EYEWITNESS  FROM  BETHLEHEM

ARTICLES & REFLECTIONS WRITTEN BY TOINE VAN TEEFFELEN

Statement about the recent events in Palestine

in particular in the Beit Jala and Bethlehem area

This last week the people of Beit Jala, Aida camp and the Bethlehem area at large lived a tremendously difficult period. Like in other directly occupied places in the West Bank (parts of Hebron) and Gaza (areas of Rafah), the invasion and physical occupation of half of the Beit Jala area brought back the worst nightmares of war. A high-tech invasion involving tanks and Apache helicopters overpowered people in the middle of the night. Soldiers took over houses using them to fire at Palestinian targets; families were treated with disrespect; churches and mosques occupied; properties damaged or stolen; food shortages not met; inhabitants not allowed to leave their houses. At any moment, people were afraid what would happen next. Normal life was put to a complete halt. In the larger area of Bethlehem, civilians were not able to go to their work while schools and other educational institutions, just opened for the new school year, remained closed as well. A main question Palestinians kept asking themselves was: How can such gross and indiscriminate violence be justified as retaliation for the sporadic shooting incidents against Gilo, a Jerusalem suburb built in the 1970s upon Beit Jala lands and an illegal settlement according to international agreements?

After our Institute reopened we conducted discussions among our staff, volunteers, youth groups and board members. Besides the relief we felt that the Israeli army had withdrawn from Beit Jala, the participants also expressed their frustration that another invaded area in Rafah in the Gaza Strip remained occupied by the Israeli army. Also, Israeli tanks are still surrounding Beit Jala and Aida camp from three directions (Har Gilo on the west, Bir Ona on the north, and Al-Khader on the south), and seem poised to invade the area once again.

We reached the following conclusions:

1. A primary challenge for the Palestinians in general, and the Bethlehem area in particular, is to stay on the land despite the impossible conditions created by Israel. While some local inhabitants voiced despair, we also heard many persons around us saying that the Israeli “pressure war” against the Palestinians only reinforced their own determination not to leave the country. It remains a major task of an educational institute like ours to instill among Palestinian youth and educators love for their country. From the outside world we ask help to protect our people, properties and lands, and to improve the economic situation which is now so bad that many Palestinian youth are considering to leave.
2. In explaining the reason for the withdrawal from Beit Jala, Israeli spokespersons this week emphasized that Beit Jala is a “Christian town.” Besides the fact that the town is in fact religiously mixed (Islamic-Christian), and that the neighboring Aida camp and its surroundings are predominantly Moslem, we totally reject the suggestion that Christian Palestinians are somehow politically different from Moslem Palestinians. It has been a traditional weapon of occupiers here and elsewhere to impose artificial political divisions on a conquered population.Moreover, as put by one participant, “bullets and mortars do not distinguish between Moslems and Christians.”AEI stresses the need for Palestinian national unity while maintaining respect for cultural and religious differences, and for the basic human freedom of individual expression.
3. The central fact of Palestinian life in the West Bank, East-Jerusalem and Gaza is occupation. The Oslo process may have brought some limited areas of Palestinian administration in the West Bank and Gaza, this development cannot take away the main issue that Palestine is presently one large prison, with road blockades everywhere; an economic siege; settlements and settlement expansion; the ongoing demolition of houses, properties and trees; water restrictions, and Israeli-dominated border controls. The recent assassination of political and military leaders has decisively changed the popular mood among Palestinians. That mood can be briefly summarized in the following manner: If the international community does not intervene and grant the Palestinians their internationally recognized national rights, security and need for protection, there is no room for condemning Palestinian “violence” - as if the violence of an occupation can be put on the same par as the violence of those who resist occupation and want to maintain their human dignity. As an institute with an educational mission we see it as our task to redefine and broaden the scope of resistance and develop alternative forms especially through the word and the pen (computer), bringing out human stories of life under occupation.

Arab Educational Institute

September 1, 2001

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