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Rev Clarence Musgrave  
and his wife Joan  
were our mission partners. 
They  worked at 
St Andrews Church of Scotland Church 
in Jerusalem before they retired in the summer of 2006.

Sunbula, the shop in St Andrew's Hospice that promotes and sells handcrafts made by Palestinians is now on the web: www.sunbula.org

• No 240
• No 241
• No 242
• No 243
• No 244
• No 245
• No 246
• No 247
• No 248
• No 249

Other Letters:
No 25-30
No 31-36
No 37-41
No 42-48
No 49-60
No 61-69
No 70-79
No 80-89
No 90-100
No 101-109
No 110-119
No 120-129
No 130-139
No 140-149
No 150-159
No 160-169
No 170-179
No 180-189
No 190-199
No 200-209
No 210-219
No 220-229
No 230-239
No 240-249
No 250-259
No 260-270

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Circular Letter No 248 7th January 2006

Listening to the new broadcasts this morning, there are still the regular reports on the condition of Mr. Sharon. Will he survive? Will he die? Will he be incapacitated? What will be the effect on Israeli politics of his illness and his probable inability to return to active political life? What will be the effect on relations between Israel and Palestine and what is euphemistically called “The Peace Process”?

Regardless of what people say and how people assess his contribution to the life of this region, our travels in the past couple of days on the West Bank leave us in no doubt as to the intention of the current political and military leadership of Israel to continue to exercise almost total control over the West Bank, in terms of the ability of the population to move around. More of that later.



Saturday 31st December. Anger perhaps is not the best companion for writing – perhaps indignation would be better. However, there is a deal of anger around, both at what we have seen in the past couple of days, and at the seeming inability of the world community to comprehend what is being done here, and impotence (or desire) to do anything about it.



Some time ago, there was what seemed a ludicrous suggestion from the Government of Israel that the EU, or any other international body, finance the construction of an “Alternative Road System” on the West Bank for the use of Palestinians, so that there would be two sets of roads – one for Israeli Jewish users and the other for Palestinian users. However far-fetched the idea may have seemed, it is in many places a reality.

Today, we drove down the main road from Jerusalem to Hebron. We then turned off on Route 35 to go to Idna. Hardly a vehicle was on the road, - little Jewish traffic as it was Shabbat, and little Palestinian traffic. When we got to Idna, one of the reasons for the lack of Palestinian traffic become clear – the entrance to the village was completely blocked by concrete blocks about 1 metre cubed. That is the main entrance and exit from a “village” of at least 17,000 people If they want to get to Hebron, they have two choices – back roads to the East of the main road, or a back road to the West of the main road. To get to it, they have to come by taxi to the blocked exit of their village, walk across the main road and through similar blocks at the entrance to the village of Tarqumya, and there get a taxi to follow the second-class road to Hebron.



Sunday 1st January. Today, after we had had lunch here in Jerusalem, with folk from the congregation, including Helen Shehadeh, we went to Beit Jala to take her home. As we had a small package to deliver in Beit Sahour, a sort of continuation to the East of Bethlehem, we decided to keep going on that road to get back to Jerusalem. It is a lonely road, down and up the precipitous sides of a Wadi, but with a fair amount of traffic. This is all traffic within the West Bank, travelling from one Palestinian Village to another. To get from any part of that area into Jerusalem, entails going to a checkpoint. However, just to show their control, even on that road the Israeli army has created yet another checkpoint. There are not too many folk like us who pass that way, and so the Border Police were a little bit unsure who we were and what we were doing there. They were also as deficient in English as we were in Hebrew. However, after sitting for a few minutes, we were able to drive on. Eventually, the road came to The Wall – and we drove alongside this 8-metre high monstrosity, on a good paved road put in by the Israeli government, to ease the plight of the Palestinians. We finally came to what had been one of the main roads from East Jerusalem to Jericho – now totally blocked by The Wall. We were within 1 km of the top of the Mount of Olives. Eventually, 13 kms later, having had to make a long detour and pass another checkpoint, we reached it.



Both of us were angry. However, there was one bright moment in the afternoon’s journey. At the Checkpoint in what seemed like the middle of nowhere were two Jewish women standing, keeping watch. They were members of Machsomwatch, an organisation which we know and which we have been glad to help in the past. They were there to monitor the way in which the Israeli soldiers treated the Palestinians as they passed through the Checkpoint. If the concrete bollards and walls are the face of Israeli officialdom, then the two women were the faces of what I understand to be a much more authentic Judaism. Their presence, and the presence of so many other members of Machsomwatch at checkpoints up and down the West Bank, is like a poppy blooming in the rubble of a battle field. We quietly blessed their presence.



Tuesday 3rd January. Perhaps one is over-sensitive to the language that is used on TV news programmes. This morning, at 0830 hours our time, BBC World gave its headlines, among them one about the forthcoming Palestinian Elections, with the comment that “they may be postponed.” There was no explanation given, and an average listener might then have been critical of the Palestinians for even contemplating postponing elections. The fact was that the principal reason for even considering postponement on that occasion was the suggestion by the Israeli Government that it would prevent Palestinians living in East Jerusalem from voting. Certainly to me, the impression given by the headline was detrimental to the Palestinians with not a word about the policy of the Israeli government which is materially affecting the position.



Wednesday 4th January. I have mentioned before the village of Tuwani. This word village can be quite misleading at times. It is used to refer to Idna, where there is a population of over 17,000 people. It is also used to refer to Tuwani, where the population might reach 170 adults.

With the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland I had visited the village, which is south of Hebron, at the beginning of November, and had made an undertaking to go back and talk with some of the leaders of the village. It is a small community, and quite isolated. Less than a kilometre away there is a Settlement, whose inhabitants have been quite aggressive to the villagers.

Today, we went back – 4 of us from the Church of Scotland, 1 Israeli Jewish woman from Machsomwatch, and 1 Israeli Jewish man from Tayyush. The purpose of our visit was to renew our acquaintance with the people of the village, and also to see what practical help we could offer. We were in a position to offer some financial help as we had received a donation with the particular request that it be used to support some project or community in the Hebron area.

We met the woman who is in charge of the Women’s Project, which is perhaps a rather formal name for what is still a relatively informal group of women. They are trying to develop sales of embroidery as a way of helping them find income to bring up their families. Their meeting place also serves as a centre where they can have space for themselves as women, and play a fuller part in the life of the village.

We met a couple of men of the village also, and talked with them about completing the construction of a small area beside the existing room in which the women keep their products, and which is also beside the small building which is used by members of the Christian Peacemakers Team as their living quarters.

We were able to agree to offer some financial help for both the construction of the covered work area, and for the purchasing of materials for the women to embroider.



Having completed that part of our work, I was asked if I would take two men some distance along the road to a checkpoint. Our leaders were the two Israeli Jewish people who had come with us to Tuwani. The reason for having to take the two men to the checkpoint was to try to get back their ID cards from the Israeli soldiers. The story was as follows. The men live in a village on one side of Route 317, which is regarded as “Israel” and is normally closed to Palestinian traffic. They crossed over to Tuwani village, and were on their way home across the road when they were stopped by an Israeli army patrol. Their offence was being in Israel without permits. Their ID cards were taken. The army apparently has the authority to hold their cards for 4 hours for checking. It was night, it was cold, and the men had to go home without their cards. They contacted the person with whom we were visiting Tuwani, and he had already contacted the army. He had made some sort of agreement to go with the men to collect their ID cards from the nearest checkpoint. This we did – but the soldiers on duty said they had no information about the matter. We drove on to the next, main, checkpoint, where once again the soldiers on duty said they had no knowledge of the matter. We had no alternative but to go back to Tuwani, and the men went home.

Even while in our car on the road, as they had no papers, they could have been hassled. Without our presence, they would have been very vulnerable indeed. I do not know how the story eventually ended – probably some time later with the men getting their ID cards back. In the meantime, they were as good as stateless.

Such is the reality of life for ordinary Palestinian folk.



Friday 6th January. We went to Jayyous – again to offer some financial support made possible by donations from people who had visited Jayyous while on the visit for the 75 anniversary of St Andrew’s. We were able to make a contribution towards the cost of getting a Child Care project started. As usually happens, we met Abdullatif and he was our host. At one stage he was quite agitated, as he recounted his story of leaving Nablus the previous day. He had come to the checkpoint; he approached the soldier and asked to be allowed to pass reasonably quickly – he wanted to get home and he had a lot of shopping in preparation for the Muslim feast next week. The soldier started to shout at him, and told him to “go f—k your mother.” Those who have met Abdullatif can well understand how he felt – he said that he barely slept on Thursday night.

Travelling with us that day was a Jewish man from Canada. He sat and talked for a long time with one of the men of the village. In the car on the way back home, he recounted some of his conversation. His own father, a Jewish man from Poland, had escaped from German concentration camps, and had ended up in Siberia working in a commune there. On returning to Poland, he had been advised to get out, and fortunately managed to do so. The Palestinian with whom the Canadian was talking spoke of the 2 months during which he had undergone interrogation in an Israeli prison. His father, an old man, had been so severely interrogated, that he had not long survived the ordeal. It was a moving encounter between two men whose fathers had been persecuted. It was moving to hear the Jewish man speak of his feelings at the way his fellow Jewish people were treating other human beings.



Saturday 7th January. Last journey for the week was to the village of Rantis, which we had visited once before in 2000. Again, it was offering some financial support for the work of the women’s group. We had a walk around the village, and on the way back to the women’s centre, we were looking up at the hill some way beyond the village. It had 30 or 40 houses neatly set on it, with red roofs – a quintessential Settlement. I cannot imagine how people whose land has been taken must feel when they get up each day and see these houses, the symbols of occupation.

Our way home took us past Modi’in, not far from Ben Gurion Airport. Haaretz Tuesday Jan 3rd P1 :”Despite Court order against building in Modi’in Illit neighbourhood, Civil Administration admits “Permits issued to create facts on ground.” ‘The Military Government’s Civil Administration chief planner, Shlomo Moskovitch, admitted the building permits for the next neighbourhood Natiyahu East in Modi’in Illit were issued illegally. The project is being built on land belonging to the Palestinian village of Bil’in.’



Such are the realities of life in a system which Mr Sharon has done much to create.



Stay well. God bless. Joan and Clarence

 

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Circular Letter No 247 30th December 2005

This should have been written last week, in time for Christmas. But sometimes, it is hard to sit down and write about what is really happening, and to try to cope with the realities of the situation here.



Realities like a bus load of members of the Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, who had permits to allow them to visit any part of Israel apart from Eilat. Sandra Olewine, an American Methodist minister working with the Lutheran Church in Bethlehem has recounted the story of the day. “Every year the church council presents small gifts to the children of the congregation. This year we decided, though, to take them on a trip to the north of the country as many of our children had never been there. The day would include a stop at the Jordan River for a time to remember our baptism, a visit and hike at Caesarea Philippi (Banias) to see the headwaters of the Jordan River, a visit to the Mount of Beatitudes, ending the day with a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee and a fish dinner on the shore!” They duly travelled along the Jordan Valley until they reached the new “checkpoint” at the northern end of the West Bank, where people pass into Israel. For the likes of us, with our foreign passports, it presents little difficulty. However, for Sandra and the children, arrival at the checkpoint was the beginning of a shattered dream. Sandra writes: “The young Israeli soldier (on duty at the checkpoint) announced "Palestinians can't use this checkpoint. You have to go back and go another way if you want to go north." 'Another way' would have entailed any where from 2 - 4 hours more driving, basically getting us to the Sea of Galilee not much before our 4 pm boat ride and dinner! Thus began a forty minute negotiation between myself and the soldiers. Using all the typical methods one uses in such circumstances - being nice, being parental, joking, yelling, phone calls to 'higher' authorities, calling on good cheer of the holidays, throwing a tantrum, shaming and reasoning - I tried everything I could think of to convince these young men of the insanity of what they were asking us to do. When one of the soldiers made a wise crack about our children wanting to go to Tiberius to play with explosives, the other two soldiers told him to be quiet as I proceeded to remind him the only ones with explosive devises were he and his colleagues in uniform.

Clearly this had nothing to do with security as they weren't telling us we couldn't go - we just couldn't go through the direct way. At one point I asked the soldier who took the lead in dealing with me, "Do you realize what it is you're exactly telling me? I have one day to take these children to the Sea to play and you're asking me to spend the entire day on the bus. You realize that this has nothing to do with security but is only meant to harass and humiliate people?" His answer, "I know. But, this is the rule. It isn't up to me." I reminded him that such rationale was a slippery slope.



The day proceeded with the bus retracing its steps down the Jordan Valley, abandoning the trip to the Galilee, and instead spending time at the Dead Sea and its environs.



Realities like the Wall and the Checkpoint at Bethlehem. No problem for us to pass through. But what is it saying about us as a human family? As an Israeli State? As a would-be Palestinian State? My experience of the Wall and the checkpoints is comparatively benign, but there was a harrowing article in Haaretz on December 28th Page 5 entitled “It’s not all in the details” by Amira Hass. She wrote about the “humanitarian” checkpoint at Kalandia on the way to Ramallah. If you can find it on the Haaretz website, it would be worth spending a few minutes reading it, and then perhaps writing to the Israeli Embassy in your country to ask about it.



Realities like the young man who has serviced my computer for a couple of years, and who used to live just round the corner. When I needed help recently he said that he was busy and could not come for a day or two. His “business” was unpacking in his new home – in the Settlement of Eleazar south of Bethlehem. He waxed lyrical about the place and the panoramic view from his windows – totally oblivious of the fact that the countryside over which he was looking belonged, among others, to members of our congregation. They have been fighting for a decade to keep possession of their land – now an immigrant from England married to an immigrant from South Africa, is able to enjoy the view which the State of Israel wishes to take from them, people who have been born here.



Realities like the tenders that have been put out for the construction of 228 new homes in Settlements on the West Bank. Although the Road Map stipulates that construction should cease, the interpretation put on this by the Government of Israel is that construction in new settlements should stop, but that construction in existing settlements can continue.



Yet, to go back to Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, we went to Bethlehem as we have done for each of the past 5 years, to share in the welcome given to the Latin Patriarch. The wind was bitterly cold, and despite what was reported on the media, we thought that the crowds were not all that large. One person with whom we chatted said that there had been a threat on the Internet for an attack by a suicide bomber, and so people had stayed away.

However, the people who were there were cheerful and friendly – this was one of “their” days, when they welcomed the Patriarch to their town.

That evening, the rain came, in torrents. I had visions of a very small congregation for the Watchnight Service. How wrong I was – it was the largest congregation in the years that we have been here. As usual, it was overwhelmingly Jewish. Our Christian faith has its roots in the Jewish faith, and so we started there, and worked through some of the prophets to come to the birth of Jesus. Who knows what impact such a service may have – suffice it to say that there was one young man who had come from Haifa to be there, and who greeted me with the request that he be able to light a candle for his girlfriend. We found a candle for him, and he was so happy. The candles on our Advent Wreath were lit by a Jewish man from Toronto, an English man who had last been in the church some 60 years ago when he was serving as a British soldier in Jerusalem, the young Jewish man from Haifa, and Alice Abusharr, who was, I suspect, one of the few people there who had actually been born in Jerusalem.



One of the highlights of the Christmas season for us is to accept Helen Shehadeh’s invitation to Al Shurooq School for the Visually Handicapped in Beit Jala for Christmas lunch, and then to share in the coming of Santa Claus to the school. We had front row seats for his arrival, and the kids sat so patiently while singing their carols. Eventually Santa arrived, more songs were sung, a bit of “dancing”, and then it was gift time. Each child’s name was called out, and most made their way to the front to receive their gift from Santa. Then they went back to their seats, and waited for all the gifts to be handed out before any of them started to open their parcels. In a sighted community, one often speaks of the sparkling eyes of the kids as they receive their gifts. Here, the eyes were, for the most part, sightless, but the faces were shining and full of joy.

As it was Thursday, those children who could go home were also getting ready to leave, and the mother of one of them came in to sit and wait. It was fascinating to watch her involvement in the party, and to wonder what she, a Muslim woman, made of it all. All the parents know that they are sending their children to a school with a definite Christian ethos, and if they objected, they could send their children to the State school in Bethlehem. Yet, they decide to send them to Al Shurooq.

As we watched the joy of the children this week, my mind went back to Ramadan, when there were just a few children in the school who were not able to go home to Gaza. They came down and sat with some of us there, and then they sang for us. “We shall overcome some day” was the song which brought tears to our eyes and lumps to our throats.



Christmas gifts have come from many places – donations to help with “our work”.

There was support for the building project that Al Shurooq is trying to get under way.

There was support for a Child Care facility in Jayyous, to enable women with young children to go to work, - an essential feature of life where work for men may not be available.

There was support for medical treatment for the young boy with the hip deformities.

There was support for further medical treatment for the young girl Sukran whom we were able to help a few years ago.

There was support for Christmas parties for children.

There was support for a family whose house has been virtually surrounded by the Wall, as one approaches Rachel’s Tomb.



Your support went to Christian and Muslim families – sometimes through a Christian person, at other times through a Jewish person.



Our Christmas Card, as was also the case with so many others, expressed a hope for a Happy New Year, of a Good New Year, of a Peaceful New Year. In our Watchnight Service, I asked those present to think about the New Year. How could it be “New” in any sense other than a date being changed, as there were the same people, the same policies, the same conflicts – at least in this part of the world. “Newness” certainly seems a long way away, when there is a suicide bomber at the end of the West Bank, and kidnapping in Gaza; when there is shelling and assassinations; when there are the extensions of the Occupation.

So, maybe we should forget about the New Year bit, because the chance of anything new is remote.



But, does our faith give us the luxury to adopt such an approach? I started by talking about Realities. And let me finish by continuing to talk about Reality. For one of our Scripture readings in the New Year’s Eve service, we will look at the verse in the New Testament : “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.” That is the only Reality which we have to offer – being “Christlike” is the only thing that will bring about a change here, and wherever you are.

May we all have the grace to be more Christ-like in the coming year than we have been in the past.



Thank you all for your cards, your letters, your e-mails this Christmas, and for all your support in the past year, which has meant so much to many folk who live a bit better, because of the work of the “Scottish Church”



Blessings in 2006.

Joan and Clarence


 

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Circular Letter No 246 17th December 2005

I started Letter No 245 by telling of the detour which I had had to make when taking a group of people to Hebron, as what is called “The Tunnels Road” leading from Jerusalem south towards Hebron, by-passing Bethlehem, had been closed.

The internet edition of Haaretz this morning carries a story of co-operation between the security forces of the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli army which foiled an attempt by some Palestinians to place a car loaded with explosive material in one of the tunnels. There were traffic jams and disruption for several hours due to the road being closed. The car was located before it could be placed in the tunnel, and the Israeli army was able to carry out a controlled explosion on it. Had it been detonated in the tunnel, it would have had a very significant effect not only on transport, but also on the Settlers living south of Bethlehem. It would also have given added impetus to the construction of the Wall in that area, to completely close off that part of Beit Jala from access to the main road south the Hebron.



I have consistently maintained over the years that we do not feel in any particular danger here, and so have also consistently encouraged people to come and visit here. In one way, the story above would seem to question my assertion of not feeling at risk. Yet, it also shows a degree of co-operation between Palestinian and Israeli forces which has not always been the case. It shows the degree to which both communities are in a sense inter-dependent, and they need to work with each other.



Such co-operation has not so far extended to granting a blind, 70-year old woman, a permit to travel to join her church in worship on Sunday. Once again this week, Helen Shehadeh’s efforts to renew her permit to come to Jerusalem have failed. While this sort of treatment of someone like Helen is maddening, it is just one more example of an attitude held by some of the soldiers in the Israeli Army. Whether they are following out orders from more senior offices, of whether they are just being obstructionist, it is hard to know.

However, a much more serious matter of life and death was the subject of a report in Haaretz on Thursday Dec 15th, P3. The headline was: “Report ; Separation fence making patients and hospitals suffer.” ‘The section of the West Bank separation fence surrounding Jerusalem seriously impinges on the accessibility and quality of medical services received by tens of thousands of Palestinian East Jerusalem, West Bank, and Gaza residents, according to a report released yesterday by Physicians for Human Rights – Israel. … Since the roadblocks were set up at the entrances to Jerusalem at the end of 2000, and more acutely since the construction of the separation wall in the north and south, the number of sick people who manage to get to the hospitals in the city has greatly decreased. … For instance, M., a 71-year old woman from the Daheisha refugee camp near Bethlehem suffering from kidney problems and diabetes, requires dialysis under a doctor’s supervision three times a week – a service unavailable near her home. However, she said that after she refused to surrender her wanted son to security officials she was banned from entering Jerusalem and has not received necessary medical treatment for several weeks. … “The separation fence causes outrageous injustice,” the Report concluded, adding that preventing people from receiving treatment “will only increase the hatred and violence in our region.”’



Who is right – the fighter on one side who refuses to grant permits for patients to get to medical treatment, or the fighter on the other side who says that it is legitimate to attack a road which he and his people are excluded from using?



For those going into Bethlehem this Christmas, and perhaps for those coming out – depending on the decision of the Israeli army about which hole in the wall they will be able to use – there will be the experience of the new checkpoint. I met with some overseas visitors this week who have been on a visit to The Holy Land. Their itinerary had been arranged for them by a Travel Agent, and they had had a comprehensive tour of the “Holy Sites”. Their last visit had been to Bethlehem. Their Israeli Jewish guide took them to the checkpoint, but as it is illegal for him to enter Bethlehem he had arranged for a Palestinian guide to meet them and take them round Bethlehem. At the end of their visit, they had the experience of going through the metal turnstiles etc. They were appalled, felt degraded, and certainly did not feel that people were being encouraged to visit Bethlehem.

There was an article this week – Haaretz Thursday Dec 15th P5 – entitled “No longer in the way to Efrat” by Meron Benvenisti. ‘In another few days, Bethlehem will once again, for one night, win the world’s attention. Only a few of the hundreds of millions of Christmas celebrants will spend the night in the city of the Nazarene’s birth, but that will be a symbol of the desire for peace that beats in the hearts of all humans, from all religions. The few who do reach Manger Square and take part in the midnight mass will not be able to avoid wondering about their experiences at two opposing places that symbolise Bethlehem in 2005 – the Church of the Nativity and Rachel’s Crossing. The first symbolised the hope that emerged with the birth of the baby, and the second represents alienation, hostility and aggression. ... A lot of architectural advice, engineering, security know-how and especially many dozens of millions of shekels were invested in building this monument to Israeli arbitrariness. The “corrals” – revolving steel doors, electric gates, exposed concrete corridors supervised from above, the X-ray installations – exude horror. “I felt like a cow, it was very threatening, very sterile,” said an American tourist. … A border crossing between Bethlehem and Jerusalem? What perverse geography builds a border between those two twin cities? … Anyone building a wall between himself and the Church of the Nativity sends a message of aversion to the sanctities of Christianity, the traditions of the gentiles. …. The huge walls, the sealed iron doors, the road system, the “crossing’s facilities” and equipment all communicate fear, closures and aggression. Sorely lacking from the group that built the complex was a person with enough sensitivity to the historical and religious background of Bethlehem’s borders, who would have helped prevent the cultural and environmental disaster that was created. But who would even listen to such a person?’



This is rather a long quotation, but I used it for three reasons :

a) it is written by a Jewish writer, speaking with great pain of the actions of his own community;

b) it is describing the realities as they now exist at Bethlehem;

c) when we speak of Bethlehem this Christmas time, we will have the image of this checkpoint very much at the front of our minds.



It has been suggested that some of us may gather at the Jerusalem side of the Wall to sing carols on Christmas Eve – hoping to be joined by others on the Bethlehem side of the Wall, so that together we can at least sing along. When you sing of Bethlehem in your services, or see pictures of Bethlehem on your Christmas Cards, and perhaps on your TV screens, reflect for a moment on the current state of the road to Bethlehem.



Yet …



This week I have been to Tabeetha School in Jaffa twice for the Christmas Presentations by the Primary School pupils.

There were a whole bunch of different thoughts :

a) how secular some of the presentations were, concentrating on Santa Claus and presents etc. (no different from many presentations in Scotland);

b) how little reference was made to the problem of getting to Bethlehem – unlike a Christmas Presentation a couple of years ago by a group of youngsters which had Mary and Joseph having to circumvent a checkpoint!;

c) how proud were the parents of their children taking part in the presentations – with the Muslim mothers and fathers being there with their cameras and taking as many pictures as any other parents;

d) how hard the teachers had worked to prepare the pupils for their presentations – Christian and Jewish teachers working together.

Was it escapism? Of was it a glimpse of what is the “real” Reality – of a human community united in celebrating a religious festival, rather than divided into religious camps?



Yet …



Once again this week, being told by the Jewish friend of the young Muslim boy from near Bethlehem, that he was going with him to the hospital on Sunday, and would likely need some of the money I had promised.



Yet …



Sharing in a service on 16th December for the new group of Ecumenical Accompaniers under the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) – (www.eappi.org) of the World Council of Churches, who have just left their homes to come here and start their new assignment – at a time when most people are trying to get to their homes. The service ended with a veritable forest of small candles placed around the large candle that had been the centrepiece of our Advent Wreath last year – all having taken their light from the candle that symbolised Christ, the Light of the World.



As you light your Christmas candles this year, it might be worth remembering Bethlehem, and its difficulties. But it certainly is also worth remembering the verse from the Prologue of the Gospel according to John – “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” If the darkness did not overcome it then, if it has not overcome it in the centuries since, we can be assured that it will not overcome it in the future.



Thank you all for your greetings – by cards, by e-mails, by letters, by phone calls.

We wish you all happiness at Christmas.



God bless

Joan and Clarence

 

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Circular Letter No 245 10th December 2005

4th December

The group from the Friends of St Andrew’s left Jerusalem early in the morning en route to Hebron. On the outskirts of Jerusalem, the direct road had been closed, and so we had to take a detour to get past the point of closure. This was a bit of an inconvenience, and delayed our arrival in Hebron by about 30 minutes. The closure was on what is known as “The Tunnels” section of the road to Hebron, and had obviously been in place for some time, given the amount of traffic that was being diverted.

As we drove through the town of Halhul, and on in to Hebron, I was aware of much more active Palestinian police presence than normal, and wondered what was afoot.

In Hebron we had a chance once again to walk through the Old City and also to stand on the roof of the building which houses the Christian Peacemaker Team apartment and see the layout of the city. The Old City lies at the bottom of a hollow, and does not cover a large area. However, to get into it from any direction, one has to pass a checkpoint. The effect of this on the commercial life of the area has been dramatic, with many shops closed and few shoppers, and compared with the bustling activity in other parts of Hebron, there is an air of desolation and isolation.

Looking down on it from the roof of the CPT building, the presence of Israeli army encampments is obvious. As are the buildings of Jewish Settlements that have been constructed on the top of already existing Palestinian buildings. Given the fact that it is almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits in much of, for instance, Jerusalem, one wonders how the Settlers managed to get permits to construct their buildings – unless of course they did not get permits and their buildings are illegal. On the rim of the hills around the Old City are the usual Israeli army outposts and observation points. We walked down to the area of the Tomb of the Patriarchs – the tombs of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is a place sacred to both Jew and Muslim, and there are arrangements for one community to enter at one end of the building and the other community to enter at the other end. Inside, they both worship, but separately, and invoke the name of the same God. One wonders what God thinks of it all.

To me, one of the most bizarre aspects of this part of the city, beside the Tomb of the Patriarchs, was the existence on one side of the street of a row of Palestinian shops, while facing them on the other side was a new complex run by Jewish people, with a restaurant, and shops.

Hebron has had a bloody history, and it is hard to see any resolution of the animosities that exist. In this way, it is a microcosm of the situation in the country at large.



From Hebron we drove on to Idna where the group met the women of the Co-operative, and then we went to the home of Naime for lunch. I do not know how you would fare if 26 people were coming to lunch, but it seemed as if it was an everyday occurrence for Naime and her family. We sat on mattresses on the floor round the room, leaning against the walls, and food was brought and set on the floor in front of us. Large plates of rice and chicken were set down, followed by plates of stuffed vine leaves, dishes of chopped tomato and cucumber salad, and bowls of thin yogurt. It was delicious, and very much appreciated. We sat and enjoyed the warmth of hospitality and friendship.



However, in Netanya it had been a different story earlier that morning, when a young man had committed suicide killing 5 people at the same time. From the wasteland of the Old City of Hebron, to the tranquillity of Idna, and the violence of Netanya, it was clear to us which was preferable. What was not at all clear was how to get everyone to the situation where Idna would become the norm. Neither Hebron nor Netanya seemed to offer any prospect of peace. At week’s end, the story of violence continued – Israeli assassinations of those whom they accused of being “militants”, and a Palestinian man fatally stabbing a soldier at the checkpoint at Kalandia, between Jerusalem and Ramallah.



Politics is a strange business.

Haaretz Thursday December 8th P1. Main Headline: “Hanegbi bolts Likud for Kadima” (Hanegbi is a Minister in the present Government of Mr. Sharon. Likud is the party which Mr. Sharon has left to found his new party, called Kadima.) ‘Minister Tzachi Hanegbi announced yesterday that he was leaving the Likud and joining Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s new party, Kadima, and he is expected to immediately participate in a Kadima faction meeting today, alongside Sharon.’

So what, people might say.

Haaretz Thursday December 8th P2. Main Headline: “State Prosecutor orders Hanegbi file expedited.” ‘State Prosecutor Eran Shendar instructed his staff yesterday to deal with the Tzachi Hanegbi file “in the shortest possible time.” Shendar’s order came after police submitted the findings of their investigation of Hanegbi to the State Prosecutor yesterday. The final decision on whether to indict Hanegbi in connection with political appointments at the Environment Ministry will, nevertheless, be made by Shendar and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz. As first published in Haaretz on Monday, police investigators believe they have found enough evidence to indict Hanegbi.’



It was only a few weeks ago that the US Secretary of State prolonged her visit to Jerusalem to take part in negotiations to open the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt. There was much rhetoric about the significance of the agreement, and the parallel agreement that there should be regular convoys of buses and trucks between Gaza and the West Bank. Last week, difficulties emerged about the supervision of the Rafah Crossing, with the Israeli authorities being unhappy at the way in which those whom it regarded as militants were able to enter Gaza. Haaretz Friday December 2nd P3 “Rice envoy to check Rafah crossing”. … ‘Israel complained this week of difficulties in obtaining information from the Palestinians about the people crossing through the Rafah terminal.’

It was almost predictable to read the headline in Haaretz, Thursday December 8th, P1 “Israel halts talks on bus convoys from Gaza to West Bank.” ‘The security-political cabinet has decided to suspend talks with the Palestinian Authority on operating bus convoys between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, despite an agreement made last month in talks brokered by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. … A security official yesterday linked the suspension of the convoy talks to a disagreement over the supervision of the Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border. Israel says the Palestinians are not allowing the border to be monitored effectively, which enables hostile elements to enter Gaza. Officials said that as long as Israel was unable to monitor entry into the Gaza Strip, it cannot allow Palestinians to go through Israel to get from Gaza to the West Bank.’ Even with Gaza totally sealed off from Israel, there is still a desire by the Israeli authorities to control exit and entry from Gaza to Egypt.



A story which has been on the front page of papers here for most of the week reached a climax on Friday. Haaretz, December 9th P1 had the headline “Red Cross finally opens door for MDA” [MDA are the initials of the Israeli organisation Magen David Adom, which is the emergency service within Israel that corresponds to the Red Cross and the Red Crescent in other parts of the world.] ‘A new Red Cross emblem was accepted yesterday at an international conference in Geneva, paving the way for Israel to join the humanitarian organisation after nearly six decades of exclusion. The 192 signatories of the Geneva convention approved the new red crystal emblem in a vote after negotiations failed to resolve an Israeli-Syrian dispute blocking the deal.’ As can be expected, there are different reactions to this decision. From within the Israeli Jewish community, the Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom ‘claimed the vote as a victory for Israeli diplomacy and a demonstration of the “improvement in the international status of Israel.”’ From within the Palestinian community, some see it as another example of the way in which Israel has made the world change to accommodate it.



That well-known Security Threat is at it again. Helen Shehadeh’s permit has expired and she has to apply for a new one. Please can I provide her with a letter. And not only a letter for her, but also for someone on the staff of the School. This will be necessary as it would be impossible for her to pass through the new checkpoint procedures at the Bethlehem checkpoint without someone to guide her. I hope to be able to take a letter to her later today, and then we will just have to await the outcome.



With Joan away visiting Vivienne for a few days, proof reading may not be of the highest quality.



Stay well

God bless.

Joan and Clarence
 

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7 December 2005

Dear one and all,
or long-suffering friends
Joan left this afternoon to see Vivienne and her daughter, and perhaps our son-in-law also, if he is able to get home before she leaves.
She asked me to send you a wee letter!
The latest from the producers of the calendar is that it should be ready between December 15th and 17th.
Assuming that it is 17th, I will take a day's leave, and help Joan to parcel and post calendars.
If we are able to get them away by 18th - despite the fact that it is a Sunday, and I do not like going to the Post Office on a Sunday - they should be in UK in 3 days, in USA in 4 days. Then it is up to local arrangements to get them to you.
For some of the places in Scotland I will try to arrange a sort of central person - Aberdeen, Edinburgh and that sort of thing.

But - so that I have some idea of what to order, knowing that for some at least the time for orders has come and gone, could I ask you to confirm your order.
That way, I will send only to those who still want them.
Sorry to impose this on you when you are all fairly busy.
But I know of no other way to get the information.
Please do not feel at all diffident in saying that you cannot use them, given the fact that they are so late. We will make it known both to the Gallery and to the Sponsors.

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Clarence

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Circular Letter No 244 3rd December 2005

29th November.

The eve of St Andrew’s Day dawned bright, clear and sunny with the temperature around C25 degrees. The party of Friends of St Andrew’s which had arranged to come for the 75th Anniversary Service and Reception for St Andrew’s Jerusalem had arrived safely the previous evening. All the folk in it got into the bus for the trip of a lifetime – their first exposure to the new security arrangements that the Israeli government has put in place for those visiting Bethlehem.

The entrance was comparatively simple. The bus entered the new complex and halted at an automatic barrier. The driver opened his window and handed his ID card to a soldier sitting in an armoured check point “office” The soldier had lowered the bullet-proof window in front of him so that he could receive the ID. When it had been examined, the bus was allowed to proceed. We drove through the narrow gate in the 8-metre high concrete wall, and we were in Bethlehem. What could be easier!

On our return journey, some hours later, we stopped at the gate in the concrete wall, and the bus driver was directed to an area where all his passengers had to leave the bus. We stopped in front of a large yellow notice board written in English – one of three, with the other two being in Hebrew and Arabic. We were advised that we were entering a military area, and give instructions on what to do. We first arrived at two automatic turnstiles, about 2.5 metres high, with red and green lights above them. When the green light came on, a person could pass through the turnstile. That led to a space where there were two metal-detector frames, of the sort normally used in security situations. Having passed through them, we had to wait at the next set of turnstiles, again of the 2.5 metre high variety. Again having been shown a green light, we were able to proceed, one at a time. We then walked down a long concrete ramp, turned 180 degrees and continued down into the main inspection area.

As we approached it there were toilets to one side – used by one member of the group. I think there were without locks, but they did close securely. There was a notice instructing people to keep the area clean. We then had to line up in a crush barrier which allowed us to proceed one at a time to the next 2.5 metre high turnstile, again with green and red lights. For this first time since entering the complex, we were able actually to see someone – a soldier sitting on the other side of the turnstile, in a sort of “office” with what I took to be bullet-proof glass windows. She could speak to us, and we could somehow be heard by her. She activated the turnstile and all of our group except three passed through. The visit to the toilet had delayed them, and so a couple of young Palestinian women had got into the group. The voice from the office issued instructions and they were made to wait while the other three people rejoined the group. Through this turnstile one came to an area where baggage could be checked in an x-ray machine – only one that I saw. Then on to a final document checking turnstile – a more friendly one just about waist height. We showed the outside of our passports to a soldier inside his “office” and he allowed us to pass. We had been allowed to leave Bethlehem and were now able to go to the bus and continue our journey.

For us, it took about 10 minutes, as there were no other people in front of us. What it would be like if two buses arrived at the same time, and if there were some Palestinian people also crossing – it does not bear thinking about.

For the Palestinians, there would have been more document checking, I understand that names and ID numbers are recorded, I did notice ‘examination rooms’ where searches may be carried out. I do not know how long it did take the young women to pass through.

We were passengers on a bus. I do not know what would happen if I arrived at the checkpoint in my car with some passengers – whether they would have to go through the whole process, or if there would be a way in which they would be allowed to continue without having to leave the car. We shall find out ere long.



November 30th.

A headline in Haaretz 30th November, P3. “PA police fire on undercover IDF unit in Bethlehem.” ‘Palestinian policemen opened fire at undercover IDF soldiers during an operation in Bethlehem yesterday. … According to the (Israeli) army’s initial inquiry, the Palestinian police had not been informed about the army operation. Thus, when the soldiers, who were disguised to look like Arabs, came in to arrest a wanted man not far from City Hall, the policemen took them for members of an armed Palestinian gang. They opened fire almost immediately after the soldiers got out of their car. In response, the soldiers fired warning shots into the air until an IDF back-up force that was waiting nearby rushed to the scene and rescued them.’

Obviously some people do not have to go through the checkpoint! It is also an illustration of the way in which the armed forces of Israel regard it as their right to operate anywhere in the West Bank. One shudders to think what would have happened if one of the Israelis had been killed in such an operation.



Is it any wonder that some people are now advising tour groups to go to look-out posts within Israel and “inspect” Bethlehem through binoculars. One wonders how long it will be before there is a replica Crypt somewhere in Israel which will be visited by those who do not want to undergo all this procedure for entering and leaving Bethlehem.



Friday December 2nd

The Inscription on the front of the Chalice reads : “To the Glory of God, for use in Titwood Parish Church [Glasgow], this cup is dedicated by the Reverend W H Rankine (first Minister of the Parish) and by Mrs. Rankine, in humble gratitude to God for the first Communion of Ara, their eldest daughter. 16th April 1905.”

The Inscription on the rear of the Chalice reads : “A Gift from Titwood Church, Glasgow to St Andrew’s Church, Jerusalem, 1934.”

I had taken the single Chalice from the safe in St Andrew’s Church so that I could use it for a Communion Service with the group currently visiting us from the Society of the Friends of St Andrew’s. So, it was used in a service at one of the special worship places situated around the Church of the Beatitudes, overlooking the Sea of Galilee.

Later, in the bus, I read out the inscriptions to those sitting near me. One of the other members of the group, at the rear of the bus, heard the name ‘Rankine’ and asked me afterwards about it. Her name was Rankine. The story unfolded as follows.

Elizabeth (the member of the group) was married to W H Rankine, whose father was Adam Rankine, who was the son of the Rev W H Rankine. Her father, W H Rankine, had been born to Adam Rankine and his wife in what was then Palestine in the early 1920’s. He had in fact gone to school at the Church of Scotland School, Tabeetha, in Jaffa, which we had visited the day before.

Ara Rankine, who first communion was commemorated by the donation of the Chalice, later became a Medical Doctor with the Church of Scotland working in Poona in India for 40 years.

It was at that hospital, some years after Ara had retired, that another member of the group had done her medical elective studies while training to be a doctor.

It is a small world.



Saturday 3rd December.

Our return journey from Tiberias to Jerusalem had been planned so that we could travel to Jayyous, where we were to meet with some representatives of the village, and also have lunch. The visit would give to the members of the group an opportunity to hear about, and see, the effects of the Barrier/Fence on the lives of the people of Jayyous.

We travelled down through Israel, on the new Route 6, at one stage passing by Tulkarm. Tulkarm is completely surrounded by the Wall/Fence/Barrier, with the only entrance/exit being controlled by the Israeli army. However, for the benefit of those travelling on Route 6, the 8-metre high wall is camouflaged by landscaping, so that all that motorists see is the upper 2 metres of the Wall. They can pass by, totally and blissfully unaware of the fact that those living in Tulkarm have no such landscaping to make the Wall seem more benign – they have to live with the reality of its sold concrete face rising 8 metres above them.

We passed through the checkpoint at Qalqilya with no difficulty, and spent a couple of hours in Jayyous. From there we travelled on through the West Bank to Jericho – passing another major new checkpoint under construction at Tappuah Junction. I have referred to this before – a checkpoint 20 kms on the Eastern (Palestinian) side of the Green Line, and half way between the Green Line and the Jordan Valley.

In Jericho, there were more tourists there than I had seen for some considerable time, and this corroborated the statements from travel agents and people in the Tourist Industry, that more visitors are coming.



Coming back up the hill from Jericho, we passed all the signs of Israeli colonisation – the Settlement of Mizpe Jeriho, the road works to expand the road from a two lane road to a four lane road, the settlements around Ma’ale Adumim, and finally the checkpoint into Jerusalem itself.



It is a beautiful land, there are people of great integrity in both major communities, and yet it is hard to escape the feeling of gathering doom as one sees the Wall around such places as Jerusalem, inexorably dividing the two peoples, and also cutting parts of East Jerusalem off from other parts where there are schools hospitals, shops, and all the components for “normal” life. This is being done on land that is not recognised internationally as being part of Israel, but yet it is happening, and the feeling of the Palestinians is that no-one cares, and no-one is doing anything to halt the Israeli steam-roller.





Stay well.

God bless

Joan and Clarence



 

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November 27, 2005

Please forgive me for imposing on you again this week.
I have just no other way to get this information to those few folk who might want it, than to send it to you all! Sorry.

If it excites you to think about coming, then feel welcome to get in touch.

Clarence.


There are times when I can get organised to do things at the drop of a hat. There are other times when I need to be dragged kicking and screaming to get anything done.



This business of the Holy Week tour, for some reason, has been a sort of blockage about taking time to sit down and do the homework. Sorry for that to those who have been waiting, who have written etc.



I have tried to be as accurate as possible in the Table below. There may be some things that are not there – if so, and you have questions, please get back to me asap, and I promise that Joan will reply!



Costs for Tour, based on up to 20 people.

In Tiberias, a child sharing a room with parents would add another $25 per night, and I think it would be much the same in Jerusalem.



Quotation is in dollars – for the simple fact that almost all prices for tourists here are quoted in US$.



Suggested itinerary is :

Saturday 8th April Arrive early morning. This will depend on flights etc. Sleep until lunch time.

Afternoon : Orientation to Jerusalem etc.

Sunday 9th April Morning : Worship in St Andrew’s

Afternoon : Walk to the Mount of Olives, join the procession down the Mount and into the Old City. Back to St Andrew’s.

Monday 10th April Leave for Galilee, via the West Bank. See something of the Wall/Fence

Evening at Tiberias.

Tuesday 11th April “Holy Places” – Capernaum; Feeding of 5,000; Peter’s Primacy (Story at the end of John’s Gospel); Mount of Beatitudes.

Evening at Tiberias

Wednesday 12th April Nazareth – Church of the Annunciation; Nazareth Village, possible visit to EMMS Hospital; Mount Tabor – Mount of Transfiguration, and local church contact

Thursday 13th April Return to Jerusalem

Evening : Attend the Service of Footwashing in St George’s Episcopal Cathedral, followed by walk to Gethsemane area. Back to St Andrew’s via Kidron Valley and St Peter in Gallicantu Church.

Friday 14th April 0600 hours : Pilgrimage on the Via Dolorosa with the Episcopal and Lutheran Churches.

Visits to other churches as possible for Good Friday services.

1500 hours : Walk from St Andrew’s Church to Cenacle, St Peter in Gallicantu, and back to St Andrew’s

1700 hours. Service of Meditation in St Andrew’s

Saturday 15th April Free. Possible visit to Bethlehem.

Sunday 16th April Sunrise Service at St Andrew’s

1000 hours : Easter Communion : St Andrew’s



Free time. Programme can be arranged to meet needs of participants



People leave for UK according to their flights. Bookings anticipate that people would leave some time on Monday.
 

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Circular Letter No 243 28th November 2005

The fragility of the relationships in the world in which we live is well illustrated in the news reports today from Pakistan where churches have been destroyed by groups of Muslim people reacting against what they were told were desecrations of the Koran. Holy books for different religions, holy places for worship, holy God, - what an emotive word is “holy”, and what destruction it can bring about.



Yesterday in our service, I recounted 3 “minor” miracles which had occurred for me in the previous 24 hours.

The first was on Saturday, we took Colin and Carol Morton, - Colin being one of my predecessors as Minister here in Jerusalem, and Carol being the person who started off what has become Sunbula here in Jerusalem, and then started what is Hadeel in Edinburgh (shops which sell of Palestinian Handcrafts) – to Idna, where there is one of the cooperatives supported by Sunbula. Having completed the business transactions, we then went to the home of one of the women who had invited us for lunch. She and her family met us, and her father greeted me like a long-lost brother. There is little verbal communication, but he showed a real sense of friendship and complained that it had been two months since we had last met! We had a delicious meal, after which we were joined by two of his sons and another of his daughters, and our host sat and enjoyed the event.

As I drive into the village, I always make a point of waving to as many people as possible. I also always were my clerical collar. I go quite openly as a Christian, and as a friend. I have never felt anything other than welcome – yet I am also realistic enough to know that some spark could ignite feelings that might prove difficult to control.

Nevertheless – we go, and we go in trust.

The second was on Sunday morning prior to our service. At the Guest House I met a friend who comes from time to time to do some work in the garden. She is Jewish. We greeted each other and then had a chat – about work, about “the situation”, about her new grandchild – just normal things. We were just two ordinary people doing ordinary things – but underneath there is the recognition that for many in this part of the world, such ordinary contact is impossible, separated as they are by walls, be they physical, political, religious or whatever.

The third was during the course of the Service itself. Our preacher was Denis Carlin, a Latin Catholic priest from Paisley. He has been here for some months on a Sabbatical course at Tantur Ecumenical Institute, and has come to worship with us on occasion. What could have been more natural than to invite him to preach prior to his going back to Scotland. And yet, when I growing up in Northern Ireland, viewed from either the Protestant or the Catholic communities, the “other side” was hardly recognised as Christian. He was speaking of Advent – the time of preparation to the birth of Christ. One telling illustration that he used was how we measure the time left to Christmas. Not in how many days for prayer and spiritual preparation, but in how many shopping days there are. He reminded us of the song “Ubi caritas, et amor, Deus ibi est.” – “Where there is love, there is God.”

For me, it said something about the 3 events – with the Muslim family, the Jewish woman, and the Catholic priest. God was there in all of them.



Work has not taken me to Bethlehem this week, but there have been tales from other travellers who have been there – tales of the new “terminal”, “border crossing”, “check point” – it has many names and many guises. One most poignant comment on it came this week from a pastor in Bethlehem. He spoke of Psalm 24. It starts with the affirmation that “The earth is the Lord’s, and all who live in it.” Amen. Then he went on to quote the verses about gates. “Lift up your heads, O Gates, that the King of Glory may come in.” He spoke of the gates which have come down around Bethlehem, of the different vision of those who are “kings” now over the approach and entry to Bethlehem, and of the way in which the King of Glory would have a hard time getting to the city now. In the Church of Scotland, there is a marvellous tune called St George’s Edinburgh, which is used as one of the tunes when singing the metrical version of this Psalm. Perhaps those of you who know the tune and the Psalm will give a moment’s thought to the very different gates that now straddle the road from Jerusalem to Bethlehem.



A phenomenon which I am hearing more about is that of the tourists who are taken by their tour guides to the Israeli Settlement of Har Homa, from which one can look across to Bethlehem. The bus stops at a sort of view-point, and binoculars are shared as people look across at Bethlehem. For some, it is regarded as too dangerous to go there Perhaps the new Check Point contributes to that sense of danger and insecurity.



Travelling around on the West Bank, one is aware of the fact that there are not all that many Palestinian cars on the main roads. This is a visual demonstration of the effect of what has been called “the apartheid road system”, which is an attempt to describe the fact that while there are main roads, most of good quality, they are largely reserved for Jewish people, with Palestinians having to travel on secondary roads, if they exist, or make roads over the hills. This was so very clear to us on Saturday last, when we went to Idna. For the last 10 kms of the journey, on Route 35, which runs from the Green Line towards Hebron, we saw 1 Palestinian car actually moving, and 2 others that had been stopped by an Israeli police patrol. Talking about this with the people in Idna, they said that for years they had not been on the main road. They leave their village, cross the main road on to a secondary road to an adjoining village, and then take an even smaller road to Hebron. When we went with a member of the Christian Peacemaker Team to visit A Towani village, south of Hebron, she was unable to direct us along the “main” roads, as she has always travelled in Palestinian taxis over the hills. She literally did not know the main road!

The election of a person to the office of Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church is carried out by members of what is called The Brotherhood – priests within the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. However, a Patriarch also requires confirmation by three outside bodies – the State of Israel, the State of Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority. Not long after we arrived here, there was an election of a new Patriarch – Ireneos. It is alleged that during his time as Patriarch, property just inside the Jaffa Gate belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church was leased/transferred to Jewish people. There was a huge outcry, as a result of which Ireneos was deposed by the Church. A new election was held, and Theophilos was elected Patriarch. The deposing of Ireneos and the election of Theophilos were both recognised by Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. However, for reasons which I imagine are fairly clear, the Israeli Government refused to recognise the removal of Ireneos, and so have also refused to recognise the election of Theophilos. This week saw the Enthronement of Theophilos – and also a war of words between the Patriarchate and the Israeli government. One of the problems surrounding the issue is that the Greek Orthodox Church, like every other institution, has to operate within the legal and financial framework of the laws of Israel. Its financial operations have been severely limited as a result of this “confrontation”, and it is difficult to survive without being able to pay one’s bills. It will be some time, I am sure, before it will all be resolved, particularly as we are now coming into a period of political uncertainty in Israel, with elections due in a few months.



One of the events of the past week that may have a great deal of symbolism has been the opening of the Rafah Crossing from Gaza into Egypt. Since 1967, every official exit from the West Bank towards Israel, or Jordan, or Egypt, has been controlled by Israeli forces. When people on duty are benign, there may have been few problems. When they are agitated, feeling endangered, or just plain awkward, then life has been extremely difficult for Palestinians trying to leave the West Bank or Gaza. Now, for some, there is an alternative – a route into Egypt. I remember speaking to people in Gaza about the obstacles they had to face in travelling outside Gaza – the possibility the Israeli army imposing road closures within Gaza; the possibility of the Rafah crossing being closed; just the sheer uncertainty of when they might arrive at their destination, regardless of when they set out from home. Then again, when would they be able to get home, having been outside Gaza. Hopefully, things will be easier, but one never knows.



St Andrew’s Day is fast approaching. For those who need reminded of the date, it is November 30th. It was on St Andrew’s Day 1930 that the Church and Hospice of St Andrew’s in Jerusalem was consecrated. So, we will be celebrating 75 years of work and witness this coming week. A group of people from The Friends of St Andrew’s is due to arrive this evening for a visit of a week. It will be good to welcome them, and to have them here to share in the Celebrations. At 1700 hours on Wednesday, we will have our Service of Thanksgiving, and at 1800 hours, we will have our Reception.

In Edinburgh, there will be a Service about the same time as we are having our Service here – I am sure we will say a prayer for each other. Why not join us, wherever you happen to be?



Stay well.

God bless

Joan and Clarence

 

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Circular Letter No 242 November 2005

First of all, welcome. There was no letter last week, as I was pretty fully occupied with the visit of the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to Israel and Palestine.



Secondly, during the week I received an e-mail relating to a review by a panel appointed by the Governors of the BBC of the coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by the BBC.

 

If you have felt over the years, or over the weeks, that there has been some aspect of the coverage of events here offered by the BBC which has troubled you, now is the time to get in touch with the panel. Unfortunately, I understand that the date by which submissions have to be lodged is close – 25th November.



Saturday November 12th

For me, it is one of the most moving experiences of the year here in Jerusalem – the annual Service of Remembrance at Mount Scopus Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery. One of the things that makes it so moving was exemplified this morning when, in the laying of Wreaths the Australian representative was immediately followed by the Turkish Representative. Earlier in the year there had been the ANZAC Day service at the same place, recalling the fearsome conflict between ANZAC and Turkish forces at Gallipoli in 1915. Maybe there is room for some hope for the relationships between Jewish person and Arab person, when the conflict between Israel and Palestine is resolved.



Tuesday November 15th.

An early start got me to Tabeetha in Jaffa for a School Assembly with the Upper Primary classes.

Back at Beit Jala, I attended part of a meeting of the leaders of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. (EAPPI). At the meeting, one of the EAPPI people announced that the new Checkpoint buildings between Jerusalem and Bethlehem had been brought into operation. Now, like other places, pedestrians have to go through all sorts of turnstiles and gates. More on this later, when I have had a chance to experience it for myself.



Wednesday November 16th

There is a saying in English about Justice not only being done, but being seen to be done.

The thought came to mind when reading the paper this morning.



Haaretz Wednesday 16th November P1. “PM’s son convicted of election campaign violations.” ‘Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s son Omri, a Likud Member of the Knesset, is apparently planning to use new campaign finance regulations in an attempt to minimize his sentence for charges relating to the funding of his father’s 1999 primaries (for leadership of the Likud party) campaign.’ Omri Sharon raised NIS 6 million for the campaign of his father, though at the time the legal limit for such a campaign was NIS 800,000. However, there are changes to the regulations before the Knesset which would raise the limit to NIS 3 million. Should this be accepted, it would mean that when sentencing takes place (it has been postponed for two to three months to allow Defence attorneys prepare their submission) the new limit could be in place. …’The penal code allows a court to let off a defendant if at the time of sentencing, the offence is no longer considered a crime. This is true even if the defendant has pleaded guilty.’ Justice being seen to be done, and while this is happening the Prime Minister continues to maintain that he was not involved in this aspect of his election campaign.



Haaretz Wednesday 16th November P1.

“IDF captain acquitted of ‘confirming kill’ of 13 year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza.” The story relates to an event in Rafah when a school girl was killed by Israeli army soldiers. ‘The incident received widespread media attention after Captain R was suspected of ‘”confirming the kill” and shooting the girl multiple times after she had already been hit by IDF gunfire and was lying on the ground. … In their acquittal yesterday the judges at the Southern Command’s military court harshly criticised the manner in which the investigation was conducted by the Military Police, as well as the media’s coverage of the affair, … Attorney Leah Tsemel, who represented the family of the girl, said she wasn’t surprise by the court’s ruling. “It has been proved once again that the blood of a Palestinian, even if she was young and small, doesn’t count for much,” she said.’



Haaretz Wednesday 16th November P3.

“Supreme Court releases man accused of assault on Gaza teen.” ‘The Supreme Court accepted an appeal yesterday calling for the release from prison of Shimshon Sitrin, who allegedly led the attempted lynching of Palestinian teen Hilal Majaida in Gaza in June. Majaida was attacked by a gang of settler youths prior to Israel’s pullout from the Gaza Strip. Israel Defence Forces soldiers came to Majaida’ s rescue, but he was nevertheless wounded and hospitalized in Khan Younis. … Judge Edmund Levi decided to release Sitrin to house arrest – with restrictions on his movements – after concluding that Sitrin understood the error of his ways. … “As the youth (Majaida) lay wounded, the defendant (Sitrin) walked by, saw him and the kneeling soldier who was trying to protect him, and decided to hurt the youth. He picked up a stone, jumped on a wall and threw the stone strongly at the youth’s head in order to kill him,” stated the indictment against (Sitrin) him.’

The question that comes to my mind is would the same decision have been taken had it been a Palestinian accused of throwing a stone at the head of a Jewish youth.



Friday 18th November.

The sky was mostly clear, the air felt crisp, the leaves that remained on the vines on the hillsides as we drove south past Bethlehem were a mixture of yellowy green, golden and crimson. It should have been an opportunity to be thankful for being in such a beautiful part of the world. Sadly, it was not.

The southern entrance to Bethlehem from the direction of Hebron has been blocked now for over 4 years. That has not meant that nothing has been happening there. A new road has been driven into the hills, a road to the northern end of the Settlement of Efrat. So, for one group of people who live there, on other people’s lands, there is a new road. For another group of people living there, there is a continued blockade.

What made it worse this morning was seeing a group of “caravans” installed on the hillside above that road junction. This is the classic way in which a Settlement is commenced. A hill top is taken over, temporary homes are put on it, people move in, and they are provided with water, electricity, road access, and protection by the Israeli army. For the people around Bethlehem, withdrawal from Gaza has only meant increased confiscation of their lands.



Further down the road, at what had been a fairly small road junction a few years ago but now boasts a huge roundabout and the end of a 4-land divided highway, there was a checkpoint. As I cannot stress enough, for us such a checkpoint is a relatively minor irritation. For the Palestinian driver of a car just in front of us, and his passengers, it was a place beyond which they were not allowed to pass. Moving from one part of their country to another this morning was impossible – at least on a good road. They would go back, and if they really needed to make their journey, they would go on a back road, perhaps a dirt road over the hills.



We had an appointment to meet people from a village and bring their handcrafts to Jerusalem for a Bazaar on Sunday. We sat and waited at the entrance to the road that leads to their village. Beside it there is an Israeli army “pill-box” – a sort of watch tower - and the road was narrowed down to just one lane of traffic, with the “pill-box” on one side and a coil of razor wire on the other. Along came an Israeli army Humvee. It passed through the narrow opening, turned round in the road, and came back. It parked in the neck of the narrow opening, preventing any other vehicle from passing. When the soldiers had finished transferring some food to their colleagues in the pill-box, the Humvee moved off. By this time there were two lines of traffic unable to pass in either direction. It was a totally unnecessary occurrence, but just served to demonstrate who was in control, and their utter lack of concern for the effects of what they did on any other people.



Further down the road, there is an entrance to the town of Halhul. It is narrow, and it is under scrutiny from a pill-box on the other side of the road. Recently, there has been a “mobile”check point on the main road, in addition to the one of the road into Halhul, again presenting Palestinians with yet another hurdle on a journey in this part of the country. Today, construction work was taking place, though for what we could not be sure. The surface of the road has been gouged out with parallel lines, to make drivers slow down approaching this area of new construction.



Turning on to the road from Idna, we were briefly held up behind an Israeli army vehicle. As we were waiting to move, we could hear the sound of small arms fire from a nearby firing range which is a practice area for Israeli Jewish people. Ordinary people carrying hand guns is a fairly common sight – and I suppose that if you carry a gun, why not practice on how to use it?



In Idna, when we had completed the business which we had to do for Sunbula and for individuals, we were offered a cup of tea. The 3 women who were there had prepared some home baking, and we sat around and enjoyed just the sheer pleasure of being there. How different the women seem in the eyes of the Israeli soldiers who have the responsibility of granting, or withholding, permits to travel from Idna to Jerusalem. Application had been made for some of the members of the Idna Cooperative to travel to Jerusalem on Sunday to sell their handcrafts at the Sunbula Bazaar. The application was refused, presumably on security grounds.



In local politics, the week has seen the election of Mr. Peretz to lead the Labour Party and the acceptance by Mr Sharon that there will be early elections in 2006. I suppose that all this will mean very little movement in things to do with Palestine.



Good News. Thanks to those who responded to the message that I sent earlier in the week. I have had sufficient donations promised to be able to tell Helen Shehadeh to go ahead and arrange for the transplanting of the Olive Trees at the site of her new school Many thanks to all who offered help.



Stay well. God bless

Joan and Clarence



 

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14 November 2006

AS I am sure many of your know, Al Shurooq school is the one which is run by Helen Shehadeh.
She has been able to get sponsorship to draw up plans for a new school to be built on land which she has managed to buy.
In order not to lose a year in the process, assuming that some time in the next year a grant will be received to build the school, Helen has decided to start on preparing the site, by moving some of the olive trees.

The cost is as below;



Very Old Roman Olive Trees to be Uprooted and Replanted





To prepare the land at the building site for the construction of an adapted and permanent premises for The National Society for the Visually Handicapped, which will include a resource centre and a school for blind and visually impaired Palestinian children, 8 (eight) very old Roman olive trees have to be uprooted.



The Olive trees will be replanted at the same site in a different location, away from the building itself. They will become part of the beautiful landscape again.



Reallocating the trees will take two working days and will have to be done around the end of January.

 

The total is about 60 pounds sterling per tree, or approx $100.

If anyone feels they would like to help in this matter, they could contact Doris at Al Shurooq - e-mail is nsvh@P-OL.COM

or get in touch with me.


Clarence

 

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Circular Letter No 241 5th November 2005

“Where was the world when the Holocaust was happening in Germany” is one of the questions that is often posed by leaders of the Israeli Jewish Community. It is one that is echoed by the Palestinian community as it faces the inexorable spread of the Jewish communities on the West Bank, and with them the increasing impossibility of there being any form of viable Palestinian State. “Where was the world when the colonisation of our land was taking place?”



The world is condemning, and quite rightly so, the remarks of the President of Iran that “Israel should be wiped off the map.” [One interesting comment on that point of view was made by an Israeli Arab politician, pointing out that were this to happen, over 1 million Palestinians would disappear. Perhaps this was not taken into account by the Iranian President.] But while attention is focused on what to do about Iran, the Israeli Government and Army is wasting no time in pushing on with its goal of dominating the West Bank.



The headline in Haaretz October 30th P1: “New Checkpoint to sever W. Bank south of Nablus” may not mean an awful lot to folk who have not been on the West Bank, but to those of us who have had the chance to travel there, it is just one more piece of the master-plan that Mr. Sharon is working hard to put in place. ‘The Israel Defence Force has been constructing a major new checkpoint south of Nablus, at the Zaatara (Tappuah) junction, for checking Palestinian cars arriving from the northern and western parts of the West Bank. The checkpoint was decided upon by the IDF Central Command nine months ago, according to military sources. It will have 10 lanes; six for south-bound (Palestinian) vehicles; one non-check lane for Israeli (settler) cars; one lane for vehicles designated “humanitarian” and two lanes for northbound vehicles. … Nablus Governor Mahmoud Alloul told Haaretz last week that, based on the experience of the past few years, Israel will gradually treat the Zaatara checkpoint as “an international crossing” which is ostensibly situated between Israeli and Palestinian territory. … A diplomatic source who has been monitoring restrictions on mobility in the West Bank sees the new checkpoint as part of the big picture of creating three separate blocs in the West Bank, through Israeli control over and expansion of roads running east-west, and by expanding construction in area settlements. In this way, the new checkpoint fits in with the ever-growing Trans-Samaria highway and with a series of road blocks cutting off secondary roads exiting from the villages east of Zaatara junction.’ The site of the Checkpoint is almost midway between the Green Line, which is the internationally recognised Eastern Border of Israel, and the Jordan Valley. This puts the proposed Israeli “International Crossing” firmly in the centre of Palestine.



I apologise for this rather long, and perhaps detailed, quotation. However, it seems to me that in the long run this is probably of more significance than anything that the President of Iran has said. What is being talked about here is the steady erosion of Palestinian land; of ability for Palestinian people to move about; and of an increasingly difficult situation in which to develop any sort of economy.

As I mentioned at the end of last week’s letter, when it took a woman coming to a meeting of Sunbula Handcrafts organisation 5 different taxis to cover a 40 kms journey from the Hebron area to the outskirts of Bethlehem, travelling on poorly paved roads, or on dirt tracks across this hills, you may get some idea of the growing difficulty for people to move about.

When I was sitting with a family in the Bethlehem area at the weekend, they were speaking of the Olive Harvest. It is much poorer this year than last, but that was not their complaint. This year they had no permit to go from where they live to their home village in the north of the West Bank, and so were not able to go to harvest such olives as there were on the trees. They feel culturally deprived in not being able to share in this fundamental part of their history and heritage; they feel economically deprived in not being able to benefit from even a small harvest. And they see no end in sight for this process.

To get out of Ramallah recently, Joan had to sit in a single line of traffic for over 45 minutes to get to the Checkpoint – all the more galling as she and everybody else knew that within a kilometre, Settlers were driving freely on the main West Bank Road, - through the middle of Palestinian land.



Was it entirely co-incidental that the Old Testament reading for today was from Micah Chapter 3. Here are verses 9 – 12: “Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob and chiefs of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert all equity, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong! Its rulers give judgement for a bribe, its priests teach for a price, its prophets give oracles for money; yet they lean upon the Lord and say “Surely the Lord is with us! No harm shall come upon us.’ Therefore because of you Zion shall be ploughed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.” These were words spoken by a Jewish prophet about his own Jewish people and his Jewish country. It is the case that within a generation of his “ministry” Sennacherib did come down like a wolf on the fold, and Israel, the northern of the two kingdoms (Israel and Judah) was conquered. It would be a tragedy if the policies of the present rulers of the State of Israel were to bring about the same result for today’s state. Who needs the words of the President of Iran, when within the Jewish Scriptures are words of such trenchant criticism and judgement?



Say something often enough, and the world will believe it. For the last few years of his life, Mr. Arafat was a non-person as far as many countries of the world were concerned. Israel said time and time again, when he was alive, that it had no partner for peace. Now the same refrain is being used again – Mr. Abbas is so weak that Israel has no partner for peace. Therefore no negotiations. No road map. No nothing. As Mr. Mofaz, the Minister of Defence, said last week: “We have to wait for the next generation of Palestinian leaders.” Part of the trouble with that is that many of them are in Israeli prisons, and are not likely to be all that amenable to the vision that Mr. Mofaz and Mr. Sharon would set before them.



The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is currently visiting Israel and Palestine. His programme has included visits so far to the two Chief Rabbis of Israel, and to the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Armenian Patriarch as well as a day spent in Bethlehem meeting people there.



On Thursday afternoon he was present at a special meeting to mark the award to Rabbi David Rosen of the Mount Zion Award for Interreligious Understanding, for his contribution to Jewish-Christian reconciliation, understanding and cooperation. The presentation took place in the presence of His Eminence Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with Jewry. There was the usual speech of commendation of the work of the recipient of the Award, and then Rabbi Rosen had an opportunity to reply. He is a gifted speaker, and his response yesterday was both eloquent and passionate. The whole ceremony was set in the context of the 40th Anniversary of the Roman Catholic Document “Nostra Aetate” – in which the Roman Catholic Church acknowledged that it had been wrong over the centuries to attribute the crucifixion of Christ to the whole of the Jewish people, and with that open the way for their persecution. Rabbi Rosen spoke of this as being one of the great turning points in history, certainly for the Jewish people and for their relations with the Roman Catholic Church.

Towards the end of his speech, in which he emphasised one of the names or titles of God as being the “Merciful God” he used a phrase which in the context I found startling. Speaking of the Compassion of God, he said “a person who is not compassionate cannot be a Child of Abraham.”



We all recognise that what we profess in our faith is not what we always practise in our every day existence. Yet, as I reflected on that phrase from Rabbi Rosen’s speech, there came to my mind an e-mail that I received earlier this week. It came from B’Tselem, the Jewish Human Rights organisation that monitors human rights violations on the West Bank and in Gaza.

“Soldiers force Palestinians to undress in public.” ‘On 6 September 2005, IDF soldiers stopped a Palestinian taxi near 'Araba, in the Jenin District, and ordered the driver and its adult, male passengers to undress in public. The soldiers detained the Palestinians for more than four hours, with the men who had been forced to undress wrapped only in nylon sheets. The incident began about 1:00 P.M., when soldiers ordered the taxi driver to stop on the side of the road, get out of the car, and take off his clothes. Jasser Ibrahim, one of the passengers in the taxi, told B'Tselem: "He tried to convince the soldier not to make him take off his underpants, but the soldier threatened him and said on the megaphone, 'We are going to shoot you.' The driver took off his underpants, and the soldier ordered him to go over to them. The soldier ordered him to turn around all the time, even though he was naked and did not have a weapon on him. When the driver reached the soldiers, they gave him a white plastic robe and ordered him to sit down." After that, the soldiers ordered the other passengers, one after the other, to get out and undress. After four hours, five of the Palestinians were released, and three were kept for further detention.

B'Tselem has not yet received the IDF Spokesperson's response to the incident.’



Friday 4th November.

The morning started with the drive down to Hebron from Jerusalem. Direct access to Hebron is limited – we travelled through the adjoining town of Halhul. Having met with our friends who are living there at the moment – members of the Christian Peacemakers Team (CPT) – we went on a most dispiriting walk through the Old City of Hebron. In better times its narrow streets would be quaint and attractive. Now, to enter the Old City from any direction one has to pass checkpoints. At one, the young Ethiopian soldier called out to us that it was dangerous to go in there – the CPT member told him that they in fact lived there – much to his surprise! Palestinians find it difficult to get building permits – Israeli Jewish settlers have moved in to the upper floors of Palestinian buildings and then added more floors. Some of them have solved the problem of what to do with their rubbish – what was done in the Middle Ages in Europe – they throw it out of their windows on to the Palestinian folk below! In some places wire mesh “ceilings” catch it and it lies and rots. Commercial activity is low, so the whole place had a desperate air. Yet, somehow people manage to live and so far, to survive.



Next call was to a village called A Towani, some distance from Hebron. It is close to a particularly aggressive Settlement – Ma’on. It is a very old village, with traditional houses. The worst incident that the villagers spoke of was when the local Settlers polluted their well by throwing in dead and rotting chickens. CPT folk are stationed there to provide some sort of accompaniment for children coming to the school that has been built in the village. It was in this area that Settlers attacked the CPT people while they were escorting children to school, and one had an arm broken. Yet, in the middle of this tension, we were provided with lunch – the women had seen many folk coming to visit them and bringing their own lunch. So they now make lunch for visitors for a charge – a good way to get some income for the village – and we were more than happy to pay them. There was dignity in the people, even in the middle of their deprivation.



The drive back to Jerusalem was about 50 kms. Just to make sure none of the villagers would be able to get there, the Israeli army has 3 check points. We drove on a tarred road. For Palestinians to get to the village, they have to do on dirt roads over the hillsides. Reaching Jerusalem, it was as if we were on a different planet.



I wonder what would happen if the Cardinal and the Rabbi were invited to visit there. Would they accept?



Stay well. God bless. Joan and Clarence.
 

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Circular Letter No 240 30th October 2005

Wednesday 26th October.

“When the holidays are over” is a phrase that one has heard time and again here in the past month, referring to the season of Jewish festivals that started with Rosh Hashanah (New Year) on 4th October, continued with Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) on October 13th, and concluded with the week-long celebration of Sukkot (The Feast of Tabernacles), which came to an end on October 25th. Now that “the holidays are over” theoretically life gets back to some semblance of routine, with Government offices open for business. That will mean that the matter of Visas for the teachers at Tabeetha, the Church of Scotland School at Jaffa, may finally get resolved. It may also mean that we will get some of the final details for the forthcoming visit to this part of the world of the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. He and his wife are due to arrive early Monday morning for 2 weeks, which has taken quite a bit of time to arrange, and will consume most of my time while they are here.



For us, perhaps holidays will begin in December, after the 75th Anniversary celebrations of the Consecration of St Andrew’s Church here in Jerusalem.



One of the facts of life here is the almost total control of the Israeli army over the West Bank. “Almost total” as folk are still for the most part free to move about within their villages, and to and from their farms, provided their land is on the eastern side of the Barrier./Fence/Wall. One of the ways in which this control is exercised is to limit traffic that travels on certain roads. At the beginning of the week, private Palestinian traffic was still banned from travelling on most main roads. Palestinian minibuses and taxis could still travel on them, though as usual passengers needed to have permits to travel about at all. On Monday afternoon, which was still during the Jewish Festival of Sukkot, Joan and I travelled to Tiberias on what is called “the Jordan Valley Road.” This is the road that runs parallel to the Jordan River, and is totally within the West Bank. Over a distance of 77 kms, we met 174 vehicles with the yellow number plates of cars registered in Israel. Such cars would be driven by people who are legally entitled to register them in Israel : Israeli citizens, be they Jewish or Arab; people holding Israeli ID cards, such as Arab people resident in East Jerusalem when it was occupied by Israel in 1967; expatriates such as Joan and myself. We met 8 vehicles with Palestinian registration plates. We also met 1 Israeli police vehicle, 1 Israeli army vehicle, and 1 diplomatic vehicle. That is just over 4% of vehicles were Palestinian on what is a main road in the West Bank.



Thursday 27th October.

There is what has all the appearance of a dance of death taking place here. Some of it is more likely to have been reported across the world – the suicide bomber at Hadera yesterday afternoon. Other parts of it may have passed more or less unnoticed – the assassination by the Israeli army of Luay Sa’adi on Monday, or the killing of other people as I mentioned in last week’s letter. More reprisals, more closures, more entrenched attitudes on both sides about what the other side wants to do, and so it goes on.



How to find a way out of the impasse that has been reached requires some outside encouragement. Having withdrawn from Gaza, Israel then more or less closed the borders to any movement of people, and made the movements of goods into Gaza more time consuming. It may be a chink of light in an otherwise very gloomy picture, but there has been an agreement reached, according to the paper today – Haaretz Thursday 27th Oct P1 “Israel to allow traffic through Rafah” – whereby people will be able to move in and out of Gaza to Egypt via the Rafah crossing point. Several aspects of this event seem significant:

Israel has accepted a proposal from the Egyptian government. It is not the first such agreement, but it is an important one.

‘According to the agreement, the Rafah terminal will operate under joint Palestinian-Egyptian management, with European inspectors monitoring all entrants. The involvement of a third party is meant to make it difficult for terrorists to cross the border. In addition, Israel will monitor those entering the Gaza Strip using surveillance cameras. “We discussed the issues of a third party in the Rafah passage. We have to continue this discussion and to reach an agreement about who the third party will be and what will be its mission” [the Israeli Defence Minister Mr.] Mofaz told a press conference.’ As so often, it is said there is an agreement, but then the Israeli side puts down qualifications that still have to be worked out. If there is final acceptance of a third party being involved in monitoring movements through the Border Post, this will be important. If it works at Rafah, may it be tried elsewhere? This is perhaps an ambition of the Palestinians. It is also a fear of the Israelis, that there might be pressure put on them to employ “third parties” elsewhere. Before we get too excited about the possible opening of the Rafah crossing, it is salutary to note the words of Mr. Mofaz who ‘promised the Egyptians that the terminal would be open in about a month.’ If, in British political life, “a week is a long time in politics”, as the late Mr Harold Wilson said, a month is a long time here and gives ample time for conditions to change.



As if local problems were not enough, there is the statement made by the new President of Iran that Israel should be wiped off the map. There are those on both sides of the conflict here who will seize his words as justification for their actions – Arab people to continue and increase their armed conflict with Israel – Israeli people to increase their military actions against Arab organisations and even perhaps against Iran. As is only too clear, the intervention has helped to raise the political and security temperature all over the world.



We drove to Idna this morning. Just to get out of Jerusalem entailed sitting in a line at a mobile check point for 15 minutes. Then, at a couple of places on the road, there were new checkpoints – evidence of the new policy of the Israeli army to restrict travel for Palestinians. The road into Idna was closed with concrete blocks, so we had to take a dirt road through the fields. [One of the women there had made a trip to Bethlehem earlier in the week. She had to change taxis 4 times, to move from one closed off area to the next – and it is less than about 40 kms.] For us, there was merely some inconvenience; for others, virtual imprisonment. However, in the Co-operative Centre, there were many young women who had come to bring back embroidery, and to collect new work for the coming week. They depend on folk like you to buy their goods – and all told that morning they were paid NIS 9,000 – over £1,000 or $2,000. For many families this is about their only source of income. This is income to be given out among the 40 women who are workers if the Co-operative. In response to a question that someone put, we were told that there was little malnutrition in the village – people were poor and did not have many creature comforts, but they were able to eat.

Your “consumption” enables them to have some dignity, and some food.



Friday 28th October.

I remember some months ago sitting at the Palestinian end of the passage that leads from Gaza to the Israeli checkpoint at Erez. Birds hopped about, people sat and read books, the sun shone, but not too strongly. It was an unremarkable scene, except for one thing – the incessant background noise of the unmanned Israeli spy drones circling high over Gaza city. No matter what one did, there was this reminder of a force and power that was controlling not only what happened outside Gaza, but to a certain extent what happened inside Gaza.

The thoughts came back to my mind as I listened to a young woman tell of 24 hours that she had recently spent in Gaza. She had felt terrorized, and what was perhaps worse, hopeless.

On the one hand, there was a certain lack of security within the Palestinian society itself. There have been, and quite likely there will be, kidnappings. Would she have been a target? She did not feel all that secure. Then there was the increasing feelings against Israel – understandable when you are cooped up and unable to get out, for instance for medical treatment.

On the other hand, she and some friends were having a late afternoon chat in a garden, waiting for the end of the day when the Muslims would be able to break their fast. Conversation was about family, friends, work, school etc. Then there was an enormous bang. She was petrified. The children who were playing were so frightened, that one of them actually wet himself. The cause of the bang – and Israeli Air Force plane breaking the sound barrier and setting up a sonic boom over Gaza City. The breaking of the sound barrier did not occur during hostilities between planes of two air forces. It occurred in peaceful skies, and one asks what was the motive. Terrorising people? Demonstrating their powerlessness?



Where could she find hope? What good were her small efforts doing to help people, when both Palestinians and Israeli Jewish people seemed intent on continuing their armed conflict?

She spoke of visiting a club in Jabalya Camp in Gaza after the Israeli army had occupied the camp for some days. It was this camp where the Israeli Air Force killed 7 people this week. What had been a place of hope for the local youngsters had become a scene of devastation – every football had been cut open and made useless; sports equipment had been broken; doors had been smashed; the sign of the Star of David had been spray painted on most walls; and in total degradation of the place, soldiers had defecated in every room. How could she prevent the youngsters with whom she came in contact from feeling a deep sense, not only of shame and lack of self-esteem at being unable to defend such a place as a sports centre, but also a deepening sense of hatred of all things Israeli?

She also spoke of meeting with people in Israel, following the bombing in Hadera this week, and her total inability to influence the discussions she had heard in which the Palestinians were depicted as being no more than animals.



As you enter Bethlehem, you have to pass through a gap in the 8-metre high concrete wall. There is a gate, which the Israeli army can close at any time – they did so this morning, to make sure that people would not get to Jerusalem to go to Prayers on the last Friday of Ramadan. As I was leaving Bethlehem this evening, I was stopped by 4 aggressive, young Israeli soldiers. My Passport was checked, and I was allowed to proceed. 300 metres up the road was the “real” checkpoint, and again my passport was checked. In case anyone was in any doubt, it was a way of reinforcing that control is in the hands of the Israeli army.

[A headline in the on-line version of Haaretz spoke of stun grenades being used by Israeli forces at a check point to the North of Jerusalem, to prevent Muslim people getting through the check point to go to Prayers.]



Saturday 29th October

Sunbula held its Annual General Meeting today. The Idna representative left home at 0730 hours, took 5 taxis, and arrived in the area of Bethlehem over 2 hours later, a journey of some 40 kms. What would you expect to feel about the people who are occupying your land, closing your roads, and making it so difficult for you to travel about, if you were in her shoes?



Stay well. God bless

Joan and Clarence