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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 130
• No 131
• No 132
• No 133
• No 134
• No 135
• No 136
• No 137
• No 138
• No 139

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

Partnership in Conflict

Circular Letter No 139
19th August 2003

Delayed due to a computer fault! – and maybe the Muse is losing its voice.

Sunday evening, 10th August.

It is intriguing to see those who make their way to the doors of the "Scottish Church" and the "Scottish Guest House." Today, 35 people shared in the morning service, when the preacher was a United Methodist minister from Sacramento, who has been coming to Jerusalem over a period of almost 20 years with different groups from his congregations, most recently a couple of years ago when they shared in a work-camp in the Bethlehem area. He had lunch with us, before going off to a meeting in Tel Aviv. He was followed by a group of 4 young Italian people who had been given my name as someone who might be able to conjure up a way for them to visit Rafah, in Gaza, with which their town in Italy is twinned. We will see what happens to this. (The got in for 2 days) After them came a group based in Glasgow who are doing a theatre workshop in the Bethlehem area, and with them a young Palestinian woman. After a cold drink, they, and 2 Scottish women who are also doing a workshop in the Bethlehem area, piled into the car and I took them back to Bethlehem – an easier form of transport than getting taxis etc. While it may be quite feasible to make such contacts from an apartment outside the Church and Guest House, being here certainly has facilitated this aspect of our work.


Monday morning, 11th August.

If you have made a "pilgrimage" to the Holy Land, it is probable that you will have visited Mount Tabor, which has been regarded by many as the site of the Transfiguration since at least 348. However, it was already a significant site long before that, as in 1125 BC the forces of the king of Hazor, led by Sisera, were defeated there by Deborah and Barak, as told in Judges chapters 4 – 5. Nevertheless, for most who come to visit Mount Tabor now, it is a "spiritual" place associated with the Transfiguration, rather than a "military" place associated with battles. In his guide book ‘The Holy Land’ Father Jerome Murphy-O’Connor gives the name in two forms, in English as Mount Tabor, and in a transliteration of Hebrew as Har Tavor.

The reason for this diversion into history is a story in Ha’aretz on Monday 11th August (P.3) "IDF phasing out Uzi and M-16 in favour of Tavor Assault rifle. The IDF is phasing out its world-famous Uzi sub-machinegun and U.S. supplied M-16 assault rifle with a new flagship firearm. The design of the Tavor is based largely on lessons learned during military operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip against a 34-month old Palestinian uprising. .. Security forces said deals were under way to sell the weapon, retailing at $1,000, to "friendly foreign clients". Named after a mountain where biblical Israelites did battle, the Tavor is compact …. " One wonders what sort of transfiguration the new Tavor will bring.

On a recent visit to Qumran, I picked up a Map. It was marked "Welcome to Israel – With Compliment – Qumran Group." This group sells Natural Sea Beauty toiletries. Although the Legend for the map indicated the markings of a "Cease Fire Line" none in fact was marked on the map, which made no reference at all to the Occupied Territories, or West Bank. I wrote a note questioning this, and received the following reply :

"Dear Rev. Musgrave, Thank you for taking it upon yourself to try and resolve the question of the missing "Cease-fire" line. Unfortunately the map is a contribution to our leaflet as a complimentary gift to travellers in Israel, each company giving details of its own attractions. I suggest that you take the inquiry to the appropriate authority, or publisher of the map as we are unable to give you a proper answer. Hope you are successful in your quest. Eyal Shoam, General Manager, Qumran Visitors’ Centre." If my memory serves me correctly, Qumran is in what is called "the Occupied Territories" by many Israelis, and I think that the Qumran Group is an Israeli Group. What would happen if an English group, trading in Scotland, were to issue a Map covering Great Britain, without any reference to Scotland or Wales, calling it all "England"?

Tuesday lunch time.

A plea from a friend who is active in the Committee against House Demolitions saw me at the Jerusalem Court House, to be a "body" at a court hearing concerning a House Demolition Order served by the Municipality on a family living in Beit Hanina, on the northern side of Jerusalem. More of that next week, when I have had a chance to go to see the family concerned and get some of their story to share with you.

Wednesday.

Spent some time on sorting out photographs of former ministers and some significant events in the life of St Andrew’s Church. The reason for this is that the Church has been re-wired, cleaned and the ceiling has been repainted. At long last, the new lamps have come, and we are approaching the end of this particular saga. Along with this, there has been the necessity to move the Minister’s office from the British Consulate building into the Vestry, as the Consulate will move to a new site when its lease has expired. So, the rogues gallery in the Vestry needed some attention. Some of the photographs are in a faded state, and so needed to be enhanced.

Thursday.

We headed for Ramallah. Joan was going to a friend’s house for her Art Group. I had work to do visiting a couple of Handcraft organisations. Also had a visit to make to a church member living in Ramallah, who does not find it easy to get to a service at 1000 hours on a Sunday morning. Then there was a visit to the picture framer to try to sort out frames for the Vestry photos.

At the Pastoral Care Society, it was interesting to see the steady flow of women coming with their completed embroidery, who received the few shekels that they earned for it, and then got their supplies for the coming week. It is not a huge amount of money, but it will make some difference to their family income, and perhaps a greater difference to their own sense of dignity and of worth.

While there, we heard that the Road Block between Ramallah and Bir Zeit which had been removed with such a fanfare about 10 days ago, had been reimposed that morning. Students attempting to go to Bir Zeit to attend the summer school classes at the University were told by the soldiers that they could go to Bir Zeit, but that they would be unable to return to Ramallah later in the day.

The road that we take to Ramallah passes alongside the edge of the Settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev on the northern side of Jerusalem. Like all Settlements it is on Palestinian land, and like many of them preparations are still going ahead to expand it. One of the most dispiriting and depressing features of driving in the vicinity of Settlements is the growing number of hoardings along the verge of the road advertising new houses for sale in each particular Settlement. North, South, and East of Jerusalem, it is the same story.

Friday saw the start of 2 weeks of Services of Prayers for Peace in Jerusalem. As in previous years they are held in different churches, with each church organising the bulk of the service, with a Litany at the end which is for use each evening. Sadly, it seems as if there are fewer people attending these services this year than when I last shared in them in 2001. Sadly also, the attendance at them illustrates the divide within the Christian community – there have been no representatives of those churches which are associated with what we might loosely call the "Messianic Jewish" community. Sadly also, there are no representatives of the Jewish community or the Muslim community. Nevertheless, the Litany is worth sharing.

Leader Heavenly Father, we praise and glorify you. You are our only refuge in a troubled world.

People We praise and glorify you, Lord.

We thank you for the birth of your Son, Jesus Christ, in Bethlehem; his refuge in Egypt; his childhood in Nazareth and his ministry in this land.

P. Father, we thank you.

We thank you for his death on the Cross in Jerusalem, where he carried our sin and suffering, and for his glorious Resurrection in which he gave us new life with him.

P. Father, we thank you.

So, Lord we come before you with all our troubles and pains.

P. Lord, have mercy on us.

We pray for all the victims of bloodshed and violence as well as for the perpetrators of these evils.

P. Lord, have mercy on us.

We pray for the children and young people that you may given them hope for the future.

P. Lord, have mercy on us.

We pray for all bereaved families; the un-employed and all who seek to help them.

P. Lord, have mercy on us.

We ask the guidance of your Holy Spirit for all the leaders of this land, that they may be inspired wo work for Your Peace with Your Justice.

P. Lord. have mercy on us.

All : Gracious Father, your love know no limits. Fill our hearts with your compassion; open our eyes to your presence in the world; enlarge our minds to understand your will. Take our hands and minister through them. Speak through our words and direct our feet in the path of peace, that Christ may be revealed in us and the world may believe. Amen.

Services are held at 1800 hours each evening. Please feel free to join us in spirit, if not in body, whenever you can.

Saturday.

We were invited for lunch to Husan village, close to Bethlehem, by the family of the little girl Shukran who suffers from Aperts Syndrome. Living less than 10 miles from the village, we did not know that it had been under curfew for 10 days from 4th – 14th August. This was imposed by the Israeli army following a shooting some miles away. A feature of such curfews about which we have been told before, and again at Husan, is that Israeli forces drive round the villages in the middle of the night, with loud speakers blaring, and in Husan, with a young woman singing lewd songs in Hebrew and isulting the people. It is frightening to think that the only exposure that young children in such a village have to Israeli people is seeing and hearing the soldiers abusing them.

After lunch we had a walk in the country beside the village : there is a beautiful wadi, with a perennial water supply from underground water sources, cultivated by the villagers of 2 villages. Despite being in the West Bank and being owned by Palestinians, plans are afoot by the Israeli authorities to build yet another Settler road through it. If that is done, Husan will be surrounded by Settler roads, and in theory people will not be able to move out of the village in any direction. What sort of hope is there for the village, and for a child like Shukran?

Snippet : Sunday 17th August P2 Ha’aretz. IDF sets up army posts in PA-ruled Hebron. About 50 dunums of land has been expropriated by the Israeli army in areas of Hebron designated as Palestinian controlled, to build two squad-sized army posts. The IDF told the families whose land in involved, that they could submit "retroactive objections" to the army construction.

(Joan says 1 dunam = 2.5 acres)

Joan and Clarence
 

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Circular Letter No 138
9th August 2003

Part of the Road Map, we have been told, is that Israel shall halt new buildings in Settlements. Scepticism about this was strengthened last week with the announcement of a tender being issued for the construction of 22 new housing units in a Settlement in Gaza. ( International Herald Tribune Saturday-Sunday August 2-3, P 3. Israel drew a Palestinian outcry on Thursday with its approval of 22 new homes in the Neveh Dekalim settlement in the Gaza Strip, one of about 150 Settlements across the Palestinian territories. The international community views Jewish settlements on occupied land as illegal. Israel disputes this.) An interesting glimpse into the Israeli interpretation of the ban on new building is contained in IHT on Monday 4th August, P 4. "The second task force created at the Bush-Sharon meeting, U S officials said, was on the future of Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank and Gaza. Under the peace plan presented to both sides this year, known as the road map, Israel is supposed to "freeze " all "settlement activity" in the first phase. Israel and the United States disagree on the meaning of those phrases, however. Israel defines the freeze as a pledge to refrain from constructing housing except within the boundaries of existing settlements. Washington regards such a definition as containing loopholes, in part because some settlement boundaries extend into vacant areas that could be used for new settlements."

Another part of the implementation of the Road Map is "the release of prisoners." The word "prisoner" covers different categories of people, but for many overseas the assumption that these people have been charged with a particular offence, tried in a Court of Law, sentenced, and are now serving their sentences. A Press Release of 4 August 2003, B’Tselem, the Jewish Human Rights Organisation, starts "Distinguish between the Prisoner Release and Releasing Administrative Detainees". It goes on :"Among the Palestinian prisoners slated for release are 161 administrative detainees. Altogether, as of July 1, 2003, Israel holds a total of 785 Palestinians in administrative detention. Orders for administrative detention are issued by a military commander. The individual is neither indicted nor tried. Administrative detainees are not even told the reason for their detention. Israel’s extensive and disproportionate use of administrative detention is illegal. Therefore, while Israel has the right to determine which prisoners will be released as part of a political process, it cannot continue to hold hundreds of Palestinians in administrative detention. B’Tselem calls on the government of Israel to release immediately all the administrative detainees, or, in those cases in which Israel has evidence against detainees, to bring them for a fair trial.

The question of numbers is a highly charged one : Ha’aretz (August 5th P 1) gives the following figures concerning the release of prisoners. 344 names were published by the Israeli Prison authorities. Of these 183 were in prison for "security offences". From this figure, 10 were due to be released in the next 10 days having come to the end of their sentences; 31 were due to be released later in August, and 128 were due to complete their sentences before the end of the year.

There were 161 administrative detainees, which Ha’aretz states is 25% of those held as detainees by Israeli authorities.

When Mr Sharon appeared before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee this week, he was quoted as saying "It is possible to say that we have not given anything to the Palestinians." Despite this, leaving this meeting, Mr Sharon was confronted by relatives of people who had been killed during attacks by Palestinians. A woman who lost her daughter and son-in-law in an attack 7 years ago, and who has a son in the Israeli army at present, is quoted as saying "I have a son in the army. The soldiers risked their lives to capture terrorists. How can they now be set free? This shows contempt for the soldiers’ lives, and the lives of those soldiers who will have to capture them again."

Needless to say, the view from the other community is quite different, with Mr Arafat expressing dissatisfaction at the release of prisoners. "They (the Israeli government) say they are going to release 400 and then they turn round and arrest 800. What is this? Is this deception? Are they deceiving the nations?" (Haaretz P1 5th August.)

[It takes me back to meeting a woman from Northern Ireland whose husband had been murdered on their doorstep during the conflict with the IRA, and listening to how she had had to cope with both her own personal bereavement and a sort of bereavement for the society in which she had been brought up, with all the changes that she saw in the country around her. As it was not easy for her, so it is not easy for folk here.]

For whom is the Temple Mount more sacred? The Jewish people, as the site of the First and Second Temples, and perhaps the site where the Third Temple will be built? The Muslim people, as the site of the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock Mosque? Suffice it to say that feelings run very deep, and the spark that started the present Intifada came from a visit to the Temple Mount by Mr Sharon. A Jewish organisation, the Temple Mount Faithful, have asked police to allow them to hold a symbolic ceremony to lay a corner-stone for the rebuilding of the Temple on 7th August, which is Tisha B’Av, the day of mourning for the destruction of the First and Second Temples. The group wants not only to place the stone close to the Temple Mount, but also to hold prayers on the Temple Mount. Their request was refused by the Police, and so this year Tisha B’Av will be marked by "mourning over a Jewish Government that allowed Palestinians to take over the Temple Mount." (For folk from Northern Ireland, there are shades of Drumcree and who can, or cannot, march and where they can commemorate their history.) Despite their efforts, the MKs were not allowed to visit the Temple Mount.

Good News!! Sponsored by the European Union, there is a project involving the National Society for the Visually Handicapped, which is the parent organisation of Al Shurooq School (Helen Shehadeh’s school), and the Israel National Association of Parents of Visually Impaired Children. The project will involve shared activities here, and shared visits to Europe. 8 children from the two organisations will be sharing in this 2-year scheme. Details of how contact can be made, activities shared etc, still require working out, but certainly at Al Shurooq there is a great sense of excitement. Now we have to see if permits can be obtained to permit Al Shurooq people to come to Jerusalem for meetings.

Good News!! Last week I was able to take delivery of more Angels from Bethlehem, enabling me to complete the final shipment of angels to those who had ordered them. Over 500 have made their way from here, in addition to those that Joan and I brought earlier in the year when we were in Scotland. Thanks to all who have supported this.

Good News!! – which should never have had to be reported at all. The Israeli Government had been withholding payments to the Palestinian Authorities of taxes which it had collected on its behalf – Sales Tax, Customs Duty and Value Added Tax. Shortly after the outbreak of the Intifada, Israel unilaterally decided to withhold payment of these taxes, on the ground that they could be used to purchase arms and ammunition. Despite international pressure to stop the practice and to pay the money, it is only in the last 4 months that payments have taken place. NIS 2 billion was being withheld from the PA. NIS 1.15 billion was in fact paid, and the balance used to pay sums which courts in Israel had adjudged were owed by the PA to Israeli firms. It is said that the money collected will now be paid monthly on an agreed date.

Good News! – albeit of a mundane and parochial kind. Those who have visited St Andrew’s in the past couple of years have been unable to have an uninterrupted view of the Old City due to the crane that has been in use on the construction site in front of the Guest House. This week, the crane was dismantled, and now we are able to look out at the walls of the Old City without having to look through or around a crane. Good news for some is often bad news for others. In this case it was bad news for the family of pigeons who had made their home on the crane – having got up with the sun and gone about their business, by mid-morning, they came back to find their home gone.

Thursday evening.

We were invited to a meal to meet a visiting minister from from Sacramento, California. Supper was timed for 1930 hours – but one of the guests was delayed on his way back to Jerusalem from a visit to Gaza, so we were a bit late in starting our meal. Checkpoints delayed him. At the other end of the evening, one of the guests had to leave fairly early – to make it through the checkpoint into Bethlehem, where she lives. It is not hard to understand the feelings of anger at having to live under such conditions; the feelings of impotence at having to live with the effects of an Occupation which has gone on since 1967, the effects of which are so pervasive; the feelings of disillusion with the rest of the world which allows this to happen.

One of the topics of conversation – much of which was about "the Situation" here – was the incredulity with which we watch from here what is unfolding in Iraq. The road blocks, the searching of people by making them face a wall and put their hands above their heads, the night-time raids and people being taken away, handcuffed with the same plastic handcuffs as are used here, some with blindfolds over their eyes and others with hoods over their heads. We have seen this regularly here in the West Bank, and protest about it. Now we are seeing it as standard practice in Iraq. One of the things that I was least prepared for was the assertion by the visitor from California that none of these pictures had been shown on US television news programmes, and so people literally did not know what was going on.

Friday.

IDNA time again. We talk a bit about the economics of life and the work of the Co-operative. We were shown a new iron which they had bought to improve the finish on their products. Cost in Hebron was NIS 550 (and they thought this was reasonable). At the current exchange rate that is $125 or ₤78. The women are making Coasters which sell at $3 (NIS 13). Materials, threads, cost of labour for cutting materials, for embroidery, for sewing, cost of rent of premises, of electricity, of phone, and of administration for the Co-operative – all this means that the profit level is exceedingly low. Yet, when their goods are shipped overseas and costs there are added, they become quite an expensive item. To pay for the iron, they will have to sell 300 coasters!

Talking with one of the women who come regularly to meet us, we find out that her husband, who had had a job in a local Settlement for which he earned something like NIS 4,000 for 6 months’ work (approx $900 or ₤570), is now unemployed. They have 9 children, the youngest being 2 years. The one regular source of income that they have is the small amount that she gets for being the Treasurer of the Co-operative, and for any of the handwork that she does. There is a thought-provoking chapter in the book ‘The Dignity of Difference’ by Jonathan Sacks entitled Compassion : The idea of Tzedakah. Tzedakah, he says, carries within it the meaning of "‘social justice’, meaning that no one should be without the basic requirements of existence, and that those who have more than they need just share some of that surplus with those who have less." (P 114) How do we work that out in the situation of Idna? By the time they get to the markets, their goods are expensive, yet their costs are high. Orders for Christmas gifts will be gladly received. If we could get orders for 300 coasters, that would pay for the iron!

Saturday.

This is a fallow day for newspapers here, so we have to read the Internet. It also delays by 24 hours discussion of the Israeli raid into Nablus which killed a couple of Palestinians. ON the Internet, the question is asked about the timing of such a raid, and its implications for the Road Map. No doubt much will be said on both sides, and both sides will feel they are right. What price the Road Map now?


God bless.

Joan and Clarence

"The Church will host an evening of fine dining, superb entertainment, and gracious hostility."

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If any folk would like the text of this e-mail, with the requests for letter-writing by Rabbis for Human Rights, you could ask me to send it to you, or alternatively write to info@rhr.israel.net where you will get all the necessary information. When writing, mention the Church of Scotland.

Circular Letter No 136
26th July 2003


I mentioned a week or two ago a report which said that some 320,000 people from Russia had come to Israel, who were not in fact classified as Jewish. (Letter No 133.) The following intriguing short report appeared in Ha’aretz (July 17th Page 10):

8,000 non-Jewish soldiers registered. Immigrant soldiers registered as non-Jews number 8,000, the army’s chief medical office, Brigadier Elazar Stern, told the Knesset Immigration Committee yesterday. Stern said, "a warning light went on in my head when I was asked to supply hundreds of New Testaments for the IDF swearing in ceremony." IDF Chief Rabbi Brigadier Yisrael Weiss said 100 soldiers, 90% of them women, were converted this year.

A letter in the paper on Thursday 24th July, comes at the situation from a different perspective. "Members of the Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption and the Diaspora have just received a back-ground paper dealing with conversions to Judaism in Israel. The report specifically relates to the religious status of the 300,000 non-Jews who came here from the Former Soviet Union during the 1990s. It points out in passing that some 80% of immigrants from the FSU who made aliyah during the past three years are, halakhically speaking, not Jewish. These findings are particularly disturbing, because they show that the vast majority of these Israeli citizens have not converted to Judaism and have no intention of doing so under current circumstances."

I said that I would try to put down some of the privileges accorded to those who have immigrated to Israel, and to whom citizenship has been granted, by way of comparison with the situation of those who were born in Jerusalem and who have what is called "Jerusalem ID status." These are people who lived in East Jerusalem, under Jordanian control, until 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. For the sake of the context, let us imagine that the "Immigrant" is one of the 300,000 Russian people referred to who have been allowed to settle in Israel, but who are not Jewish, recalling that the State of Israel was to be a place to which Jewish people might come.

Immigrant: Given Israeli citizenship and passport

Jerusalemite: Given a Jerusalem Identity Card (JID). On ID Card, space for "Nationality" is marked "Unidentified" – they are not Israelis, nor West Bank people, nor Jordanians. What are they?

Immigrant: Marriage – can claim citizenship for spouse

Jerusalemite: If spouse is from Jerusalem, already has a JID. If spouse is from West Bank (e.g. Bethlehem) has to apply for JID. I know of a couple married for years where the wife still has not got JID. Has to make annual application.

Immigrant: Children qualify for Israeli citizenship

Jerusalemite: Children qualify for JID status, if both parents. have JID status. If both parents do not have JID status, then may not be possible to have an ID card at all.

Immigrant: Eligible to be called up to serve in Israeli Defence Forces

Jerusalemite: Not eligible for service in IDF

Immigrant: Therefore, can obtain grants available to former soldiers

Jerusalemite: No grants available

Immigrant: Pays taxes of Government and able to get Government benefits.

Jerusalemite: Pays taxes to government and able to get Government benefits. Yet, in E Jerusalem, Rates (Arnona) is levied according to the classification of the area in which people live. On one road, a Jewish area is classified as C, while further along the same road an Arab area is classified as A – and A is a higher Arnona rate.

Immigrant: Assuming that place of residence is Jerusalem, it most likely will be West Jerusalem. In West Jerusalem there are 1085 gardens or public spaces for an average use of 477 people per park.

Jerusalemite: Will most likely live in East Jerusalem, where there are 30 gardens or public spaces for an average use of 7,362 people per park.

Immigrant: Assistance e.g unemployment – given almost immediately. Sign on at Government office at first, then do not have to sign on again for months

Jerusalemite: Unemployment assistance – have to wait for some months, To be able to prove that are unemployed, have to sign on at Government office daily for 3 months – then may get Benefit..

Immigrant: Government Offices. Service in West Jerusalem, easier access to offices,

Jerusalemite: Government Offices. Service in East Jerusalem. People sometimes have to queue through the night to get a ticket to see an officer. Only One Ministry of Interior Office for East Jerusalem and the close-by villages – 300,000 people.

Immigrant: Airport. Normal procedure is not to be stopped for Inspection.

Jerusalemite: Normal procedure is to be stopped at the entrance to the Airport, documents checked, and car often checked also.

Immigrant: Eligible to vote in national and local elections

Jerusalemite: Eligible to vote only in Jerusalem elections.

Immigrant: Can travel anywhere on Israeli passport, and only needs Visa for some countries.

Jerusalemite: Has to get a Laissez Passer from Israeli Government to travel abroad. Needs a Visa for every country to which travel is intended.

Immigrant: Can leave the country and return as and when wishes – can stay away for years, and come back regardless of time out of country.

Jerusalemite: If leaves the country for more than 7 years, loses right of Residence. If goes abroad for study, must make sure to return to keep Residence status. I have heard of a student completing a 4-year course and being told at the airport that he had lost his right to come back and live in his home.


When is a fence not a fence? Amira Hass wrote as follows : (Wednesday 16th July Ha’aretz Page 5)

Israelis still use the convenient and misleading term "fence" to describe the system of fortifications that is currently being erected on Palestinian lands in the West Bank.. Even "wall", the term more commonly used in foreign-language reports, is insufficient to describe what is really being built at this very moment. – A concrete wall 8 metres high, wire fences and electronic sensors, ditches 4 metres deep on either side, a dirt path to reveal footprints, an area in which which entry is forbidden, a two-lane road for army patrols, and watchtowers and firing posts every 200 metres along the entire length. These are the components of the "fence".


Monday 21st July. The day did not begin auspiciously. When someone saw the visitors coming up the stairs to the apartment, he realised that he had forgotten his wedding anniversary. His wife had not, and there was a card on his desk! As he had forgotten, he had invited people for lunch and for supper.

It was "Work" visitors who had been invited for lunch. They were from the Presbyterian Church of the USA and were due to arrive in Jerusalem in mid-morning from Amman. They had been invited along to lunch at 1230 hours so that we could talk a bit about the work of both our churches in and around Jerusalem. They finally arrived about 1500 hours, having spent 4 hours waiting for the Israeli authorities at the Allenby Bridge between Jordan and Israel to return their passports and allow them to proceed. One of them joked that the sooner Israel becomes the 51st State of the Union, the better. Then travel will be easier. He went on to say that if Palestine were to be made the 52nd State of the Union, all our problems here would end!


Friday 25th July.

Our regular trip to Idna started about 0900 hours. Leaving Jerusalem, there was a queue at Tantur, with the road partially blocked by the police. It did not take long to negotiate that. We noticed that at the same place on the way in, there were two separate checkpoints – Friday being the Muslim Prayer Day, there is always a greater air of tension than on other days.

We decided to take the road past Hebron to get to Idna, shortening the journey both in time and distance. There were 3 major checkpoints to be passed,. but only at one were we asked for Passports. The roads were virtually empty – one reason being that there is not much Jewish traffic on Fridays, being the first day of the weekend – and a second reason being that very few Palestinian people get permits to travel on these roads.

We had a good time at Idna – they now have a FAX machine, and so I had been able to send them an order earlier in the morning. When we arrived, much of it was already on the table for us to check. They were happy, as the total orders they hae received in the past week or so comes to about $2,000. (Commercial! – I am sure that Carol Morton at Hadeel in Shandwick Place, Edinburgh will help with Handcrafts should you wish them for a Christmas bazaar etc. You could also try Mailorder from Sunbula, or write to us.)

Lunch was with the English teacher who has been employed to help the women improve their English. She got married a few weeks ago, and this was the first time that we had been able to go to her new home. Her husband is in one of the Palestinian police forces, and is reasonably fluent in English, while Nadia teaches English. So communication was quite easy. He graduated some years ago from the University in Nablus, then spent a couple of years at a Poice Training School in Jericho, before being posted to Hebron. It was interesting to hear some of the details of trying to be a policeman while under occupation by the Israeli army. For us, the drive from Idna to Hebron was 12 kms or so up the main road. For him to get to work takes up to an hour, and double the distance, as he has to take taxis on "Palestinian" roads. The fare used to be NIS 2, now it is NIS 4.50. His part of the police forces has no office in Hebron – the Israeli army occupied, or damaged, or destroyed them – so he has to be a sort of wandering officer. Pay is NIS 2,200 per month (NIS 4.4 = $1 or NIS 7.1 = £1)

On Mr Arafat and Abu Mazen, his observation of the general view is that people trust Mr Arafat not to agree to anything that is detrimental to the Palestinians. Few people trust Abu Mazen. Many feel that the present "ceasefire" is unlikely to hold for more than a year or so, unless there is major progress on the creation of a Palestinian state.

Saturday 26th July.

One of the regular items of news in the past has been the way in which soldiers of the Israeli army have shot at vehicles that they say have not stopped at checkpoints. Two such incidents this week resulted in Palestinians being killed. On Tuesday a man was killed in the Taibeh area for failing to stop at a checkpoint. On Thursday a Bedouin man was shot and killed in Southern Israel for failing to stop at a checkpoint. Then on the Internet Ha’aretz site this morning (Saturday) there is the following item : The Israel Defense Force said its soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian boy and wounded his two sisters in the northern West Bank on Friday, when a machine gun atop an armored personnel carrier accidentally fired at a passing car. … The IDF said that there was nothing suspicious about the behavior of the driver of the car, and that it appeared the shooting was the result of a malfunction with the machine gun. The military expressed regret for the shooting and said the two injured children were being treated in an Israeli hospital. "Due to an operational mistake, a volley was fired by the forces. As a result of the firing, a Palestinian child was killed and two Palestinian girls were wounded," an army spokesman said. He said the army had opened an inquiry With this sort of happening, it is not difficult to see why so many Palestinians have so little hope for the future of the Road Map.


Stay well.

Joan and Clarence
 

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Circular Letter No 135
18th July 2003


As if on cue following Letter No 134, came a front page report in Ha’aretz for Sunday 13th July.

“Dizzying growth seen in Haredi Betar Ilit on West Bank. Town between Gush Etzion and Jerusalem serves as affordable refuge for large families.” The journalist writes : Betar Ilit, situated between Gush Etzion and Jerusalem, is a full-fledged settlement whose dizzying rate of growth is unparalleled elsewhere in Israel. The numbers speak for themselves. In 1996, Betar Ilit comprised 5,000 people and 1,200 households. Today it has a population of 24,000 and 4,700 households. Each year there are 1,700 newborns in Betar Ilit, and young couples settle in 500 new apartments. The immediate impact of these figures is that there is an annual increase of 3,000 to 3,500 new residents in the town. The rate of construction in Betar Ilit forecasts a faster rate of growth, with 3,000 new homes in various stages of completion. Some 700 of them are expected to be occupied in the coming year. According to estimates, the city of Betar Ilit will eventually number 100,000 residents. The cost of a 3-bedroomed apartment is between $90,000 and $100,000, but housing costs in Jerusalem are 35% higher. The biggest problem facing the city is a shortage of classrooms. There are 10,000 children aged 3 – 13, but there are only 140 classrooms, another 170 more operate in caravans. There is also a shortage of synagogues.”

Mary is a member of St Andrew’s Church here in Jerusalem. In 1916, her grandfather bought a plot of land, for which he received a Registration Document. He moved on to the land with his wife, and they lived in a cave at the top of the hill. When the Turkish Government was defeated in the First World War, and the British Mandate was established, Mary’s grandfather registered his ownership of the land with the British Administration. On the death of her grandfather, one of her uncles lived on the land from 1924 until his death in 1987. When the Mandate ended and that area came under the jurisdiction of Jordan, the land was registered with the Jordanian Government. After 1967, with the occupation of the West Bank by the Israeli Army, once again Mary’s family registered the land with the Israeli authorities. So, from 1916 to the present day, there is continuous documentation of the ownership of the land, registered with each of the successive governing authorities, and continuous occupation of the land from 1916 to 1987. After that time, her family lived in Bethlehem and came out to work the land.

On Wednesday, along with Mary and one of her brothers, and two visitors from England, Joan and I went to visit the land in question. It is in Area C of the West Bank, so is under full Israeli control. It lies about 7 or 8 kms South West of Bethlehem, and is situated around the top of a small hill. To the East it is bounded by a small valley, above which has been placed the settlement of Neve Daniel. To the West, the hill slopes down in the direction of Betar Ilit – and you may guess the story now. Betar Ilit needs land on which to expand. Neve Daniel will need land – and between them lies Mary’s family land.

So, confiscate the land – what could be simpler? In 1991 Mary’s family heard, almost by accident, that the Israeli government had declared the whole area to be “State Land.” They objected and the case has gone through the Military Court near Ramallah – this is the Court system which operates in the West Bank, as it is occupied territory. Despite being able to demonstrate their ownership of the land, despite having been able to produce a new map of their land at a cost of NIS 15,000, with all their neighbours concurring in the boundaries, the confiscation order was going ahead. The family have now taken the case to the Supreme Court. When it was heard two weeks ago, the Judge refused to recognise the claims of the State, and gave it 60 days to file new documents proving its case. The family will then have 30 days to answer the claims, and some time after that the case will come back to court.

To get to their land, there is a tar road. However, with the policy of the Army to block all roads on the West Bank except the main roads, (which Jewish people can use freely, but to use these roads Palestinians need permits) this one has been dug up in two places in a stretch of about 1 km, so that it is impossible to drive to their land from the nearest main road. The settlers have come on three occasions and broken down their gates, in an attempt to get on to the land with caravans or some such material, which might enable them to claim ownership. The family have been able to prevent this so far. Again, the settlers have come and twice cut down their vines. (When the word “violence” is used, the world thinks of it as that actions of Palestinians. Yet the Settlers arguably use more violence across the West Bank, intimidating farmers trying to work their land.) When one of Mary’s brothers some time ago was ploughing part of the land, a settler came to ask on what authority he was working the land. Mary’s brother replied that they owned the land and had papers to prove it. In an American accent, speaking Hebrew, the settler dismissed this claim, and said that they (the settlers) had a paper from God which said that the land was theirs.

The family have managed to get foreign consulates interested in the case, and the Judge was a bit surprised to see their representatives in the Court at the last hearing. There are also Jewish organisations working to help them. Support is coming from Switzerland and Germany to try to develop the land as a “Peace Centre” to which people from Israel, Palestine and overseas would be able to come.

If anyone would like more information, there is an e-mail address. The Project is called “Tent of Nations” and the Director is Mary’s younger brother David. The address is tnation@p-ol.com I am sure they would be glad to hear from you, and perhaps a letter to an Embassy asking about this case might be appreciated. We saw one letter from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs to a person who had written to comment on the case.

Meanwhile, Mary and her family have to get on with the rest of life.

For Betar Ilit to expand, there will be many such cases of land being taken.


Who polices the policemen, or who supervises the soldiers? This is a vexed question, as the Inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland can testify. A riot, and shooting in January 1972, refused to go away, and in 1998, the Prime Minister Mr Blair authorised a new enquiry.

The reason for this reminiscence is a headline in the paper last week :

“JAG (Israeli Defence Forces’ Judge Advocate General) defends IDF’s handling of complaints against troops.”

The reporter writes : “In one recent appearance (before the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee) the JAG reported on indictments against soldiers who mistreated Palestinians, including a female soldier who forced a Palestinian woman to drink a toxic liquid. …. Since the start of the Intifada, Finkelstein (the JAG) said, 362 military police investigations have been opened, of which 45 ended in indictments, and all of the cases are still being heard. He feels that measuring this data against the more than 2,000 Palestinians killed in the confrontation is not in order.” [A photograph accompanying the story shows 8 young Palestinian men lined up facing a wall, being examined by an Israeli Border Policeman.]

Depending on your point of view, the Report is a vindication of the work of the Army in investigating the deaths of Palestinians, or it is yet another instance of the Army being its own policeman, and saying that it has done nothing wrong. So one could leave the matter – but in July 13th’s paper there is a trenchant article by an Israeli journalist Gideon Levy. He writes courageously about events on the West Bank and in Gaza.

He writes : “At the beginning of June, Nabil Jirdath, aged 48, a clothing merchant and the father of 8, drove from his store in Jenin to his home in the village of Silath al-Harthiya. With him in the car were 7 of the members of his family, including children. Suddenly the car came under light-arms fire from a tank that was stationed on the main road. Jirdath was critically wounded and died a few days later.

It is possible that the soldiers wanted to frighten the occupants of the car, as the driver, for fear of the tank, had turned on to a bypass dirt road. And so the soldiers opened fire at the vehicle from long range. The result was an appallingly unnecessary death, which, as in many other caes, was of no interest to the Israeli public. However the lack of interest shown in the event by the IDF this time assumed a horrific character : it turned out that the IDF Spokesperson’s Office had no knowledge of the incident. Someone is killed, but no investigation is made and no record is kept of the event anywhere – as though an animal was the victim. Another week went by after the IDF Spokesperson promised to look into the matter, and MK Isaac Herzog (Labour) submitted a motion for agenda in the Knesset about the incident. The Defence establishment again stated that it knew nothing about the event. About a month has gone by since the incident, but no one has any idea why the soldiers killed Nabil Jirdath. ….Of the 2,235 Palestinians that have been killed by the IDF, indictments against soldiers have been handed down in only 8 cases. No one has yet been convicted. … And what does the IDF officer who is responsible for upholding the law in the army have to say about all this? In an interview with Ha’aretz last Thursday, JAG, Major General Finkelstein, stated that ‘it is impossible to carry out 2,000 investigations into 2,000 cases of death when, in a large percentage of the cases, we are talking about military activity par excellence’ …. From the moral point of view, Finkelstein’s remark – in which he says that the large number of people killed is a major reason for not investigating the deaths, is reprehensible. Just imagine what the reaction would be if the police were to declare that they were no longer going to investigate cases of murder because there had been a steep rise in their incidence. … In the course of the Intifada the lives of Palestinians have become of no value in the eyes of the soldiers. The killing of innocent passengers, of unnamed passers-by and of civilians in their homes has long since ceased to be an anomaly. … The JAG’s Office has played a not inconsiderable part in bringing about this situation.”

One of the components in Pilgrimages for many who come to Jerusalem is journeying along the Via Dolorosa, stopping at each of the Stations of the Cross to remember that part of the story of the Passion of Christ associated with that particular place. A rather different sort of “Via Dolorosa” is organised from time to time by the staff of Sabeel, the Palestinian Liberation Theology Centre in East Jerusalem. It visits a range of different places : a place where land has been confiscated from its Palestinian owners by the State of Israel; a house that has been demolished because it was built without a permit, for which application was made but which never came through; an Israeli Settlement with its green trees and neat gardens across the valley from a Palestinian Refugee Camp, conspicuously lacking the same amenities; the site of one of the Disappeared Villages (something like 420 sites to choose from); religious buildings in West Jerusalem which are in a state of dilapidation, if not ruin; and the journey ends at Ein Kerem, the birthplace of John the Baptist. He was a messenger preparing the Way for the Good News, and those on the Pilgrimage are invited to see themselves as Messengers of the Good News that Christ brought.

It is a powerful way to allow people to recall such a saying of Christ as “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head”. It is a moving way to recall the words of the prophets about what God requires of his people : “To act justly, to love loyalty, and to walk wisely before God.” (Micah 6:8). It is a disturbing way to be reminded that we are all Stewards of God’s world, and that we will all be asked questions about how we exercised our Stewardship.

But the presence of even a small group of Christians is also a witness to the wider community, - in these areas visited largely Muslim – of the Christian message of God’s care for all people.

A couple of weeks ago, I made a remark about the rights and privileges of new-comers to Israel, not enjoyed by Palestinians who have been born in Jerusalem. I then had a letter back asking if I could give some examples. I will, next week.


Stay well. God bless,

Love from Joan and Clarence


On a Church Noticeboard :
“Don’t let worry kill you : let the Church help.”

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Circular Letter No 134
11th July 2003

It has been a hot week – on Monday and Tuesday when we were in Galilee with visitors from Scotland, it was well over 35°C most of the time, and occasionally around 40°C. Now it has cooled a little – back below 30°C – and we were cold during the night!

The trip to Galilee was to help a couple of folk see around, and visit some of the sites. What I appreciated about this trip was the fact that I was able to sit and have some quiet time at each of the places, while the visitors went off to see things themselves. Once again we were struck by the fact that so much of what we believe to be fundamental to faith and life took place in such a small area.

On the Monday evening, I was present at a small gathering of folk in an Arab village not far from Nazareth. It was organised to talk about the possiblity of developing YMCA programmes in the village and its hinterland. Quite apart from the generosity of the hospitality, it was a memorable evening for some of the things that were said.

Nazareth is an historic city, founded in approx. 1500 BC. It is largely Arab. Founded in 1957, a Jewish town has been built alongside it, called Nazaret Illit – Upper Nazareth. To encourage people to migrate and live in it, land was made available cheaply, and people who built houses were able to obtain some tax concessions. Such land, and such concessions, were only available to Jewish people. Neverthless, the population of Nazaret Illit which has reached 45,000, now has a significant Arab minority of over 10,000. The story that I was told was that the original Jewish property owners, once they had fulfilled their obligations under the tax incentives that they had been given, sold their properties for a handsome profit to anyone who would buy. However, no Jewish person would buy, as they could get cheap land and incentives, so those who were in the market to buy were Arabs. Not surprisingly, I was told that there is some tension in the town.

One startling item of information that quite astounded me was that, in order to allow Nazareth Illit to expand, and hopefully in the minds of the planners become a Jewish centre in the largely Arab Galilee, land stretching down to one of the main road intersections 11 kms from the present town has been expropriated from its owners, all of whom are Arabs.

During the conversation, many topics were touched on, and I heard repeated there comments that I had heard from others in the Jerusalem area. Where can we get jobs? Where can we get houses? Where can we find husbands or wives, as many folk are leaving to live abroad? What will be the future of our community? Underneath it all was a plea to the Christian community world-wide to get more involved in the struggle of their Christian community in Israel and Palestine just to maintain itself.

Naturally, the current conversations between the leaders of Israel and Palestine also figured in our conversation. There was a feeling that one had to be optimistic, but none around the table saw any real grounds for optimism. One of the sticking points is over the question of release of prisoners. There is a real sense of disillusionment at the offers of the Israeli government to release a few hundred of the thousands of prisoners they are holding. One of the arguments used to justify the non-release of certain prisoners is that the Israeli government will not release those “who have blood on their hands.” This phrase provoked a storm in the Knesset on Wednesday. ‘MK Issam Makhoul was speaking in the debate about the release of prisoners. “Why can’t we mention the fact that there is an MK in this house who personally smashed the skulls of prisoners? Makhoul demanded, referring to MK Ehud Yatom, who has admitted that in 1984, as a senior Shin Bet security officer, he used a rock in a field to smash the skulls of two prisoners who had hijacked a bus. Yatom and other Shin Bet officers were granted presidential clemency for their actions – though they were never put on trial.’

One of the major irritations experienced by Palestinians is road blocks. Today, Thursday, I had to take someone out to the Bethlehem area. Not having much time, I did not go into Bethlehem, but went to a place where she would be able to get a taxi by crossing over a mound of earth. I was a bit surprised to find no cars parked at this particular place. However, we did get a taxi and she got to her destination. On the way back, I passed a ‘mobile” road block, with a line of Palestinian registered vehicles queued up, as the drivers and passengers waited to have their documents checked. Back in Jerusalem, I learned that one of the check-points into Bethlehem that has been closed to vehicles for over a year, is now open from 0600 to 1800 hours each day! Open one checkpoint, put another just down the road!

One of the staff coming in to Sunbula comes from the north of Jerusalem. This morning she was over an hour late. The bus on which she was travelling was stopped at the New Gate, in the heart of Jerusalem, and all the passengers had to get out and have their ID cards checked. The process took over an hour. It was, of course, an Arab bus, and one person joked that the army was looking for a Jewish suicide bomber.

New regulations have come into effect for people wishing to visit the USA. For most reading this letter, this will be of little conequence. Not so for Israelis. The Leader Column in Ha’aretz on Wednesday 9th July starts as follows :

“Many Israeli citizens hoping to take a summer vacation in the United States can only envy the citizens of Andorra, Brunei, France and 24 other big and small countries around the world. Israelis need to apply for a visa to get into America – a lengthy, expensive bureaucratic process which, starting this month, also requires a personal interview with a consular official in English. … Israel and the US have a very close strategic relationship in security cooperation. Is the relationship only meaningful in the political and military sphere? Is there no civil dimension to this imtimacy? Hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens visit the US every year. Half the world Jewish population lives there and many Israelis have relatives in America. … At the very least, Israeli citizens should be granted a relaxation of the visa requirements, if not full exemption.”

Old regulations which have been in effect for some time govern the possibility of Palestinians using Ben Gurion Airport. (You may remember the saga of obtaining permits for Helen Shehadeh.) In a conversation on Thursday with a woman who works for a church organisation, she apologised for being late for the service we were sharing at lunchtime. Despite having applied some time ago, she had been sending, to yet another person, documents that have to be submitted to the Israeli Army office dealing with permits to travel through Ben Gurion. Two of her nieces, aged 13 and 14, have visas, and tickets, to go to visit relatives in the US. Even at their age, they still need permits to travel through Ben Gurion airport. By Thursday no response had been given to the application, with the weekend starting on Friday – and the girls are due to fly out on Sunday night.

Much is made here of the need for both Israelis and Palestinians to make moves to help along the “peace process.” It was always known that the Palestinian Prime Minister, Abu Mazen, was having to struggle to maintain some semblance of authority among his own people. This week there have been a series of direct attacks on him by people all the way from Mr Arafat to members of Fatah. Friday morning’s paper carries the headline “ Arafat tells (UN) envoy : Abbas (Abus Mazen) is a traitor.” One of the key areas of control that is still within the power of Mr Arafat is the power to make appointments to crucial positions in the government and political machine. He has just appointed his own man to be in charge of the District Governors of the West Bank and Gaza – significant because these Governors are in charge of the police forces in their area. This will make it difficult, if not impossible, for the Security Minister in the PA Government headed by Abu Mazen to exercise control over local police forces, which are in effect the local military forces. There is clearly an enormous struggle going on within Palestinian society.

The signals coming from the Israeli side are very mixed. Above I mentioned the matter of release of prisoners. Equally contentious is the matter of Settlements. (P2 Ha’aretz 11th July) Under a heading “20 settlers held during outpost evacuation,” there is this : ‘Settler sources alleged yesterday that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sent them an informal message promising not to comply with the US demand for the removal of all 100 outposts set up after March 2001. Sharon reportedly clarified that he sees three categories of outpost :strategtic-security, which are essential and non-negotiable; non-strategic outposts, whose future will be decided later; and provocative outposts, which will be removed.’ Given this sort of information, it is not difficult to see the difficulties which face any Palestinian leader in trying to get his people to accept the road-map.

Interestingly, on the same page there is a report that Mr Blair has invited Mr Sharon to 10 Downing Street for a private dinner. “It is very rare for Blair to invite foreign guests to have dinner in his residence, among his children’s toys”, a British source said yesterday. “This signals the extent of his desire to spend quality time with Sharon.” One is aware of the signals that such an invitation sends to the supporters of Mr Sharon, and indirectly to the Palestinians. The words of the Harry Lauder song (amended) would seem to be the message from the UK government, regardles of what it says in public: “Keep right on to the end of your road.”

Friday evening.

This morning saw us once again in Idna. These journeys are a source both of great encouragement and of great pessimism. We usually go on the road that runs south from Bethlehem, passing Husan, an Arab village, and Betar Illit, an illegal Jewish settlement. The pessimism in the journey comes from passing places like Betar Illit. At one time, one heard the mantra that the only expansion of Settlements was “Natural Expansion” – to provide for the normal growth of the population of a settlement. It is obvious that the folk in Betar Illit never heard that, or if they did, they are thumbing their noses at it. Slashed across the hillside beside the present buildings are the beginnings of the roads for the next extension of the Settlement. The reproductive rate of the population would have to be phenomenal to make it necessary to build all the houses that are being built now, and to prepare the roads that are being laid down to get ready for the next stage of construction. Nevertheless, invite the Prime Minister of the government that is flagrantly showing its contempt for the UN to have dinner “among your children’s toys.”

The encouragement comes from the time that we are able to spend with the women of the Co-operative, and to see how they are coping with their situation. I think had I had to face their circumstances for the past 3 years, I would be in a mental hospital with a breakdown.

Another dose of pessimism was administered on the way home – this time up through the West Bank. In 35 kms we passed through 3 major check points; we passed soldiers on duty at road blocks outside 2 major villages, and again at the entrance to Jerusalem; by using the settler road, we avoided passing through Hebron – in fact were hardly aware that we were passing a city of 140,000 people (according to the TIPH website www.tiph.org). For all the local people whom we saw, we might as well have been on the moon.


Stay well.

God bless

Joan and Clarence


“Potluck supper at 5.00 p.m. Prayer and medication to follow.”

“Miss Charlene Mason sang ‘I will not pass this way again’, giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.”

 

Circular Letter No 133
4th July 2003


Re-reading a book recently about the political situation which led to the Balfour Declaration in 1917, I was struck again by the “realpolitik” surrounding the decisions of many of the folk involved – who should support whom in order to try to preserve influence with other groups etc.

The Declaration reads : “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done with may prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

There was an intriguing insight into the thinking of some Jewish people a week or two ago, when one organisation outlined its proposals to claim reparations from the Islamic states which Jewish citizens had left, or been forced to leave. This was in the context of the discussion about the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their homes in Israel. One way in which it would be contended that the Balfour Declaration was not honoured was that part regarding “the political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

The effects on the “existing non-Jewish communties in Palestine” of Jewish migration to Palestine, as it was in the early 20th Century, and the Israel it became, certainly are held to have broken the spirit and intent of the Declaration. Yet, recently, President Bush has spoken of Israel being a “Jewish state.” Exactly what that means is argued over by many Israeli Jewish people – is it a religious state, or a secular state? What about the citizens of the state who are not Jewish?

There is an interesting article about the situation of many who have come to live in Israel, who are not Jewish. The particular question relates to Marriage. Under Israeli law, who is, and who is not, entitled to marry within Israel? There was an event in Tel Aviv attended by some 700 young people, all of whom claim that they are unable to be married in Israel, as they are regarded by the authorities as not being Jewish. The community highlighted in the report is mostly Russian – it is estimated that there are 320,000 non-Jewish Russian immigrants in Israel. To get married, they have to go abroad, and Cyprus is a major destination. However, this will effect not just their marriage, but also the right of their children to marry within Israel.

What is a Jewish State is a very vexed question.

The other issue which this raises is the justification for migration on the scale of 320,000 non-Jews coming to Israel, which was set up to be a home for Jewish people. Native-born Jerusalem residents have less rights than immigrants, even if those immigrants are not Jewish.

The big picture this week has been yet more of the diplomatic manouevres around the Road Map. There was the sight, unimaginable even a few days ago, of the Israeli and Palestinian cabinet leaders sitting around the one table in Jerusalem. There are the headlines in the papers, and probably in your papers also, about the Israeli army pulling out of Bethlehem and part of Gaza. There are journalists saying that so much has changed in the past few weeks that there is no going back to the situation before the summit at Aqaba. Perhaps so – one writer says that if this situation breaks down, then the Israeli army will be back in all those places from which it has withdrawn, and this time it will be even more violent in its dealings with the local population.

But being an ordinary person, it is with the ordinary situations that I have to deal.

On Sunday, a phone call from a Government Office told me that one of the workers at the Guest House here had been granted a work permit. It was available to be collected at the Israeli Army office at Bet El, on the outskirts of Ramallah. Eventually on Thursday, I was able to drive her to Ramallah, where I had to leave her to face the rigours of the offices. It was a 30-km drive, through 2 checkpoints, to get to the approaches to the office. The last part of the drive was over an unmade track, as the main approach had been barricaded off a long time ago. It took us 40 minutes from the centre of Jerusalem to get to the office – had she gone on her own, it would have taken her at least 2 hours – with at least 3 changes of taxis. (Taxi is not the luxury mode of travel here that it is in so many places. It is the standard mode, along with mini-buses, for most of the public transport on the West Bank.) To get back to St Andrew’s was another 45 minutes, once again going through 2 checkpoints – at one of which I had to show my passport, at the other no traffic was being stopped.

At 1600 hours on Monday, a phone call came to say that the worker was now back at home, without a permit. During the day, phone calls to the Government office in Jerusalem had resulted in the people there contacting Bet El, and confirming that a Work Permit was there. Yet – no permit was forthcoming. For whatever reason, the people on the Work Permit office had either given wrong information to the person who had contacted me, or junior officers did not know what senior officers had said, or …. Offer your own suggestions.

The person involved works part time – and had to take a day off work to go to get a permit. Her wages for the day would be about NIS 100. There would be little change from NIS 25 for taxi fares. Who meets the cost? Given the working week arrangements here it will be Monday before there will be contact with the various offices, and then the prospect of another day spent trying to get a Permit.

A young man from Scotland is staying in at the Guest House. He is working as a volunteer at an office in East Jerusalem one day each week. This week, on his way back to the Guest House, he walked along a street in West Jerusalem. He saw a crowd of people sitting on the ground beside a bus that had been stopped. Not unnaturally he wondered what it was all about -–it became clear as he passed by. The crowd, men and women, old and young, were being watched over by a couple of Border Policemen, and all their documents had been taken from them and thrown in a heap on the ground. When the policeman got round to it, they would then examine each document, and allow the person back on the bus.

A funeral took place in Ramallah. It was a Christian person who had died, and the relatives gathered together for a service. After that, there was the journey to the Cemetry. The Army set two conditions :

use an Ambulance to transport the coffin – not the vehicle which the family had prepared.

Only 3 people could go to the cemetry to bury the coffin.

The Israeli Army has pulled out of Bethlehem – as far as the edge, where there are still the checkpoints, and where the fence is still being built which will eventually ring Bethlehem and make it into a physical prison. Dropping off someone yesterday at the checkpoint to make her way into Bethlehem, she still had to walk past 2 jeep-loads of Border Police.

One lives in hope.

Among all the families for whom there will be little to celebrate in the coming weeks, one is an Israeli whose story is told in the Weekend Magazine of Ha’aretz this Friday. It is the family of a young Israeli soldier killed in one of the last operations that the Israeli army carried out in Gaza – 2 days before the withdrawal of some Israeli troops from Gaza. The young man’s father “was holding the daily newsspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the front page of which celebrated the exit from Gaza. The happiness on the faces of the soldiers in the picture exacerbated the sense of having missed out that consumed him. Had the operation been postponed for 2 days, had it not happened at all, had the exit from Gaza taken place two days earlier – almost certainly his son would still be alive…..’It eats my heart out. Who needs those settlements in Gush Khatif (in Gaza)?. Who needs 2,000 people in the middle of a population of millions of Palestinians?’”

Many other families will share the same sort of grief, from different backgrounds, like the family of the Palestinian killed in Qalqilya earlier in the week.

Traffic in the centre of Jerusalem at times grinds almost to a halt. Part of the problem is the work associated with the construction of a “light rail” system for the city. One of the ironies of the situation is that one of the lines will run north-south through the city – starting in the North at Pisgat Ze’ev and ending at Gilo. The only problem is that both of these places are settlements, built on Palestinian land, taken over by Israel in direct contravention of UN242 and various Geneva conventions.

One event which I omitted to share with you was the launch, on 25th June, of a programme called “The People’s Voice”, a campaign to get Israelis and Palestinians to sign a mass declaration of priniciples to solve the conflict between them. It is in fact an old proposal, but one of the interesting aspects of it is that it is promoted by an Israeli and a Palestinian – the Israeli being a former head of Shin Bet Security Services, Mr Ami Ayalon, and the Palestinian is Professor Sari Nusseibeh, President of Al-Quds University and a leader of Palestinians in Jerusalem. The declaration of principles includes : two states for two nations; permanent borders based on the basis of June 4, 1967, with the possibility of exchange of tracts of land; Jerusalem as the capital of both states (separate sovereignty for the separate areas); Arab refugees only able to return to Palestinian territory, and Jewish refugees only to return to Israeli territory; the establishment of an international fund for compensating and rehabilitating Palestinian refugees; the demilitarisation of the Palestinian State; and the renunciation of all claims after a political agreement is signed. As one Jewish commentator said, “Apart from doubting that it can actually do something, it is hard to find fault with the plan!"” But the commentator goes on “One way or another, the decision about what will happen to the territories (The West Bank and Gaza) is already out of our hands. Forces stronger than us have basically decided their fate.” One hopes so – and then perhaps the individual little stories earlier in the letter will be things of the past.

It is some time since we have been in Jerusalem on a Friday – so I was not quite prepared for the barricades at the entrances to the Old City,. New Gate – heavily patrolled by police; Damascus Gate – barricaded off, 20 – 30 police and 3 mounted policmen, people only being allowed in after sxcreening; Herod’s Gate – barricaded and the same procedure as at Damascus Gate. Of course, it is Prayer Day, and the freedom of worship for those who go to Al Aqsa is severely limited.

From a very hot Jerusalem – temperature in the sun well over 40 degrees – stay well.

God bless. Joan and Clarence.


In better times, I used to end with a story. Cleaning out a drawer I found a list of them :

“During the absence of our pastor, we enjoyed the rare privilege of hearing a good sermon when J F Stubbs preached.”

To folk in the USA - Happy Independence Day.

 

Circular Letter No 131

21st June 2003


Road Map – you will know all about it from your own news programmes. Suffice it to say that there is not a huge amount of optimism here. Some “illegal” outpost Settlements have been dismantled, with the Israeli army having to take on the Settlers. Demonstrators from all over the West Bank and Israel converge on a site where the Israeli army is planning to dismantle something, and there is mayhem. This week at one place, Palesstinian harvest fields were set on fire by settlers. In the paper today there is a call from a Member of the Knesset for people to go and settle anywhere on the West Bank – it is all part of Israel.


Snippets.

Inflation : Consumer Price Index fell by 0.5% last month, making an overall rise of 0.1% for the year so far. One of the factors preventing a larger fall last month was the price of water-melons – up by 130% since last August!


Arguments galore about the budget for the Israeli Armed Forces. In the current economic climate, there is pressure for this amount spent on the Armed Forces to be reduced – resisted by the Forces themselves. Last year the Defence expenditure in Israel was 12% of GDP, between 1.5% and 2.5 % in NATO countries, and about 3.5% in the US.


Extract from a letter received on Sunday 15th June, written by a Jewish “activist”. I do not normally make a practice of including material such as this, because it is available at many other places. But this morning I was listening to the radio and reading the paper – all about President Bush attacking Hamas for its violence. There is no problem with this, as long as it is balanced by an attack on Jewish perpetrators of violence, as recounted in the following short letter.

Dear Friends,

The threat of expulsion still hangs over the Palestinian population of the southern Hebron hills. While the "big transfer" with trucks and bulldozers is still being discussed in the courts, on the ground a plan for "creeping transfer," in the style of Yanun, (a village where people have been slowly leaving as life becomes more intolerable) is taking place. This plan includes several components: preventing the farmers from working their land (by shooting at them, for example), attacking children on their way to school, a complete ban on all kinds of building or development, and nocturnal "visits" to isolated khirbehs [hamlets] with the aim of terrorizing their inhabitants. If in the past it was the settlers who were responsible for most of these activities, recently they have handed over such tasks to the army. For example, last week two jeeps of the "Lavi" brigade entered Twaneh village in the middle of the night and marched all the villagers into the nearby wadi, at the same time destroying property and behaving violently. The company commander then informed the villagers that they were forbidden to be in contact with Israeli peace activists. "Throw stones at them when they come," they were told. …..

Taayush- Jewish Arab Partnership.

So today in the morning, a Taayush car convoy left for the area, with a couple of hundred people including two famous writers (Grossman and Shalev), and Haim Yavin, a well known TV personage. The aim was to provide harvesting help to a villager, who could not approach his fields for many weeks. Some 20 kilometers from the location, within the Green Line (the '67 border) we were stopped by the army: no entry, closed military zone. Closed to us, that is, at the same time, the settlers kept passing by. A request was made to see the invisible military commander who issued that order. The request was granted to one vehicle. The Taayush negotiator and our Big Guns (Grossman, Shalev and Yavin) drove to meet him. The commander clarified that the place is under military authority, and it is up to him to decide who constitutes a security danger. But, out of the kindness of his heart he will grant the continuation of the harvest, in the presence of the TV crew and of a small number of Taayush members "to avoid friction". A small fraction of our group continued to the harvest site. After a while, a bunch of armed settlers stormed at them from the overlooking settlement. The army intervened, stopped the harvest, and removed the harvesters and Taayush "to avoid friction". Angry protests produced members of the Civil Administration - who requested that the field owner produces on the spot a proof that he indeed owns the land. This was the end of the harvest. I only hope that the TV footage will make it to TV screens.


One response to Letter No 130. Clarence: No doubt, the past week in Jerusalem was not pleasant even for those who just heard the loud bang in the distance and the cacophony of sirens. With regard to Hamas leader and mass murderer Rantisi, it's too bad that there are those who suspect that it was a deliberate action on the part of the Israeli government to derail the Road Map. I wish the Israeli Air Force better luck next time Dr. Rantisi steps into a vehicle and I hope he is not coward enough to surround himself with his wife and children as most of the brave Hamas terrorists do when they travel.


125 years ago, the YMCA commenced work in Jerusalem. This work is carried on now by several different YMCA bodies, including the one with which I have a connection here in West Jerusalem – the Jerusalem International YMCA (JIY). The building which it occupies is an imposing edifice which celebrated its 70th birthday in April. On Tuesday 17th, there was a Gala Dinner to celebrate these 125 years of YMCA work here. Over 220 people came to the evening, in the King David Hotel across the road from the YMCA. Speeches were made, by reprersentatives of the 3 major communities in Jerusalem – the Jewish community, the Muslim community and the Christian community. Not unnaturally there was some criticism of the current state of affairs, but also a recognition that the YMCA has provided in the past a place where the three religious communities were able to meet and get to know one another. A recognition, too, that if the Y did not exist, the city would be the poorer. One of the speakers represented what is called the MVP programme. In the US, MVP is Most Valuable Player (I think). These initials were thought up by the people in Hartford Connecticut who got the programme under way. 11 young adults, in their 20’s, went for a month together. It was interesting to hear how they progressed from anxiety about being able to work as a group of Jewish and Arab young adults, to deciding that instead of each group making a comment in a Report, they were sufficiently united to select one person to make their Report. That was quite an achievement. It was a good evening, even if it was a bit escapist. Today it is back to the realities of life, both for the JIY which is a partner in a huge multi-million development programme that has all sorts of snags to be ironed out, and for the community as a whole – wrestling to find the way out of the present morass.



Two items from the paper on Wednesday June 18th.

• Headlines, Page 1. Seven-year old girl killed in Road 6 shooting near Qalqilyah. Road 6 is the new Trans-Israel Highway. The incident took place on Tuesday night. The attack was on a family of Jewish people in their car.
• Final paragraph of an article on P 5 – feature page – Who in Israel knows or cares? By Amira hass, an Israeli Jewish journalist living on the West Bank. “And there’s another question in Gaza. Who in Israel knows that Sunday night also saw the death of 8-year old Aman al-Jarusha, whose only crime was that she wasn’t far from Rantisi’s (Hamas leader whom Israel tried to assassinate) car when it was hit by Israeli rockets?”

Yet two more deaths of children – the one was headline news on international TC channels. I did not see the other one even mentioned.


Listening to the news from Iraq the other evening, it was almoast as if we were listening the news from the West Bank. The US army made a ssweep into Iraqi towns during the night, searched homes, and arrested some men. There were pictures of families being woken up in the middle of the night, presumably including children, and men being taken away handcuffed and hooded. It is so reminiscent of what has been happening here, that it was almost spooky. Then in the paper on Thursday 19th June is a short article headed : U S Marines get