Friday, March 28

MCC Palestine Update #76

MCC Palestine Update #76

March 28, 2003

The US-led war against Iraq has, fortunately, not brought with it some of the horrors that some Palestinians had feared: blanket curfew over all of the occupied territories or even mass ethnic cleansing. The everyday horrors, however, continue. One example among hundreds, even thousands: For weeks now, MCC and a group of other international Christian organizations have been trying to gain access to the Mawasi in the southern Gaza Strip to deliver food packets for the families there who live in a virtual prison, surrounded by Israeli settlements and military outposts, living weeks on end under curfew, their movements out of the Mawasi to Rafah and Khan Younis strictly and arbitrarily controlled (women, for example, who leave the Mawasi to give birth in Khan Younis must wait for weeks for permission to get back in). People in the Mawasi suspect that the harsh measures to which they are subjected are a form of economic pressure on them to leave their homes in the Mawasi, giving the Israeli settlement bloc of Gush Qatif exclusive control over the Mawasi area and its fertile land and its (for Gaza) prime water resources.

The World Food Program has routinely faced obstacles in getting food in to the people of the Mawasi. Late last week, it looked like our coalition of Christian agencies would receive permission to go the Mawasi on Monday, March 24. Then, over the weekend, we were told by the Israeli military to postpone until Thursday, and were told that we would not be allowed to bring in trucks, but would have to unload “back-to-back,” unloading the food parcels from our trucks and loading them on to donkey carts brought by our partner organization in the Mawasi. Then early this week we were told that Thursday would not be possible after all, that we should look to Monday, March 31 for the convoy. Please pray that we might succeed in bringing in food to the people in Mawasi; more importantly, pray that the Mawasi’s residents might be able to leave their homes freely, move their agricultural produce to Khan Younis and Rafah without delay, and travel without restriction the one kilometer that separates them from Rafah and Khan Younis; pray that families separated by the Mawasi checkpoints might be reunited; pray that families in Rafah and Khan Younis will be able to travel the one kilometer road to the sea.

Below you will find two pieces, both by Ha’aretz journalist Amira Hass. In the first, Hass discusses the fact that, while the horror scenarios of mass “transfer” or blanket curfews under the cover of war have not materialized, the everyday, routine horrors of the closure/siege on Palestinian population centers, of economic devastation, of “collateral damage” and “accidental” shootings, of an apartheid wall being constructed throughout the West Bank, continue. In the second, Hass provides a disturbing glimpse of Israeli army behavior in the occupied territories.

--Alain Epp Weaver


1. Horror scenarios coming true
Amira Hass, Ha’aretz, March 26, 2003

It has been almost a week since the United States and Britain launched the attack on Iraq, and the horror scenarios outlined by the Palestinians in recent weeks - concerning Israel's military policy toward them - are not coming true. These scenarios were drawn up by private individuals and official spokesmen or activists from various organizations. They warned that international attention would be focused on what is happening in Iraq, and under that cover, Israel would take advantage of the opportunity to increase its attacks. But a full curfew has not been imposed on the West Bank territories. The internal closure has not been toughened. The frequent Israel Defense Forces attacks, especially in the Gaza Strip, which took about 10 lives on each occasion, have not been renewed. And the horror scenarios of mass deportation, internal expulsion and a direct blow to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat have certainly not come true. Cynics will say it is still early to breathe a sigh of relief at the non-realization of the horror scenarios. After all, the war in Iraq has only just begun. Perhaps if ultimately the Iraqis do try to attack Israel - the reaction will in part roll over onto the Palestinians. However, it could be said the warnings have been effective: The United States in particular, but also the European countries, have warned Israel not to escalate the situation at a time when the countries attacking Iraq need regional stability. The alarm bells rung by the Palestinians before the war with Iraq could have created the impression that their lives were "back to normal" - a not unbearable routine. The proof: It hasn't blown up. Yet this is not the case. By any economic, sociological, historical and humane standard, about 3.5 million Palestinians are living in a catastrophic situation and constant disruption of normal life. Horror scenarios are in fact happening every day to every individual and community. Vaguely, people in Israel are hearing about the chronic unemployment and the extreme poverty that would have unraveled the social fabric of any society with less solidarity than the Palestinian one. Only internal Palestinian solidarity and European and Arab philanthropy are preventing situations of mass starvation. Every day between 10 and 20 "wanted men" are arrested, according to reports from the IDF, which does not report how many of them were released a day later, or how many were arrested so they would become collaborators, how many were beaten, what their conditions of detention were in tents exposed to the rain and wind and how much time goes by before they are allowed to see a lawyer or their family. The many dead have been mainly an opportunity to show more pictures of funerals accompanied by cries for revenge. The Palestinian wounded, among them many children - a huge burden on impoverished families - are an opportunity to point out the Iraqi money going to the terrorists. The limitations on Palestinians' freedom of movement are an opportunity to film wadis where Palestinians are trying to break the strict internal closure to get to work, to school and to their families. An opportunity to show how the security authorities have stretched their limits to the breaking point. Anything else, anything that has to do with the individual, is of no interest: hours of delay at the roadblocks; routine beatings; harassing drivers; confiscating taxicabs; fines imposed on drivers; sick people and elderly people transferred in ambulances over muddy slopes. What is being felt every hour of every day by hundreds of thousands of relatives of people who have been arrested, wounded or killed and high-school students who break the closure and pass under the wide open eyes of the guns on tanks and armored personnel carriers - has made no impression at all on Israeli and Western consciousness. The routing of the separation fence will be changed in accordance with the recommendations of the lobby of the Jewish settlers in the territories. In Israel in any case people do not want to know that this means a broad battery of a variety of types of fortifications, at the expense of Palestinian land, the livings of tens of thousands of Palestinians, Palestinian freedom of movement, the Palestinian gross national product and the possibility of a viable state. The bottom line is that Israel, the IDF and its soldiers are waging a war every day against 3.5 million Palestinians. In Israel, they are convinced this is what needs to be done to stop the terror. It is a fact that the terror attacks have lessened. The Palestinians' need to be wary of disasters and horror scenarios even worse than the current situation derives primarily from the recognition that this disastrous status quo of theirs is not succeeding in shocking the policy makers in the influential Western world. Not the way a single terror attack on Israeli civilians influences them. The drawing up of frightening scenarios - that are also based to a large extent on the experience of the not-too-distant past - is a desperate way to break the routine of impotence, the slowness of response and even the indifference on the part of the Western countries to the speed with which Israel and the Palestinians are losing any chance for a fair resolution of the conflict.


2. Our soldiers? Impossible
Amira Hass, Ha’aretz, March 19, 2003

On the phone, his voice sounded very young, like that of a high school student. But no; he's a soldier, serving somewhere in the West Bank. He identified himself by name, named his company, the unit, and the location of the base (and in a separate conversation named the base). He was bashful, hesitant, apologetic that he might be disturbing someone, but something was bothering him. Soldiers in his unit "beat bloody" two Palestinians whom they had arrested earlier that day and had brought to the base, he said. One was an Arab caught in the field with a gun. The second "was a detainee that the Shin Bet said did nothing and that he should be released." That was his conclusion from what he heard from one of the soldiers who had heard the officers. "`He didn't do anything. Take him and toss him out somewhere on the road,'" said that soldier. But meanwhile, the soldier with the youthful voice said on the phone that the two detainees were being held at the base. Their hands were tied behind them; their eyes covered with a blindfold. One was lying curled up on the ground, the other sat on a chair. And the soldiers beat them. A lot of soldiers. Beating and kicking until the two began to weep, and continued to beat them until the two pleaded for their lives. It was difficult for him to describe the scene he saw. "It reminded me of the Ramallah lynch," he said. The officers weren't present when the soldiers - as the soldier said - beat up the two detainees. The officers were in a nearby room. "I know that the right thing to do was report it to my officer. I didn't do my duty. Why not? Maybe because the atmosphere is 'why are you pitying them?' I feel the officers don't care, either. There's nobody to talk to. This is the first time I witnessed something like that. But I understood from the other soldiers that they go out to the villages and beat up Arabs. And I want to protect my ass. I want to finish my service in quiet." Lawyers who represent Palestinian detainees, including detainees who have been formally released, say the beatings are a widespread phenomenon. The big fear isn't of an arrest, but of the stage between being captured by the soldiers and being placed in a detention camp. During that time, sometimes hours long, say the Palestinians, the detainees are exposed to the whims of the soldiers, irrespective of suspicions against them or their age. Four youths were taken from their homes in Silat al Hartiya in early February, and managed to tell their lawyers that they were beaten from the moment they were put in the jeep until they were taken to the Salam detention center. At least they weren't beaten in front of their families, they said, unlike a youth from Balata who was beaten in front of his mother when he was arrested in early February. A pupil from Bir Zeit was arrested in early January, taken by jeep to a base south of Ramallah, and beaten the entire day - then released at night. Lawyers and Palestinian human rights organizations don't even bother keeping accurate records of all these complaints, let alone demand that they be investigated. Those arrested are not allowed to meet with lawyers immediately, and when they do get to meet them in the mass detention centers, the lawyers get very little time - 15 minutes per detainee. There's no time to take statements about abuse, and besides, the Palestinians are convinced that nobody in the army plans to seriously investigate the complaint. Those let out after a few days or even a few hours are also afraid that the complaint will lead to further abuse by soldiers. Is it a phenomenon, or did the soldier and the Palestinians exaggerate? The Palestinians - whose newspapers each day are full of reports of civilians who were killed when a house was demolished or when a shell was fired into a refugee camp - feel it's almost a luxury to complain about beatings. In Israel, where there's practically no criticism of the quick-finger-on-the-trigger policy and where Palestinian civilian deaths are never investigated, it's hard to expect that anyone will seriously examine complaints of detainees being beaten by soldiers. Beatings? Our soldiers? For no reason? A phenomenon? It can't be. The soldier's report, including the name of the company, unit and the location of the base (without naming it specifically), was given to the IDF Spokesman's Office 10 days ago. As of last night, the army had not responded

Friday, March 14

MCC Palestine Update #75

MCC Palestine Update #75

March 14, 2003

“When do you think it’s going to start?” “How long do you think it will be?” “Why are they doing it?” The “it” in these questions, questions I’ve been asked repeatedly on every trip into the West Bank during the past 10 days, is a US-led invasion of Iraq. I assure people that I’m as in the dark as they are, that I read the newspaper and listen to the radio for clues like they do, but that I have no special knowledge.

There’s a lot of uncertainty and anxiety in conversations right now. People are worried about what will happen in the occupied territories during any upcoming war. Will there be a week of curfew? Two weeks? A month? Will there be more confiscation of land? More demolished homes? More “targeted killings” that end up producing lots of “collateral damage?” Accelerated construction of the separation wall/apartheid wall? Some Palestinians are genuinely worried about “transfer,” that euphemism for another euphemism, “ethnic cleansing.” Other Palestinians doubt that mass transfer will happen, but stress that house demolitions and the cutting off of people from their lands and water (thanks to the separation wall) are micro-level forms of transfer.

Please, as you pray over the coming days that an invasion of Iraq might be stopped; as you pray that the lives of those Iraqi civilians and those soldiers, be they Iraqi, British, American or other, who would be killed during any war, be spared; please include in your prayers petitions for the safety of all the people in Palestine/Israel.

Below you will find three pieces. In the first, Gideon Levy looks at different forms of “terrorism” in Palestine/Israel. The second piece, by former Knesset member Shulamit Aloni, is a strongly-worded indictment of willed ignorance about what takes place in the occupied territories. The final piece, by Israeli journalist Amira Hass, dissects the logic used to justify Israeli actions in the occupied territories.

--Alain Epp Weaver


1. Terrorism by any other name
Gideon Levy, Ha’aretz, March 9, 2003

Terrorism begets terrorism - there is no other way to describe the violent relations that have developed between us and the Palestinians. There is no need to elaborate on the cruelty of their terrorist attacks, certainly not for the Israeli reader, and even less so after last week's horrific suicide bombing in Haifa. Murderers of children are murderers of children, without any ifs or buts. The debate is over our attacks, which we are trying to conceal by definitions that soften them and with tortuous accounts and excuses offered by the Israel Defense Forces, which do not always meet the test of truth or reasonability. Did an IDF tank fire a shell at a burning carpentry shop last Thursday morning in the Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, killing seven civilians? Lieutenant Colonel Dotan, commander of an armored battalion, says no: "This is something they have to answer ... We do not fire shells at stores ... I don't know if it is their store ...." As the accounts offered by IDF officers proliferated, the picture became increasingly foggy. Dotan admitted that his troops fired two shells, but not at the carpentry shop, and added that they did not kill the civilians. The images that were screened on television created the impression that the civilians were killed by a shell. One version in the face of another - but does it really matter? The moment the IDF sends tanks into a densely crowded refugee camp it puts all the inhabitants at risk. The moment the tanks open fire, innocent people are bound to be hurt. Tanks in Jabalya cannot fire shells without killing women and children, just as it was impossible to drop a one-ton bomb on the house of Salah Shehadeh in Gaza without killing 15 civilians, mostly children. Thus, anyone who decides to send tanks into Jabalya is making a decision to kill civilians. The test of intention - the terrorists intend to kill civilians, whereas the IDF does not - is irrelevant. The Armored Corps soldiers who fired shells in Jabalya may not have intended to kill civilians, but they and their commanders killed civilians. They therefore bear the responsibility for the killing. An operation to kidnap a wanted individual from Hamas in the heart of Jabalya - a "surgical operation" in the spit-and-polish language of the divisional commander, Brigadier General Gadi Shamni - that ends, as could be expected, in a dozen Palestinians killed, most of them civilians, and large-scale destruction, is an act of terrorism. Did the IDF also kill Noha al Makadama, who was nine months pregnant? Brigadier General Shamni said that "no substantiation was found" for this, and the defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, said "the IDF has no knowledge" of the case. What "substantiation" did the IDF think it could get outside the testimony of the family members? And does it really matter? Makadama was killed in her home while she was there with her 11 children while the IDF demolished the adjacent building, causing the destruction of her house as well. Anyone who blows up a building next to a building in which there are a pregnant woman and 11 children without warning them, is responsible for their fate. Killing a pregnant woman under these circumstances (two boys, aged 13 and 16, were also killed in the same incident) is a terrorist attack against innocent people. Instead of insensitively disassociating themselves from the brutal killing of a pregnant woman, the defense minister and the divisional commander should have condemned the act, as they demand the Palestinian Authority do after every terrorist attack against Israelis, or at least apologized. But expressing regret? Us? After the killing of more than 2,000 Palestinians, many of them innocent civilians, no Israeli condemnation has yet been heard. Everything we do in the territories, even if it involves killing and destruction on a horrific scale, obtains immediate automatic backing and justification. It is all done in self-defense and as part of the war against terrorism. However, with such data of killing and destruction, this version of events is no longer acceptable. Israel's efforts at obfuscation are intended above all to keep our conscience clean. This is false posturing that can no longer be countenanced. When the IDF demolished a mosque on the "Philadelphi" route on the outskirts of Rafah and immediately claimed that the building had been abandoned, no one asked why the mosque had been abandoned. Here is the real sequence of events: first the Gaza Strip is occupied, then settlements are established in it, then guarded roads are built to protect the settlers. In the next stage, after the Palestinians begin to rebel violently against the occupation, we begin killing them until they are forced to abandon the mosque and indeed the entire area. Finally the "abandoned" mosque is demolished. But to us it seems that only the Palestinians destroy holy places, such as Joseph's Tomb. Our conscience is pure and unblemished, always.


2. Murder of a population under cover of righteousness
Shulamit Aloni*, Ha’aretz, March 6, 2003 (in Hebrew version only)

We do not have gas chambers and crematoria, but there is no one fixed method for genocide.
Dr. Ya'akov Lazovik writes ("Academic Genocide", "Ha'Aretz", 4 March) that in the State of Israel it is impossible that the regime and the nation will plan and commit a genocide. It is difficult to determine if this is naivity or self-righteousness. As we know, there is no single fixed method for murder and not even for genocide. The author Y. L. Peretz wrote about "the righteous cat" who does not spill blood, but only suffocates.

The government of Israel, using the military and its instruments of destruction, is not only spilling blood, but it is also suffocating. What other name can be given to the dropping of a one-ton bomb over a dense urban area, when the justification uttered is that we wanted to murder a dangerous terrorist and his wife? The rest of the citizens who were killed and injured, among whom are children and women, do not count, of course.

How is it possible to explain the expulsion of citizens from their homes at three o'clock in the morning on a rainy night, then depositing bombs in the house and then departing without warning? When those expelled returned to their home, the bombs were exploded and a brutal murder and destruction of property was thus committed. And what is the justification for what happened in Jenin? We did not destroy the whole neighbourhood, just 85 houses; it was not slaughter, we killed only 50-some citizens. How many does one need to murder and destroy for it to be a crime? - A crime against humanity, as determined by the Laws of the State of Israel, not only the laws of Belgium.

And more: A curfew and closure of an entire city so that a few celebrants from the racist bunch in Hebron could walk to the Cave of the Fathers, and tanks destroying fruit and vegetable stands, and bulldozers that destroy houses, and Generals who, in their arrogant hubris, are willing to destroy a whole neighbourhood for the convenience of a group of settler hooligans. Curfew, closure, brutality, murder, destruction of homes of suspects, while we keep parroting the incantation that a person is innocent until proven otherwise (as in the case of our Prime Minister and his sons).

The order that Ariel Sharon gave to the soldiers who went to wreak revenge in Qibiah [an Israeli cross-border attack into the West Bank in the 1950s left many civilian dead—Alain]: "Maximize losses in life and property", has not been forgotten. Today Sharon, Mofaz and Yaalon, the three Generals who manage the policy of this government, behave like that self-righteous cat - suffocating all the time. Curfew and another curfew, arrests and more arrests, destruction of roads, brutality to the residents at road stops. Benny Alon, (a minister in the present government), already said: "make their life so bitter that they will transfer themselves willingly".

This is done on a daily basis, in addition to the destruction. The Chief of Staff, Yaalon, already announced that he is "destroying for re-building".

One can understand from his moves that the "building" is building of more and more settlements. So that they will not be obliged, as military rulers, to take care of the residents' well-being, the army uses sorties, followed by retreats. They enter a village, they kill, they destroy and they arrest, and then they retreat. Those who remain on the ashes and the ruins will take care of themselves.

Many of our children are being indoctrinated, in religious schools, that the Arabs are Amalek, and the bible teaches us that Amalek must be destroyed. There was already a rabbi (Israel Hess) who wrote in the newspaper of Bar Ilan University that we all must commit genocide, and that is because his research showed that the Palestinians are Amalek.

The nation is not planning to commit genocide; the nation really does not want to know what's happening in the territories. The nation is following orders given by the legitimate representatives of the regime. After the legitimate Prime Minister who wanted to bring peace was murdered, the hand is loose on the trigger, greed is paramount, and there is always some reason to brutalise all of the residents of a city that number tens, if not hundreds of thousands, because there are always people there who are on the "wanted" list. It is sufficient that one person is wanted to bomb and kill, by mistake, of course, also women, children, workers and other humans - if indeed we still count them as humans.

Of course with our self-righteousness, with our self-adoration in our "Jewish ethics" we make sure to advertise how beautifully the doctors take care of Palestinian victims in the hospitals. We do not advertise how many of those are executed in cold blood in their own homes.

So it's not yet genocide of the terrible and unique style of which we were past victims. And as one of the smart Generals told me, we do not have crematoria and gas chambers. Is anything less than that consistent with Jewish ethics? Did he ever hear how an entire people said that it did not
know what was done in its name?

*(The author was a Member of the Knesset from the Meretz Party and a government minister)


3. Completing the circle of proof
Amira Hass, Ha’aretz, March 5, 2003

More than two years after the Camp David summit, most Israelis are still convinced the Palestinians are to blame for the failure of the talks, just as they are guilty in the renewed bloody conflict. This is further proof, in the opinion of most Israelis, that the Palestinians and their leadership have not changed their original evil scheme to bring about the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state from the Mediterranean to Jordan. The rejection of Ehud Barak's proposals at Camp David is explained as another illogical example of "the Palestinians never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity." Bringing up the issues of the refugees and their right of return was presented by Israel as the reason for the breakdown of the summit and as further proof of uncompromising Palestinian irredentism. The outbreak of demonstrations in September 2000 is explained as a planned initiative of Yasser Arafat, further proof of his intention to force an agreement on Israel, through force rather than negotiations.The replacement of mass demonstrations by shooting at soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza is further proof of the treacherousness of the Palestinian Authority. The shift of the Palestinians to terror attacks within Israel completes the circle of proofs and connections: The purpose of Palestinians - the Hamas, as well as the Fatah - is to murder Jews. They don't distinguish between Israelis within the State of Israel and their army, and the settler-citizens within the West Bank. All of these proofs and connections continue to justify, in the eyes of Israelis, the policy of the IDF's attacks on Palestinians in their towns. On the Palestinian side, the past two-and-a-half years provide limitless proof for the theory of the nature of Zionism and the State of Israel, and the character of their leaders. The suppression of the first Palestinian popular demonstrations in September and October 2000 with live fire and fatal consequences is a consequence of an Israeli pre-planned plot to impose an arrangement on the PA with supreme military force. The "illegal" outposts established in the last two years have confirmed the suspicions of the Palestinians about the craftiness of Israeli leaders who dissociate themselves from the "illegal activities" and then lend a hand to their activities "under the table." The fact that Israel has continued to expand the settlements, and almost doubled the number of settlers, particularly during the Oslo years, is proof of Zionist irredentism, the calculated refusal - since 1949 - to define the international Israeli border. The fact that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said "it is possible legally to implement settlement contiguity between Ma'aleh Adumim and Jerusalem" places him in the same irredentist settlement continuum with Yitzhak Rabin. As prime minister during the Oslo period, he expanded the area under the jurisdiction of this gigantic settlement, at the expense of the Palestinian area of East Jerusalem and the territorial contiguity of the future Palestinian state. This expansion decision is viewed by Palestinians as yet another link in the continuum of decisions of expansionism and colonization in the `70s, of the Alignment and Likud as one ("the Left" and "the Right") - which established "Ma'aleh Adumim" as an industrial area, which expanded into a city in Israel. The Palestinians find a connection not just between every expanded settlement of today and the continuation of their expansion during the Oslo years and their establishment and their expansion in the years prior to Oslo - but also between the expansion of today and the beginning of Zionism and 1948. This link corroborates the earlier Palestinian claim that the objective of Zionism was to dispossess the entire Palestinian people of its land. The deadly attacks by Israel on crowded civilian areas is also proof for the Palestinians of the characteristic contempt for the blood of "the children." In the language of the Palestinians, it is state terror. The Israeli argument that terrorists are hiding in those same places strengthens the Palestinian conception regarding the double Israeli standards. Isn't it true that senior Israeli army officers, commanders and soldiers, who are responsible for killing thousands of Palestinian citizens in the past 20 years, live within civilian neighborhoods? And hasn't the IDF established bases and positioned tanks within settlements, from where it shells the Palestinian neighborhoods and camps?

Wednesday, March 5

MCC Palestine Update #74

MCC Palestine Update #74

March 5, 2003

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of our Lenten fast as we reflect and meditate on the sinful brokenness of ourselves and the world and as we look forward in hope to God’s triumph over the powers of sin and death. Immediately below you will find a piece I wrote Ash Wednesday, drawing on one of the Lectionary readings. This piece will appear, in an edited form reworked for Easter, in the April issue of MCC’s magazine “a Common Place.” Please keep MCC Palestine, MCC’s Palestinian partner organizations, and courageous Israeli and Palestinian peace builders, in your prayers this Lenten season.

***

Ash Wednesday Reflection

2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10
March 5, 2003

Alain Epp Weaver, MCC Palestine

As the church gathers in repentance on Ash Wednesday this year to begin the Lenten season, the Apostle Paul’s message in his second letter to the church at Chorinth provides a message of hope for us in our lamentation for the world’s brokenness. “See,” Paul encourages the Corinthian church, “now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2)

In Palestine/Israel, the “day of salvation” does not, at first thought, appear to be at hand. The nightmare of retributive killings by Israelis and Palestinians alike, of bodies mangled by tank shells or the blast of a suicide bomber, of the wreckage of an incinerated bus or a demolished home, continues. Israel confiscates more land in the occupied territories, builds more illegal settlements, and cuts off thousands of Palestinian villagers from their fields and water supplies with the construction of imposing fences and walls, barriers allegedly built to bring about security for Israel’s citizens but which, many Israelis and Palestinians fear, will deepen the roots of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, making the prospects for a peaceful resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict ever more remote. The weight of individual and corporate sin hangs heavy.

The confession that the “acceptable time” is here, that the “day of salvation” has come, encounters a significant obstacle in the pervasive, sinful brokenness of our lives, in Palestine/Israel and throughout the world. Paul’s message to the Corinthian church, however, is one of hope: hope that truth can win out against falsehood, joy can break into the midst of sadness, life can triumph over death. As aware as he is of the depths of human sinfulness, Paul nevertheless can point to his own ministry and that of the church as signs of the possibility of new life in Christ. “We are treated as impostors, and yet are true,” Paul observes, “as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” (6:8-10) In the midst of the falsehood, punishment and death in Palestine/Israel, God raises up witnesses to serve, like Paul, as ambassadors for God’s mission of reconciliation in the world.

These ambassadors are “treated as impostors, and yet are true.’ The Israeli soldiers who refuse orders to serve in the occupied territories, or the Jewish men and women and groups like Ta’ayush and Rabbis for Human Rights who try to help Palestinian farmers attacked by Israeli settlers bring in their olive harvest, are treated as impostors and traitors by much of Israeli society, yet they are true to God’s covenant of life.

These ambassadors are treated as having nothing, and yet possess everything. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have become dependent on external food aid, thanks to closures and curfews which have shattered the Palestinian economy; by typical standards, they “have nothing” (or next to nothing), yet visit their homes and one finds them still possessing warm hospitality.

These ambassadors are “punished, and not yet killed.” Millions of Palestinians face collective punishment in the form of house demolitions, school closures, and round-the-clock curfews for days, even weeks, on end, yet every morning people get up and affirm life in countless ways: by traveling through back roads and around checkpoints to get to school or to take a sick child to the hospital; by refusing to allow Israeli restrictions define one’s life and defying curfew in order to bring food to a neighbor; by rushing out when the curfew lifts to celebrate a relative’s baptism or wedding.

Finally, these ambassadors are treated “as dying,” but see!--they are alive. Even against a backdrop of anger and injury, injustice and death, some Israelis and Palestinians overcome barriers of suspicion and hatred to work together for a future of justice and peace for both peoples. The Rebuilding Homes initiative, supported by Mennonite Central Committee, for example, is the product of two organizations, one Palestinian (The Jerusalem Center for Economic and Social Rights) and one Israeli (the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions). Together, these Palestinians and Israelis work alongside one another to rebuild Palestinian homes demolished by the Israeli military. Amidst the rubble of a destroyed home, new life and the promise of reconciliation through acts of love and justice spring forth.

As we prepare our hearts, bodies, and minds for this period of Lent, let us therefore not only repent of the sinful brokenness which is all-too-present to our senses, but let us also give thanks for the witness of these ambassadors of God’s mission of reconciliation in the world, ambassadors who remind us that our Lenten fast does not end with the tomb, but with God’s victory over the powers of sin and death. Amen.

***

Below you will find four pieces. The first two pieces, by Chris McGreal of The Guardian and Akiva Eldar of Ha’aretz respectively, address the flaws and dangers in the “roadmaps” for peace being touted and the danger that a viable two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been eclipsed. The third, by Ha’aretz report Amira Hass, looks at “The Routine Calamities that Destroy Lives.” Finally, Danny Rubinstein of Ha’aretz describes how millions of Palestinians in the occupied territories now live lives of de facto house arrest.

--Alain Epp Weaver


1. Is this the end for a Palestinian state?
Sharon's new coalition may kill two-state solution

Chris McGreal in Jerusalem
Tuesday March 4, 2003
The Guardian

A single question stalks what remains of the creaking efforts to find peace in Israel: When is a state not a state?

There is growing agreement among EU officials, UN negotiators and even some American diplomats that the answer can be found in Ariel Sharon's proposals for Palestinian "independence", and the White House's evident willingness to go along with them.

Last week, President Bush made a fresh pledge to push his "road map" for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement once Iraq is dealt with. But those with an interest in the wording noted a subtle but important shift in tone that seemed to drop an insistence on dismantling many Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.

A day later Mr Sharon told the knesset that the development of existing settlements would be a priority for his government, abandoning the pretence that only "natural growth" would be allowed.

Between those two pronouncements, some of those close to the negotiations see the looming death of the "two-state solution".

"The combination of the construction of settlements and the destruction of the Palestinian Authority infrastructure are the two key elements in ending the two-state solution," a senior UN official said. "You could call it destructive construction and constructive destruction. I think we are very close to the point where we need to ask ourselves whether we, the international community, are not now playing into Sharon's hands if the road map ends up delivering a Palestinian state that is independent only in name and little better than a reservation."

Mr Sharon's two-year rule has been marked by a determined expansion of the established settlements and infrastructure around them that has seriously bitten into the territory available to the Palestinians and the prospects for a viable state.

New roads and growing settlements increasingly divide and encircle Palestinian land, carving across what would theoretically be an independent country and encircling its main cities.

In recent months, the new "security fence", a euphemism for what is in many places a 10-metre high wall with barbed wire and watchtowers, has further encroached on Palestinian land. It already encircles Qalqilya, leaving just one way in and no room for the city to expand. The wall is expected to do the same to Tulkarem.

In addition, a new highway, Route 6, running the length of the West Bank inside Israel's border, has breathed new life into the settlement blocks, particularly the constellation around Ariel.

"The Israeli goal is to take as much Palestinian land as possible while getting rid of as many Palestinians as possible. That means as small an area as possible while taking the best agricultural land, wells, etc," said Michael Tarazi of the PLO's negotiations support unit.

The Palestinians say this makes a nonsense of President Bush's road map which envisages a series of steps via "an end to terrorism", reform of the Palestinian administration and the sidelining of Yasser Arafat, to self-governance and finally an independent state within three years.

Since that speech, the EU and UN have focused their efforts on pushing the Palestinians to implement reforms. Mr Arafat, under direct pressure from Tony Blair, has reluctantly agreed to appoint a prime minister. Finances are being cleaned up under a new minister virtually handpicked by the Americans.

But the Palestinians complain that there is no such pressure on Mr Sharon.

America has stalled for six months on laying out a detailed timeline for the road map, saying it must now wait until after the war in Iraq.

"Bush's speech was an abysmal display of sheer ignorance," Mr Tarazi said. "It was the wholesale adoption of Sharon's programme: the Palestinians must end terrorism, must change leadership [although] it's democratically elected. And when the Palestinians have jumped through the hoops like circus animals, we may sit down and talk about applying international law."

Jeff Halper, a respected documenter of Israeli expansion in the occupied territories who is regularly called in by the US embassy to brief visiting American officials, says Mr Sharon's intent is clear.

"Israel wants a two-state solution based on a bantustan, along the lines of those South Africa tried to create during the apartheid era. They will call it a country but it won't be a country. It will be a ghetto," he said.

Mr Sharon's stated desire is to create a Palestinian state on 42% of the occupied territories; a state which has no control over its borders, airspace or water resources.

Israel's defence minister, General Shaul Mofaz, has told diplomats that the government envisages a state of seven cantons centred on the main Palestinian cities, each linked to the other but effectively sealed off by the army from the rest of the West Bank - which would become part of Israel - and easily isolated.

According to this plan, the Israeli military would control who goes in and out, giving it a stranglehold over trade, labour and food.

Some Palestinians fear that with the de facto bantustans will come what the Israelis euphemistically call "transfer" - ethnic cleansing - which is a stated goal of one party in Mr Sharon's coalition.

"It can absolutely happen," Mr Tarazi said. "You make life more and more miserable by herding them into the reservations while bringing in more and more Jewish immigrants. Who's going to stop it? This onslaught of the past two years has caused a huge number of Palestinians to leave, particularly the educated and businessmen we most need."

A Palestinian cabinet minister and negotiator, Saeb Erekat, says the leadership will not sign any agreement that provides for no more than "a bantustan". He said: "Palestinians will never accept such a future. Nor should we. Without a dramatic change in Israeli policy, the possibility of a two-state solution will be relegated to the history books."

Others are sceptical.

"I think the Palestinian leadership is so desperate, and so focused on its own interests, that it would sign almost any deal," said a diplomat.

"I think that's what Sharon is counting on. The Palestinians will end up in ghettoes which the Israelis will be smart enough to ensure have enough jobs to keep the population fed and clothed. But is it a viable solution for more than a generation? I doubt it."


2. If you will it, it is a dream
Akiva Eldar, Ha’aretz, March 3, 2003

If the arch-settler Avigdor Lieberman ever had even the slightest concern about the potential negative influence of Ariel Sharon's "Herzliya speech" on the new government's policy, U.S. President George Bush's speech at the American Enterprise Institute last week removed it. Without any bargaining, Bush bought Israeli-made mines that rip the Quartet's road map to shreds. Or, if you prefer, they turn the vision of establishing a Palestinian state into a dream. Bush confirmed that in the territories, as in Iraq, he is aiming for a military victory and implementation of the right's doctrine. Like Sharon with regard to the territories, Bush is paying lip service to "bringing democracy" and to proper diplomatic procedure.

And if, on the eve of war with Iraq - when the United States is so in need of Arab trust - its president nevertheless lines up with the Israeli right, when will he force a Palestinian state on Israel - after the war? On the eve of the presidential elections? When he will need the Jewish vote?

No one expected that Bush would launch an Israeli-Palestinian peace process a few days before launching a war against Iraq. All that Tony Blair, his loyal ally, urged him to do was to declare his support for the Quartet's road map. This would have helped the U.S. refute the "double standards" charge that is gaining strength throughout the world, in the U.S. and even among key Republicans. But despite this, in his speech at AEI, Bush chose to adhere to the principles of his speech of June 24, 2002, which has become Sharon's diplomatic platform (or vice versa).

One would think that speeches aimed at the "national camp" would grate on the ears of members of the "peace camp." Yet the ultimatum on removing Yasser Arafat and the authorization for expanding the occupation became key articles in the diplomatic platform that opened the door to a partnership between ex-Moledet members and ex-Meretz members. Shinui's many lawyers would presumably not sign an agreement before they had read it carefully. But how would minister and attorney Yosef Paritzky advise a client to respond to a lawsuit if, before the negotiations on the assets stolen from him (as the client believes) could even begin, he was required to oust the chairman of his board of directors?

Would MK and attorney Etti Livni advise her client to sign an agreement stating that negotiations on dismantling the thousands of buildings erected on his land by force of arms should begin only after there is a demonstrated state of relative quiet? And would she advise him to agree that the power to decide whether this "quiet" has been demonstrated be given exclusively to his adversary (who has proven by his actions and announced publicly that he intends to erect additional buildings)?

The chances that the Palestinians will accede to Sharon's public demand that they oust Arafat - and in earnest, not through the "sham" appointment of a prime minister - are identical to the chances that Israelis will accede to Arafat's demand that they oust Sharon. Where will anyone find a Palestinian leader willing to order the collection of all illegal weapons and to dismantle all the security services ("the terrorist organizations," according to the Herzliya speech) without Israel even hinting at a commitment to freeze the settlements, even temporarily, and to dismantle the illegal outposts?

It is true that Israeli politicians' client is the state of Israel, not the Palestinians. Let us assume, therefore, that at Herzliya, Sharon did announce the establishment of Palestine, for the benefit of the state of Israel. But what did we gain from this? Neither an agreement to end the conflict nor even a waiver of the right of return. One would have to be extraordinarily negligent to read the "Herzliya speech" and believe that this document could serve as the basis of an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. And one would have to be a complete cynic to listen to Bush's AEI speech and conclude that these words will bring about an end to the violence and a renewal of negotiations.

And a final aside, for the benefit of those who nevertheless believe that there is something in the "Bush-Sharon understandings": In the coalition agreement, the prime minister effectively retracted the public commitment he made at Herzliya to bring these "understandings" to the new cabinet for approval as soon as it was established.


3. The routine calamities that destroy lives
Amira Hass, Ha’aretz, February 26, 2003

The daily routine nowadays for every Palestinian in Gaza or in the West Bank, is made up of an unending series of calamities, their present ramifications, and the certain fear of new ones to come.

One night, the life of the Al Hilo family from Gaza's Tufah neighborhood, fell apart. As part of the IDF's routine actions against Qassam rocket manufacturers, last Tuesday, February 18, at 10 P.M., armored personnel carriers rolled into east Gaza City. Later, the routine IDF account would say, 11 armed Palestinians were killed.

The force came accompanied by helicopters and with heavy fire. About an hour later, soldiers in one of the helicopters fired a missile at a car carrying three members of the Palestinian General Intelligence forces; later, Palestinian sources would say the three were chasing some other Palestinians who apparently were on their way to fire Qassams.

Meanwhile, an armored force, including tanks, was closing in on the home of the Al Kata family in Tufah. The head of the household owned a metalwork shop on the first floor of the building. The soldiers called for everyone inside to come out. A few soldiers went into the next door house, owned by Nahed Al Hilo, and ordered his 22-year-old son, Ala, to accompany them on a room to room search to make sure nobody else was in the building.

The soldiers then ordered the family, which is related by marriage to the Al Kata's, to leave their home and together with the Al Katas and another neighboring family, they were sent into a nearby orchard, to wait. Despite the bitter cold, the soldiers did not allow them to go to a nearby relatives' house, to keep warm.

During the next four and a half hours, some 35 people, including women and children cowered in the orchard, while fifty meters away, explosions went off inside the metalwork factory. Around 3 A.M., the troops began to pull out. Everything fell quiet. The people in the orchard reckoned they could go home. No soldier warned them not to go back.

Sa'id Al Hilo, a 25-year-old, and Ala, his brother, were football players. They once even played opposite an Israeli side, in the early days of the peace process, in Norway. They ran a grocery store their father bought for them out of his savings as a floorer in Israel. Along with their cousin Tamar Darwish, they ran ahead of everyone back to the house. At 3:45 A.M. they were standing in front of the metal works shop. There was an enormous explosion. They were buried under the rubble of the demolished building, in front of their parents and relatives, some of whom, including children, were wounded by that blast.

Rescue vehicles and other cars could not reach the area quickly because the IDF had dug trenches in the roads, which anyway aren't paved. The father, himself wounded, together with his youngest son Sami, began digging by hand in the rubble, searching for the bodies. He didn't pay attention to the fact that his own house was semi-destroyed by the enormous explosion.

The metalwork shop owner had returned that same day from a trip to Saudi Arabia and came in through Rafah. If there was information that he manufactures Qassam rockets, why wasn't he arrested, to get valuable information about the identity of those who order the rockets from him? Or maybe there wasn't any specific information, of the kind the IDF always claims to have, but only general information about a metal workshop?

This is only one example, taken practically at random, of the routine of calamity. Along with the metal work shop, life savings and years of hard work went down the drain. Thousands of families have seen their livelihoods destroyed this way. If not a direct demolition of their home, then through indirect damage caused by the demolition of a neighboring house. If not a lathe, then a field or a greenhouse.

The Kata and Hilo families didn't even have time to apprehend the meaning of the destruction of their homes, before the three youths lost their lives. Not in a battle. Not trying to sneak into a settlement or in a suicide bombing, but just a few meters from their homes. Thus, the IDF continues the killing of civilians every day. Thus, young people are pushed into choosing death in an attempt to take vengeance on Israelis. And in the vicious cycle, the troops come back and demolish their homes and arrest their relatives.

Calamities - when the lives of a person, a family, a society are turned upside down - are enormous, unusual, once-in-a-lifetime events. The opposite of routine. But the nature of the Palestinian effort to cope with the series of IDF raids means adapting to a routine of disaster after disaster. There's no time to get used to the results of one disaster before the next one comes. And every day, that routine gets worse. But as routine, it doesn't draw much attention.

In Israel, people are convinced this is how to fight terror and defeat it, as the army has been promising for 28 months. But during that period, some 3.5 million people have paid for it with enormous material, economic and emotional distress, with neither relief nor a lull. The constant expectation is that a blow ten-fold worse than the previous one is on its way, and if not today, then tomorrow, an even-worse one will come to ruin their lives.


4. An entire city under house arrest
Danny Rubinstein, Ha’aretz, March 3, 2003

For close to 18 years - from 1948 to 1966 - the Arab citizens in Israel were subject to military government. Israeli Arabs were forbidden to leave their area or residence without the permission of the military governor. The Israeli security authorities, especially in the `50s, strictly enforced all the military government's regulations.

In the `60s, the military government gradually faded away until it was officially abolished. A comparison of the military rule in the state's early years to the rule in the West Bank (and to a lesser extent in Gaza) today, shows that the procedures implemented by the security establishment today are much more severe than in the past, when the Israel Defense Forces were weak and the state's borders were wide open.

It is all a question of proportion. How much time, for instance, should curfew be imposed on a city like Nablus, with some 100,000 inhabitants, when there is information that a suicide bomber is planning to set off from it?

You can impose a curfew and conduct searches for a week, two weeks, even a few months. This is not an imaginary example. Senior IDF commanders said a few months ago that Nablus had been kept under curfew for several weeks because of three men on the army's wanted list.

The Israeli military government has imposed restrictions on the movement of more than 2 million residents of the West Bank. The term "restrictions on movement" does not reflect the situation accurately. In fact, the residents of the West Bank are under a kind of house arrest. They are nearly unable to leave their towns, villages or refugee camps. They are not merely forbidden to enter the state of Israel - that is taken for granted - but they need Israeli permits for almost every step they take within the West Bank. Even with those permits, moving from one village or town to another is, in most cases, all but impossible.

The village Nahalin, south of Jerusalem, below the ultra-Orthodox settlement Beitar Ilit, is a case in point. All Nahalin's residents require the services of Bethlehem, which is a few kilometers away, on a daily basis. In the past, it would take them a few minutes to get to Bethlehem for work, school, commercial activity or medical treatment.

Today they cannot leave their village by car because the road is blocked. They must walk part of the way to Bethlehem and use taxis the rest of the way. This can take hours.

The picture in Abu Dis is more typical. A long, high concrete wall passes along the middle of the main street, among houses and shops, with the purpose of blocking the entrance to East Jerusalem. Those who have a permit must make a huge detour via the Ma'aleh Adumim road. But wonder of wonders, in some places people climb over the wall and get to the other side. They have to be physically fit to do so, and women and elderly folk need help. Many IDF troops and border patrolmen are posted along the wall. Sometimes they check those who climb over the wall, but mostly they turn a blind eye. The wall, says a student in the nearby Al-Quds University, was built only out of an Israeli need to show that something was being done.

The new military government is stepping up its intervention in every walk of life. You need permits not only for the passage of people, but also to move merchandise. In large parts of the West Bank Israeli consent is now required to build a house, to lay a water or sewage pipe, mend a road or a power line.

The large development projects in the West Bank have long since halted. Higher education is also being supervised.

A closure order was sent to the Hebron University, claiming there was incitement and terror activity on campus. "Nobody invited us to explain or called to find out, they just sent notice to shut down and that was it," say university administration staff.

They believe other West Bank universities will also be closed down when the Israeli military government becomes permanent.