Our
Patriarch returned back from the United States after delevering an important
speech in front of the USA Catholic Bishops Conference, that we published last
week, but a revised version could be found in our Nonviolence Homepage http://go.to/nonviolence
He is actually in Jordan because after tomorrow he will ordain three of our
Seminarians of the Latin Patriarchate Seminary of Beit Jala to the priesthood,
because they are all originally from Jordan. A very strong declaration was
issued by the American Bishops in Atlanta that we will publish when we receive
the final text. We publish hereby a news about this meeting in which the
Bishops Urge Israelis and Palestinians to Return to Negotiations, Express
Solidarity with Christians in Holy Land. We publish also the presentation
given by Father Drew Christiansen, S.J. USCC Counselor for International
Affairs about the Vatican and U.S.
Catholic Conference Policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian Crisis. We
really appreciate the position of our brothers the American Bishops and hope
that they will make more pressure on the American Administration in order to
help both peoples of the region to reach just peace as soon as possible and
once for ever, because we do really believe that the key of the solution is in
Washington.
You
will find also in today’s Olive Branch sevral very important documents:
1)
The Jerusalem Journal # 21
of Sister Mary who returned bach after three weeks absence. She tells us how
difficult to get married during this summer time.
2)
The Bethlehem Diary # 31
of Toine van Teeffelen in which he continues to tell us about the particular
event happening in Bethlhem area and elsewhere, especially all the stories of
checpoints and difficulties of movement and travel which is not better than
before even if they claim that they eased the closure.
3)
The worst is what is happening in some faraway small
villages like the village of Aboud which is always completelly closed since
more than one month while the Israeli army continue cutting and uprooting
thousands of Olive Trees and destroying properties of the poor villagers even
if they promised our Patriarch that they will stop that, after having gone
their to protest and after writing a strong letter of protest to the Defence
Minister who until now didn’t answer us. You will find hereby an article
written by the Israeli Russian writter Israeli Shamir who is teeling us more
details about the Olives of Aboud.
4)
We have some news from Jordan, particularly from the small
all-Christian-Village in the south desert of Jordan, Smakieh, the parish of my
young colleague Fr. Rifat Bader who is organising a lot of activities for the
summer time such as joint Jordanian-American camps. You find details about
thes activisties in the following news about Kids
summer camp is mix of East and West By Omar Tesdell, and the article
written by Fr. Rifat to Jordan Times newspaper “I
left my heart in...".
You
see that you have a lot of things to read, but I hope that you will find it
useful and interesting.
Best
wishes from Jerusalem
Fr.
Raed Abusahlia
Bishops Urge Israelis
and Palestinians to Return to Negotiations, Express Solidarity with Christians
in Holy Land
WASHINGTON (June 15, 2001) -- Israelis and
Palestinians alike must abandon violence, respect human rights, and return to
the path of peace, according to a strongly worded resolution approved today by
the nation's Catholic Bishops at their meeting here.
"A way must be found to return quickly to
genuine negotiations, embracing, as far as possible, the gains in the last
rounds of the final status talks," they said. Despite the failure last
year to reach a final accord, "and recent, terrible events, it is not too
late to embrace nonviolence, dialogue, and negotiation as the only road
forward."
Today's vote follows a plea yesterday from the
Latin-rite Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, for continued advocacy by
the Catholic Church for a resolution to the Middle East crisis. Following
Patriarch Sabbah's remarks, in a departure from normal practice, the Bishops
received a briefing on the current situation in the region. The panel which
addressed the Bishops consisted of: Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore,
Ambassador Dennis Ross who served as a special envoy in the region during the
Clinton Administration, and Jesuit Father Drew Christiansen, an advisor to the
U.S. Catholic Conference on Middle East affairs.
The resolution approved today states that
Palestinians "rightly insist" on an end to Israel's occupation of
the West Bank and Gaza and the practice of establishing and expanding
settlements in the territories. Likewise, they state that Israelis
"rightly see" the failure of Palestinians to respect Israel's right
to exist and flourish within secure borders as a cause of the conflict.
The Bishops also urged bold leadership within
each community.
"In the same spirit, we believe, this is a
moment that requires that more Israeli leaders and supporters of the State of
Israel not only defend Israel and her people, but also advocate for the
legitimate aspiration of Palestinians to live in their own homeland with
dignity," the resolution states. "This moment also requires that
more Palestinian leaders and supporters of the Palestinian cause not simply
advocate a state of their own, but also be unambiguously clear about Israel's
right to peace and security, and the imperative to end all violence."
According to the Bishops, the elements
necessary for a just and lasting peace in the region include "real
security for the state of Israel, a viable Palestinian state, just resolution
of the refugee situation, an agreement on Jerusalem which protects religious
freedom and other basic rights, an equitable sharing of resources, and
implementation of relevant United Nations resolutions and other provisions of
international law."
The resolution also reaffirms the U.S. Bishops'
concern for and solidarity with the dwindling Christian community in the Holy
Land.
"The native-born Christian presence in
Israel and the occupied territories, less than 2 percent of the total, risks
shrinking into insignificance, in no small part due to the present troubles
and their human and economic consequences," the Bishops resolved.
They urged Catholics in the United States to
pay greater attention to the Middle East crisis and to be "unflagging in
pressing our government to play an active and constructive role in the search
for a just peace."
Office of Communications
National Conference of Catholic Bishops/United States Catholic Conference
3211 4th Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20017-1194 (202) 541-3000
June 15, 2001 Copyright © by United States Catholic
Vatican
and U.S. Catholic Conference Policy
Toward
the Israeli-Palestinian Crisis
by
Father Drew Christiansen, S.J.
USCC
Counselor for International Affairs
Thank
you, Bishop Fiorenza. My assignment this morning is briefly–very briefly–
to highlight the key elements of the Holy See’s policy toward the search for
peace in the Middle East. The
Holy Father himself has personified this policy with his biblical pilgrimages
across the Middle East. His Jubilee pilgrimage to the Holy Land symbolized the
Church’s role: standing with the Church in the Holy Land, reaching out to
Jews, calling for peace, and voicing Palestinian cries for justice.
In
Syria last month the Holy Father summarized the Holy See’s present policy
this way:
[I]t
is time to “return to the principles of international law: the banning of
the acquisition of territory by force, the right of peoples to
self-determination, (and) respect for the resolutions of the United Nations
and the Geneva Conventions, to name only the most important.
He
added, “We all know that real peace can only be achieved if there is a new
attitude of understanding and respect between the peoples of the region,
between the followers of the three Abrahamic religions.
Let
me quickly touch on five points: (1) the place of international law in the
resolution of the conflict, (2) political dimensions of the question, (3) the
status of Jerusalem, (4) the
refugee question, and (5) ending violence.
First,
the Holy See has for many years appealed to the principles of international
law and especially well-known United Nations resolutions (242, 338, 194) as
establishing the parameters for settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict. The Vatican has placed increasingly heavy emphasis on international
legality. The Holy Father in his address to the annual diplomatic corps in
January went so far as to say “contempt for international legality” is one
of the sources of the conflict.
On
this point, the position of the Holy See differs also from that of the Clinton
Administration, which tended to minimize Israeli violations of international
law on the grounds that all problems would be resolved in final status
negotiations. Those talks,
however, were delayed three years, until last summer and opened with too
little preparation.
The
annexation of captured territory and settlement of one’s own population in
occupied land is forbidden under the Fourth Geneva Convention. After Oslo,
successive Israeli governments engaged in aggressive annexation and settlement
building, establishing so-called facts on the ground. The Madrid and Oslo
protocols, moreover, both assumed the framework of UN resolution 242 in which
in return for peace the Israelis the Palestinians were to receive the land
occupied by the Israelis in 1967. Accordingly the legitimate expectations of
Palestinians as well as of the international community was that under the
terms of Oslo the Palestinians would take possession of captured land.
Negotiations should have dealt largely with technical details. Negotiations
were not meant to substitute for implementation of resolution 242.
(2)
With respect to certain political settlements, particularly those dealing with
borders, the Holy See is restrained by the Lateran Treaty from taking defined
positions. Nonetheless, it has repeatedly made plain that a negotiated
settlement must be equitable and that the Church reserves the right to make
moral judgments on the adequacy of any Israeli-Palestinian agreement.
At
the 1998 colloquium in Jerusalem, Archbishop Tauran was emphatic that
political aspects of the question are of concern to the Holy See. He minced no
words, moreover, in declaring that (East) Jerusalem is illegally occupied
territory.
(3)
The new text on which you will vote has a long footnote on the Church’s
policy toward Jerusalem. I would make only two glosses on the text. First, the
special statute for Jerusalem would be negotiated by the two political
entities involved. The international community would then be engaged to
guarantee the implementation and enforcement of the agreement. If I am not
mistaken, surprising progress was made towards the end of Camp David and again
in November and December between Church leaders and both Israelis and
Palestinians on the question of a special statute, including on the proposal
for international guarantees. The U.S. position is unclear.
Second,
in recent years the Church has emphasized the importance of protecting the
rights of believers of the three Abrahamic religions in Jerusalem and the
rights of their religious communities as primary goals for the statute,
placing the question of the holy places in a some what secondary position. In
other words, the Holy See has given priority to preservation of the living
Christian communities, a position this conference has endorsed for at least a
decade.
(4) Finding a resolution of the
refugee issue will be quite difficult. UN resolution 194 guaranteed
Palestinians who were willing to return to their homes in peace the right to
do so. One of Israel’s ‘ myths,’ to use a term you heard yesterday, is
that to grant Palestinians the right of return would destroy the ideal of a
Jewish state. Palestinian negotiators with whom I have met have repeatedly
affirmed they would limit return to Israel in return for in-principle
recognition of the right, just as Patriarch Sabbah told us. Unhappily when
church offices in Washington recently approached Palestinian contacts about
exploring alternatives to return–even Palestine would accept only one-half
million refugees over ten years–these contacts told us the refugee question
was a political lightening rod and to take any action as reasonable and humane
as exploration of alternatives might be perceived as a very unhelpful
initiative. At the Daheisheh refugee camp a year ago March the Holy Father
affirmed the refugees right to homes of their own without indefinite delay,
but made no reference to Resolution 194 or other specific UN resolutions.
(5)
Finally, the Holy See has been insistent on both sides bringing an end to the
violence. Last week, for example, the Holy Father lamented deaths of Israeli
and Palestinian children who have been killed in the present conflict. His
appeal to the Geneva Conventions cited above is first of all a reminder of the
immunity of civilians in wartime whether to military or guerrilla attack. In
an effort to help end the violence, two weeks ago Cardinal Laghi and Monsignor
D’Aniello traveled to the Holy Land with special messages to Prime Minister
Sharon and President Arafat from the Holy Father.
Mindful
of the need for brevity, I will stop here. Thank you for listening
Jerusalem
Journal # 21
June
15, 2001
Sister Mary
In
some of the European countries and in the United States the month of June is
the month of weddings, and the month of May is a time when many young
women look forward to being a June bride. So even when 22 yr. old
Majdaleen Alrai from Al Aroub refugee camp north of Hebron was in the hospital
for a treatment for diabetes last May, she was still looking forward to being the
June bride of 25 year old Mohammed Rageb Silmi, and the wedding was just
a couple of weeks away.
At
11:30 Sunday night, May 20th. heavy gun and tank fire from the Israeli Army
could be heard throughout Hebron where an army camp was guarding four caravans
that comprise the Israeli settlement on Tel Rumeida, a Byzantine monastery,
which is being destroyed by the settlers. Then, for the sixth time since
September, the hospital was again hit by Israeli gunfire. A live bullet
pierced the window near Majdaleen's bed and she was shot with extensive
damage to her liver, kidney and intestines. The doctors at the Hebron hospital
operated for three hours before bringing her to ICU. When Mohammed, her
fiance, got the news he went to Al Aroub refugee camp to tell Majdaleen's
family, only to discover that the family home had been completely damaged by
Israeli tank fire at 12:30 that same night.
And
now it is the month of brides.... Majdaleen has finally been released from the
hospital and returned to the remains of her home in the refugee camp
north of Hebron, but due to the strict closures of this past week, even the
"Doctors without Borders" were unable to check on her condition.
Neither is there any wedding in sight....
Meanwhile,
the Israeli Army is forcing its way into every Palestinian house in the Old
City of Hebron: opening all doors and drawers, searching everywhere in the
house, and then photographing and sketching all the rooms. The Palestinians
don't know what this is all about, but it can't be for good. Can you imagine
this happening in your home?
The
Israeli occupation and Israeli military agression continues to invade all
areas of Palestinian life, shattering dreams, but not breaking the spirits of
these dauntless people who want to shake off the control that the Israeli
government has imposed over their lives for the past 53 years.
BETHLEHEM
DIARY (31)
Toine
van Teeffelen
June
11 – June 18, 2001
The
sad stories of obstructed traveling don’t stop coming in. At a checkpoint a
sick woman laying on a stretcher was taken out of the ambulance and brought
over the rocks to another car. Al-Quds newspaper describes how in Gaza some
particularly cruel soldiers whipped a woman and her children with some plastic
wire until the kids were bleeding and had to be treated in hospital. A husband
from the West Bank was not allowed to visit his newborn baby because his wife,
who has an Israeli ID, delivered in an Israeli hospital.
Mary
and others at Bethlehem University are affected by what happened to a lecturer
crossing the Jerusalem-Bethlehem checkpoint on his way to the university.
Crossing the checkpoint is his daily duty. Sometimes he passes by without
problems, sometimes not. This time the soldiers stopped him and ordered him to
run after a man whom they wanted for some reason. First the lecturer asked
another passer by to do it for him. But no, it was he who had to run. The
soldiers took his ID and he ran and ran for hundreds of meters till he caught
the guy. During the first Intifada, over ten years ago, it was common to see
people doing errands for soldiers such as wiping out graffiti slogans written
on the walls in front of one’s house.
Ramzi
is again not able to concentrate on his designer’s work because he hears
that two computer companies have been closed and some dozens of employees
dismissed. Each time when he hears about closures of companies he runs into a
depression. With the continuing siege – we don’t feel yet much change on
the ground as a result of the ceasefire – many companies or shops cannot
operate. Mary buys a cheap dress for Jara in the mainstream street of
Bethlehem. She manages to strike a bargain but feels remorse when the
shopkeeper sighs and says there is nothing left for him to do. Why not kill
himself in a suicide operation in Tel Aviv? He is not serious, of course, but
the despair simply runs deep. Mary says that after the suicide bombing in Tel
Aviv ordered books again don’t arrive at the university library. “The
Israelis control everything, our mail, even our breathing space.”
* * *
There
is a momentary shock among the population when they hear that a man from
‘Azza camp, a small refugee camp located in the heart of Bethlehem, has
killed an Israeli intelligence officer before being killed himself. Everybody
expects some kind of Israeli reprisal. But it seems that it is considered to
be an isolated incidence. The man was an Israeli agent, a collaborator. He
killed his Israeli boss either out of remorse or despair or because of
possible pressure from a Palestinian agency. The night before he had informed
his family and friends that “something” would happen to him and that they
should take well care of his children. Next day, his picture hangs on the
walls of the street. The former agent has now become a martyr for the
Palestinian cause.
The
event illustrates the almost unstoppable tendency to categorize people as
friend or enemy. A dramatic case of misplaced categorization happened last
week when a Greek monk, Georgios, was killed in a drive-by shooting near
Jerusalem. The perpetrators are not known but may well be Palestinians since
the monk was driving in a yellow-plate Israeli car near the settlement
Ma’ale Adumim. I am saddened hearing the news because I knew the monk well.
He lived in a Greek Orthodox monastery almost in the middle of nowhere, in the
desert valley Wadi Kilt not far from Jericho. In better times I was used to
hike there with visiting family and friends. The monk was quite open and
generous towards visitors; you could have an easy-going theological
conversation with him. Once it happened that my niece, her friend and I were
attacked and stung by a cloud of large bees suddenly appearing out of a bush
in the wadi. We were shouting and gesticulating, something we better
should not have done. After reaching the monastery, Georgios treated our
wounds with pieces of garlic fixed by plasters. We might have died, he told us
with a big smile, and showed us his biological-medicinal cupboard for the
treatment of bites of snakes, serpents and other dangerous animals. Garlic is
the best, he said. His corpse is now buried next to the bones of monks who
lived in the desert monastery in the beginning of the seventh century and were
killed by invading Persians.
One
cannot categorize this monk other than as a friend. For no special reason, the
week showed more cases of mistaken identity, fortunately not all with deadly
consequences. Our neighbour was on a holiday trip these weeks. During her
return journey in an Air France carrier, she sat next to a Jewish lady from
Argentina. At one point the plane started to become unsteady due to weather
conditions and it was announced that the plane might have to land in Cyprus.
Recently Air France had announced that it would cut short some of its flights
to Tel Aviv for safety reasons, and the lady thought that the possible stop in
Cyprus was an example of that policy. She started to complain about the
“anti-Semitic” attitude of France and sought for comfort from our neighbor
whom she thought was Jewish. In fact, it is often difficult or impossible to
distinguish Jewish-Israeli from Palestinian faces. Who other than Jews go to
Israel these days, the lady might have thought.
During
a workshop this week, teachers discussed Moslem-Christian relations. There is
always a certain reluctance to discuss this topic because people do not feel
that their Moslem and Christian identities are so problematic that they need
discussion. In the past Palestinians often did not know from each other who
was Christian or Moslem. One teacher, Ri’baal, said that he is often
mistakenly considered to be a Christian because of his blue eyes and somehow
Western outlook. However, he has a Moslem-Palestinian father and a Jewish
mother from Austria who lives in Beit Jala. Sana’s, who is Moslem, tells
that it sometimes happens that people in the countryside and Hebron think that
she is Christian because she does not wear the veil. The problem, she says, is
that outside Bethlehem and Jerusalem there is rarely a visible presence of
Christians so that Palestinian Moslems in the villages are not familiar with
the Christian cultural identity. I myself remember cases that when Mary and I
walked in a village, some youth were calling shalom, thinking we were
Jewish.
One
of Ismail’s students from Al-Arroub camp is Mahmoud. He has a beautiful
voice appropriately hoarsened by, I suspect, much smoking. He displays his
talents in a mixed Moslem-Christian music group organized by the Freres
School. Lately I found out that he has a brother who lives in the camp
together with a Jewish wife and their children. Both of them had met each
other in a supermarket in Jerusalem. It was love at first sight. The wife
always says that she is a Jew married to a Palestinian but has lately
downplayed her Jewish identity towards Palestinians whom she does not know.
* * *
I
think that such border-crossers in fact provide a healthy unpredictability
towards the society. It is disastrous when youth think that with just a few
clues one can categorize people as friend or enemy, or as Christian, Moslem
and Jew. In this way one brings up very simple stereotypical images of the
other. Instead it is more rewarding to acknowledge people’s multiple
identities. Fuad is used to say that he is first of all a Palestinian, then a
Christian, then a Bethlehemite. (He always introduces me to others as a
“Dutch Bethlehemite,” or a “Dutch Palestinian.” Once this elicited the
question whether I had a Palestinian mother or father). Towards students I
purposefully tell stories of people who cannot be easily classified. One
example is the Bethlehem member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Salah
Ta’amari. He is from semi-Bedouin origin, went – he once told me – with
his mother to the mosque as well as sometimes to the Church of Nativity,
studied English literature at Cairo University, and married an early wife of
the late King Hussein of Jordan. During the 1970s he climbed into the ranks of
the PLO hierarchy in Lebanon and was chosen by the English thriller author
John Le Carre to stand as model for the main Palestinian character in the
novel The Little Drummer Girl. Later on, during Sharon’s invasion of
1982 in Lebanon, he was imprisoned in the notorious Ansar camp where he became
the informal leader of the prisoner movement. After going through this hell he
wrote a book together with the Israeli journalist Nahum Barnea and set up
non-violent youth programs for Palestinians in the United States. Now he is a
regular face on local TV although he too does not escape the general
skepticism with which the Palestinian population approach “politicians.”
His life story, as of so many others here, is a suitable antidote against easy
classification.
* * *
Last
evening I played with Jara. As usual we look out over the hills of the desert
to detect the little lights of Jordan some 40 kilometers further. She points
to the slender tower of the mosque in ‘Azza camp, close to where we are
going to live in the near future, and says: “That [mosque] belongs to sido
(grandfather), not to me.” I am puzzled by her remark. Mary tells me that
some twenty years ago her father, who died recently, had given a financial
contribution to a committee who was going to establish the mosque. At the
time, it was quite normal.
Olives of Aboud
By Israel Shamir
As
the CIA-brokered cease-fire went into effect, I received an anxious call from
a village of Aboud, on the western slopes of Samarian hills. The village was
raided by the army, and two men were shot. Today I went there, to see the
village and to feel the cease-fire.
Aboud
is surrounded by the new Jewish settlements from all sides. A good new Jewish
road leads to the area. It forks off to Aboud some three miles away from the
village, and there the road is blocked by cyclopean heaps of earth. We try our
luck at the other end, with the same result. Eventually we found a narrow dirt
track the peasants broke in this morning, and drive in.
Aboud
is one of the prettiest Palestinian villages, strongly reminiscent of Toscana.
Its time-mellowed stone houses grow on the gentle hills. Vine climbs up their
balconies, leafy fig trees provide shadow to its streets. The prosperity of a
well-established village is seen in the spaciousness of the mansions, in the
meticulously clean roads. The old men sit in a small and shady walled
enclosure, on the stone benches, as the aldermen of Ithaca gathered by young
Telemachus. That is the biblical ‘gate of the city’, or a diwan.
Kids bring them coffee and fresh fruits. Local people are not the refugees of
Gaza and Deheishe; here, as in a time warp, one can see the Holy Land as it
should and could be.
Three
millennia old Aboud received the faith of Christ from Christ himself, says the
local tradition, and there is the church ready to prove it, one of the oldest
on earth, built in the days of Constantine in the 4th century, or
maybe even older, as some archaeologists claim. The church is a dainty thing,
carefully restored and well taken care of. The Byzantine capitols of its
columns bear the image of cross and palm branches. Recently discovered plaque
in old Aramaic script immured in the southern wall of the church.
Aboud
has more than one church: there is a Catholic, a Greek Orthodox and an
American-built Church of God. There is also a new mosque, as Christians and
Moslems of the Holy Land live together in great harmony. On 17th of
December all of them, the Moslems and the Christians, go to venerate the
village patron saint, St Barbara. She was a local girl who fell in love with a
young Christian and was baptized. It happened in the rough days of Roman
emperor Diocletian, and she was martyred in the persecutions. The ruins of the
oldest Byzantine church of St Barbara are still seen on a hill a mile away
from the village. At the foothill, there is her burial cave, and there the
peasants lit their candles and ask their wishes to be fulfilled.
It
is a good place to understand the complete lunacy of the prevailing Jewish
narrative, of the ‘land without people’ sparsely inhabited by the Arab
nomads who came in the 7th century. Archaeologists proved this
village was never destroyed or abandoned since the times immemorial, and our
eyes agree with it. Age-old olive trees cover the hills, confirming the deep
roots of Aboud and providing it with olive oil, its main staple food and
source of livelihood.
Just
outside a village, there were two giant American-built Caterpillar bulldozers
slowly devouring the olive trees. They were huge, covered from every side by
armour plates. They appeared impregnable, like moving fortresses. They towered
above the landscape as the mechanical monsters of Evil Empire attacking Ewocks
in the Star Wars.
The
peasants stood on the heaps of earth blocking the entrance to the village and
looked at the machines destroying their livelihood. They could not walk
towards them, as they were not allowed to leave their village, their prison.
There was a tent, and a few soldiers with a machinegun on the hill above the
entrance, and they were there to keep the people in. Last night, on Sabbath
eve, they opened fire on the villagers who ventured out, and wounded two men.
The rest run back in for safety. Then the army went in, in their jeeps,
driving through the village, met by stones of the kids. The Jewish settlers
and soldiers sprayed windows and roofs with their bullets and drove away,
apparently feeling their Shabbat duty fulfilled.
I
could cross the invisible line, as it was for the Palestinians only. There was
an Israeli officer in a jeep, a wide American Hummer, who oversaw the
devastation. Why do you do it, I asked, don’t you know there is the
cease-fire? Say it to Arik (Sharon), he replied, we are just following orders.
But he, and the other soldiers, and the bulldozer drivers were not despondent
about these orders. These age-old trees meant nothing to them, as the village
and two millennia old Church, and the people meant nothing to them, just
something to be destroyed.
Palestine
never was the deserted land the first Zionists claimed they found at
their arrival. But it surely will become one, unless we stop these machines.
Kids summer camp is mix of East
and West
By Omar Tesdell
AMMAN
— Around 250 youth will attend a third annual summer camp in the village of
Smakieh, run by a collaboration of American and Jordanian volunteers,
organisers said Tuesday.
The
children, aged 4-18, come for a summer camp that is a unique partnership
between a small village near the edge of the Jordanian desert and a church in
the US city of Houston, Texas.
Members
of the First Presbyterian Church come for the month of July to this small
village of about 2,000 residents located 130km south of Amman. The First
Presbyterian Church from which they come is large, with about 4,000 parish
members. The American guests stay in houses rented specifically for the camp.
“You
find that there is a strong friendship developing between the American
volunteers and the youth,” said Rifat Bader, parish priest in Smakieh. Such
a strong friendship has developed that a handful of volunteers this year will
be coming for the third time, said Bader.
“When
a young person from the Middle East makes a connection with a layperson from a
Western country, a cross-cultural exchange occurs, within which there is
always a mutual learning and understanding,” Bader told The Jordan Times.
The
campers participate in a wide range of activities, including songs, dances,
games, discussions, and handicrafts. English language instruction is also a
part of the camp schedule. The camp culminates with a closing ceremony that
draws in people from the surrounding communities.
The
afternoons are spent in discussion between the American volunteers and the
Jordanian campers. According to Bader, the topic of conversation includes
spiritual, economic, and social matters.
The
mutual awareness and respect that characterises the conversations is the first
step towards reaching an understanding between the two cultures of East and
West, said Bader. In addition, inter-faith exchange takes place, as the
volunteers and campers from Smakieh and the nearby communities are both
Christian and Muslim.
“It
is a good initiative to have Muslim and Christian students that live together,
play together, and learn together,” said Bader.
Mary
Floye Federer, a two-time Smakieh volunteer from Houston says, “Even when we
return to our daily lives in Houston, the love of Smakieh and the memories we
shared will continue to impact our lives during that year, and our prayers
will always be for our friends in Smakieh and in the lovely country of
Jordan.”
I left my heart in....
“I
left my heart in Smakieh." This saying has been repeated during the last
two years by members of the First Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas. They
have come to Jordan during the last two summers (in July) in order to share
with the people of Smakieh their 'daily bread' and their efforts for a
better future.
Smakieh
is a small village of 2000 people, and the only all-Christian village in
Jordan. It is located 130 km south of Amman on the edge of the desert region.
The Roman Catholic Church and its school for the Latin Patriarchate form the
heart of the village. Through their dedicated work since 1878, the efforts of
33 consecutive priests have initiated all the public services in the village.
On
the other hand, Houston is a big city in the south of the United States, with
four million people, 'and the First Presbyterian Church is one of the largest
churches there, with approximately 4000 members. How did we come to have such
a partnership between two churches and two people? The answer is in the spirit
who works to renew the 'Face of the Earth'. First of all it is a spiritual
friendship between two Churches, but it is also a good start on the road to
the full unity of the church. As we talk about inter- faith dialogue, we have
the Inter Christian dialogue which is not necessarily a “dogmatic”
dialogue, but a dialogue of charity, friendship and joy... it's a dialogue of
life.
Secondly,
it is a social friendship. When a young person from the Middle East makes a
connection with a layperson from a Western country, a cross- cultural exchange
occurs, within which there is always mutual learning and teaching. Afternoons
in July are a time of group discussions that deal with many subjects
(spiritual, social, economic, and others). These are characterized by mutual
understanding and respect from each side, as they share their opinions.
This
is the first step towards reaching full understanding between the two
civilizations in the West and the East. I know that politics lead to very
different political perceptions by both sides. This is especially true for the
American support for Israel, while neglecting the Arab and the Palestinian
sufferings and dream of a just peace.
On
the ground, and without putting politics on the shelf, you have o listen as
well as talk. Step by step, you find yourself trying to change or influence
Western public opinion that is usually formed by pro-Israeli mass media and
tools of communications. Here, I have to testify that the First Presbyterian
Church has always been close to Arab and Middle Eastern problems: Marilyn
Borst, the former director of the Mission in the Church, and the Executive
Director of Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding, attended last May the
5th Christian Conference in Baghdad, on the topic of 'The Church Against the
Sanctions". Concerning these unjust sanctions, Marilyn said, "We
have created this injustice. We have sustained this injustice. We have the
power to remove this injustice."
Back
to Smakieh, where this July will mark the 3rd consecutive camp attended by
volunteers from the First Presbyterian Church of Houston. They will assist
their brothers and sisters, the volunteers of Smakieh, in running the 5th
annual Summer Camp. Smakieh and the Houston volunteers are working tirelessly
to plan, coordinate and run the summer camp for over 250 children aged 5- 17
years. The children are from Smakieh and the surrounding area, whose children
are Christians and Moslems alike. This is another aspect of the dialogue: the
inter-faith dialogue.
Let's
listen to Mary Floye Federer, the new Director of Mission in the Church:
"As a volunteer from Houston for the second year, Smakieh is my home and
my very dear friends here are truly family. Even with the challenges of our
cultural and language difference, it is evident that the Holy Spirit is
working within our hearts and broadening our minds to new and wonderful ways
of both of our communities. When so many places in this world are divided over
differences, it is a blessing to feel the wonderful sense of unity between the
Presbyterians of Houston and the people of Smakieh. The unique partnership
that has developed in Smakieh helps us to come together as one based on the
binding love of our faith. Even when we return to our daily lives in Houston,
the Love of Smakieh and the memories shared will continue to impact our lives
during the year, and our prayers will always be for our friends in Smakieh and
in the lovely country Jordan."
And
so, these newcomers to Smakieh are not only friends of Smakieh, but also of
Jordan, the biblical country that contains many marvelous historical sites.
Smakieh, a small village on the edge of the desert of Jordan which in June
2000 commemorated the Christian Jordanian Martyrs of
the first centuries, is attracting many people from throughout the world; they
come not only in July, but also throughout the year. I say this as an
encouragement to all my fellow citizens, for them to know their country, and
all its cities and villages more and more.
Father Rifat Bader Parish
priest, Smakieh
rifatb@hotmail com
