Sunday, December 24

MCC Palestine Update #7

MCC Palestine Update #7

Christmas 2000- The festive atmosphere which has lit up Bethlehem and other Palestinian cities for the past five years or so is nowhere to be found today. Palestinians, Christian and Muslim, are in no mood to celebrate either Christmas or Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the month of Ramadan. Deaths, injuries and a worsening economic situation live little room for joy.

Meanwhile, Israel is threatening to declare Bethlehem a closed military zone for Christmas itself. Not that this would make much difference for Palestinians--the Israeli military regime's imposition of an extensive network of checkpoints and roadblocks keep most Bethlehemites trapped in Bethlehem and prevents other Palestinians from entering. Such an Israeli move, however, would keep out most of the few remaining tourists in the country.

Israel, of course, cannot cancel Christmas. It cannot annul the Incarnation. One of the places where we see Christ most visibly incarnated is in the work of our partners. This update contains information on new projects which they are carrying out. Also included are a reflection by MCC peace development worker Ed Nyce after a visit to Beit Jala, and a trenchant analysis of the Israeli political scene by long- time Israeli peace activist, Uri Avneri.

This will be the last update of the calendar year. Thank you once more for your prayers.


1. MCC Partner Update

a. Through the Popular Arts Center in Ramallah, MCC will be sponsoring six art sessions for Palestinian children. Each of the sessions, which will be held in refugee camps and isolated villages in Area C (under full Israeli control), will work with groups of 50 children, using such art forms as painting, sculpture, and drama in order to help Palestinian children express the trauma they are experiencing and witnessing.

b. The Palestinian Center for Rapprochement in Beit Sahour is spearheading the "Displaced Shepherds' Campaign." The campaign aims to encourage Beit Sahour residents to move back into their homes which have been damaged and destroyed by Israeli shelling. MCC is contributing building materials for the repair of two homes, while the Rapprochement center will be marshalling the needed volunteers to do the job.

c. In conjunction with the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees, MCC is helping to renovate an agricultural road linking the village of Beit Duqqo with other villages west of Ramallah. The road will serve two functions: first, it will help Palestinians navigate around Israeli roadblocks; second, it will connect Palestinian farmers with agricultural land close to settlements under threat of possible confiscation.


2. From Beit Jala
Ed Nyce, MCC Peace Development Worker

"Christmas is very special for us," says Dr. Hala Khamis. "We have many decorations which we put around the house. Towels, napkins -- we usually start putting things up on December 1." Hala and her husband Nasser have lived in their Beit Jala (a town on Bethlehem's western border), Palestine home for 17 years.

She, a general practitioner, and her husband Nasser, a gynecologist, run a health clinic in the community. Their four children are between 4&1/2 & 14 years old. His mother lives below them.

"But now," Hala is saying, "we won't spend any more days here, unless they tell us what is going on. There is no Christmas here even for the old people."

The Khamis family is picking through the rubble -- again. The past 2&1/2 months have been a nightmare for them and their neighbors. Their homes have borne the brunt of fierce Israeli tank, apache helicopter, and gun attacks from the nearby Gilo settlement. The latest attack was last night. There have been shots fired in these months from Beit Jala toward Gilo. A few shots have actually reached Gilo. However, never has a tank or a helicopter fired AT Gilo. Yet the Israelis, whose establishment of Gilo or any settlement in the West Bank, Gaza, or East Jerusalem contravenes international law, claim civilian defense when using heavy artillery. Meanwhile, like other Palestinians, most Beit Jala residents are more convinced than ever that the Israeli occupation must stop.

On this chilly, mostly clear morning, Tuesday, December 12, the neighbors and other interested people meander once more through Khamis' Beit Jala neighborhood. Up the street, a house with a big hole where two walls join meets our eyes. It was damaged weeks ago, earlier in the conflict. It is starting to look, well, to look customary; hopefully not normal.

Basma Nazal shows me her home. We had agreed yesterday to meet this morning to see her pummeled place. As so often happens here these days, overnight bombing means a new reality in her neighborhood, and she and her father took me to their neighbors' freshly bombarded residences in addition to their own. Like her neighbors, her building was hit previously and again last night. Basma and her husband and children live in a multi-unit building shared by extended family. She and her husband have a 16 year old son and 14 and 10 year old daughters. They've been adding a unit to the top of the building, to where they would eventually move. But the work has stopped. For there are holes in the building. Who wants to live in a house with missile holes? Besides, the Israelis may not yet have run out of ammunition.

"We don't know what will happen to our home," says Basma. "We don't know whether we will continue to work on it." Even if the shelling stops, the economy is bad. Her husband, a painter, has been out of work for three months due to the situation. We visit the home of her nine year old niece, Riham Nazal, and Riham's aunt's and uncle's after that, all in the same building. "God bless this home," says the framed needlepoint above the doorway in the latter home. In one of the rooms, Riham's aunt shows us clothes inside a closet which have holes in them thanks to the intruding ammunition.

At the bottom of the closet is a pile of Christmas decorations. Riham kneels and holds up one of the decorations so I can take a picture of her and the decorations. Sure enough, there is a bullet hole in the floppy hat of one of the Santas.

A little later, a friend, Hadr, and I visit other homes. At one place, a dog and five chickens were killed by a missle a few weeks ago. Up the street, we go inside St. Nicholas Church, hit last night. There is a bullet hole in the bottom of the Patriarch's chair.

Then it is on to a house in which a small Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) unit has lived for 1&1/2 weeks. Last night (Dec. 11) was the second shelling they have experienced in that time. CPTer Anne Montgomery left a spot in her bedroom 30 seconds before that spot was hit by a bullet. [Aye -- as I write this draft, Dec. 13, 4:00 p.m., a loud blast goes off. It is a sonic boom. I used to assume as much when I'd hear such noises. Now, I wait for the chills to subside and try to decipher in the next few seconds whether the blast is lethal or just terrorizing. The time which has passed while writing these sentences confirms that it is "only" a sonic boom.]

Across the street from CPT live a Muslim family on the lower level and a Christian family above. Both sleep elsewhere these evenings. Both are finding it impossible to observe important holy days in the ways they usually find meaningful -- Ramadan and Christmas, respectively. "We expect more," said Hala Khamis. "Do the Israelis want the area here? They must be planning something. Even if one shot reaches Gilo, it doesn't explain the rocket responses.

We don't know what is happening. Don't tell me the U.S. is helping bring peace: these rockets are U.S. made. "We need fixing not only of our homes, but of our souls. We can't take anymore."


3. Barak's Trap
Uri Avnery
Maariv, 16 December 2000

Ehud Barak has set a trap for himself. And because he is brilliant, the trap was so good that he promptly fell into it. To quote Psalm 7 (16): "He made a pit and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made." For many months now he has been spreading the mantra: "I have turned every stone on the way to peace." I have given the Palestinians much more than any previous Israeli Prime Minister. But the evil Arafat (also the devious, treacherous terrorist, the corrupt liar who breaks every promise and violates every agreement) refuses my unprecedentedly generous offer. Instead of kissing both my hands and signing an agreement to end the historic conflict, he started to shoot, blow up, murder and butcher us.

Addressing the right-wing he spreads the opposite message: "I haven't given anything at all." The weakling Netanyahu has given them 19% of the West Bank and most of the town of Hebron. I am tough and haven't given them back even one square yard. Nothing, nothing at all! Now Barak intends to combine these two messages and to contest the elections both as the man who-has-turned-every-stone and has- not-given-back-anything.

In order to reinforce the first message, he sends somebody to meet Arafat every day: the innocent Lipkin-Shahak, the not-so- innocent but willing Shlomo Ben-Ami and others. (He wanted to send Ami Ayalon too, but being an honest person, the former Security Service chief requested to see the files first, and after studying them for four hours declined to go.)

Barak has read the polls that show that the majority of Israelis desire peace, and he is telling them: See, even in the middle of an election campaign, and even while Arafat is butchering us, I continue turning every stone. That's how I am, a peace-maker!

And at the same time he sends word to the right-wing: "Trust me, I won't give them anything," and continues enlarging the settlements at a frantic pace and "liquidating" Palestinian activists wholesale, in the style of Pinochet's death squads.

This may all look sophisticated. But in practice, it ensures his defeat by whoever stands against him. There is a simple reason for it: The real leftists know that Barak's right-wing message is true, and that he indeed has not given back an inch. Therefore they will not vote for him.

While the rightists and the bulk of the center really do believe the left-wing message, that he has made the Palestinians an incredibly generous offer, giving in to all their demands, and that they refused and then opened fire. Therefore, it is obvious that the Palestinians do not want peace. They only want to kill Jews, as we knew all the time. If so, the Likud has been right all along, and one must vote for Netanyahu or Sharon.

The truth is, of course, that the first mantra is totally mendacious. Barak's proposals are manifestly unacceptable to the Palestinians. Contrary to the story spread by his "leftist" agents, that he will settle for 5% of the West Bank and is ready to give back all the rest, he proposes to annex immediately 11% of the territory, in the form of "settlement blocs" that cut the West Bank up from north to south and from west to east.

In addition, he wants to annex the Jewish areas near Jerusalem. Also, he intends to keep "temporarily" the "back of the mountains" along the Jordan and the Dead Sea. Only a fool would believe that in the distant future, after the Palestinians have already signed a declaration ending the conflict, when every square yard will be covered by a settlement, Israel will return these territories.

The practical upshot of this is that in his most generous offer, near the end of the negotiations, Barak intends to annex 30% of the West Bank. Since all the occupied territories amount to only 22% of the pre-1948 Palestine, Barak is ready to give back to the Palestinians only 15% of the country (70% of 22%), and these, too, only in the form of disconnected enclaves, each of which will be surrounded by Israeli settlers and soldiers.

At Camp David, Barak thought that the Palestinians would swallow this bitter pill if he sugar-coated it with nice words about Jerusalem. He did indeed break an Israeli taboo and made verbal concessions there. But when the Palestinians took a magnifying glass and examined the offer closely, they found out that the changes were mainly cosmetic. The sovereignty - and that's what counts - was left with Israel. Summing up: Barak did not make an offer that the Palestinians could accept.

The leftist stone-turning is make-believe, while the rightist wink is the real truth: He indeed did not give up anything. Actually, one could offer the Likud some advice: If you folks can't make up your minds between Netanyahu and Sharon, why not take Barak? He does the same, and, contrary to the other two, he makes the whole world believe him. Trouble is, the right-wing people and the bogus left-wingers believe the story of Barak's stone-turning and Arafat's Jew- killing, and therefore will vote against Barak, while the real left and the Arab citizens know the truth and therefore will not vote for him. Out of sheer sophistication, Barak will find himself falling between all the stools.

Thursday, December 14

MCC Palestine Update #6

MCC Palestine Update #6

14 December 2000

Advent greetings from Jerusalem! It has been a rainy week here, much appreciated by local farmers. Unfortunately, the rain has not dampened the fires of death: over ten Palestinians have been killed in the past week, and scores more injured. This month should have been a festive one, with Christians awaiting Christmas and Muslims breaking the Ramadan fast with friends and family. No one, however, is feeling celebratory. Parts of Bethlehem are like a ghost town--tourists are few and far between, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has threatened to impose a total closure on Bethlehem over Christmas.

This past week Donella Clemens, former moderator of the Mennonite Church and an MCC board member, visited Palestine/Israel as part of a solidarity delegation to the Palestinian churches organized by Churches for Middle East Peace. The delegation was able to see first hand the devastation caused by the Israeli military, as well as to see how Israeli settlements and bypass roads have created an apartheid reality in the occupied territories.

MCC continues to be concerned about the effect of the current violence on children. In partnership with the Community Rehabilitation Center based in Ramallah, MCC will be sponsoring theater and art sessions in three kindergartens in the West Bank which will be aimed at helping children express, understand, and cope with their feelings of anxiety, fright, and anger.

Below we have included three pieces. The first is a summary of a recent UN report on the economic situation in the occupied territories: it paints a sobering picture. The second is a reflection by Ghassan Andoni, involved with the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement in Beit Sahour, on travel restrictions. The third is a candid piece by Edward Said which originally appeared in al-Ahram; Said's article expresses well the frustration that many Palestinians feel towards the Palestinian Authority. A longer piece by Edward Said may be found on the London Review of Books website, www.lrb.co.uk/v22/n24/said2224.htm. We cannot say often enough how much everyone in the MCC Palestine unit, both North American and Palestinian, values your prayers. May you have a blessed Advent.


1. Office of the United Nations Special Co-ordinator: The Impact on the Palestinian Economy of Confrontations, Mobility Restrictions and Border Closures
28 September-26 November 2000

Introduction The months of October and November have witnessed the most severe crisis in Israeli-Palestinian relations since the signing of the Declaration of Principles in September 1993. Confrontations have resulted in the death or injury of thousands of Palestinians-and numerous Israelis-as well as damage to Palestinian infrastructure, buildings, agricultural property and vehicles.

There have also been serious disruptions in normal economic activities caused by the political strife and the imposition of movement restrictions around and within the Occupied Palestinian Territory. For most of this period personal mobility between the West Bank and Gaza, and between the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the rest of the world, has been severely impeded. Travel for Palestinians between the West Bank and Gaza via the "safe passage" route has been blocked by the Israeli authorities since 6 October while the Gaza International Airport and the border crossings at Rajah and the Allenby/Karameh Bridge have been closed for extended periods

1/ Palestinian foreign trade has also been affected. Imports and exports transshipped through Israeli ports have been delayed or blocked completely for most of this period while the commercial crossings at Rafah and the Allenby/Karameh Bridge have been closed for about 70 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively, of the days during the reporting period.

2/ Furthermore, there have been varying levels of restrictions on mobility between cities, towns and villages in both the West Bank and Gaza due to reduced levels of security on roads and the imposition of internal closures by the Israeli authorities. Such measures have routinely included the placement of physical barriers between Palestinian villages and cities and the deployment of military checkpoints on main roads.

3/ In addition, the Israeli authorities have imposed curfews on several areas in the West Bank, most notably in the city of Hebron and on numerous villages in the Nablus area. Private economic losses during the first three weeks of the crisis were estimated at approximately USD 186.2 million.

4/ Lost income-earning opportunities were estimated at about half of the value of domestic production and nearly all of the income earned by Palestinians working in Israel. Since then the economic losses have been compounded, while the loss of life, injuries and the physical destruction of private and public property have become more widespread.

This is an updated and expanded report on the economic and social impact of the crisis covering the two-month period 28 September-26 November 2000.


2. Facing the crawling racial segregation on daily basis
Ghassan Andoni
Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between People

I thought I was fortunate to live in Bethlehem area and work in Birzeit University near Ramallah.

Of course, to earn the living of my family I have to commute daily between the two places. I know that most of people in other countries will travel larger distances between home and work. Mine is about 35 kilometers, about 25 miles. Up to 1991, the natural road between both passed through Jerusalem. I used to enjoy it.

Traveling through parts of Jerusalem and along the walls of the old city was always a source of joy for me. Even being aware of the Israeli annexation of the city in 1967 and the ongoing massive build up of Jewish settlements all around it, on the practical and emotional level I enjoyed the accessibility of this beautiful and sacred town and looked at all of the new buildings as artificial and out of harmony with this natural and holy landscape. While, some times bothered with traffic jams and with the racial attitudes of the Israeli police- in fact I received more than a hundred traffic tickets going through Jerusalem- yet it was a very convenient ride. Within 35 minutes I could reach my distention and when I am tired of driving I could use the efficient public transportation.

From 1991 and until the recent crisis Jerusalem was permanently closed in the face of Palestinians. To be able to reach, Palestinians needed to go through a lengthy procedure of obtaining permits. The most tedious of all was: to be able to provide a reasonable excuse. Praying in the Holy sepulcher or passing through to work were never accepted as good enough reasons. While the closure was enforced for "security reasons" during the gulf war, the war ended years ago but the closure continued to be in effect.

Out of necessity, I was obliged to find an alternative road. The infamous Hill valley road was my only option. It goes from Bethlehem to the east until you approach Jericho it then turns north to the north of Ramallah and then back south to the university. 90 minutes drive on poorly asphalted, very steeply mountain roads. It took me sometime before daring to drive through this road.

The Israeli police continued enjoying hunting Palestinian cars for traffic tickets. Palestinians are easily identified by a different color of their car license plates. With years, and to avoid getting depressed, I tried to find ways to enjoy my new road. Climbing the hills of the Judean deserts, passing beside the Jahalin Bedouins, going near the villages surrounding both Jerusalem and Ramallah, and becoming an excellent driver were most of the positive aspects of using this road. Being forced to see on daily bases the rapid grow both in number and extent of Israeli settlement all through my travel was a sad indicator of how far are we from reaching a peaceful solution. But with time and by using some of the newly established By-pass roads I managed to normalize my self with the newly imposed reality.

With the recent crisis, I realized that I am being caged. Through the first two weeks of this crisis, driving through the Hill valley road became the dream of my life. I was physically confined within an area of 2 squared kilometers. Surrounded from all directions with military checkpoints and Jewish settlements. Maybe I should tell you a secret that only Palestinians and Israeli officials know. Checkpoints serve to provide the psychological sense of protection to Israelis and disrupt the normal life of Palestinians and beyond that has no value to no one. Anyone who wants to go through and reach any destination within Israel can find dozens of ways to go through. So we both know that checkpoints are set as a policy procedure and security is only the excuse.

Being worried about loosing my job and seeing many people reaching Ramallah on daily basis I decided to talk my chance, leave my cage, and try to act normal. Accompanied with a friend I drove towards the Hill Valley road. In few minutes we encountered the first military checkpoint. A long queue of cars, dozens ordered out of the cars to be searched, and soldiers insulting and humiliating anyone who dares to complain. I was up to turn around when a cap driver whispered: just follow me. I did. We drove back few hundred meters and then turned left into a not asphalted road. We drove around the soldiers through the fields. We were never out of the soldiers sight yet they did not attempt to stop us. In few minutes all the cars followed and a new road for Palestinians was in use.

We had to do this By-pass turn six more times. Few of them were really difficult to drive through. Finally and after three hours of driving like in mountain rallies I arrived at the University and gave my first lecture. Going back home was very similar. I thought I will never drive this way again yet on daily basis I am taking the same road and started to think about the beauty of the seen. Maybe in some time I will be able to enjoy it. Speaking, areas A according to Oslo accords are completely turned into reservations. I now live in the one called Bethlehem. The roads between them are totally controlled. Some are dedicated for Israeli Jews only and you need to prove your racial origin through a yellow license plate to be able to drive through. Other God made field roads are temporally available until the next change in policy.

While the crisis might end, racial segregation is becoming a well- established reality that is more enforced with every crisis that the region encounters.

PCR's Coordinator, Star Street, P.O.box 24 - Beit Sahour - Palestine TeleFax: +972-2-2772018 Mobile: +972-52-299310 (George) Mobile: +972-52-595319 (Ghassan) Web: www.rapprochement.org


3. The tragedy deepens
Edward Said
Al-Ahram Weekly, 7-13 December 2000

No one really knows whether the Al-Aqsa Intifada temporarily subsided because Yasser Arafat expressed his public disapproval of it on 17 November or whether the lull was only a short-lived one that was generated out of fatigue or a search for new positions. Despite the enormous cost in lives and property to Palestinians, however, the essential problems remain, and the Israelis continue their blind and finally stupid assault on Palestinians with the strangulation, economic blockade, and bombings of cities and towns continuing without respite.

Every Arab leader who welcomed Barak's election a year and a half ago should now be asked to repeat his declarations so that their hollowness can be demonstrated again and again. I find official Arab attitudes virtually incomprehensible, having spent most of my life trying to decipher them according to the laws of reason and elementary common sense.

Did they seriously believe that Barak was the savior of the peace process, and if so weren't they aware that to save the peace process was nothing less than to prolong the Palestinian agony? Did they think that he was any different from the great "war hero" who has devoted his entire career to killing Arabs, and if he wasn't why did it take them so long to find out? Does subservience to the United States require so much subservience, so many acrobatics, such a complicated twisting and turning and so profound a prostration?

How long and for what do they cling to a repressive, basically rejectionist status quo with neither the will nor the capacity to wage war nor to live in peace, simply to please a distant and arrogant superpower that has showed them and their people so much contempt, inhumanity and utter, unspeakable cruelty? Can they not do anything more substantial than what they are doing when Israel is using helicopter gunships to kill Palestinian civilians and destroy their homes, while the United States supplies Israel with the largest ever order of attack helicopters during the past 10 years and Israel has added $500 million to its budget for settlements?

Not one word of official protest against US policy that has brought such catastrophe to our people. It is this timorousness that allows US policy-makers, of whom the unregretted Dennis Ross -- the mediocre individual who has done more single-handedly to advance Israel's interest than anyone -- is but one, to say that the Arabs trust the US and its policies and remain close friends and allies of the US. Surely the time has come to speak frankly of a hypocrisy and brutality without parallel, instead of standing silently by cap in hand as more and more Palestinians are killed with arms paid for by US taxpayers. But the core of the tragedy is what is happening to the victims themselves, the Palestinian people. Here one must speak and think rationally, not letting emotion and the passions of the moment sway the mind too much.

My general impression is that Palestinians everywhere feel the absence of real leadership, a voice or an authority that can speak both of the present and the future with some sense of vision, some articulation of a coherent, inclusive goal beyond the usual platitudes that repeat what is obviously designed to postpone decisions and visions with mere rhetoric. No one has any doubt that Palestinians are struggling against military occupation and have been doing so for 33 years. But there are four million refugees struggling against exile, in addition to the one million Palestinian citizens of Israel who have been living under a regime of racial and religious discrimination that has too long been hidden under fatuous labels like "Israeli democracy."

One of the many problems with Oslo has been that Palestinian negotiators focused exclusively on the occupation, to the neglect of the other two dimensions. But it should finally be clear that in all three instances it is Zionism that we fight against, and until we have a leadership that can formulate an integrated strategy on all three fronts, we do not have leadership. The tragedy is that the Intifada goes, lives tragically lost every day, in a political setting or framework that deepens the differences between Palestinians instead of bringing them closer together.

We need a new vision, a new voice, a new truth. Isn't it now clear that old slogans like "a Palestinian state" or "Jerusalem our capital" have brought us to this impasse? Shouldn't we expect a real leader to speak to all Palestinians, honestly, fearlessly, without duplicity or winks at the US and Israel, and to chart a course forward that links together opposition to occupation, to exile, and to racial discrimination? Why continue to delude people with the empty hope that "struggle," a word which seems to mean that others should do the dying, will get the Arab world generally and the Palestinians particularly what all have so long wanted?

It is nothing short of alarming that after more than half a century of blustering, of expending blood and treasure, of militarization, of abrogating democracy and the most elementary requirements of citizenship in the Arab world, we find ourselves facing the same enemy, the same defeats, the same tactical shifts and hypocritical about-faces with the same tired arsenal of threats, promises, slogans and cliches, all of which have been proved more or less worthless and have produced the same failures from 1967 to Amman to October 1973 to Beirut to Oslo?

No one can deny that Palestine is an exception to nearly all the colonial issues of the past 200 years. It is exceptional, but not removed from history. Human history is full of similar, if not absolutely the same, instances, and what has surprised me, as someone living at a distance from the Middle East but close to it in all sorts of ways, is how insulated from the rest of the world we keep ourselves, whereas, I believe, a great deal can be learned from the history of other oppressed peoples in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and even Europe.

Why do we resist comparing ourselves, say, with the South African blacks, or with the American Indians, or with the Vietnamese? By comparing I don't mean mechanically or slavishly, but rather creatively and imaginatively. The late Eqbal Ahmad, who was certainly one of the two or three most brilliant analysts of contemporary history and politics that I ever knew, always drew attention to the fact that successful liberation movements were successful precisely because they employed creative ideas, original ideas, imaginative ideas where in other less successful movements (like ours, alas) there was a pronounced tendency to formulas and an uninspired repetition of past slogans and past patterns of behavior. Take as a primary instance the idea of armed struggle.

For decades we have relied in our minds on ideas about guns and killing, ideas that, from the 1930s until today, have brought us plentiful martyrs but have had little real effect not so much on Zionism but on our own ideas about what to do next. In our case, the fighting is done by a small brave number of people pitted against hopeless odds, i.e. stones against helicopter gunships, Merkava tanks, missiles. Yet a quick look at other movements -- say the Indian nationalist movement, the South African liberation movement, the American civil rights movement -- tell us first of all that only a mass movement employing tactics and strategy that maximize the popular element ever made any difference on the occupier and/or oppressor. Second, only a mass movement that has been politicized and imbued with a vision of participating directly in a future of its own making, only such a movement has historical chance of liberating itself from oppression or military occupation.

The future, like the past, is built by human beings. They, and not some distant mediator or savior, provide the agency for change. It is clear to me, for example, that the immediate task in Palestine is to establish the goal of ridding ourselves of the occupation, using imaginative means of struggle. That would necessarily involve large numbers of Palestinians intervening directly in the settlement process, blocking roads, preventing building materials from entering, in other words, isolating the settlements instead of allowing them, containing a far smaller number of people, to isolate and surround Palestinians, which is what occurs today.

It is still true, for instance, that the laborers who built the Israeli settlements on a daily basis are in fact Palestinians: this should give some fairly simple idea of how deeply misled, misguided, under-mobilized and unpoliticised the Palestinian people are today. After 33 years of building Israeli settlements, Palestinian workers should immediately be provided by the Authority with alternative employment. Can't a few dollars be spared from the millions spent on useless security and unproductive bureaucracy?

This is of course a failing of the leadership, but in the end it is also those individuals who know better -- professionals, intellectuals, teachers, doctors and so on -- who have the power of expression and the means to do so who have still not put enough pressure on the leadership to make it responsive to the situation. And there at once is the greatest tragedy of all: a people is giving passionately of itself, losing the flower of its youth and all its energies in a valiant confrontation with a sadistic and implacably cruel enemy who has no compunction about choking Palestinians to death, and still Mr. Arafat is silent.

He has not truly and honestly addressed his people since the crisis began, not even a 10-minute broadcast to give it strength, to explain his policies, to tell the people where we are, how we got here, and where, after all this bloodshed and suffering, where we are going. Not one minute of time spent telling the truth to his own people, even as he tours the world from France to China, meeting with presidents and prime ministers to no avail whatever. Is his heart made of stone, is his conscience completely anaesthetized?

I find this astoundingly incomprehensible, and this after 30 years of leading us from one catastrophe and ill-considered adventure to another, without respite and without even a whispered "thank you for bearing with me and my appalling, bumbling mistakes and miscalculations for so long!" I for one am fed up with his attitude of contempt for his people, and for his stony autocratic imperturbability, his inability either to listen or to take other people seriously, his unending ambiguities, secrecy and blindingly irrational lurches from one patron to another, all the while leaving his long-suffering people to fend for themselves. Lead, Mr. Arafat, lead your people, and if you can't or don't want to, please say so truthfully.

But what you have been doing since Oslo began has been to mislead, to dodge, to make secret deals that have profited a few of the many corrupt politicians who surround you, but have made our general situation worse, much worse. The Al-Aqsa Intifada is an Intifada against Oslo and against the people who constructed it, not only Dennis Ross and Barak, but a small, irresponsible coterie of Palestinian officials. These people should now have the decency to stand before their people, admit their mistakes, and ask (if they can get it) for popular support if there is a plan. If there isn't one (as I suspect) they should then have the elementary courtesy at least to say so. Only by doing this can there be anything more than tragedy at the end of the road.

Palestinian officials signed the agreement to partition Hebron, they signed many other agreements without getting prior assurances that the settlements would end (and at least not be increased) and that all signs of military occupation would be effaced. They must now explain publicly what they thought they were doing and why they did it. Then they must let us express our views on their actions and their future. And for once they must listen and try to put the general interest before their own, despite the millions of dollars they have either squandered or squirreled away in Paris apartments and valuable real estate and lucrative business deals with Israel. Enough is enough.

Monday, December 11

MCC Palestine Update #5

MCC Palestine Update #5

11 December 2000

Advent greetings from Palestine!

Jerusalem and Bethlehem are stripped of the usual festivity which normally accompanies this time of year: few tourists are arriving and Palestinians do not feel much like celebrating. MCC's partners, however, routinely tell us that they covet the prayerful, active support of churches in North America. We would therefore urge your congregations, if they have not already done so, to avail themselves of the prayer/advocacy/action resources for peace in Palestine/Israel posted on MCC's website, www.mcc.org. We at MCC also covet your prayerful support.

We would ask that you keep the following projects in your prayers:

--The economic situation in the occupied territories continues to deteriorate, with roadblocks and closure restricting movement of people and goods and preventing 140,000 Palestinians from going to work inside Israel. MCC is joining other international organizations is programs which seek to put unemployed Palestinians to work for the betterment of their communities. Specifically, MCC is supporting the Emergency Committee for the Southern Refugee Camps (refugee camps in the Bethlehem and Hebron areas) by donating building material for workers who will be renovating kindergartens and youth clubs in the camps.

--MCC is supporting an interfaith initiative organized by the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusaelm. Sabeel has invited Muslim and Christian clergy, along with laypeople from both communions, to attend an "iftar," or breaking of the Ramadan fast, at Sabeel's office this coming Monday. Israeli propoganda routinely seeks to drive a wedge between Palestinian Christians and Muslims. Sabeel believes, therefore, that this is a critical time to reinforce the already strong bonds which connect Palestinian Christians with their Muslim brothers and sisters. The group will gather at Sabeel before the "maghreb" prayer (ca. 4:40 pm local time), and will then break the fast together.

--Donella Clemens, former moderator of the Mennonite Church and and MCC board member, is currently in Palestine as part of a solidarity trip organized by Churches for Middle East Peace. She is joining other Protestant and Catholic leaders in a five day visit to communities and churches throughout the occupied territories.

We are including two additional pieces in this update. The first is a homily by the Rev. Naim Ateek, the director of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center. The second is an excerpt from an article by Jewish theologian Marc Ellis which appeared in a recent edition of the Christian Century. Thank you for your support and prayers. Let us await Christ's coming with an expectant urgency!


1. The Massacre of the Innocents
The Rev. Dr. Naim Ateek

According to the Gospel of Matthew, the Magi came to Jerusalem from the East in search of a royal baby whose birth they had seen foretold by the stars. They stopped to enquire from Herod, the local king, the whereabouts of this child. Herod's religious advisors gave the opinion that a royal birth would take place in the nearby village of Bethlehem.

The Magi set out on the last stage of their journey, with a request from Herod to report back to him where the birthplace was, so that he too could go and pay homage to the child. They did not realize, however, that Herod was a tyrant who felt threatened by the prospect of any rival, however tiny, to his unchallenged rule.

The Magi went to Bethlehem, found Jesus, paid him their honor, gave him their precious gifts and returned home without going back to Herod, having been warned of his ill intentions. Wishing to leave nothing to chance, Herod ordered his security forces to sweep the Bethlehem area and kill all children under the age of two.

In the Christian tradition, Herod's cold-blooded action is known as the Massacre of the Innocents, and its victims are regarded by the church as martyrs. It is a sobering reminder that the coming of the One whose life represents goodness and truth, peace and justice to the world, provoked an evil response from the ruling power. The innocents were helplessly caught between the domination of a violent man and the reign of the Prince of Peace.

The Christmas message for this year takes cognizance of the story of King Herod, the baby Jesus, and the massacre of the innocents. The events of the past two months of protest in Palestine have seen the killing of many children, youths, and even elderly people by the Israeli army. We have witnessed the destruction of many homes and businesses and a siege imposed on three million Palestinians. The state of Israel has been brutally gunning down hundreds of people and injuring thousands whose only crime is their desire for a life of freedom and the independence of their own country from the oppressive occupation. King Herod allowed himself to stoop down to the basest of all feelings. He stripped himself of all semblance of humanity when he ordered the killing of innocent children.

This scenario is being repeated in a different guise. Almost 40% of those killed have been less than 18 years old. Some younger teenagers died by bullets fired from further away than their stones of protest could possibly reach. These young Palestinians posed minimal threat, no real danger to their killers. Why do Israeli soldiers target protesters in the upper parts of their body, given the use of such powerful weapons?

This expresses the intent to destroy, not deter. These deaths are a crime against the value of human life. They dehumanize not only the killers, but also those who command them. At this Christmas time, when we remember the message of peace and love that came down from God to earth in the birth of Jesus Christ, our celebrations are marred by the destructive powers of the modern day "Herods" who are represented in the Israeli government.

The message of this Christmas is already overshadowed by the sound of war, violence, and state terror. Indeed, violence breeds violence, and innocent people have been killed on both sides. But the original sin is the violence of the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including East Jerusalem.

When the Israeli leadership calls daily for the termination of the violence, for us this means, the occupation must end. It is the occupation that is evil and violent. It is apartheid in its ugliest form. Once the occupation ends, the violence will end. There is no other proper sequence. The sooner the Israeli leadership understands this, the quicker we will achieve an enduring peace.

Our faith tells us that ultimately, it is not the "Herods" of this world that contribute to the well being of society. The "Herods" will come and go. Indeed, while they are with us, they use all kinds of destructive force to kill, maim, and create havoc. Power blinds them. They are deluded in believing that they can steer history as they wish and charter its course. They are fools.

The God of history who is the God of justice and peace will not allow it. The movement of history is toward the liberation of people and against their subjugation and oppression. It is for freedom and democracy and against tyranny and apartheid. History will condemn those obstructionists who knew not the things that make for peace. They heap untold destruction and misery upon themselves and many innocent people.

History will exonerate those who strive, like Jesus Christ, for peace and goodwill among people. Our world needs leaders who work to establish justice and peace and have a true knowledge of God, the one who desires justice and who calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves.

The message for this Christmas is a call to struggle against all forms of dehumanization: domination, apartheid, racism, occupation, oppression and ethnic cleansing. We must strive for all that leads to genuine peace: justice, reconciliation, sharing, non- violence, forgiveness, neighborliness, and respect for the rights and dignity of others.


2. Excerpt from "Jews v. Jews: Dissenting on Israeli Policy"
Marc Ellis
The Christian Century, 8 November 2000

Over the past decades a reversal has taken place in Jewish history: the victims have become victors and we as a people have changed. This change is most obvious in our extended military campaign to form a state and expand it at the expense of Palestinians.

The less obvious and more insidious change has come in the unequivocal support of Israel that is demanded of all Jews. The Jewish intellectual and religious tradition has become twisted to defend policies that further the dislocation of persons and communities, deny the most basic values of human dignity and citizenship, and argue for that denial under the cloak of innocence and redemption.

Jews who argue openly for the freedom of Palestinians, over whom Israel has military and territorial power, are branded as self-haters and traitors. Such pressure to conform to an uncritically pro-Israel position spells the demise of a value-oriented and ethically concerned tradition.

Is the call for unity under these conditions a realistic option, one that comports with Jewish values and creates a future worth bequeathing to our children? What are Jews to do in this situation?

Can we still argue for a sharing of the land that would give Jews and Palestinians dignity, equality, and justice?

Does the argument for Palestinian rights, for example, intend the real sharing of all of Jerusalem, east and west, old and new, economically, politically, intellectually, and spiritually, or is this, at its heart, anti- Jewish?

The actual sharing of Jerusalem, as a broken middle of two struggling peoples, could be a catalyst for healing, justice and reconciliation. Sharing Jerusalem only in a symbolic way, the offer made by [Israeli Prime Minister Ehud] Barak to [Palestinian president Yasser] Arafat at the Camp David this summer, portends escalation of the conflict toward what indeed seems already to be an undeclared war.

May God give us the strength to testify to a fidelity that is inclusive of Jews and Palestinians, even and especially as the unity that is called for seeks to silence those who protest in the name of justice.

--Marc Ellis is University Professor of American and Jewish Studies at Baylor University

Friday, December 1

MCC Palestine Update #4

MCC Palestine Update #4

1 December 2000

Advent greetings from the MCC unit in Palestine! Along with our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Christ, we await our Lord's coming this year with an added degree of urgent expectancy. While we believe and confess that Christ has already trampled the powers of death, we presently live in a desperate hope that the powers of death are not in fact final.

The macabre dance of destruction continues, with the death toll continually mounting (at present, nearly 250 Palestinians and around 30 Israelis are dead, with over 9000 Palestinians injured). Our Palestinian Christian friends and partners in Ramallah, Gaza, Beit Sahour, Beit Jala and Bethlehem will be spending a grim Advent.

We would ask that you, individually and as congregations, pray for an end to death and destruction in Palestine/Israel.

Please also keep the Palestinian church in your prayers:

Prayer vigil. MCC is joining the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, the Episcopalian Church, the Presbyterian Church USA, and the Reformed Church of America in an advent prayer vigil for peace in Palestine/Israel.

We have compiled resources for prayer, advocacy, and action for individual and congregational use. These can be found at MCC's web site: www.mcc.org (click "Middle East - Prayer Vigil").

Below find two additional items. One is an opinion piece by former US President Jimmy Carter which appeared in the Washington Post regarding the incompatibility of settlements with peace.

The second contains answers to frequently asked questions from the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between Peoples, a longtime MCC partner in Beit Sahour


1. For Israel, Land or Peace
Jimmy Carter
The Washington Post, November 26, 2000

“An underlying reason that years of U.S. diplomacy have failed and violence in the Middle East persists is that some Israeli leaders continue to "create facts" by building settlements in occupied territory.

Their deliberate placement as islands or fortresses within Palestinian areas makes the settlers vulnerable to attack without massive military protection, frustrates Israelis who seek peace and at the same time prevents any Palestinian government from enjoying effective territorial integrity.

At Camp David in September 1978, President Anwar Sadat, Prime Minister Menachem Begin and I spent most of our time debating this issue before we finally agreed on terms for peace between Egypt and Israel and for the resolution of issues concerning the Palestinian people.

The bilateral provisions led to a comprehensive and lasting treaty between Egypt and Israel, made possible at the last minute by Israel's agreement to remove its settlers from the Sinai. But similar constraints concerning the status of the West Bank and Gaza have not been honored, and have led to continuing confrontation and violence.

The foundation for all my proposals to the two leaders was the official position of the government of the United States, based on international law that was mutually accepted by the United States, Egypt, Israel and other nations, and encapsulated in United Nations Security Council Resolution 242. Our government's legal commitment to support this well-balanced resolution has not changed. Although the acceptance of Resolution 242 was a contentious issue at Camp David, Prime Minister Begin ultimately acknowledged its applicability, "in all its parts.

‘ The text emphasizes "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every State in the area can live in security." It requires the "withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent [1967] conflict" and the right of every state in the area "to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." It was clear that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories were a direct violation of this agreement and were, according to the long-stated American position, both "illegal and an obstacle to peace.’

Accordingly, Prime Minister Begin pledged that there would be no establishment of new settlements until after the final peace negotiations were completed. But later, under Likud pressure, he declined to honor this commitment, explaining that his presumption had been that all peace talks would be concluded within three months.

There were some notable provisions in the Camp David Accords that related to Palestinian autonomy and the occupation of land. A key element was that "the Israeli military government and its civilian administration will be withdrawn as soon as a self-governing authority has been freely elected by the inhabitants of these areas to replace the existing military government." This transition period was triggered by an election in the occupied territories in January 1996, approved by the Palestinians and the government of Israel and monitored by the Carter Center. Eighty-eight Palestinian Council members were elected, with Yasser Arafat as president, and this self-governing authority, with limited autonomy, convened for the first time in March 1996.

It was also agreed that once the powers and responsibilities of the self-governing authority were established, "A withdrawal of Israeli armed forces will take place and there will be a redeployment of the remaining Israeli forces into specified security locations. "We decided early during the Camp David talks that it would be impossible to resolve the question of sovereignty over East Jerusalem, but proposed the following paragraph concerning the city, on which we reached full agreement: "Jerusalem, the city of peace, is holy to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. And all peoples must have free access to it and enjoy the free exercise of worship and the right to visit and transit to the holy places without distinction or discrimination.

The holy places of each faith will be under the administration and control of their representatives. A municipal council representative of the inhabitants of the city shall supervise essential functions in the city such as public utilities, public transportation, and tourism and shall ensure that each community can maintain its own cultural and educational institutions." At the last minute, however, after several days of unanimous acceptance, both Sadat and Begin agreed that there were already enough controversial elements in the accords and requested that this paragraph, although still supported by both sides, be deleted from the final text. Instead, the two leaders exchanged letters, expressing the legal positions of their respective governments regarding the status of East Jerusalem.

They disagreed about sovereignty, of course, but affirmed that the city should be undivided. As agreed, I informed them that "the position of the United States on Jerusalem remains as stated by Ambassador Arthur Goldberg in the United Nations General Assembly on July 14, 1967, and subsequently by Ambassador Charles Yost in the United Nations Security Council on July 1, 1969." In effect, these statements considered East Jerusalem to be part of the occupied territories, along with the West Bank and Gaza.

The Camp David Accord was signed by all three of us leaders with great fanfare and enthusiasm. President Sadat and Prime Minister Begin embraced warmly at the White House ceremony, and the final document was overwhelmingly ratified by their respective parliaments.

With the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan, there was a period of relative inactivity in the Middle East, except for the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the subsequent expulsion of PLO forces from Beirut. President Reagan used the announcement of this event on Sept. 1, 1982, to address the nation on the subject of the West Bank and the Palestinians. He stated clearly that "the Camp David agreement remains the foundation of our policy," and his speech included the following declarations: "The Palestinian inhabitants of the West Bank and Gaza will have full autonomy over their own affairs." "The United States will not support the use of any additional land for the purpose of settlements during the transition period. Indeed, the immediate adoption of a settlement freeze by Israel, more than any other action, could create the confidence needed for wider participation in these talks. Further settlement activity is in no way necessary for the security of Israel and only diminishes the confidence of the Arabs that a final outcome can be freely and fairly negotiated."

In 1991 there was a major confrontation between the governments of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and President George Bush concerning Israeli settlements in the West Bank, with U.S. threats of withholding financial aid if settlement activity continued.

A conference was convened that year in Madrid with participants of the United States, Syria, other Arab nations and some Palestinians who did not officially represent the PLO. At a press conference on Nov. 1, Secretary of State James Baker said, "When we negotiated with Israel, we negotiated on the basis of land for peace, on the basis of total withdrawal from territory in exchange for peaceful relations. . . . This is exactly our position, and we wish it to be applied also in the negotiations between Israelis and Syrians, Israelis and Palestinians. We have not changed our position at all."

Norwegian mediators forged an agreement in September 1993 between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Arafat committing both sides to a staged peace process. Although U.S. officials were not involved in this effort, our government commemorated the Oslo Accords in a ceremony at the White House, and built subsequent peace talks on its terms and those of the Camp David Accords.

So far, these efforts have not succeeded, and this year there has been a resurgence of violence and animosity between Israelis and Arabs unequaled in more than a quarter of a century. The major issues still to be resolved remain unchanged: the final boundaries of the state of Israel, the return of, or compensation for, Palestinians dislodged from their previous homes and the status of Jerusalem.

It seems almost inevitable that the United States will initiate new peace efforts, but it is unlikely that real progress can be made on any of these issues as long as Israel insists on its settlement policy, illegal under international laws that are supported by the United States and all other nations. There are many questions as we continue to seek an end to violence in the Middle East, but there is no way to escape the vital one: Land or peace?

Former president Carter is chairman of the Carter Center in Atlanta. © 2000 The Washington Post


2. Attempting to answer two frequently asked questions
Ghassan Andoni
Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between People

Q1- Are Palestinians shooting at Israeli soldiers and settlements?

A1- The answer is yes. After few days through which Israeli soldiers killed dozens and injured hundreds of Palestinian protestors Palestinians retaliated by shooting at military targets and settlements.

In few cases, and when the Israeli army moved into Palestinian sovereign areas (Area "a") Palestinian police fought against them. It is important to note that the battlefield is inside the Palestinian occupied territories and therefore, Palestinians can rightly claim an act of self-defense against occupation and military aggression.

Palestinians have the choice to stop the resistance against the Israeli occupation and live as slaves forever. Yet, it is evident that Palestinians are more interested in freedom, dignity, and just peace than in preserving their slavery life. Most of other nations made the same choice at certain moments in their history.

Q2- Do new Palestinian generations hate Israel?

A1- The answer is yes. But it has very little to do with school or family education, it has more to do with what the new generations are exposed to through the course of their childhood. It is a phenomenon that is worth studying.

Before the 1987 Palestinian Intifada it looked as if Israel have managed to defeat Palestinians and to be able to force upon them the autonomy for the population formula. Most Israeli politicians where convinced that expanding their settlement building campaign and land expropriation is only a matter of time. And the demographic problem can find a solution through imposing unilateral autonomy on the population of the west bank and Gaza and that the file of Jerusalem is closed once and forever.

The end result was designed as follows: The majority of the Palestinian population will be isolated in reservations with autonomous status and Jerusalem and more than 80% of the occupied territories will be gradually annexed to Israel.

Suddenly, the young generation then took the initiative, and through seven years of an Intifada managed to defeat this plan and brought the area back to its senses and realities. The end result was re-establishing negotiations on national bases. Palestine is an occupied area and Palestinians have the right to be treated as a nation living under occupation. This move was faced with Israeli brutality, which resulted in killing hundreds, jailing and injuring thousands. Yet, without this move the peace negotiations between the PLO and Israel could never have started.

It is not surprising that the younger Palestinian generation (the post Intifada generation) is the one who took the initiative again and moved into the streets to face Israeli provocations, settlement programs, and plans to impose through the usage of force the future of this area. This generation has witnessed the previous Intifada as children. Israeli brutality and acts initiated inside their little minds hundreds of unanswered questions.


We all wanted to believe that as this generation will grow up with the peace process it will be the generation that will advance peace. Yet, the seven years of the peace process were the hardest, most inhuman, and most humiliating Palestinians ever faced. It was characterized by unprecedented land expropriation and settlement- building campaigns sever limitations on the mobility of Palestinians, tightening Israeli control over the Palestinian population, and enforcing the occupation symbols within the Palestinian territories.

Palestinians faced all of this with patience and hope, but by the end of the Camp David negotiations and the Sharon-Barak attempt to demonstrate their power inside the most sacred shrine Palestinians have. The new generation who witnessed carefully all of this took the initiative and moved steadily into the current Intifada. I have followed carefully all the discussions about education for peace. And as well read through many articles about what should be and what should not be part of the curriculum in schools. Yet, I have seen no one writing about the obligations of Israel to establish a conductive environment for peace education.

Without this all attempts to educate for peace will only results in a generational miscommunication. Can you talk about the benefits of peace when people are only harvesting pain and misery? It is painful that generation after another the heavy heritages of fighting for your basic human and national rights are passed. It also explains why there is an active participation of the younger generation in those bloody confrontations. And I hope that Israel will not again misread reality and only seek to impose its "national interests" and acceptance for its existence through the blind usage of military force.

I think, Israel has to work hard to totally separate its existence as a state from both occupation and historical and current wrong doings. This can only be achieved through quickly working to end the occupation and in sincere attempts to address the rights of Palestinians as a nation and as individuals. By doing so, the peace process will recover its human face, a step that is vital for a joint peaceful future in this area.