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Circular Letter No 229
12th August 2005.
I was chided last week by one of the folk who receives this letter. She
noted that I specifically identified the individuals I mentioned at the
beginning of my letter as Jewish, while I did not state that
Machsomwatch was also a Jewish organisation. She was quite true, but I
did this as I assumed that folk who read these letters would have been
aware of the fact that on many previous occasions I have identified
Machsomwatch as an organisation of Jewish women.
At the end of 2000, the Church of Scotland Hospice in Tiberias closed
down and over the next 4 years it underwent a transformation into what
is now called The Scots Hotel. At a meeting there on Monday with some
Christian leaders, there was discussion about the life of the Christian
community in the country. Particular thought was given to how the Church
of Scotland, with its Hotel, its Church building, and one other
property, might best support the Christian people both of Galilee and
the rest of Israel and Palestine. Not surprisingly, no earth-shattering
conclusions were reached, but there was a recognition of some of the
pressures on local Christian people, and an agreement to continue the
discussions. One of the harsh realities of life for many people of all
parts of the population is Poverty. A headline in Haaretz on Monday
August 8th, P1, reads: “Annual National Insurance Institution report to
show 1.5 million Israelis below poverty line.” In this sort of
situation, we wondered what could be done by the Church of Scotland, not
to get rid of poverty which is beyond even its capabilities, but to
create places where folk can come at little cost just to relax and for a
short while get a break from some of the pressures of daily life. As I
said, it is planned that the discussions will continue.
On our way back home to Jerusalem, we went to the village of Shefaram,
where there had been both the killing of Arabs by an Israeli soldier,
and the killing of the soldier by a mob of local people. We went to
visit one family in particular, related to one of the men killed by the
soldier. There was a quietness in the town, though that may have had as
much to do with the fact that it was reasonably early in the morning as
with the events of last week. There was a sadness in the home we visited
– sadness at the needless loss of life, and sadness at what the whole
episode might do to relations between the Jewish and Arab communities.
As some will remember, we have had an on-going problem now for a long
time to try to obtain Visas for 3 of the members of Staff of Tabeetha
Church of Scotland School in Jaffa. In May this year, we thought that a
solution had been reached, and that Visas would be granted which would
both enable the teachers to work for the coming academic year, and allow
the School to plan its work with reasonable confidence in the staff
available to teach. Despite repeated calls to the relevant Ministry
office in Tel Aviv, despite interventions from the staff of the British
Embassy, there still has been no resolution of the problem. The School
term is now just a few weeks away, and we are still waiting for a final
decision on this matter. As you can imagine, it has been, and is,
difficult for the teachers concerned to keep up their morale. Thursday
saw yet another meeting here in Jerusalem and yet more letters written
to the Ministry of the Interior. When we come back from our break, we
hope to find good news.
Thursday also saw me take a representative of the World Mission Council
of the Church of Scotland into Bethlehem. Having castigated the way in
which staff on the Checkpoints have been less than helpful on many
occasions in the past, I have to acknowledge that for people such as
myself, with a foreign passport, things have improved. However, during
our time in Bethlehem, we visited Helen Shehadeh at Beit Jala.
Conversation not unnaturally turned to the question of her permit and
her inability to get to Jerusalem, to come to Church or to do anything
else. It would appear that while the Disengagement, or Withdrawal, from
Gaza is taking place, there will be no permits issued except for
emergencies – and the soldier on duty said that attending church was not
an emergency. At the meeting earlier in the week in Tiberias, one of the
Church leaders said how he had been forced to cancel a Church Family
Retreat which he had organised each year for many years, as the families
from the West Bank could not get permits to come and stay in Tiberias.
He will now try to reorganize that particular Retreat in Jordan, as
people from Israel and the West Bank can both get there.
It is one of the continuing injustices that people who were born here
now have less freedom of movement than people who were born in other
parts of the world, and who have made “A Return” to a place where they
had never lived.
Visas, permits, poverty and the lack of work, the desire of parents to
create a future for their children – it is no wonder that people are
leaving both Israel and Palestine. Perhaps this is what the pressures
from the Government are meant to achieve.
Two items have dominated the news this week.
The first was the resignation from the Government of Mr. Netanyahu.
Having consistently opposed the removal of Jewish Settlements from Gaza,
but not always having voted against it, when the final approval was
being given by the Cabinet, he announced his resignation. The intriguing
question is not what effect this will have on the Disengagement, but
rather how it will affect the political landscape in the coming months.
Certainly among the right-wing elements of the population he is much
more popular than Mr. Sharon. It promises to be an interesting time in
political life.
The second has been the inexorable approach of the Day of Disengagement.
Even the name given to the event shows some “bias”. Is it Disengagement
– a voluntary, unilateral decision by the Israeli authorities? Is it
Withdrawal – an action that has been forced on the Israeli Government by
the Intifada, and the huge costs that have been incurred in protecting
the Gaza Settlements?
Whatever name is used, the fact is that there has been enormous coverage
in press, on radio and TV, of the preparations being made for the
departure of the Israeli Jewish population from Gaza. Rallies have been
held, demonstrations have taken place, young people are still at many
intersections handing out Orange ribbons to car drivers and their
passengers, and commentators of all shades of opinions are busy giving
us their assessment of what is happening, and their thoughts on what
will happen.
Major international TV channels, like BBC, CNN and Sky News, which are
the ones we see here, have carried series of reports on Gaza. Most have
made it quite clear in their commentaries that the Settlements have been
illegally created on land which the Israeli army conquered in 1967.
However, their pictures have largely concentrated on the situation of
the Jewish Settler families who are having to leave. The most recent
broadcast this morning on BBC World concludes with a young Israeli
Jewish woman struggling to hold back tears at the thought of having to
leave her Settlement.
I have not personally seen any sort of TV report featuring the
Palestinian owners of the land on which the Settlements have been built,
nor any interview with the Palestinians who had to leave their homes and
their livelihoods to make way for the Settlements.
It is to be hoped that the world’s media will not move on from Gaza once
the last Settler has left. It would be good to have the emotional scenes
recorded as Palestinians return to their land and to where their homes
used to be.
In the northern part of the West Bank there are also 4 smaller
Settlements which are being evacuated. The Jerusalem Post, August 12th
P8, gives the information that “of the 230 families in northern Samaria,
some 222 families have agreed to leave. …. Most of the families in Sa-Nur
are not leaving … only a small number of them are eligible for
compensation, as the tiny hilltop community is mostly populated by
recently arrived residents.”
One of the depressing things about driving round the West Bank is seeing
the seemingly inexorable expansion of Settlements and of the farming
activity of Settlers in the Jordan Valley. At some time in the future,
will there be repeat scenes of people being moved out of West Bank
Settlements? If such events do occur, it would be hoped that equal
air-time would be given to telling the stories of the people whose lands
were taken, and who have had to endure the trauma of being excluded from
their own home areas.
Sometimes comments are passed to the effect that “the Church of Scotland
Minister in Jerusalem is far too political.” Perhaps so. Perhaps not so!
Anyway to conclude this letter, let me refer to two different stories in
the two different papers that I try to read each day.
Jerusalem Post, 12th August, P1. “Pro-Israel Evangelicals may try to
block US aid.” ‘A Coalition of pro-Israel Evangelical groups is to meet
in Washington in the near future to discuss whether to actively oppose
US financial aid for Israel tied to disengagement, according to Richard
Hellman, head of Christians’ Israeli Public Action Committee.’
Haaretz, 12th August, PB3 – Interview with Monsignor Michel Sabah, the
Latin (Roman Catholic) Patriarch of Jerusalem.
Interviewer: “You, a religious leader, on the other hand, often sound
like a politician.”
Patriarch : “Perhaps. But even when I sound like a politician, God is
always very present in my life.
A second conclusion!
In the Crypt of the church of the Nativity, there is the place which
Christians revere as the place where Christ was born. In the words of
John’s Gospel, Chapter 1, verse 14 – “The Word became flesh and lived
among us.”
A few metres away there is another part of the cave system under the
Church, which is associated with St Jerome and his work of translating
the Bible into Latin. It was not sufficient that the Word became flesh –
it had to be written and spoken about in a way that people could
understand. Is it accidental that the two Crypts are so close together?
Or is it providential, and God is telling us something by their physical
proximity?
Religion and Life – (perhaps even Religion and Politics?) – belong
together.
Stay well. God bless. Joan and Clarence
Top
Circular Letter No 228
6th August 2005
At the end of last week, I was standing beside my car, enjoying the
shade of a tree, while there was a road block in place, set up by the
Police. They were investigating a “suspicious object” and for the second
time in two weeks, I had to stand and wait for the officers to satisfy
themselves about the object. I was joined by the security guard who was
on duty at the Post Office, checking everyone going in to see if they
had weapons. We chatted a bit, - exchanged the information that I was
from Scotland, and not Jewish, while he was originally from Georgia in
the Black Sea region, and was Jewish. It was not long before he started
to give me the benefit of his opinions about the Palestinians – not
humans and not even as good as animals – and then he spoke with venom
saying how he hated them, the Palestinians. Violence of language, which
might all too easily spill over into violence of action.
In a general conversation with a Jewish woman who is active in “the
Peace Movement” we talked of our different family backgrounds, the
different places where we had lived and worked, including Africa, and
then came to “the situation.” I was completely taken aback when she made
the following remark: “I am afraid that the Jews in Israel will become
like the whites in Zimbabwe.” I asked her to expand her thinking, and
she said she was afraid that the oppression of the Occupation would so
radicalise all Palestinians that there would be no chance for
reconciliation. The only possibility would be the use of force, first of
all by the Jewish people to try to maintain a presence here, and then by
the Palestinian people to oust the Jewish population.
Occasionally I take a walk in the early morning, and this week came
across a sort of Historical Poster. It is not too far from our house,
and it carries in English the following: “The area of Katamon posed a
threat to the security of the Jewish communities in the centre of
Jerusalem. Between 29th April and 2nd May 1948, it was conquered by
Jewish forces.” Walking round the area today, it is peaceful, virtually
100% Jewish, and its Arab inhabitants of pre - 1948 are in other parts
of Jerusalem, of Israel, or in Refugee Camps outside Israel. It was an
unexpected reminder to me that we are living in a country of conqueror
and conquered where, for many people, there is unfinished business. From
one strand within the Jewish community, there still remains the task of
clearing all non-Jews out of Israel. From one strand within the
Palestinian community, there still remains the task of expelling those
Jewish people who have come to live here.
I was listening to a woman who is a member of Machsomwatch – Checkpoint
Watch. She was recounting how she had been present at a major checkpoint
south of Nablus – the function of which is to control movement of
Palestinians within the West Bank. A man who was in the line waiting to
pass through the checkpoint had his papers examined, and then he was
stopped by the soldiers on duty. They asked what was the little picture
he was wearing in a sort of medallion round his neck. Not content with
his explanation, one of the soldiers took hold of it, and kept asking
others in the queue of they knew the person in the picture. It was not
enough for the man to have correct papers; he had to be able to explain,
to the satisfaction of the soldier, whose picture he was wearing.
The woman compared the lives of the Palestinians to that of slavery.
They could not travel where they wanted to go; they could not work where
they wanted; they could not build where they wanted; they could not wear
a picture without being cross-examined about it.
Violence is never very far from the surface, and all too tragically it
came bursting out on Thursday in Shfaram when a young Israeli Jewish man
shot and killed 4 people, and then himself was lynched.
The facts surrounding the event are relatively easy to set down. The
young Jewish man had become “religious’ and moved away from him home
near Tel Aviv to live in a Settlement on the West Bank, - a Settlement
well known for its extremism. He had commenced his military service, but
when ordered to take part in the building of a facility to be used by
the Israeli army in connection with the evacuation of Settlers from
Gaza, he had gone AWOL (Absent without leave). His family had contacted
the Army to ask that his military gun be taken from him, but nothing had
been done. On Thursday the tragic result was that in the Arab town of
Shfaram, he had killed 4 people, and then he himself was killed.
The questions abound, both within the Arab community and the Israeli
Jewish community.
Why was he allowed to continue to be AWOL without being taken back to
his Unit?
Why was his weapon not confiscated?
How is it that an Army which can have accurate information which enables
it to move into a Palestinian town, to a specific house, and arrest a
specific person in that house, cannot keep track of one of its own
soldiers?
Are there double-standards governing how Israeli Jewish citizens and
Israeli Arab citizens are treated?
What is the difference between a suicide bomber and a suicide gunman?
And so one could go on.
It was salutary to compare the response of the Media to the killings in
Shfaram with what I recall of the coverage of suicide bombings.
When a suicide bombing takes place, representatives of the Israeli
Government are on Television denouncing the violence of the
Palestinians; the barbarity of the bombers; the threat to the existence
of Israel and the right of Israel to take what it considers necessary
steps to defend itself. It has often been said that the bombers show
that Israel has no “partner” with whom it can discuss and plan for
peace. I recall the English language TV news channels that I see – BBC,
Sky News, CNN, running reports on such killings for most of the
following 24 hours.
On BBC World, on its early morning edition on Friday 5th August – 0800
hours in Jerusalem – I do not recall there being a single mention of the
killings in Shfaram. One wonders what would have been the coverage, and
what the language of the reporters, if there had been a Palestinian
suicide bomber who had killed 4 people in a bus in Tel Aviv or some
other town in Israel.
There has been extensive coverage of the killings in both Haaretz and
the Jerusalem Post – the two English language papers which we see. I
will mention just one very thought-provoking little comment. Haaretz
Friday August 5, P2 “We warned IDF about him, killer’s family says
angrily.” ‘Emotions ran high last night in the Rishon Letzion home of
the Natan-Zeda family, whose son Eden, 19, killed four bus passengers in
Shfaram yesterday. “Every day he sees terror attacks. Every day he hears
they’re evacuating us, evicting us from our home. What is he supposed to
do,” asked Eden’s 21 year old brother Itai.’ What is a young Israeli
Jewish person to do when he opposed the Evacuation of Settlers from
Gaza, and how is he supposed to react to what he perceives to be the
presence of ‘enemies’ (as Arabs are often viewed) within his country?
Itai’s comment in no way condones what his brother Eden did. It
confronts us with the dilemma of how should a young Jewish man respond
to the circumstances around him.
On many, many occasions, I have heard exactly the same thing said by
people on the West Bank, and by Arab people here in Jerusalem. Given the
level of violence used against the Palestinian community, the
restrictions imposed by the Israeli Army, the harassment suffered by the
population of the West Bank in general, how are people supposed to
react?
This week, the dilemma produced not the Palestinian suicide bomber, but
the Jewish suicide gunman.
Friday 5th August.
I spent much of the day in Bethlehem in the company of a group of young
people from Scotland, members of a party sponsored by the Glasgow YMCA
visiting the Jerusalem International YMCA. On Friday morning they had
been taken to see one of the areas of Jerusalem called Shuafat – home to
refugees from other parts of Jerusalem, who had been forced out of their
homes in 1948. They then went to see The Wall.
Following that, we went off the Bethlehem, passing the checkpoint and
going through the Wall at what will become the road for Jewish pole
going to Rachel’s Tomb. Part of the afternoon was spent in being
“tourists” – visiting the Church of the Nativity, and the Shepherds’
Fields. Part was spent visiting Daheisha Refugee Camp, and hearing
something of the work of the Al Feneiq Centre there – the Camp is home
to 11,000 people living in an area of approx. 0.25 sq kms.
Most of the people living there had either been forced from their
villages in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem in 1948, or had left their
villages (depending on which historian you agree with).
We concluded our visit with a meal with some young adults associated
with the Reconciliation Centre, Wi’am. Two had just graduated from
Bethlehem University. One was still a student at Bethlehem University
and another was a student at the University in Jenin. All were very
articulate, and very concerned about the future of their city and
country. They spoke of the pressures on the community – economic, with
little work; physical, with less and less land for building, due to the
Wall and the construction of Settlements on the land of Bethlehem, Beit
Jala and Beit Sahour towns; psychological, with the difficulties in
moving from one part of the West Bank to another, and the constant need
to pass checkpoints. Not surprisingly they spoke of the emigration of
people away from Bethlehem – many of the families which have left being
part of the Christian community, thus making even smaller what is
already a small community.
One of the really encouraging aspects of the conversation was that,
despite all the restrictions, they spoke of their determination to stay
in Bethlehem, even if they might have to leave for further studies. They
spoke of families who have left, and now thinking seriously about coming
back to Bethlehem.
Two thoughts kept coming back to me as we left to come home – and spent
35 minutes waiting to get through the checkpoint.
The one was to compare the freedoms enjoyed by the young folk from
Scotland – travel, work, free to be their own people, and not have to
explain anything about the photographs they carry etc.
The other was to compare the young Bethlehem men and women with the
young man whom I mentioned at the beginning of this letter. Not once did
I hear the word “hate” mentioned by the young people in Bethlehem.
Just for the record : Helen Shehadeh’s Permit to enter Jerusalem has
expired. On going to have it renewed, the Israeli Army refused to renew
it – a Security Closure was/is in place, and no permits were being
issued, except for emergencies.
To conclude. In the 1980’s, Murrayfield Congregation in Edinburgh
developed a link with a congregation in Prague. This led to some of the
young people from Prague travelling to Scotland. It was not that they
wanted to emigrate – just that they wanted the freedom to be themselves
for a while. It had been hoped that a group of young adults associated
with Wiam would travel to Scotland this year. The trip did not
materialise. Anyone who would be interested in trying to make such a
trip happen next year could get in touch with me.
Stay well. God bless.
Joan and Clarence.
P S There may be a letter next week, maybe not. We leave at the end of
the week to visit Vivienne and her daughter – possibly also Gordon, but
he has work to do in Iraq.
Top
Circular Letter No 227
29th July 2005
One of the most chilling short paragraphs in the press coverage of the
killing of the young Brazilian man in a tube train in London, came in
the Observer of Sunday July 24th. I cannot give the page reference, but
it reads: “Armed officers are instructed to shoot at the head, not the
chest, when facing a suspected suicide bomber, to disable them faster.
The change follows advice from the Israeli police.”
One of the continuing sources of great anger here among Israeli
opponents of the policies of the Government, within the international
community who come here to join in protests against those policies, and
among the Palestinian community, is the way in which numerous people
have been shot and killed when they had no connection with any violence
that was taking place at that time. One would hope that any “learning”
by the British police from either police or army units in Israel would
include a study as to what the effects of police violence are on those
who are subjected to it.
One of the strands of rhetoric that I have heard in the past few days is
the need to draw the Muslim community in to the process of confronting
suicide bombers. From what I have seen here, one of the surest way to do
exactly the opposite would be to follow the practice of people in the
Israeli forces and shoot at suspects heads. I wonder what the effect
will be on relations with the Muslim community in the UK when the first
killing of a young Muslim person happens, who is later shown to have had
no connection with any alleged terrorist activity.
Looking at TV and listening to the people interviewed – Government
ministers, Police leaders – regretting the killing of the young
Brazilian but saying how necessary such actions are, is horribly
reminiscent of listening here to the words spoken by people about the
killing of Palestinians – necessary to combat terrorism.
Is this advice the sort of advice that you want your police to follow?
What effect has it had on people here? Do we want that same sort of
alienation to occur in the UK?
“Can the leopard change its spots?” - or put another way, with more
local relevance. Once the Settlers have been evacuated from the Gaza
Strip, and once they have settled in new communities, will they change
their ideological and theological beliefs, and become more “normal”, of
will they retain these beliefs and just put them into practice in their
new homes?
This question is the basis for a thought-provoking article in Haaretz
Week’s End, P B2, July 22nd. Entitled “This isn’t my story” and written
by Lily Galili, it records the views of three Israeli Arab men about the
Disengagement and their fears as to what will happen after it.
One strand running through it is the fact that, though citizens of the
State of Israel, the Israeli Arabs feel extremely distanced from the
whole matter of Disengagement. Dr Adel Manna is a Historian at Hebrew
University and the Van Leer Institute here in Jerusalem. He is quoted as
saying about the Disengagement: “My voice is not being heard, partly
because no-one is interested in it. The Disengagement is an Israeli
operation, and the Israelis are acting as if they were facing the third
destruction of the Temple. This Disengagement is the exclusive story of
the Jewish tribe; it isn’t our business. When they talk about the future
of the ‘home’, the don’t ask the opinion of the subtenants.’
Lutfi Mashour is the editor of Al-Sinara, the Arabic-language newspaper
published in Nazareth. It never even occurred to him to send a
correspondent to Gush Katif, even though reporters from all over the
world are inundating the area. … This week Mashour did not watch the
violent scuffle between the settlers and the army and police. All he
could think about was how it would have ended had the demonstrators been
Arabs, working out in his head the multiples of the 13 Arabs killed in
the October 2000 riots in relation to the number of demonstrators.
Mashour anticipates that the situation of the Israeli Arabs will only
get worse. ‘For now, the settlers are busy with the Palestinians in
Gaza’ he says. ‘When the settlers come back inside the Green Line, we
will be their Palestinians. The internal conflict with the Arabs in
Israel will only be aggravated.’ He finds the fist signs of this
phenomenon in the current atmosphere and the language that is now being
used. For instance, when the evacuees of Gush Katif are called upon to
go and “Judaize” the Galilee, Mashour wonders “whose land are they
threatening now? When they leave there [Gaza], I feel threatened here
[Galilee].
Dr Aziz Haider is a Sociologist at the Hebrew University. He sees no
improvement in the situation. On the contrary, when he watches the
conflict between security forces and the Settlers, he only grows more
worried. He is personally frightened by the level of violence of the
settlers. ‘If they are hitting policemen, they can certainly hit me.
Except that when that happens, the policeman that is now on the
receiving end of the beating will once again be on their side.
Everything has only gotten more frightening.”
Will the “Settler leopard” change its spots?
Tuesday July 26th.
We had to visit Jayyous on behalf of a group of French people who are
sponsoring a young girl from the village to do Nursing Training in
Ramallah. Our role in the arrangement is to check that all is well and
that money has arrived to pay for fees etc. The girl had passed her
Leaving Certificate examinations; she is making arrangements to register
for her further studies, and all being well will start in Ramallah in
September. Talking with folk in the village it is heart-rending to hear
of how many folk qualify for further education, but just have not the
financial means to be able to go to University or College. In this
particular instance, the family is poor, and the girl would have no
chance of education except for outside support. What will happen to the
other 44 youngsters who qualified for further education is anyone’s
guess. Certainly, some will manage to find money from their extended
families. Others will stay in the village. It is not all that different
from the situation with which we worked when in rural Zambia, where many
youngsters could not afford to go to school or further education. What
makes it different here is that so much of the economic hardship results
from the effects of Occupation for the past 38 years.
Last time we visited the village, we had been able to make a donation to
the Volleyball Club. It was NIS 1,000 (£130 or $220). We were told that
this weekend there would be tournament in the village with 20 teams
coming from different parts of the West Bank to participate, made
possible by this donation. It will not end the Occupation, but it will
make a group of youngsters feel better, even if only for a day or two.
Thursday July 28th.
I had to take a visitor to Bethlehem. We crossed the checkpoint where
our papers were looked at in a very civil manner by a young soldier who
was courteous in carrying out her duty. I may not agree with the duty,
but I clued find no fault with her performance.
How different a kilometre down the road. Inside Bethlehem, which I had
thought the Israeli authorities had “handed over” to the Palestinians,
there was a mobile checkpoint. I have never experienced such a
checkpoint within Bethlehem before. Traffic was stopped: documents were
examined at length; cars were inspected; even tyres were kicked by one
of the soldiers, for what purpose I do not know; residents of Bethlehem
going home from work were stopped and made to come to a soldier one at a
time to have their papers inspected. When our turn came, the soldier was
taciturn, abrupt and rude. His voice was hard, his eyes were hard, and
there was a sinister air about his presence. When he was satisfied that
we were not a threat he then handed back my passport with the greeting
“You may go. Have a good day.”
How different when I left Bethlehem via Beit Jala checkpoint. The
soldier was relaxed, the atmosphere was almost pleasant, and as I drove
by, the young pleasant faced soldier greeted me with the one word
“Shalom.”
What a pity the filling in the sandwich had to be so objectionable.
There has been a large reduction in the number of incidents where
Palestinians have used firearms against Israelis – they have not ceased,
but they have been reduced. One of the things that one hoped would go
along with this is the easing of travel restrictions on the West Bank –
people moving from town to town, village to village, within the West
Bank – and not even trying to get to Israel. Yet our experience in the
last while would seem to indicate an increase in “mobile” checkpoints –
mobile in the sense that there are no buildings, no permanent road
barriers, just military jeeps parked across the road and spiked chains
stretched out to shred the tyres of anyone who wishes to ignore the
soldiers. Yet, regularly these sorts of barriers appear at the same
places. Regularly there are long queues of Palestinian vehicles parked
waiting to be inspected and allowed to proceed. Imagine sitting in one
of the queues waiting for anything up to an hour, and watching the
Settlers driving past without so much as an application of their brakes.
It is not hard to see what sorts of feelings are being built up over the
years.
There has been an enormous furore here over the sale of Leases on
property owned by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate inside the Jaffa Gate
of the Old City, at the entrance to the Christian Quarter of the Old
City. The leases have allegedly been sold to Jewish companies or
individuals. The outcry against the sale led to the ousting of the Greek
Orthodox Patriarch, and the process has started to nominate a successor.
This week there arrived news of another proposed step in the expansion
of Jewish presence in the Old City, this time in the Muslim Quarter.
“Jerusalem OKs Neighbourhood Construction” By Ramit Plushnick-Masti.c
The Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) Jerusalem planners have approved the
construction of a new Jewish neighbourhood in the city's Muslim Quarter,
officials said Tuesday, threatening to further inflame tensions between
Israelis and Palestinians in the city claimed by both as a capital.
The plan to build 21 apartments for Jews in the walled Old City's Muslim
Quarter was approved 5-2 by a local planning board late Monday, said
Yosef Alalu, a dovish city council member who is on the committee. The
plan has to go through several more bureaucratic stages before final
approval. The plan was presented to the planning board by the Housing
Ministry.
Israeli moves to settle Arab neighbourhoods of the city have sparked
violence in the past. The current plan could be even more incendiary
because it does not involve private property transactions, but is backed
by the government. Alalu said the municipality would have to rezone a
``green'' area to build the apartments. The Old City consists of four
quarters - Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Armenian. Today, just a few
Jewish families live in the Muslim Quarter, in fortified complexes. The
plan approved Monday - which has been in the works for several years -
would violate a city ban on building within 10 yards of the Old City
wall, Alalu said.
Israeli human rights activist Danny Seidemann said Sharon's goal is to
strengthen the hold on Jerusalem while the world's attention is focused
on his upcoming Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Withdrawal from Gaza – expansion in Galilee, the West Bank and the Old
City. Ingredients for Peace?
Good News : Sunbula has a new website : check it out at
www.sunbula.org
Not so good news : After charges, Sterling is now down to NIS 7.65 = £1,
from NIS 8.13 = £1 in January.
Better news : Dollar is up to NIS 4.36 = $1 from NIS 4.24 = $1
Stay well. God bless.
Joan and Clarence
Top
Circular
Letter No 226
23rd July 2005
Thursday 21st July
Being here in Jerusalem is a great place for showing up one’s lack of
knowledge, (more bluntly, ignorance.) I must have heard of them 4 years
ago, but had forgotten. However, the Maccabiah Games have just finished
with a major ceremony in Jerusalem. In case there are some who do no
know what the Maccabiah Games are, they are a sort of Olympic Games held
every 4 years for Jewish people. As far as I am aware, the only people
who can participate are Jewish.
However, who is Jewish and can therefore compete in the Games? According
to an article in Haaretz on 19th July P1 “’Who is a Jew’ at the
Maccabiah Games”, that depends on what country you come from. From
Australia and South Africa, only athletes with a Jewish mother qualify
to compete. From the United States, athletes with a Jewish father can
compete. Argentina accepts non-Jews married to Jews, and their children.
To qualify for the Dutch team, you have to have at least one Jewish
grandparent. There obviously is room for some debate as to who is, or is
not, Jewish, at least in terms of the Games.
The ceremony I mentioned above meant major traffic disruption, which
stopped some participants getting to a special service organised by
Sabeel to mark the first anniversary of the International Court of
Justice ruling on the Wall being built by the Israeli government, most
of which is sited on Palestinian land. The service took place in the
grounds of a Roman Catholic Church in Abu Dis, close to the church
associated with the home of Mary and Martha. Through the grounds of the
Church, across the olive grove beside it, marches The Wall. At this
point, it has not been completed, as there are still a number of court
cases to be heard, presenting petitions against the proposed route. So,
the Wall comes down the hill, and then starkly ends several hundred
metres from the next part which has been completed. Recognising that
this is a potential route for people from outside the Wall to reach
Jerusalem, the Israeli army routinely stations soldiers at the entrance
to the Church’s grounds, and checks people entering and leaving. We
passed the 6 or 7 soldiers without anyone being stopped. They had moved
down to the road by the time we were leaving the Church. We were a small
group, some Palestinian Christians, some expatriates. The service was
sombre, and in the course of it the preacher, a Greek Orthodox priest,
asked that we pray for the people of London and the troubles they are
facing.
To pray for the peace of Jerusalem beside an 8-metre high concrete wall
requires something: Naiveté that prayer can do anything? Desperation
that the only thing left to do is to pray? Realism that divine
intervention is the only way that people will be changed? I think for
many of us, the overwhelming feelings were of impotence to influence
events here, and of sadness at the seemingly inexorable march of the
Wall which is unlikely to bring peace. even if it has contributed to a
drop in violence within Israel. Would that there was a concomitant drop
in violence within Palestine.
From time to time I mention that when travelling on the West Bank we
come upon “mobile check points” – units of the Israeli Army which have
partially blocked a road and are checking vehicles and passengers.
Settlers routinely drive past such checkpoints. We drive, slowly, to the
soldiers, and after explanations, are allowed to pass. Not so
Palestinians. We recently met a young woman who had travelled, totally
legally, from Qalqilya to Jerusalem, a distance of approx 100 kms. At
one mobile checkpoint, there was a delay of 2 ½ hours. The whole journey
took her 6 hours. For us, travelling from Jayyous to Jerusalem rarely
takes as much as 2 hours. Such checkpoints do not affect passage of
people from the West Bank into Israel. There are permanent checkpoints
which people have to negotiate to move into Israel. The mobile
checkpoints affect traffic within the West Bank – people moving from one
Palestinian area to another. What sort of reaction would you have if a
routine visit within your own country could only take place after
scrutiny by soldiers of an occupying army? This occupation has been
going on since 1967. If you had been subjected to a generation of such
checks, what sort of image would you build up of such soldiers?
Friday. 22nd July.
On several occasions, we have been told by Israeli soldiers that we
should get out of the particular Palestinian village that we are in, as
it is not safe. Perhaps some day we shall agree with their assessment,
but so far, we have never been accorded anything but a welcome in any
village we have visited. Today was no exception. We were invited to
attend the weddings of two of the nephews of two of the women of the
Idna cooperative, and so we arrived in the village about 1600 hours. The
first thing for us was to be welcomed – sit on a chair under an awning
and have a chat with our friends. Then it was food time – delicious
rice, liquid cheese sauce and meat. Only the thought of the exercise
required to shed the extra pounds kept us from eating far too much, it
was so delicious.
Then there was a chance for Clarence to sit and talk with the men, while
Joan and a Japanese friend Toshiko went to join the women in the
dancing! I think Clarence got the more relaxing assignment, but Joan and
Toshiko got the more interesting.
1745 hours and it was time to go to the houses of the brides. I had the
honour of driving the father of the clan, plus a few others. Into the
first house, shake hands with the men folk, sit down and drink a glass
of water or soft drink, and then back to the cars, with the bride coming
along in a specially decorated car. Off to the second home, where the
same thing happened. Then back to the starting point, the home of the
bridegrooms.
Danger never crossed our minds – the welcome was so warm and so genuine.
What a pity that the two communities here – the Jewish and the Arab –
are so separated that they cannot share this sort of experience. What a
privilege for us to be able to be there.
Checkpoints this week.
A total of 45 minutes spent negotiating the check point at the north of
Ramallah and only 20 minutes getting in and out of the Bethlehem check
point. Still, that is over an hour spent in remarkably unproductive
“work”.
One of the big news items this week, certainly in Israel, has been the
attempt by thousands of opponents of the Disengagement from Gaza to
march to Gaza. The March was well advertised. The response of the
authorities was to ban it. When, however, thousands of protesters
arrived in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip on Monday night, after an
initial confrontation, the Police allowed the protesters to go to an
Israeli village, Kfar Maimon. In the village, the protesters and
demonstrators were largely confined by large number of police and army
personnel. Finally, on Thursday most of the people involved returned
northwards, and this part of the protests came to an end.
As you might expect, opinions in the Press vary greatly.
Tuesday July 19: Haaretz P1. “Ready to cross lines” by Ari Shavit. ‘The
battle for Israeli sovereignty is taking place in the fields on the way
to Kfar Maimon in the south of the country. They stood in long lines,
the youths of the rule of law and the youths of total belief. One was
silent and scared, the other was pressuring for refusal. One was idle,
the other was calling out “Jews don’t banish Jews.” At 2130 hours.
Border Police officers stopped the orange march, two kilometres from
Netivot. Was there really a need? Was it right to use Israel Defence
Forces soldiers to stop a civilian rally inside sovereign Israeli
territory?’
Tuesday July 19: Haaretz P5. “Ending the colonialism” by Oren Yiftachel.
‘Over the years we have been exposed to initiatives for conciliation
between religious and secular … but all of them err in whitewashing the
root of the problem – the Jewish colonialism in the territories. … Both
the new plan for the Negev, [drawn up without any consultation with the
Bedouin who live there] and the disengagement [from Gaza] reflect the
Israeli approach of universalism that has been dominant for years – the
attempt to impose the Jewish “consensus” on a binational reality,
without dialogue or understanding. That is, the Jews will decide the
Palestinians’ future among themselves.’
While this confrontation and debate takes place, we see what many
believe to be an integral part of the whole process: the expansion of
the Settlements. Almost every time we drive down the road past Efrat,
south of Bethlehem, we see new houses being built on the hills. This
week there is a new Pill-box at the southern exit of Bethlehem (which
has been blocked since the end of 2000). Clearly visible are new houses
under construction on the hills stretching north from the main part of
the Settlement.
Closer to home is the Wall, and this elicited an article from Amira Haas,
Haaretz Thursday July 21, P5. “On the slope of Jewish democracy.” ‘Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon is not dividing Jerusalem. Neither is Minister
Haim Roman. They have simply found a faster and more efficient way than
those tried before to get rid of tens of thousands of Palestinian
residents of Jerusalem – after the process of robbing them of their
lands for the benefits of the Jewish residents has been exhausted. … At
the beginning of last week the Government decided to speed up the
construction of the separation fence in the Jerusalem area. …The
Ministry of Defence has promised that the route was determined according
to security considerations along and that it took into consideration the
overall interests of the residents. But Haim Ramon last week said on
Israel Radio, with mincing words. “[The decision of] the Government
reinforces the security of Jerusalem, and also makes it more Jewish. The
government is bringing security to the city and will also make Jerusalem
the capital of a Jewish and democratic State of Israel.” In other
words,: clear demographic considerations are determining the route – as
much land as possible in the hands of Israel, as few Arabs as possible.’
One of the ironies of the present situation is that the person driving
the withdrawal from Gaza is Mr. Sharon. He is one of the principal
architects of the Settlement programme. He said at the time of the last
election that Gaza was like Tel Aviv – an integral part of Israel. Now
he is leading the Withdrawal. On Friday, in Haaretz P2 he is reported as
having said while visiting Ariel Settlement “I reiterate and clarify
that this bloc is one of the most important. It will forever be part of
the State of Israel. There is no other thought and no other direction of
thinking.” Maybe, paradoxically, that gives some hope. Having been fully
committed to Gaza and now fully committed to Withdrawal from Gaza,
perhaps some day he might see the benefit of withdrawal from Ariel?
Stay well. God bless
Joan and Clarence
PS. One of the minor miracles of nature. The balcony beside our bedroom
has a railing around it. To the railing Joan tied a large plastic water
bottle in the side of which she had cut an opening. A mixture of water
and sugar, with red food colouring, was put in the bottom. The sunbirds
which live around us, never having seen it before, took only a short
while to realise that it was food – and we have a steady stream of
visitors.
Top
27 July 2005
I do not send many pictures, but yesterday we were part of a small group
which held a service at the Wall, to mark the 1st Anniversary of the
ruling of the International Court of Justice about the legality of the
Wall. Remember it?
This picture shows one place where some people can still clamber past
the Wall, if there are not police or soldiers to stop them.
Clarence
Top
Circular Letter No 225
15th July 2005
The priest started to sing softly “Adeste fideles” (O come all ye
faithful). Within a moment or two all who were there had joined him in
singing the first verse of this Christmas carol – in the middle of July.
Anywhere else it would have seemed a trifle bizarre, but in the Crypt of
the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the fact that it was midsummer
rather than midwinter seemed irrelevant. The singers were the monks and
nuns who live in Bethlehem, joined by pilgrims from different parts of
the world, who had most emphatically come there as “the faithful.” I
doubt that I have ever sung those words in such an emotional situation,
and I certainly will never sing them again without remembering this
short service in Bethlehem.
The language of war is all around us at the moment. War on terror, in
America, in England, in Iraq, and here in Israel. War on those who are
perceived by others to be the cause of terror – the Americans, the
British and their allies in Iraq, the Israelis occupying the West Bank,
to name but two situations.
And there we were, people from all over the world, including the USA and
the UK, singing about a different approach to solving the problems of
the world – the vulnerable way of Christ, his Incarnation, his Cross and
his Resurrection.
The elected leaders of the US and the UK are religious men of Christian
faith – and yet they seem to be singing a different song. One wonders
what would change, if anything, if they had the chance to sit in the
Crypt for 30 minutes and share in the songs of the priests and the
pilgrims and sing “O come all ye faithful.”
Part of the reason for being in Bethlehem had been to bring donations to
different people to support their work.
A donation for Wiam, a Christian Centre of Conflict Resolution, offering
its services to the whole community. Next week there will be up to 100
young adults on one of the summer courses organised by Wiam, being
offered a different perspective on settling problems by conversation
rather than by conflict. To pay for the course they need NIS 9,000
($2,000). I could offer half of this from the donations you make for the
work we try to support here.
A donation for Al Shurooq School for the Visually Handicapped. You may
recall that the school – 25 children and accompanying staff - had gone
on a holiday to Tabgha, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. I had been
able to help get the permits for the staff to travel in Israel. Other
groups had not been so fortunate. The cost of the transport there, and
then the return journey by Haifa and the shores of the Mediterranean had
cost NIS 3,500 (approx $780). From your donations, I was able to refund
Al Shurooq the cost of the transport.
Monday 11th July
Tabeetha Scholl, which is in Jaffa, and is run by the Church of
Scotland, is one of three Christian schools in a little clump in Jaffa.
It is the only one which uses English as the medium of instruction. As
such, it offers a service not only to the local community, but also to
the international community who live and work in the Tel Aviv area. It
is registered with the Israeli Ministry of Education, and regularly
passes all the inspections which take place in connection with this
Registration. One of the important elements in the life of the school is
the presence of a number of English speaking Christian staff. They help
to give the School its distinctive character. Over two years ago, the
process of obtaining Visas for 4 of the School’s teachers commenced.
After untold hours of work, visits to different offices, letters being
written etc. approval was given for the 3 remaining teachers to be given
Visas. Unfortunately, this permission seems not to have been
communicated to the office in Tel Aviv which has the task of issuing the
Visas. So, this morning at 0630 hours I left for a visit to the office
in Tel Aviv.
8 kms down the road there was a hold up in the traffic. A car had
overturned on a sharp bend in the road. 45 kms down the road, another
hold up. A sports vehicle and a police car had been in collision.
Fortunately I had left adequate time to get to the office, evening
allowing for traffic delays. We had two tasks. The first was to ask
about the outstanding visas for the 3 teachers. The second was to submit
a form for a visa for the new Principal of the School. With regard to
the first, nothing doing – still no word from Jerusalem to the office in
Tel Aviv, despite the fact that word had been given to the British
Embassy! With regard to the second, what we had thought was more or less
a straightforward transfer of an existing permission for the outgoing
Principal to the incoming Principal had to be referred to Jerusalem. A
phone call, and a Fax, later and we were told that the person in
Jerusalem needed to talk with someone more senior. We were invited to
get in touch later. I got home at 1230 hours having achieved nothing.
[PS. In a phone call on Wednesday from Tel Aviv I was told that the
Principal’s application for a Visa had been approved and the Visa would
be issued when she made an appointment to come to the office.
Hallelujah! The other three are still waiting.]
That afternoon, I had some work to do in Ramallah. That means
checkpoints. It took only 20 minutes waiting to get in to Ramallah. We
gave up after 15 minutes in the queue coming out, and went exploring. 35
kms later we passed the end of the road to the check point, having not
had to pass any checkpoint at all. At one point, we did ask directions
from an Israeli army patrol. The young American born soldier was very
helpful and put us on the right road. Like other soldiers whom we have
met before, he told us that the Palestinian village to which we were
heading was a dangerous place, and that we would not come out alive if
we went in there! We did not tell him about the places we regularly
visit.
Our inconveniences pale into insignificance when one compares them with
the news in both the English language papers today : Jerusalem Post P1
“55,000 Arabs to be fenced out of Jerusalem.” ‘About 55,000 Jerusalem
Arabs will find themselves on the Palestinian side of the fence when it
is completed. Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday, while 185,000
Arabs will remain on the Israeli side, as well as the 30,000 Jewish
residents of Ma’aleh Adumim Settlement. … In an attempt to alleviate the
difficulties the barrier will pose in a city were one-third of its
200,000 residents is Arab, the Cabinet on Sunday approved a plan to
build 11 passages through it. … The city will bus the nearly 3,700
pupils expected to be cut off from their schools from one side of the
barrier to the other and will administer procedures for providing
medical and humanitarian services. “It’s inconceivable that we will be
in a situation where thousands of children will need to undergo a
security check every morning on their way to school, “ Mayor Lupolianski
said Sunday, calling such a scenario “a proven recipe for deepening
anger and hatred.”’
Haaretz P2 “55,000 Jerusalem Arabs to remain outside fence.” ‘The
Ministry of Health will draw up regulations to allow speedy and humane
handling of medical emergencies at the entryways, and to ease passage of
physicians and medical equipment. The ministry will be expected to
encourage East Jerusalem hospitals to develop “branches” on the other
side of the fence.’ This is one paragraph from a Report which sets out
the work that The Municipality, the Defence Ministry, the Ministry of
Public Security, the Ministry of Communications and the Israel Postal
Authority, the Welfare Ministry and the National Insurance Institute,
the Ministry of Transportation, and the Employment Service will all have
to do before the Fence is completed by September 1st. There are just
over 50 days before the date given by the Government for the completion
of the Jerusalem section of the Wall, in which all these administrative
arrangements have to be in place.
If, within Israel, and dealing with an expatriate application for Visas,
it has taken over two years and the issue is still not resolved, and if
one considers the experiences of people living in Bethlehem with a
legitimate reason for getting to Jerusalem and who find it almost
impossible to make the journey, it is virtually inconceivable that the
necessary administrative arrangements will be in place. Even if they
are, the people affected are people who have been given what are called
Jerusalem ID cards, and have been living under occupation since 1967.
One compares this decision and its time scale with the length of time
allocated to arrange the removal of the Settlements from Gaza. It may be
argued that one cannot compare the arrangements necessary for moving
one’s whole house and home to a new location, with being able to stay in
one’s home and having to cope with the Wall. There are enough reports of
people needing medical treatment, to name but one area of concern, who
have been delayed or turned back at checkpoints, to make one more than
anxious about what will happen to anyone among these 55,000 who fall
sick and need hospital treatment, and how they will get to hospital. At
least the Settlers will be within Israel, and still have access to all
the services provided by the State.
Wednesday 13th July.
The papers make sombre reading this morning. “Riots in Belfast”.
“Home-grown suicide bombers in the UK” Then what we have feared for a
long time : “3 killed, dozens hurt in Islamic Jihad suicide bombing;
Israel vows fierce response.” ‘An Islamic Jihad suicide bomber killed
three women and injured 90, five seriously, near the Sharon shopping
mall in Netanya yesterday.’ This story will be told and re-told all over
the world. I have said it before, and I repeat it, that suicide bombing,
whether here, or in UK, or in Iraq, or wherever, is evil. The
differences of opinion arise when one tries to consider what are the
root causes of it.
Perhaps you will have heard the story of this family – perhaps not.
Haaretz Sunday July 10, P2. “Security guard shoots Palestinian teen in
family vineyard.” ‘A 15-year old boy was shot to death Friday evening by
a civilian security guard securing the separation fence near the village
of Beit Lakiya, near Highway 443. Palestinian sources said that Mahyoub
al-Asi was shot by the guard, whom he knew, from a distance while
tending his family’s vineyard several hundred metres away. Al-Asi’s
cousins Jamal, 14, and Uday, 15, were killed by Israel Defence Forces
fire nearby a few months ago. His brother was also killed by a mine
explosion near the village several years ago. … According to testimony
by the ambulance crew, Asi was shot while in the fenced family allotment
located 200 metres from the bulldozer parking lot being guarded.’
In the Guardian website for Monday July 11, 2005, there is a report
about the words of the British Foreign Secretary at Srebrenica. “Straw
apologises for Srebrenica massacres.” Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said
today that the International community should feel “shame” for not
preventing the massacres in Srebrenica in 1995. Speaking at a ceremony
to mark the ten-year anniversary of the massacres, in which 8,000 Muslim
men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serb forces, he said it had been one
of the darkest chapters in European history since 1945. "For it is to
the shame of the international community that this evil took place under
our noses and we did nothing like enough. I bitterly regret this and I
am deeply sorry for it," he said.
In Haaretz Monday July 11, P5. “The disengagement as smoke screen.”
‘Exactly one year ago the International court of Justice in the Hague
ruled that the fence that Israel is building in the territories is
illegal. However, one hardly needs to mention that the construction has
been affected only cosmetically.’ Jonathan Pollack.’
“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things
not seen.” Three conversations this week were built around Hope.
1. Jayyous. I keep going, said Abdullatif, by trying to give hope to
other people. He was speaking after we had met a young girl who has been
given hope of higher education by people in France.
2. Bethlehem. I keep going, said Zougbi, because we have to offer people
hope in the middle of so much hopelessness.
3. Daheisha Refugee Camp, Bethlehem. I keep going, said Naji, because if
we do not offer people hope, then we offer them nothing.
By offering hope, they do not mean some sweet panacea. They mean
supporting people as they struggle to improve themselves, to educate
themselves, to enrich their communities, to cope with the pressures put
on their society by the Occupation which has been going on since 1967 –
as they affirm their worth.
And all this is in the context of increasing violence, both within the
Palestinian community, and between the Palestinian community and the
Israeli community.
Stay well. God bless
Joan and Clarence
Top
Circular Letter No 224
8th July 2005
There is a saying about familiarity breeding contempt, and something
that I once heard about age dulling ones senses. Today we took a journey
with which we have become familiar over the past 2 or 3 years, from
Jerusalem to Jayyous, the village near Qalqilya which we have been
visiting fairly regularly. We had with us today two Palestinian friends,
for one of whom this was a first visit to Jayyous. It was interesting to
experience the journey through his eyes, and see afresh things which we
had perhaps become accustomed to seeing. Maybe we had allowed our senses
to become dulled to what we had seen so often.
On the northern outskirts of Jerusalem, the road passes Pisgat Ze’ev – a
major Israeli Settlement on Palestinian lands. It passes close to the
line of the Wall. Already the road which the Israeli army will use to
patrol the Wall is in place, and already some sections of it have been
constructed. The reason given by virtually every official representative
of the Israeli Government for the Wall is “Security”. The reason given
for it by most Palestinian representatives is “Land Grab.” It is hard to
resist the latter when one sees the way in which all the open space to
the East of Pisgat Ze’ev is enclosed behind the line of the Wall, so
that it will be available for more house building for the Settlement.
Kilometres up the road, one passes along the valley below the large
Israeli Settlement of Ariel. It dominates the valley from the ridge on
which it is built, and now below it there is gash in the earth, where
preparations are under way to build another section of the Wall. This is
the place about which I wrote a couple of weeks ago, where thousands of
olive trees will be destroyed to make way for the Wall. Security may be
one rationale for the building of the Wall, but the fact that it is
kilometres inside the Green Line makes it abundantly clear that there is
an additional motive – take land while one can.
Standing on the car park beside the Municipal building of Jayyous, and
looking out to the sea in the West and round to the North, one sees the
Fence snaking along, cutting villages off from their lands and their
wells.
For us, all these sights have become part of our regular experience, and
so perhaps we do accept them too easily. For our friend there was
emotional and even physical pain at seeing his land violated in this
way. It was a searing experience, despite his having read about the
Wall/Fence, and having seen it in place around Jerusalem.
To all of this was added the extent of the Settlements. Again, this is
something which arouses indignation in us, and we try to convey this to
you from time to time. For our friend, it was almost beyond belief to
see the cancer spreading across Palestine – a cancer of red-roofed cells
concentrated together in large clumps, which are rapidly being joined up
by new building.
In a book that is read by both Jews and Christians, there is a section
which says: “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house … or anything
that belongs to your neighbour.” When I mentioned this to a Jewish
person one day, he replied that of course he agreed with that. However,
when I asked about Settlements and taking the land from other people, he
said that he was not taking the land of other people – he was taking
back his own land, on which others had been living but which did not
belong to them.
It is amazing that in a country which prides itself on its Intelligence
network and the information which it is able to provide about almost
everything the Palestinian community does on the West Bank, the same
Intelligence network seems to be woefully unable to provide the
Government with information about expansion of Settlements. Or perhaps
the Government does have the information, but just ignores it, to create
what everyone here calls “facts on the ground.”
And is it really the case that those Governments which are so insistent
on people following Resolutions of the UN do not know of the inexorable
expansion of the Settlements? Assuming they do, are they guilty of being
accessories to the breaking of Resolutions of the UN?
Looking out from Jayyous we saw the areas which the village farmers can
still reach. As you may recall, there are two Gates in the Fence. The
North Gate is the one closest to the farms, and for some weeks now it
has been open for about 12 hours a day. This allows farmers to have a
chance to get a good day’s work on their orchards and green houses. It
is still guarded, and soldiers are there to check people crossing from
the village to the farms, and back from the farms to the village.
The road to the North Gate runs relatively close to the village, and
though it takes time to get to their fields, it is a journey that the
farmers are accustomed to. Now, in the interests of Security, the Army
has built another road, to a different part of the Fence, where it is
likely that a Gate will be built. If this actually occurs, it will mean
a journey of some kilometres to the new gate, which of course will take
time and cost money. It is difficult to see how it will contribute to
the security of Israel. It is, on the other hand, easy to see how it
will benefit the plans to build a new Settlement on Jayyous farmland –
because the present road runs right through the area designated as the
land of the new Settlement. Security? Land grab? The South Gate, unlike
the North Gate, carries on it a notice saying that the opening times of
the Gate are 0730 – 0745 hours: 1345 – 1400 hours, and 1730 – 1745
hours. The gate gives access to the village for one family living
outside the fence. There are 4 school children there, with their
parents. So, to get to school, they have to be at the gate at 0730
hours. If there are activities at school, they will not get home until
1745 hours. The North Gate is several kilometres away, and not an easy
walk for kids. The family has no running water, and has to rely on
supplies being arranged by the representative of the International
Committee of the Red Cross, who is stationed in Qalqilya.
People with whom we have contact in France have decided to try to
sponsor one of the girls of the village to do Nursing Training in one of
the Nursing Schools on the West Bank. One of the reasons for our visit
today was to meet her and her family. We went along to her home, and in
a very typical way, we entered a sort of open court yard. Round it were
three or four rooms, into one of which we were ushered. We sat down, and
were joined by 7 male members of the extended family. As far as we could
tell, only one of them had work; two were students at University; one
had recently been released from prison in Israel. While I sat there with
our friend, Joan and her friend were invited to go to see the young girl
– she was too shy to come into such a gathering of males. Eventually, I
did meet her. She has just finished her Final Certificate examinations
of Secondary School and is waiting for the results. These will determine
if, and where, she is able to get to Nursing Training. Without the
financial support of the people in France, it is doubtful if she would
get a chance to go to Nursing School.
Another reason for our visit was to pass on a donation from some people
in Central Scotland, who are trying to build up initial links with the
village. Their donation will go to help provide some additional
equipment for the Schools of the village.
We spent most of the afternoon in Jayyous. It is a Muslim village. When
we arrived there, our host had not yet returned from Friday Prayers. As
we left the village after some hours, we all remarked on how welcome we
had felt, how much at ease we had been, and how we had complete trust in
the people whom we had met for our safety. It never occurred to any of
us to feel unsafe. This contrasted with so much news that we hear about
the conflict that there is with Muslims who are engaged in a war of
terrorism.
How difficult it is for us to see the world through the eyes of others:
To see it through the eyes of many Muslims who see that the majority of
the soldiers who are fighting them are from Christian countries, and the
majority of political leaders who are opposing them are leaders of what
are nominally at least Christian countries.
To see it through the eyes of Jewish people, many of whom feel that the
whole world, with the exception of the United States, is against them.
To see it through the eyes of Palestinian people, who wonder what they
have done to deserve the punishment of the land in which they were born
being taken from them by Jewish people.
Within the Jewish community here in Israel, there is also a real
divergence of view-points about the Disengagement, or the Withdrawal,
from Gaza.
To one part of the Jewish community, this is tantamount to the Ultimate
Betrayal.
To another, it is recognition that the State of Israel should never have
embarked on the Settlement Programme at all, and it is the first stage
in getting rid of all Settlements.
To another, it is a mere tactical withdrawal from one place that would
never be held without major military protection, so that effort can be
concentrated on consolidating the hold of Israel on large parts of the
West Bank.
It is the time of the year when what is called Operation Birthright is
in full swing. This is a programme to bring hundreds of young Jewish
people from the USA to Israel, where they have a chance to visit
important sites in the country, to meet some of its leaders, and
generally be given a sales pitch to come and live here. Outside our
apartment this evening there were several groups of these youngsters all
on their way to some gathering – all speaking with noisy American
accents, and all obviously enjoying themselves. One wonders how many of
them will eventually come to live here.
Isn’t it ironic that people born in the United States have a
“Birthright” to “return” to Israel, when people who were born in Israel,
and are refugees living on the West Bank, are not able to come back to
what they regard as their home.
Maybe some day, there will be a different “Operation Birthright” which
will include the refugees also.
Talking with one person in the village today, he was not afraid of the
privations that the Wall./Fence forces on his people. What he is afraid
of is the hatred that it is engendering in his people. One is forced to
ask what kind of Security lies this way?
The jubilation of London at being awarded the Olympic Games for 2012 got
wall to wall coverage on TV news channels.
The devastation of London some 24 hours later, with the bombs in the
Underground and on the bus, got even more comprehensive coverage. Bombs
anywhere are evil. In the Jerusalem Post, July 8, P13, are the following
words at the head of an article “Rules of conflict for a world war” by
Ephraim Halevy, a former Head of Mossad. ‘The terror attacks on London
are part of a war that began seven years ago, will take many more years
to end, and must be won by political empowerment and popular
perseverance.’ What I find so interesting about that statement, given
our situation here, is the emphasis on political empowerment, and to me
the implicit statement that this is the way to find Security.
We do not know if any of you who receive this letter were personally
affected by the bombs. If you were, please do let us know.
Stay well. God bless.
Joan and Clarence
Top
Circular Letter No 223
2nd July 2005
The struggle which is going on here is brutal and deadly.
Friday June 24th. Haaretz Magazine P14. “Zohara’s last journey” –
written by Gideon Levy. ‘Ever since she was a young refugee, she never
missed the Friday Prayer at the Al Aqsa Mosque. For 50 years, she always
made the same pilgrimage. The holy place was only a 15-minute drive from
her home. But in recent years, ever since her city, Bethlehem was
transformed into a besieged prison, the journey become much harder; two
or three hours in sun or rain, a tiring and dangerous stretch on foot
over rocky ground, to circumvent the checkpoints and the armed soldiers,
on the way to prayer. Her children say that even when there were
closures and invasions and curfews and shellings, Zohara al-Zaboun would
never miss the Friday prayer. She found ways to get around the
checkpoints, which are supposed to be keeping out terrorists, and proved
that even an elderly, ailing woman was no match for them. Until last
Friday. Israel, which trumpets freedom of worship while its actions keep
an entire people imprisoned, cannot evade responsibility – at least
indirect – for the death of this elderly pilgrim from Bethlehem.
Opposite the tomb of the Matriarch Rachel, who weeps for her children,
Zohara’s children are weeping for their mother. Just four days after the
Shavuot holiday which brought tens of thousands of Jewish pilgrims to
Jerusalem, an elderly Muslim pilgrim was prevented from reaching the
mount that is sacred to her as well. Last Friday, when the Israel
Defence Forces and border Police checkpoints were numerous, she again
had to make her way by foot over the rock-strewn ground, until her heart
gave out and she collapsed on the road, a few dozen metres after the big
checkpoint – known as the Gilo checkpoint or Checkpoint 300 – which she
had managed to circumvent. Her body lay on the road for a long time. All
her children, except one, stood aghast on the other side of the
checkpoint, only a few dozen metres away from the body of their dead
mother, but they could not get to her. The Border Police permitted only
the eldest son to go to her. Zohara al-Zaboun was 67.’
Sunday June 26th. Haaretz P1. “Settler teen killed in W. Bank ambush.”
‘Avichai Levy, 17, of Beit Haggai was murdered in a drive-by terrorist
shooting Friday near the settlement. Four other Israelis were wounded in
the attack, which took place at 4.45 p.m., some 200 metres from the
entrance to Beit Haggai, south of Hebron. The wounded were two teens
(one very seriously hurt and one moderately so) and a couple who have
been sitting in their car by the roadside with their infant son and who
were injured by glass fragments. The baby was not hurt.’ The second
teenager wounded in the attack died later.
Following the attack by Palestinian gunmen, there were attacks on
Palestinians in Hebron by Israeli Settlers.
One of the side effects of this incident in the Hebron area has been the
renewed closure of some roads, and the reactivation of some checkpoints.
We regularly pass by Halhul and Hebron on our way to Idna, which is a
few kms west of Hebron. This week when we visited Idna, what has been
the only entrance off the main road between Bethlehem and Hebron
allowing traffic to enter Halhul had been blocked again. At two of the
main junctions we saw soldiers on duty at checkpoints which had not been
in use for some months. In general, such checkpoints do not prevent us
from getting on with our work, though they may delay us a bit from time
to time. The effect on the movement of Palestinians, going from village
to village in their own country, is much more profound, sometimes
preventing travel at all, at other times making journeys significantly
longer and more expensive.
For us, travelling from Bethlehem to Idna takes about 30 minutes. For
the women from the Co-operative, who are taking their handcrafts to
Bethlehem to get them shipped abroad, it takes at least 90 minutes. It
used to take up to 3 hours.
(The reason for them having to go to Bethlehem to mail things overseas,
is that the Post Office in Palestine will not accept packages for
mailing, as the Post Office in Israel will not accept them. So, to send
a package means going to Bethlehem to an agent there, who will accept
the package and take it to Jerusalem, when it can be posted. By our
going to Idna, or other villages, we can help ease the marketing of
their handcrafts.)
There arrives fairly regularly a magazine which is published by the
Jewish organisation, in which articles are published monitoring the
Palestinian educational system, to keep track of what it would call
Anti-Semitic elements within the Palestinian Schools Curriculum. It came
to mind when I was reading through some of the book reviews in a recent
weekend newspaper magazine.
Under the title “Negative thinking” the book “Stereotypes and Prejudice
in Conflict: Representations of Arabs in Israeli Jewish Society" by Yona
Teichman and Daniel Bar-Tal, Cambridge University Press, 483 pages, $68
was reviewed by Sarah Ozacky-Lazar. (Haaretz 24th June Weekend P B11)
Elementary school children were asked to draw an Arab. One boy drew a
man with a mustache in a galabiya and kaffiyeh, holding a big stick and
leading a herd of sheep. Another boy drew the same Bedouin-type
character, but with the addition of a dialogue bubble containing the
word "war." Which of these stereotypes is more disturbing?
In a decade-long research project conducted throughout the 1990s, the
authors studied the perception of Arabs among Jewish Israeli
kindergarten children, and how that perception changed over the years,
until the subjects reached adolescence. None of the children drew an
Arab woman, whereas mustaches, guns, dark skin and a menacing look
featured highly in many drawings.
Prof. Yona Teichman, a clinical psychologist from Tel Aviv University (TAU),
has devised a method for tracing the development of stereotypes on the
basis of children's drawings. Her findings are surprisingly similar to
studies in the United States on prejudice toward blacks. Among preschool
children, the stereotypes are the most vivid. Even before they know what
an Arab (or a black) is, they have absorbed the negative cultural vibes,
regardless of family background or socioeconomic status. So much so that
even the sound of the word "Arab," compared to "Frenchman," for example,
evokes a powerful negative reaction.
Children hear and absorb these attitudes at a very young age. As they
develop cognitively, they have access to a broader range of information
and their views grow more complex. ….. Fifty-five percent of the
subjects from all age groups said their ideas about Arabs came from
television; 25 percent cited parental influence. Only 10 percent said
that school was their source of information. ….. The core beliefs are:
security as a supreme value, patriotism, national unity, visions of
peace (a goal that engenders optimism and gives purpose to the struggle,
without going into detail about how to achieve it), the perception of
Israel's victimization, a positive self-image (self-justification and
belief that Israel's conduct is moral and humane) and delegitimization
of the other side. ….. The current study dwells on this last point,
examining it from every possible angle and placing it in a broad
socio-historical context. How are the Arabs portrayed in public
discourse, textbooks, children's literature, literature in general? How
do culture and art reinforce these images? How do all these things
filter down to create a shared socio-psychological "repertoire" based on
fear ("the Arabs are out to destroy Israel and kill all the Jews");
generalizations ("all Arabs are the same"); stereotypes, dehumanization
and idioms with negative connotations ("avoda aravit," literally "Arab
labor" - Hebrew slang for "lousy job"; "ta'am aravi," literally "Arab
taste," meaning "tacky" or "in poor taste")? ….. The authors briefly
survey methods for introducing change. Most of them have already been
tried, though not always successfully, and are still being used:
encounters, joint projects, cultural exchange, tourism, writing a joint
history. Again, to put these strategies into practice, they recommend
mobilizing the educational system, the media and non-governmental
organizations. ….. It is adults who are mature enough to adopt a
multifaceted perspective of the conflict and to see that not only one
party is to blame. They are the ones who can, and must, look bravely in
the mirror and want to change. They are the ones who can make things
happen - and the children are sure to follow.’
Apologies for the long quotations this week, but they seem significant
in the context of what is happening here.
Violence since September 2000 has been largely inter-communal – between
sections of the Israeli community and sections of the Palestinian
community. This week it became much more openly intra-communal, with
pressures and passions building up within the Jewish community as the
date for the start of Disengagement from Gaza and the northern West Bank
approaches.
One of the major questions facing the forces of the Israeli State has
been : Who will move the Settlers from their homes? What will happen
when a soldier of a policeman refuses to obey an order to evict someone?
That question moved from theory to fact this week, with front page
pictures of a young Israeli soldier refusing an order to assist in the
demolition of what had been abandoned buildings in Gaza left behind by
the Egyptians when they retreated from Gaza in 1967. The photograph of
Corporal Avi Biber refusing to carry out an order was on front pages of
Israeli papers. He was duly brought before a Military Court and
sentenced to 56 days’ detention.
In one of the areas of Gaza, opponents of the Withdrawal had taken over
the Maoz Yam Hotel in the Neveh Dekalim Settlement, and had done their
best to turn it into a fortress of opposition to the Army and the
Police. There had been lurid threats of how people would resist any
attempt to move them. However, more recently the hotel residents had
issued a statement saying they had decided against violence and would
only use passive resistance. In the event, when on Thursday the Army and
the Police mounted an operation to remove people from the Hotel, they
encountered little opposition, and most of the 150 young people were put
in buses and taken away from the Gaza Strip.
In England, the Wars of the Roses in the 15th Century pitted the Red
Rose of Lancashire against the White Rose of Yorkshire. In Israel it is
now the time of the War of the Ribbons. Those who oppose the Withdrawal
from the Settlements are handing out Orange Ribbons for motorists to put
on their cars, or wearing orange items of clothing to identify
themselves as opponents of Withdrawal. This “campaign” has been going on
for some weeks. Within the past few days, a “counter-campaign” has been
launched, with blue ribbons being given out to signify support for the
Withdrawal. Much of the distribution of ribbons to motorists is done by
young folk – on holiday from school – who stand at traffic lights
waiting for opportunities to offer their wares to those in cars.
Alongside this “ribbon campaign” there have also been actions where
people have tried to block major highway intersections to inconvenience
traffic. In one incident in the Tel Aviv area, nails were thrown over a
part of the road, and oil was poured on to it. Fortunately, no major
accident occurred, and everything was cleared up reasonably quickly –
but it served as an illustration of how deeply passions run, that people
were prepared to put lives in danger as part of their programme of
opposition to the Government.
Finally for this week – a personal note. It has been agreed by the World
Mission Council of the Church of Scotland that Joan and I will stay on
in Jerusalem until some time after Easter 2006, while the Council again
tries to recruit a Minister to come to Jerusalem.
Stay well. God bless.
Joan and Clarence
Top
Circular Letter No 222
25th June 2005
Saturday June 18th.
I paid my first visit to Jayyous for a long, long time. It was good to
be able to be back there, meet some of the people, and hear the current
stories.
On the way, we stopped for a few minutes in the village of Marda. I
first visited Marda what seems aeons ago, during the closure and curfew
that was imposed on Nablus. Those who have been inflicted with these
letters for years may recall that Joan and I shared in a couple of food
convoys to Nablus. On the second convoy in which we participated, we
made a detour of some kilometres off the direct route to call at Marda.
It is not a large village, but the folk there had heard of the convoy,
and had loaded up a truck with supplies from their own stores and homes
to be taken to Nablus. For me, it was a very moving moment, seeing how
generous people were who did not have all that much themselves.
One of my memories of that first visit was seeing the Israeli settlement
of Ariel high up on the ridge above the village, stretching for
kilometres along the skyline. Not only did it dominate the area, but
also the villagers said that the run-off of water from the Settlement
was damaging to their water supply, as well as to their land on which
they had their olive trees.
As with most other villages on the West Bank, the roads into Marda were
blocked by the Israeli army, and so vehicular access was almost
impossible for a couple of years.
The reason for stopping on Saturday was to ask for information about the
destruction of olive trees, about which we had had various e-mails,
largely from Jewish organisations trying to organise protests against
the actions of the Israeli army. The reason for the destruction of the
trees was to make way for the construction of the Wall – many kilometres
inside the Green Line, and nothing to do with the security of Israel at
all, but lots to do with the taking over of land.
I had heard that the Army was uprooting 1,000 trees. The villagers
showed us the line of the Wall and the destruction that had commenced.
Their estimate of the number of trees likely to be destroyed was 3,000.
Some of you may recall that last year we were able to assist a woman in
Jayyous to purchase a dozen mature olive trees to replace the ones that
the Israeli army had destroyed to make way for the Wall around Jayyous.
Those mature trees and the bit of land on which they were growing cost
about NIS 14,000 – at today’s rates approx £1,760 or approx US$3,160.
Assuming the lower of the two figures for the destruction of trees, and
assuming that their value is similar to the ones that we bought for the
woman in Jayyous, the loss to the village is approx NIS 1,167,000, which
is approx £146,000 or US$ 262,000. Those are significant figures for a
comparatively wealthy community in Scotland or the USA to lose. For a
village on the West Bank, with high unemployment, they are devastating.
If the estimate of the villagers regarding the number of trees they
think they will lose is correct, the figures rise to £436,000 or
US$786,000.
But quite apart from the financial value of the trees is the
psychological effect of their loss, and the impotence of the people of
Marda, or their international and Israeli supporters, to do anything to
stop it. The effect of this loss will be felt for generations.
In Jayyous, there was some good news, some bad news. The good news was
that a second ground water well at a nearby village had been repaired
with money from USAID, so that there was a better water supply to the
village this year than there had been for some years. You may recall
that this time last year we were purchasing over 100 tanker loads of
water for families in the village.
The bad news was about the harvest of lemons and tomatoes. The farmers
are able to get to their greenhouses which are on the western side of
the Fence, but they cannot sell their produce. With the depressed price
of tomatoes, no trader will come to transport them. They are not allowed
to take their own trucks into Nablus where there is a reasonable market,
and have to try to sell them in other villages – where people have their
own crops.
On top of this, the Israeli army has said that it is going to open a
different road for the Jayyous farmers to get to their fields. This will
add some 5 kms to the distance they have to travel, but it will mean
that they do not pass through an area of their own land on which the
Israeli government plans to build a Settlement. If you have a tractor, 5
kms will require more time as well as cost more for fuel – if you have a
donkey, it could mean you would need a couple more hours just to get to
your greenhouses.
We talked with Abdul Latif, whose work as a water engineer requires him
to pass through several of the gates in the Fence, so that he can
inspect the water facilities. He showed us a sheaf of Permits that he is
required to have – one for each gate that he needs to pass. They all
have to be obtained from an Israeli army office, which means that
someone has to go and stand to get them. Some last for a week, some for
a month, and some for 6 months. Perhaps the message is that the Israeli
government does not want him to do his work, and would be quite happy if
he decided to leave and go to live somewhere else.
There was not much traffic on the roads in the West Bank. One reason
might have been the fact that it was still Shabbat, and many Jewish
people will not drive on Shabbat. Another reason might have been the
creation of an additional part of the Checkpoint at Tappuah, and
uncertainties over what are called ‘mobile checkpoints’. Whereas on
previous journeys, it was mostly traffic going to and from Nablus that
was stopped, on this occasion traffic coming from the direction of Ariel
was also stopped. There were some 15 vehicles waiting to pass as we went
to Jayyous. On our way back, there were none. On the main road, we came
upon a mobile checkpoint, with another 5 or 6 vehicles stopped. For us,
apart from a certain caution in approaching them, there is no delay, as
we are given permission to pass. For Palestinians, there is the
uncertainty of not knowing how long it will take to be allowed to
proceed – anything from a few minutes to a couple of hours.
In response to my comments about the UN in Letter No 221, I received the
following from a person who had high level diplomatic experience in the
UN. “A small UN point. Iraq was in breach of a number of Security
Council Mandatory resolutions taken under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
Israel is not since she accepted SCR 252 - the 'land for peace'
resolution of 1967. General Assembly resolutions which Israel has often
ignored and/or flouted have not the same force of law. So why doesn’t
the Security Council pass mandatory resolutions calling on Israel to
desist from this and do that I hear you cry!? Because the US is a
permanent member of the SC and will veto any Chapter VII draft.”
I met people in Bethlehem and in Jayyous where we talked about the
recent municipality elections. The results are interesting. In
Bethlehem, the new Council is made up of 8 Christians and 7 Muslims,
with 2 of the Christians being women. Of the Christians, 3 are
identified with Fatah, 3 with PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine) and there are 2 Independents. Among the Muslim Councillors, 5
are linked with Hamas, 1 with Jihad and 1 “close” to Fatah. In Jayyous,
Hamas are in the majority.
Talking about the elections, there was a general feeling that Fatah had
not produced the goods – neither in terms of good and honest government,
nor in terms of leadership in the Intifada, nor in terms of giving
people any sense of having a vision for the future. So, as in any
democracy, the people held them accountable and they lost many seats.
There was also a certain caution with Hamas – they have had their dreams
while not in office, let us now see how they put them into practice.
Notwithstanding all the claims that no-one should speak with Hamas,
while they are regarded as a terrorist organisation, the fact is that in
many parts of the West Bank and in Gaza, representatives of any
organisation which wishes to work in a municipality area will have to
talk with the locally elected officials. It promises to be an
interesting time.
Time and again we hear people, mostly from outside the region, talking
about the possibility of reaching a Peace Deal between Israel and
Palestine. As I fairly regularly report, there are not a lot of people
here who share the same optimism. A sad, but perhaps realistic, article
appeared in Haaretz, 20th June, P5. “The third Intifada” – by Danny
Rubinstein. ‘From the Palestinian point of view, there is hardly any
doubt that in the coming months efforts to renew the peace process will
hit a dead end. This will happen some time after the uproar of the
Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the northern West bank, and at the
latest towards the end of the year. …. There is a certain amount of
similarity between the situation today and that in the summer of 2000,
after the five years of the interim agreement in the Oslo framework came
to an end. The summit meeting of then prime minister Ehud Barak and PA
chairman Yasser Arafat at Camp David failed – and the result of that
dead end ultimately was the second Intifada. Now we can expect a similar
outcome. The focal points of the crisis are becoming clear. … official
Palestinian spokesmen are reiterating that the withdrawal [from Gaza] is
not a withdrawal as long as Israel does not hand over to them control of
the land, sea and air border-crossing points. “Without control of these
crossing points, and without the possibility of Palestinian mobility
between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Gaza will turn into one big
prison. … An equally important locus of crisis is the Security Fence
around the West Bank in general and East Jerusalem in particular. …. The
fist Intifada was called the Intifada of stones. The Second Intifada was
far more violent. Its headline was suicide attacks on buses and in
Israeli entertainment centres. The third Intifada, signs of which have
already been seen in Gaza and Sderot [a town in Israel close to the
border of Gaza, which has been the target of Palestinian Kassam rocket
attacks] will be the Intifada of what in military language is called
weapons with a steep trajectory. That is, an Intifada of mortar shells,
rockets and missiles. …. From the Palestinian perspective the third
Intifada looks inevitable in light of the unilateral Israeli
disengagement, which is not a step in the right direction of a peace
agreement, but rather a stage in military deployment.’
Sad? Pessimistic? Realistic?
Says the Jewish community : Give us peace, give us security, and all
will be well.
Says the Palestinian community : Give us back our land by ending the
occupation, and all will be well.
Say people like ICAHD – There cannot be peace for one side and not for
the other.
In 2000, we met many good people in Israel who had taken part in
projects involving Israeli Jewish people and Palestinians after the Oslo
Agreement, who were deeply disillusioned when the Intifada broke out.
They felt betrayed.
I fear that, if the scenario painted above by Danny Rubinstein becomes a
reality, there will be an even greater sense of disillusion among
Israeli Jewish people, along the lines of “We gave them Gaza, we gave
them the Northern West Bank, and look what has happened. What more do
they want?” This could lead to greater polarisation and increased
conflict. We pray that it does not happen.
(Apologies that this letter is a bit (!) late. Assuming that I get the
next one completed later today, I hope that the shock of getting two
letters in one day will not be too great.)
Stay well.
God bless
Joan (back again from her visit to Vivienne) and Clarence
Top
Circular Letter No 221
18th June 2005
“We’re all going on a summer holiday” are words of a song I faintly
recall from last century! They came to mind as I became involved with
the saga of Al Shurooq School for Blind and visually impaired children
trying to go on its Summer Holiday.
In any country, when there is a major national holiday, the machinery of
government largely closes down, with some sort of provision being made
for emergencies. So it is here, and one has become used to it. However,
what complicates such a scenario here is the way in which holidays
within Israel affect the institutions of Government that Israel has
established for those territories of the West Bank and Gaza which it has
occupied and which it administers.
Monday June 13th was the Israeli holiday of Shavuot. As such, Government
offices were closed along with such commercial enterprises as banks,
shops etc, and schools. But this closure of offices also applied to the
West Bank, and so when Helen Shehadeh phoned the relevant office at the
Military Office at Gush Etzion, she was unable to get help, due to the
staff being on holiday for Shavuot. She was phoning in connection with
an application that had been lodged at the appropriate office one week
before, for Permits to allow her staff to enter Israel and take the
children of the Al Shurooq School for a camping holiday near Tiberias,
on the Sea of Galilee. She had had to make reservations for
accommodation for the children and staff; she had had to make
arrangements for transport; she had had to make provision for the food
that they would be taking with them; and of course she had had to inform
the families of the children that she was trying to arrange this camping
holiday.
All of her arrangements depended on the Military authorities issuing the
necessary permits. By Monday afternoon she had had no word about the
permits, and could contact no-one who could advise her what was
happening. Why not contact her minister and see what he could do!
I do have a few phone numbers which I can call in emergencies, and so I
did manage to make contact with the Israeli army officer on duty –
someone who had helped me in the past. The upshot of it was that at 2230
hours, I was able to ascertain that there had been no action taken on
Helen’s application for permits the previous week; that there was a
‘closure’ of the West Bank prohibiting people from entering Israel; that
it was likely this would end at midnight, and that the permit
applications would be considered the next morning. It was not a lot, but
more than Helen had been able to find out.
At 0615 hours on Tuesday, I was in contact with the Israeli army
personnel, and got the information that the Closure had been lifted, and
that permits might be issued. I agreed to go to the office for its
opening at 0800 hours. Eventually at 0915 hours, I had the permits in my
hand, and was able to get them to Al Shurooq – where Helen had the task
of making her provisional arrangements into actual ones, and get the bus
to the school to take the party to Tiberias. I passed by the school
about noon on Tuesday, where the bags which had been packed were all
ready for the bus, where lunch was being served, and where they were all
excitedly waiting for the bus to arrive about 1300 hours.
So all ended happily – but one constantly asks in such situations –
could things not be done more humanely and efficiently? What were the
security implications of the staff and children of a Blind School that
the whole application could not have been dealt with earlier? What
perception of the Israeli army in particular and of Israel in general
was created or reinforced in the minds of all involved by this delay,
with the pressure that it put upon people such as Helen Shehadeh, and
the children. Security? Harassment? Power of Occupier over Occupied? As
I drove back to Beit Jala from the Israeli army office at Gush Etzion
with one of the members of staff of Al Shurooq, and as I expressed my
sadness about the situation, her words were chilling, but true: “That is
our life”.
Within the community of people associated with St Andrew’s Church there
is Darinka Gardiner-Scott, who with her husband Bill served at St
Andrew’s for two periods; 1955 – 1960 and 1966 – 1975.
Some time ago, when she had a severe infection in one of her legs, she
was treated in a hospital in Ma’ale Adumim, the very large Settlement on
the eastern side of Jerusalem. At that time I wrote of the irony of
someone who had opposed the creation of Settlements being sent to a
hospital in a Settlement for her treatment.
Recently Darinka fell as she was entering the Apartment Block where she
lives, and broke her femur. Following initial treatment, including
surgery in Hadassah Hospital at Mount Scopus, she was transferred to the
Rehabilitation Unit at the Sarah Herzog Hospital on the western
outskirts of Jerusalem.
“Sarah Herzog Hospital.” It sounds so innocuous, yet there is a strange
and dark side to the story of its present location.
The Hospital was founded in 1895, and moved to its present site in 1968,
which is described in a short History on one of the Internet sites
connected with the Hospital as being in “Givat Shaul, at the entrance to
Jerusalem.” That is one way of describing it. Another is found in the
book : Israel and the Palestinian Territories, author Daniel Jacobs,
which is part of the Rough Guide Series. On P 378 there is the
following: “Northwest of the city : Deir Yassin” ‘Five kilometres
northwest of the city centre is the suburb of Kfar Sha’ul, and
surrounded by forest is the Kfar Sha’ul Mental Health Centre,. Its
grounds contain the remains of an Arab village, Deir Yassin, whose fate
in the 1948 war is for Palestinians one of the most emotive symbols of
their struggle. …. Meanwhile, safe within the boundaries of the
psychiatric hospital, the houses of Deir Yassin remain as they were in
1948, making this, ironically, one of the best preserved ex-Arab
villages in Israel.’
When I was visiting Darinka I asked one of the security guards what were
the stone buildings outside the window. “Archaeological Remains” he
replied. When asked for more information, he good-naturedly indicated
that he could not speak much English.
Two hospitals, providing essential and good health care for all who need
it, be they Jewish, Muslim, Christian or any other faith. The one
hospital to the East of the city built on Palestinian land occupied in
1967, the other in the West of the city on the site of an Arab village
which was captured in 1948.
The following article was in Haaretz on Tuesday June 14th, P 3.
“Ukrainian MP: Return property to Jews.” From Kiev. ‘Speaker Volodymyr
Lytvyn yesterday said parliament supports returning property that was
seized from Jews by the government during the Soviet era. … “Lytvyn
reassured Robert Meth [head of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews] of
support from the Ukrainian parliament for the process of returning land
to Jewish citizens,” Lytvyn’ s office said.’
It was indeed a strange co-incidence that the Report from the Ukraine
should appear at the same time as I was making my first acquaintance
with Herzog Hospital, and learning a bit of its history and the ground
on which it is built.
(From the History section of www.deiryassin.org is taken the following
paragraph : Of about 144 houses, 10 were dynamited. The cemetery was
later bulldozed and, like hundreds of other Palestinian villages to
follow, Deir Yassin was wiped off the map. By September, Orthodox Jewish
immigrants from Poland, Rumania, and Slovakia were settled there over
the objections of Martin Buber, Cecil Roth and other Jewish leaders, who
believed that the site of the massacre should be left uninhabited. The
centre of the village was renamed Givat Shaul Bet. As Jerusalem
expanded, the land of Deir Yassin became part of the city and is now
known simply as the area between Givat Shaul and the settlement of Har
Nof on the western slopes of the mountain.)
Life is strange. Iraq was invaded for non-compliance with UN
Resolutions. As I understand it, Israel is in con-compliance with UN
Resolutions. Haaretz Tuesday 14th June, P1. “Israeli envoy to be next
vice president of UN’s GA” ‘Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Dan
Gillerman was yesterday unanimously elected the new Vice President of
the UN General Assembly. This is the second time that an Israeli envoy
has been elected to a position of this rank. The post was previously
held by legendary Israeli diplomat Abba Eban, who assumed the role in
the early 1950s. Gillerman was the candidate of the Western nations, a
bloc containing some 30 states, including members of the European Union,
Canada, Australia and the United States.’
You may have heard about the executions which were carried out by the
Palestinian Authority in Gaza during the week. It is reported that there
will be more executions to come. I find it not only sad, but
unacceptable, that this should be the policy of the PA. I would hope
that it would be made clear to the PA that this course of action is not
acceptable, and that it must find a different way to deal with those in
its community who have committed what it regards as major crimes.
There is a sad, and chilling, article in Haaretz, Tuesday June 14th, P5
– “When lawlessness gets the upper hand.” It is written by Amira Hass,
an Israeli Jewish journalist who has been an outspoken critic of the
policies of the Israeli Government, and is one of the few Jewish people
who have recently lived in Gaza, and then in Ramallah. She knows the
scene about which she is writing. ‘At long last A. managed to bring his
nephews from Jenin to Ramallah for one weekend. He had hoped to restore
to them, if only for two days, the taste of their childhood that was
buried under Israeli bulldozers, tanks and missiles. On Friday he took
them to the play centre in Ramallah. They had not yet begun to enjoy
themselves when an argument erupted between a mother and the owner of
the place. She called in a relative, a member of one of the security
organisations. He came and contributed his part to the argument – shots
fired into the air from his pistol, in the close space full of children.
The children and the parents huddled in alarm and did not calm down
until armed police showed up. Instead of stopping the shooting, they too
opened fire.’ The text of the article has beside it a photograph of two
“militants from the Fatah movement, displaying the confiscated passport
of Shaker Abu Eida, the Pale |
