation but
rather to heighten the political pressure upon Arafat. That is more effective,
public relations-wise. That doesn’t mean there is no retaliation. Transport
of fuel and oil to the Palestinian areas are cut off. A local paper shows a
picture of an assistant sleeping in front of a pumping station to indicate the
shortage of benzine. Even more serious is the announcement that the water
supply will be limited. It’s hot right now and people need extra water on
top of what the municipality can provide. My Arabic teacher just tells me now
that she has ordered three tanks of water that cannot be supplied. It is
especially people who don’t have a well in their garden who will suffer.
Fortunately for us, our landlord who lives on top of our house does have a
well, but my family-in-law doesn’t and needs to bring water from the
neighbor’s well. I foresee some extra work on the Sunday. Jara loves a
traditional Dutch song which is about bringing two little buckets of water
from the well, we may sing it together… According to an Israeli minister,
the cutting off or limitation of essential supplies is intended to mount
pressure on Arafat. Apparently, if we – my family, teachers, students,
common Palestinian people – have a little less water to use, we are supposed
to be more inclined to pressure Arafat. That’s however not how people’s
psychology works, nor is it exactly in accordance with international law.
* * *
For
Palestinians, traveling is now possible just between towns and some adjacent
villages but rarely beyond; there is for instance very little traffic between
Bethlehem and Hebron. With the summer coming, people have reason to start
worrying about international traveling. According to my information, right now
Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza can’t go out, neither through Tel
Aviv Airport nor the Allenby Bridge to Jordan which is presently closed. (We
start worrying whether Mary and my family-in-law will be able to leave the
country for the much longed-for summer holiday). Since all the borders of the
Palestinian territories are under Israel’s control, Israeli can completely
regulate whomever or whatever comes into or goes out of Palestine. I think
that such a situation of absolute dominance typically generates the type of
ruthless suicide actions that it is supposed to prevent.
The
situation is tense, and the people are depressed as never before. Ramzi, the
designer, tells me that he could not work yesterday after hearing that more
than 20 workers in four textile companies in Bethlehem were dismissed due to
the economic strangulation. He feels there is no future in this country. Also
Fuad, Karishma and Shireen at the institute feel depressed in this strange
atmosphere of suspense and despair. On Saturday afternoon Ramallah and
Bethlehem were ghost towns. Afraid for what could come, people stayed inside.
At present Jara participates in a summer camp, largely indoors, at the Rosary
Sisters in Bethlehem. On Saturday at 10:00 o’clock the sister called to say
that the camp was suspended that day after news came in that the police in
Arafat’s headquarters - located nearby - were leaving their work out of fear
for shelling. I go and quickly pick up Jara. I also see Fuad, who says that a
teacher workshop at the school was cancelled shortly after it started. He
received a phonecall from the mayor of Bethlehem who tried to trace who had
given orders to close school programs. Later that day, Mary and Jara went for
shopping, almost alone on the street. Risky?
Some
people don’t take any risks, some do. The problem is that you don’t always
have enough information to know whether or not you take a risk. On Friday, the
students from Al-Arroub camp come to the institute. They tell that they are
“less afraid” than Ismail who had previously called to say he would not
come. In order to prevent many people attending the burial of the Palestinian
leader Faisal Husseini in Jerusalem, the Israelis created a blockade between
Bethlehem and Hebron. But the Al-Arroub boys, as usual, found a way around.
Mary
admires the peasant women around Bethlehem who, despite considerable risks for
getting a fee or facing other problems, still go with vans along the dirt
roads to Jerusalem in order to sell their vegetables and fruits. (Right now it
is the season of the mish-mish or apricot, a very short season which is
over before you realize it; hence the local proverb: “Until the apricot’s
season” - meaning: never).
The
male workers take even more risks. There are now of course very few who
succeed in passing checkpoints. Last week, a French friend of Mary observed
how a soldier at a checkpoint used his gun to hit an old man, a worker who was
caught at the checkpoint and who was unable to quickly sit down. There is a
rumor that soldiers at the checkpoint near Birzeit University are beating
students who try to pass. I know a few students from Bethlehem who study at
Birzeit University and who cannot come over to see their family.
* * *
The
roads outside Bethlehem are becoming more and more dangerous. According to
local news reports, settlers in Efrat to the south of Bethlehem were called
through loudspeakers to gather in a field near Al-Khader, apparently to take
revenge actions against the Palestinians in the village. At the Freres we
discuss where to organize our next fieldtrip. Sana’s rules out to do it near
her school in Battir due to the unsafety on the road leading to the village.
Our last fieldtrip was in Artas, but just recently it happened that an Israeli
shell landed in the trees close to the monastery there. As a result a fire
broke out in the vicinity of the area where we had our last open air drama and
dance school performance. We settle for arranging a fieldtrip at the YMCA’s
Shepherds Fields in Beit Sahour, and to swim afterwards in a nearby pool.
What
are acceptable risks? That is the question which always comes back. Until now,
I myself am not really afraid to be hit by bullets. That is not because of
courage but lack of experience. You start becoming afraid when something
directly happens to you or to your family. I am myself mainly aware of the
dangers of “normal” daily life. The moments when I am afraid happen when
cars are speeding over 60 or 70 km. an hour on the “Pope John Paul II
Street” (a new name, to commemorate the visit of the Pope in 2000) in front
of my family-in-law’s house. Because most of the streets in Bethlehem are
twisting and turning, drivers tend to give full speed as soon as they ride
over a straight, asphalted road such as the one at my family’s. In fact, my
sternest conversations with Jara are about not leaving the pavements.
For
visitors the risks are a little different, perhaps greater. They travel more
than the locals and are not familiar with the roads. Lately, a delegation of
Dutch and German youth journalists came over. During one of their journeys
they landed in an incident with teargas. As good journalists, most of them
wanted to stay.
* * *
After a small quarrel with one of the other children at
the Rosary Sister’s camp, Jara tells us that she does not want to go back.
It takes a long conversation to convince her. Mary teaches her that “also
the Palestinians and Israelis quarrel and then after a while they reach
peace.” Inshallah, if God wants it.
The
Valleys of Death ... Revisited!
Dr
Harry Hagopian,
LL.D
Prologues
of Pessimism?
I
have just witnessed another numbing week in the un-holy land! On Thursday, I
was dumbstruck when I learnt that Faisal Husseini had died from a heart attack
in Kuwait. This man, with solid revolutionary credentials but a gentle belief
in peaceful moderation, was an icon of the Palestinian struggle as much as a
beacon for Jerusalem. Head of Orient House, responsible for the Jerusalem
portfolio and a time-honoured member of the PLO, Abu al-Abd (as he was fondly
known to his family and friends) was one of the more charismatic and
corrective personalities of Palestine. Not always part of Chairman Yasser
Arafat’s inner sanctum, he exuded integrity and disliked violence. He
believed strongly in the justice of the Palestinian cause and struggled for
long years toward the creation of a Palestinian state with the eastern sector
of Jerusalem as its capital. His young light has suddenly been dimmed, and
with him some of the hopes and dreams of many friends, colleagues and
political acquaintances.
However,
I had hardly managed to internalise this sad but God-chosen event when I was
dumbstruck yet again on Friday night by a man-engineered suicide attack at the
Pascha nightclub in Tel Aviv. Once again, the sirens wailed - this time
Israeli ones - and nineteen young Israeli men and women lost their lives
whilst many more sustained serious injuries. This heinous attack targeted
Israelis as part of the on-going conflict between Israelis and Palestinians
over the future of a hallowed parcel of land that the ancient - and
not-so-ancient - prophets once considered home. I was speechless at the tragic
pictures shown on the box. I was shaken to the core by this latest example of
‘man’ fighting ‘man’ in the most primitive and execrable manner
possible. Sadly, the score of deaths ever since the start of the Intifadah in
September 2001 to date consists of hundreds of Palestinians and Israelis
alike. For me, any
one life is God-endowed - so the multiples of death are tantamount to
multiples of loss.
Functionality
of Conflict?
But
- and I have to introduce the dreadful and dreaded ‘but’ - much as my
heart goes out for all the families who are mourning those natural or violent
deaths, I need to add a qualifier to my observations. It goes without saying
that I condemn any and all violent attacks. But if I can rise above my own
sense of moral indignation at the way young lives are being violated in Israel
and Palestine by one party or the other and try to be less emotive, I can
arrive at an inevitable conclusion. Mind you, it is a hard albeit evident
conclusion! My conclusion confirms that the tragic events unfurling in this
land are linked - directly or indirectly - to a process of decolonisation
undertaken by Palestinians against the Israeli occupation of their land. I
know! It is distasteful and outrageous for most Israeli ears to express such
an opinion at a time when they are in a state of national shock. But it is
true! And if peace-seekers and peace-makers want to overcome this latest cycle
of violence, they should admit that what is happening today is simply a
Palestinian ‘unshaking’ of an Israeli occupation.
I
have at times been told - not to put too fine a point on it - that I am mellow
and even spineless for speaking out against all violence and calling instead
for inclusiveness and even-handedness under the most unjust circumstances.
Many Israelis already consider that I have bargained with my tenets, whilst
many Palestinians equally suspect that I do not possess the moral courage to
stand up for my own beliefs! After all, who wants an equivocator when hard
times call for firm and uncompromising standpoints! No grey shades, but simply
white or balck formats! And sadly
enough, a naive reconciler is often labelled today as an equivocator who
fudges the truth! Yet, I must confess that my soul has become weary from all
the violence that has cost many lives and maimed many more. Something has to
be done, and the skeleton key remains with Israel.
So let me explain the two options that I believe lie ahead for Israel
in order to restore peace and security to its people as much as to the whole
region.
Two
Options, Two Futures?
One
option for Israel is to use its awesome military might in an attempt to quash
the Palestinian cause. Surely, it is not that difficult! The Israeli security
cabinet can decide tomorrow to kick the Palestinian leadership out of the
territories. It can also come up with sombre ultimatums for the Palestinians,
giving them stark choices between subjugation and decimation! It can fence off
the Palestinian territories hermetically and embark upon a serious policy of
collective punishment against a whole population. It can probably adopt all
those stringent measures - and much more - whilst the new US administration
wrings its hands in despair, indecision and befuddlement and whilst the
leading columnists of the leading papers analyse - ever so knowledgeably - the
pros and cons of such measures.
But
let me add one thing! Such draconian measures - no matter how much they will
maul the Palestinian psyche, and no matter how ‘retaliatory’ they become
in the next few days - cannot calm the waters.
Rather, the violence will continue, it will intensify and the situation
will gradually envelop the whole region in its tarantulan grip. The reason is
that seven years of endless post-Oslo negotiations led to a stalemate that did
not give Palestinians their rights. Having all those over-populated cities
alongside their crumbling economies under Palestinian pseudo-rule is risible!
Camp David simply offered Palestinians a ‘state’ that was sealed off from
the outside world by a ring of settlements and by-pass roads. It divided the
northern and southern chunks of the West Bank and kept Jerusalem well out of
their effective control. Under the guise of an end to the conflict, it
designed a phantom Palestinian state that was neither sovereign nor
contiguous, neither credible nor viable! Can a deal have possibly been more
partisan and one-sided?
I
happen to share the learned opinion of many analysts that Israel enjoys
another - much healthier - option. It could decide to negotiate seriously with
the Palestinians for a peace accord that is steeped in justice and security
for both peoples. Such an accord would address the Palestinian legitimate
claims as expressed in the UNSC Resolutions, the Fourth Geneva Conventions and
other international covenants. And to do that, the Mitchell Commission Report
awaits eager adoption. As a first step, this report calls for an unconditional
cessation of all forms of violence by both sides. It goes hand-in-hand with a
call for Israel to refrain from building new settlements or expanding existing
ones. And what is wrong with this starting point which aims to restore calm in
the region and revive confidence between the two parties?
Are settlements that are implanted artificially on Palestinian land
truly worth the sacrifices that both Israelis and Palestinians have been
paying in the past nine months? When
will Israel come to terms with the realisation that the Palestinian people
cannot be colonised forever? When will it reckon that the genie has come out
of the bottle, and it is far too difficult to put the genie back in the bottle
again?
Epilogues
of Optimism?
A journalist who interviewed me recently admitted that
she was energised by my fresh vision. However, she also acknowledged hastily
that this vison sounded more like the wishful musings of a voiceless prophet!
But I cling to my vision which encompasses Israelis and Palestinians alike in
a future that defines peace and security in justice for all.
And it is not a solitary or reedy call!
Far from it! Just by reading the latest Pax Christi Report on the
post-Oslo period, or simply by talking to countless men and women in the
region, one realises that I am not celibate with my vision.
Will
any of this ever come to be? Or will the many valleys of death continue to
cast their ominous shadows over a land rent asunder by its two peoples and
three peoples in their pursuit for... peace?
harry-bvH @ 3 June
2001
Letter
to the editor
Daily
Telegraph
Sir,
I don't know who is the pyromaniac who writes the Daily Telegraph editorials,
but the set of hawkish policy recommendations (Israel at Bay June 5) will make
even General Ariel Sharon pale in comparison.
Reading the Daily Telegraph, one gets the impression that it is Palestine that
occupies Israel not Israel that occupies Palestine. One never gets the
impression that what we are confronting really is an endless and illegal
military occupation, in fact the longest in modern history.
Mr. Ishac Shamir, former Israeli prime minister, in his Madrid peace
conference speech, spoke of " Israel's hunger for peace". We can
satisfy Israel's hunger for peace if Israel were to abandon its appetite for
territory.
Afif Safieh
Palestinian General Delegate to the United Kingdom and to the Holy See
Tourism in the West Bank
Between
the hammer of Israeli agencies and the anvil of political turbulence
Prepared
by Ewoud Poerink and Nizar Qattosh
Applied
Research Institute –Jerusalem (ARIJ)
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