Hamas Agrees to Ceasefire in Gaza
By Robert Berger - Voice of America
Jerusalem 18 January 2009
A Palestinian woman sits in the rubble of her home in the eastern area of Jebaliya after Israeli troops withdrew from the northern Gaza Strip, Sunday, 18 Jan. 2009The Islamic militant group Hamas that rules the Gaza Strip has followed Israel's lead and agreed to a ceasefire. The announcement followed a fresh round of violence. At least 1,200 Palestinians and 13 Israelis have been killed in the three-week conflict.
Sixteen hours after Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza, Hamas followed suit. Speaking in Damascus, Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk announced that armed Palestinian groups would observe the truce, on condition that Israeli forces withdraw from Gaza in a week. Earlier, Hamas had rejected Israel's cease-fire declaration because Israeli forces remained in Gaza. The group responded by firing more than 20 rockets at Israel. The Israeli air force, in turn, targeted rocket-launching sites. Israel declared the truce Saturday, saying it had dealt a severe blow to Hamas and accomplished its goals.
At the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the ceasefire is fragile. Mr. Olmert said the army will respond to any Palestinian attacks, and Israel will test the ceasefire as he put it, "minute by minute, and hour by hour."Egypt is continuing efforts to hammer out a ceasefire agreement that will be acceptable to both sides. Israel is demanding a halt to Hamas rocket attacks and weapons smuggling from Egypt, and Hamas is demanding that Israel lift its crippling blockade on Gaza.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Cease Fire?
Another UN school has been hit by the Israel bombs. Two young brothers are killed. This is while the Israelis say they would agree to a cease fire. Right.
If Israel promises to stop the blockade of Gaza, there'd be a helluva better chance to get Hamas to9 agree to a cease fire. A current news report says that Israel is ready for a cease fire because they think they've taught Hamas a lesson. I'm sure the families of those 1100 Palestinians who died learned something: Those who have the guns and the power and the backing of the US will win, no matter what the reason is for the massacre.
Great way to educate a people.
If Israel promises to stop the blockade of Gaza, there'd be a helluva better chance to get Hamas to9 agree to a cease fire. A current news report says that Israel is ready for a cease fire because they think they've taught Hamas a lesson. I'm sure the families of those 1100 Palestinians who died learned something: Those who have the guns and the power and the backing of the US will win, no matter what the reason is for the massacre.
Great way to educate a people.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
The UN is hiding terrorists. That's what the Israeli government says.
The UN compound in Gaza was bombed to hell today. Since the Israeli government has stated many times that civilians are not targeted but that Hamas is using civilians as shields, does this mean that the UN is hiding terrorists? Ohmigod- that's what Olmert just claimed! How absolutely ridiculous. And the world is supposed to believe that?
But then it doesn't really matter if the world believes the Israeli government. They're going to do as they please until they're finished annihilating Gaza.
But then it doesn't really matter if the world believes the Israeli government. They're going to do as they please until they're finished annihilating Gaza.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
What if.....?
This article contains probably the best analogy published about the history between the Israelis and the Palestinians since Palestine was 'partitioned' in 1947. It is an incredibly accurate analogy. I see that the author has recently returned from that region. When one is actually there and sees with one's own eyes what has happened to the Palestinians, has driven through so many checkpoints, and has see how that 25-foot wall has separated towns and villages and farmers from their own lands, maybe a few more people will be willing to tell the true story. It's truly a transforming and hellacious experience. Especially today as the Palestinian death count has exceeded 1000. Israeli death count continues at 13, with four of those deaths attributed to 'friendly' fire on their own soldiers.
In the photos, you see Palestinians dressed in garb reminiscent of the clothes that Jews wore when they were imprisoned in WWII concentration camps. How disturbing and ironic that this kind of comparison is being made. But as with many disturbing comparisons, there is some truth in the way the Palestinians are being imprisoned and killed. The lobbing of rockets from Gaza into Israel certainly isn't a very nice thing to do, but what recourse do the Palestinians have to being imprisoned in their own territory?
+++++++++++++++++++++++
What if we established government and faith-based agencies to help move white people into their former homes? And what if we razed hundreds of their homes in rural areas and, with the aid of charitable donations from people in the United States and abroad, planted forests on their former towns, creating nature preserves for whites to enjoy?
And what if the United States built a network of highways connecting American citizens of Tijuana to the United States? And checkpoints, not just between Mexico and the United States but also around every neighborhood of Tijuana? What if we required every Tijuana resident, refugee or native, to show an ID card to the U.S. military on demand?
What if thousands of Tijuana residents lost their homes, their jobs, their businesses, their children, their sense of self worth to this occupation? Would you be surprised to hear of a protest movement in Tijuana that sometimes became violent and hateful?
Think about what would happen if, after expelling all of the minorities from San Diego to Tijuana and subjecting them to 40 years of brutal military occupation, we just left Tijuana, removing all the white settlers and the soldiers? Only instead of giving them their freedom, we built a 20-foot tall electrified wall around Tijuana? Not just on the sides bordering San Diego, but on all the Mexico crossings as well. What if we set up 50-foot high watchtowers with machine gun batteries, and told them that if they stood within 100 yards of this wall we would shoot them dead on sight? And four out of every five days we kept every single one of those border crossings closed, not even allowing food, clothing, or medicine to arrive. And we patrolled their air space with our state-of-the-art fighter jets but didn't allow them so much as a crop duster. And we patrolled their waters with destroyers and submarines, but didn't even allow them to fish.
Would you be at all surprised to hear that these resistance groups in Tijuana, even after having been "freed" from their occupation but starved half to death, kept on firing rockets at the United States? Probably not.
But you may be surprised to learn that the majority of people in Tijuana never picked up a rocket, or a gun, or a weapon of any kind. The majority, instead, supported against all hope negotiations toward a peaceful solution that would provide security, freedom and equal rights to both people in two independent states living side by side as neighbors.
This is the sound analogy to Israel's military onslaught in Gaza today. Maybe some day soon, common sense will prevail and no corpus of misleading analogies about Tijuana or the crazy guy across the hall who wants to murder your daughter will be able to obscure the truth. And at that moment, in a country whose people shouted We Shall Overcome, Ich bin ein Berliner, End Apartheid, Free Tibet and Save Darfur, we will all join together and shout "Free Gaza. Free Palestine." And because we are Americans, the world will take notice and they will be free, and perhaps peace will prevail for all the residents of the Holy Land.
Randall Kuhn is an assistant professor and Director of the Global Health Affairs Program at the University of Denver Josef Korbel School of International Studies. He just returned from a trip to Israel and the West Bank.
In the photos, you see Palestinians dressed in garb reminiscent of the clothes that Jews wore when they were imprisoned in WWII concentration camps. How disturbing and ironic that this kind of comparison is being made. But as with many disturbing comparisons, there is some truth in the way the Palestinians are being imprisoned and killed. The lobbing of rockets from Gaza into Israel certainly isn't a very nice thing to do, but what recourse do the Palestinians have to being imprisoned in their own territory?
+++++++++++++++++++++++
The Washington Times is not one of our more liberal newspapers. But it has a very high circulation; it's also owned by The Rev. Sun Yung Moon, of Moonie fame. I'm very surprised and thankful that the Times published this article.
Washington Times Op-ed: When Israel expelled Palestinians
The Washington Times
By Randall Kuhn
January 14, 2009
The Washington Times
By Randall Kuhn
January 14, 2009
"Think about what would happen if for seven years rockets had been fired at San Diego, California from Tijuana, Mexico." Within hours scores of American pundits and politicians had mimicked Barak's comparisons almost verbatim. In fact, in this very paper on January 9 House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor ended an opinion piece by saying "America would never sit still if terrorists were lobbing missiles across our border into Texas or Montana." But let's see if our political and pundit class can parrot this analogy.
Think about what would happen if San Diego expelled most of its Hispanic, African American, Asian American, and Native American population, about 48 percent of the total, and forcibly relocated them to Tijuana? Not just immigrants, but even those who have lived in this country for many generations. Not just the unemployed or the criminals or the America haters, but the school teachers, the small business owners, the soldiers, even the baseball players.
What if we established government and faith-based agencies to help move white people into their former homes? And what if we razed hundreds of their homes in rural areas and, with the aid of charitable donations from people in the United States and abroad, planted forests on their former towns, creating nature preserves for whites to enjoy?
Sounds pretty awful, huh? I may be called anti-Semitic for speaking this truth. Well, I'm Jewish and the scenario above is what many prominent Israeli scholars say happened when Israel expelled Palestinians from southern Israel and forced them into Gaza. But this analogy is just getting started.
What if the United Nations kept San Diego's discarded minorities in crowded, festering camps in Tijuana for 19 years? Then, the United States invaded Mexico, occupied Tijuana and began to build large housing developments in Tijuana where only whites could live.
And what if the United States built a network of highways connecting American citizens of Tijuana to the United States? And checkpoints, not just between Mexico and the United States but also around every neighborhood of Tijuana? What if we required every Tijuana resident, refugee or native, to show an ID card to the U.S. military on demand?
What if thousands of Tijuana residents lost their homes, their jobs, their businesses, their children, their sense of self worth to this occupation? Would you be surprised to hear of a protest movement in Tijuana that sometimes became violent and hateful?
Okay, now for the unbelievable part.
Think about what would happen if, after expelling all of the minorities from San Diego to Tijuana and subjecting them to 40 years of brutal military occupation, we just left Tijuana, removing all the white settlers and the soldiers? Only instead of giving them their freedom, we built a 20-foot tall electrified wall around Tijuana? Not just on the sides bordering San Diego, but on all the Mexico crossings as well. What if we set up 50-foot high watchtowers with machine gun batteries, and told them that if they stood within 100 yards of this wall we would shoot them dead on sight? And four out of every five days we kept every single one of those border crossings closed, not even allowing food, clothing, or medicine to arrive. And we patrolled their air space with our state-of-the-art fighter jets but didn't allow them so much as a crop duster. And we patrolled their waters with destroyers and submarines, but didn't even allow them to fish.
Would you be at all surprised to hear that these resistance groups in Tijuana, even after having been "freed" from their occupation but starved half to death, kept on firing rockets at the United States? Probably not.
But you may be surprised to learn that the majority of people in Tijuana never picked up a rocket, or a gun, or a weapon of any kind. The majority, instead, supported against all hope negotiations toward a peaceful solution that would provide security, freedom and equal rights to both people in two independent states living side by side as neighbors.
This is the sound analogy to Israel's military onslaught in Gaza today. Maybe some day soon, common sense will prevail and no corpus of misleading analogies about Tijuana or the crazy guy across the hall who wants to murder your daughter will be able to obscure the truth. And at that moment, in a country whose people shouted We Shall Overcome, Ich bin ein Berliner, End Apartheid, Free Tibet and Save Darfur, we will all join together and shout "Free Gaza. Free Palestine." And because we are Americans, the world will take notice and they will be free, and perhaps peace will prevail for all the residents of the Holy Land.
Randall Kuhn is an assistant professor and Director of the Global Health Affairs Program at the University of Denver Josef Korbel School of International Studies. He just returned from a trip to Israel and the West Bank.
Monday, January 12, 2009
The strength of resolutions re the massacre in Gaza.
**********************************
From the Pakistan Daily News
Bishop Azad condemns Israeli aggression
LAHORE: The Anglican Bishop in Iran, Bishop Azad Marshall, has condemned the silence of the international community in the face of the sufferings faced by Palestinians, in a statement to the National Council of Churches in Pakistan (NCCP). Bishop Azad Marshall was speaking with NCCP General Secretary Victor Azariah and other church leaders.
“I wish to express regret over the acts of aggression against the Palestinian population in Gaza,” Bishop Azad said, adding that the international community’s silence on the matter is condemnable. He said the international community has failed to act while Gaza suffers from an acute shortage of food, medicine and essential supplies.
“We as the Anglican Episcopal Church in Iran stand with our Palestinian brothers and sisters,” he said in his demonstration of support for Gaza. “We are approaching Canterbury Archbishop Dr Rowan Williams, the Primate of the Middle East Council of Churches, and the general public to encourage them to use their influence to ensure a ceasefire in Gaza,” he added. The National Council of Churches passed a resolution to condemn Israeli aggression in Gaza and to approach the World Council of Churches and other world bodies to use their influence for an immediate cessation of war.
***************************
Does the Israeli government care about these resolutions? If they don't care about UN resolutions and efforts, why would they care about various religious leaders? This is just the latest of many resolutions expressing horror at the continuing slaughter of Palestinian men, women, and children. But nothing changes. It's almost like once this wholesale slaughter is finally over, all of these religious types can point to their little resolutions and say, "I stood up against violence!"
A lot of good their standing up does. Try to explain that to the families of almost 1000 dead Palestinians.
From the Pakistan Daily News
Bishop Azad condemns Israeli aggression
LAHORE: The Anglican Bishop in Iran, Bishop Azad Marshall, has condemned the silence of the international community in the face of the sufferings faced by Palestinians, in a statement to the National Council of Churches in Pakistan (NCCP). Bishop Azad Marshall was speaking with NCCP General Secretary Victor Azariah and other church leaders.
“I wish to express regret over the acts of aggression against the Palestinian population in Gaza,” Bishop Azad said, adding that the international community’s silence on the matter is condemnable. He said the international community has failed to act while Gaza suffers from an acute shortage of food, medicine and essential supplies.
“We as the Anglican Episcopal Church in Iran stand with our Palestinian brothers and sisters,” he said in his demonstration of support for Gaza. “We are approaching Canterbury Archbishop Dr Rowan Williams, the Primate of the Middle East Council of Churches, and the general public to encourage them to use their influence to ensure a ceasefire in Gaza,” he added. The National Council of Churches passed a resolution to condemn Israeli aggression in Gaza and to approach the World Council of Churches and other world bodies to use their influence for an immediate cessation of war.
***************************
Does the Israeli government care about these resolutions? If they don't care about UN resolutions and efforts, why would they care about various religious leaders? This is just the latest of many resolutions expressing horror at the continuing slaughter of Palestinian men, women, and children. But nothing changes. It's almost like once this wholesale slaughter is finally over, all of these religious types can point to their little resolutions and say, "I stood up against violence!"
A lot of good their standing up does. Try to explain that to the families of almost 1000 dead Palestinians.
Who's winning?
As of today, the score for deaths is
Palestine 909
Israel 13
Aren't the Israelis safe enough now? Perhaps if they guaranteed open borders into Gaza, the tunnels would no longer be necessary and a cease fire could be agreed on.
But isn't the score a bit of overkill?
Do a google image search on Gaza. See what's really happening. These images are incredibly mild. But there are other photos that are truly horrific.
Palestine 909
Israel 13
Aren't the Israelis safe enough now? Perhaps if they guaranteed open borders into Gaza, the tunnels would no longer be necessary and a cease fire could be agreed on.
But isn't the score a bit of overkill?
Do a google image search on Gaza. See what's really happening. These images are incredibly mild. But there are other photos that are truly horrific.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Danger! Complacency Alert!
We're entering the third week of violence in Gaza. The UN has tried to stop the fighting by passing resolutions that have been ignored or rejected by both the Israeli government and Hamas. The US didn't even block the resolutions although they did abstain. That tells me a bit that even the US is getting really annoyed with Israel's need to keep blasting anything and everything in Gaza.
I find that I'm more easily distracted about the daily violence visited upon the Palestinian people. It's not on the first page of the newspaper and it's not the top story on the various news channels.
This is dangerous. To become complacent is to become numbed to the violence and to those who continue to be murdered -- who continue to be massacred. We can all pray, and I suspect many of us are. But what else can we do to keep this in front of the American people and the rest of the world so it doesn't take a back seat to other less violent news stories?
I find that I'm more easily distracted about the daily violence visited upon the Palestinian people. It's not on the first page of the newspaper and it's not the top story on the various news channels.
This is dangerous. To become complacent is to become numbed to the violence and to those who continue to be murdered -- who continue to be massacred. We can all pray, and I suspect many of us are. But what else can we do to keep this in front of the American people and the rest of the world so it doesn't take a back seat to other less violent news stories?
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Maybe there is hope, after all.
If the Israeli government hadn't blockaded Gaza in the first place...
From BBC
Blair 'hopeful' of Gaza ceasefire
Former UK prime minister Tony Blair has said he is hopeful that a ceasefire agreement can be reached in Gaza.
Mr Blair, now a Middle East envoy, said the elements of a peace plan had been accepted, but there was still much work to be done to thrash out the details.
A ceasefire proposal has been tabled jointly by France and Egypt.
The Israelis say they have agreed "on the principles" of the deal, while militant group Hamas says there are "positive signs but no agreement yet".
The development came as Israel halted military operations in Gaza for three hours to aid humanitarian efforts.
The lull, which began about 1100 GMT and ended shortly after 1400 GMT, was the first of what an Israeli spokesman said would be a daily ceasefire to allow Gazans to "get medical attention, get supplies... whatever they need".
'Living hell'
Mr Blair, who is currently in Paris, was asked whether he believed the Franco-Egyptian proposal would work.
He replied that there was some coming together around important elements of a deal, such as an end to weapons' smuggling into Gaza and an opening up of border crossings to humanitarian aid.
But he said the fine details would be difficult to work out and would require very hard work in the coming days.
On Tuesday, the former prime minister said the people of Gaza were living through "hell" and warned of an even "more protracted campaign" if opportunities were not seized to end the violence.
From BBC
Blair 'hopeful' of Gaza ceasefire
Former UK prime minister Tony Blair has said he is hopeful that a ceasefire agreement can be reached in Gaza.
Mr Blair, now a Middle East envoy, said the elements of a peace plan had been accepted, but there was still much work to be done to thrash out the details.
A ceasefire proposal has been tabled jointly by France and Egypt.
The Israelis say they have agreed "on the principles" of the deal, while militant group Hamas says there are "positive signs but no agreement yet".
The development came as Israel halted military operations in Gaza for three hours to aid humanitarian efforts.
The lull, which began about 1100 GMT and ended shortly after 1400 GMT, was the first of what an Israeli spokesman said would be a daily ceasefire to allow Gazans to "get medical attention, get supplies... whatever they need".
'Living hell'
Mr Blair, who is currently in Paris, was asked whether he believed the Franco-Egyptian proposal would work.
He replied that there was some coming together around important elements of a deal, such as an end to weapons' smuggling into Gaza and an opening up of border crossings to humanitarian aid.
But he said the fine details would be difficult to work out and would require very hard work in the coming days.
On Tuesday, the former prime minister said the people of Gaza were living through "hell" and warned of an even "more protracted campaign" if opportunities were not seized to end the violence.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Today's death count.
Palestine -- 550 men, women, and children (in the Gaza strip alone)
Israel -- 8 (4 of whom were killed mistakenly by Israeli troops)
Israel -- 8 (4 of whom were killed mistakenly by Israeli troops)
Monday, January 5, 2009
Another first-hand account.
This from the Reuters News service on Monday, January 5, 2009
A Palestinian family huddles together in Gaza City
As the assault on Hamas intensifies, 20 relatives try to find some
calm in a three-bedroom apartment.
By Safwat al-Kahlout from the January 6, 2009 edition
The Israeli drones are driving me crazy. I go outside only to buy food, water, and medicine, or to recharge my cellphone at a nearby mosque that is powered by generators. Inside my Gaza City apartment, electricity and phone lines are out. Heat is a luxury. We sleep with the windows open in case an Israeli shell lands nearby, which would shatter the glass.
All around Gaza City, this coastal strip's largest urban area, fighting has intensified since Israel launched its ground invasion Saturday. So far, even though more than 530 Gazans have been killed and 2,000 wounded in the conflict, support for Hamas does not appear to be weakening.
At the long bread lines, customers listen to their transistor radios while they wait. When they hear of a Hamas missile striking Israel, cheering begins. Others lash out at Arab states because of their alleged cooperation with Israel, some trade stories about the wounded, the dead, and worsening life for Gazans since the start of the assault, now in its 10th day.
Many Gazans see no end in sight and say that unless there are high numbers of Israeli casualties, nothing will change despite the increasing calls for a cease-fire. They say: If the Palestinians are the only ones dying, no one will care.
The sound of fighting could be heard throughout the city Monday even as those efforts to forge a diplomatic solution moved ahead across the border in Israel. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Middle East special envoy Tony Blair called for a cease-fire and Hamas is sending a delegation to Egypt for talks.
But Israel has been steadfast in its resolve. On Monday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said: "Hamas has so far sustained a very heavy blow from us, but we have yet to achieve our objective, and therefore the operation continues."
Since Saturday, when troops crossed the border, more than 20 family members – an aunt, uncle, four cousins, and their families – have been sharing our three bedroom apartment.
My cousin Anas reached our house following the invasion.
"Where is all the rest of the family?" I asked him after he entered, referring to my uncle and the rest of his kids. Anas responded that they tried to flee, but the situation was too difficult. Only after two hours did my uncle, Abu Khaled, reach my house with four of his five children.
He was in the same situation as dozens of families living east of Jabaliya, a town outside Gaza City where fighting has been heavy.
"I was forced to leave the house that I worked 30 years for," Abu Khaled told me. "I took my clothes and underwear and ID cards so I could be identified if killed in one of the explosions."
The moment Abu Khaled reached my house, he entered one of the rooms and immediately fell asleep. When he woke, he told me what he had been through. "I didn't sleep for 48 hours because of the continuing shelling. Once the tanks came over the eastern border, the explosives began falling from all directions."
His wife added: "This time is the worst of all. The Israeli army is shelling mosques and ambulances without any sort of care. So we decided to flee and leave all of our possessions behind."
The Israeli army entered Gaza by what used to be the Jewish settlement of Netzarim, before Israel pulled out of the strip three years ago. The Israeli assault has essentially split the strip in two and surrounded Gaza City.
Monday, Israel hit at least 30 targets, Reuters reported, and bombed homes of Hamas members. At least three children were killed Monday when their home was struck.
On Sunday, the grocery story was full of people. I asked one person why he was buying lentils and fava beans. He looked at me as if I were from a foreign country.
"You don't know that there's nothing else to buy except for fava and lentils? I bought five kilos of each type, hoping that the crisis would finish before the supplies ran out."
Much of Gaza's supply of fruits and vegetables has been destroyed by Israeli rockets.
Since the beginning of the assault, on Dec. 27, the streets here have largely been empty except for funerals, mourning tents, ambulances that rush to every bombing, and Palestinian press cars heading toward the scene of Israeli attacks.
One night, a cellphone call woke me up. It was my friend Abu Ahmed and he was very afraid.
He said that his wife had gotten a call on her cellphone and that it was a recorded message by the Israeli intelligence.
It said: "To the civilians of Gaza, we are warning you not to carry any weapons and have weapons in your home. Otherwise we will bomb your house.... If you deal with terrorists, you will be our target."
• Joshua Mitnick in Tel Aviv provided additional reporting, and material from Reuters was used.
A Palestinian family huddles together in Gaza City
As the assault on Hamas intensifies, 20 relatives try to find some
calm in a three-bedroom apartment.
By Safwat al-Kahlout from the January 6, 2009 edition
The Israeli drones are driving me crazy. I go outside only to buy food, water, and medicine, or to recharge my cellphone at a nearby mosque that is powered by generators. Inside my Gaza City apartment, electricity and phone lines are out. Heat is a luxury. We sleep with the windows open in case an Israeli shell lands nearby, which would shatter the glass.
All around Gaza City, this coastal strip's largest urban area, fighting has intensified since Israel launched its ground invasion Saturday. So far, even though more than 530 Gazans have been killed and 2,000 wounded in the conflict, support for Hamas does not appear to be weakening.
At the long bread lines, customers listen to their transistor radios while they wait. When they hear of a Hamas missile striking Israel, cheering begins. Others lash out at Arab states because of their alleged cooperation with Israel, some trade stories about the wounded, the dead, and worsening life for Gazans since the start of the assault, now in its 10th day.
Many Gazans see no end in sight and say that unless there are high numbers of Israeli casualties, nothing will change despite the increasing calls for a cease-fire. They say: If the Palestinians are the only ones dying, no one will care.
The sound of fighting could be heard throughout the city Monday even as those efforts to forge a diplomatic solution moved ahead across the border in Israel. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Middle East special envoy Tony Blair called for a cease-fire and Hamas is sending a delegation to Egypt for talks.
But Israel has been steadfast in its resolve. On Monday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said: "Hamas has so far sustained a very heavy blow from us, but we have yet to achieve our objective, and therefore the operation continues."
Since Saturday, when troops crossed the border, more than 20 family members – an aunt, uncle, four cousins, and their families – have been sharing our three bedroom apartment.
My cousin Anas reached our house following the invasion.
"Where is all the rest of the family?" I asked him after he entered, referring to my uncle and the rest of his kids. Anas responded that they tried to flee, but the situation was too difficult. Only after two hours did my uncle, Abu Khaled, reach my house with four of his five children.
He was in the same situation as dozens of families living east of Jabaliya, a town outside Gaza City where fighting has been heavy.
"I was forced to leave the house that I worked 30 years for," Abu Khaled told me. "I took my clothes and underwear and ID cards so I could be identified if killed in one of the explosions."
The moment Abu Khaled reached my house, he entered one of the rooms and immediately fell asleep. When he woke, he told me what he had been through. "I didn't sleep for 48 hours because of the continuing shelling. Once the tanks came over the eastern border, the explosives began falling from all directions."
His wife added: "This time is the worst of all. The Israeli army is shelling mosques and ambulances without any sort of care. So we decided to flee and leave all of our possessions behind."
The Israeli army entered Gaza by what used to be the Jewish settlement of Netzarim, before Israel pulled out of the strip three years ago. The Israeli assault has essentially split the strip in two and surrounded Gaza City.
Monday, Israel hit at least 30 targets, Reuters reported, and bombed homes of Hamas members. At least three children were killed Monday when their home was struck.
On Sunday, the grocery story was full of people. I asked one person why he was buying lentils and fava beans. He looked at me as if I were from a foreign country.
"You don't know that there's nothing else to buy except for fava and lentils? I bought five kilos of each type, hoping that the crisis would finish before the supplies ran out."
Much of Gaza's supply of fruits and vegetables has been destroyed by Israeli rockets.
Since the beginning of the assault, on Dec. 27, the streets here have largely been empty except for funerals, mourning tents, ambulances that rush to every bombing, and Palestinian press cars heading toward the scene of Israeli attacks.
One night, a cellphone call woke me up. It was my friend Abu Ahmed and he was very afraid.
He said that his wife had gotten a call on her cellphone and that it was a recorded message by the Israeli intelligence.
It said: "To the civilians of Gaza, we are warning you not to carry any weapons and have weapons in your home. Otherwise we will bomb your house.... If you deal with terrorists, you will be our target."
• Joshua Mitnick in Tel Aviv provided additional reporting, and material from Reuters was used.
Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City
We've received another report from the hospital director through the former president of The American Friends of the Diocese of Jerusalem. This hospital is one of the ministries of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, and is one of the institutions that St Clement's has supported for the past four years. We will continue to tell the story of the Palestinian people as much as possible. The conflict/war between the Israeli government and Hamas could be stopped if Israel ended its blockade and seige of the Gaza strip. Hamas would then stop shooting their rockets haphazardly into Israel and Israel would then have reason to stop their military massacre.
The report:
<
" The situation is terrible. The injured are in their homes and unable to get to the hospital and the International Red Cross can't reach them. Gaza is now divided into three areas. 20% of the staff including 2 doctors are now unable to get to the hospital. Unfortunately a bomb went off in Jerusalem Square, right outside the hospital , only 30 meters away and it blew a hole in the hospital wall.
One of the aid's husbands was unable to reach his children. Later he discovered that 1 child died and other members are all injured because a bomb destroyed a neighboring building.
The 19 year old son of one of the surgeons volunteered to work in the government ambulance. He was killed when his ambulance was hit by a missile. Three ambulances have been hit by Israeli missiles , five have died.
There is no electricity and no water. Fortunately the International Red Cross has provided Ahli Hospital with some food.
It is terrible and not safe to walk on the street.
After the invasion , Ahli Hospital on Sunday received 17 cases. Twelve were admitted to the hospital and 2 to government hospitals. Today Monday morning 5 cases were received with 4 admitted for surgery. One doctor has slept in the hospital for the last 4 nights. Our staff is now working 2 -12 hour shifts, two shifts no days off.
Streets are covered with blood. - bloody time.
Staff members have taken people in their homes, with 20-30 people for refuge. The ambulance driver has 80 living in his home.
We all have received leaflets and telephone calls " you have to leave your home, we will attack it" Where to go for the 700,000 people in Gaza City?">>
I (the former president of AFDJ) feel very fortunate and blessed to be able to speak to Suhalia and I have promised her that I will tell her story and the story of the innocents. Thank you for all you are doing to circulate these messages. Please feel free to forward them the family and friends. I offered her hope and encouragement and our commitment to help, with prayers and financial support. Remember tax deductible gifts may be sent to the American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, PO Box 240, Orange, CA 92859, or on line at www.americanfriends-jerusalem.org
I will continue to keep you up to date on this catastrophe happening in Gaza. If I can be of help please don't hesitate to call or email me.
Peace, Love and Joy ,
Charles
The Rev. Charles Cloughen, Jr.
President Emeritus,
American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem
Monday, December 29, 2008
Worth taking the time to read.
Johann Hari: The true story behind this war is not the one Israel is telling
Monday, 29 December 2008
The world isn't just watching the Israeli government commit a crime in Gaza; we are watching it self-harm. This morning, and tomorrow morning, and every morning until this punishment beating ends, the young people of the Gaza Strip are going to be more filled with hate, and more determined to fight back, with stones or suicide vests or rockets. Israeli leaders have convinced themselves that the harder you beat the Palestinians, the softer they will become. But when this is over, the rage against Israelis will have hardened, and the same old compromises will still be waiting by the roadside of history, untended and unmade.
To understand how frightening it is to be a Gazan this morning, you need to have stood in that small slab of concrete by the Mediterranean and smelled the claustrophobia. The Gaza Strip is smaller than the Isle of Wight but it is crammed with 1.5 million people who can never leave. They live out their lives on top of each other, jobless and hungry, in vast, sagging tower blocks. From the top floor, you can often see the borders of their world: the Mediterranean, and Israeli barbed wire. When bombs begin to fall – as they are doing now with more deadly force than at any time since 1967 – there is nowhere to hide.
There will now be a war over the story of this war. The Israeli government says, "We withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and in return we got Hamas and Qassam rockets being rained on our cities. Sixteen civilians have been murdered. How many more are we supposed to sacrifice?" It is a plausible narrative, and there are shards of truth in it, but it is also filled with holes. If we want to understand the reality and really stop the rockets, we need to rewind a few years and view the run-up to this war dispassionately.
The Israeli government did indeed withdraw from the Gaza Strip in 2005 – in order to be able to intensify control of the West Bank. Ariel Sharon's senior adviser, Dov Weisglass, was unequivocal about this, explaining: "The disengagement [from Gaza] is actually formaldehyde. It supplies the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so that there will not be a political process with the Palestinians... this whole package that is called the Palestinian state has been removed from our agenda indefinitely."
Ordinary Palestinians were horrified by this, and by the fetid corruption of their own Fatah leaders, so they voted for Hamas. It certainly wouldn't have been my choice – an Islamist party is antithetical to all my convictions - but we have to be honest. It was a free and democratic election, and it was not a rejection of a two-state solution. The most detailed polling of Palestinians, by the University of Maryland, found that 72 per cent want a two-state solution on the 1967 borders, while fewer than 20 per cent want to reclaim the whole of historic Palestine. So, partly in response to this pressure, Hamas offered Israel a long, long ceasefire and a de facto acceptance of two states, if only Israel would return to its legal borders.
Rather than seize this opportunity and test Hamas's sincerity, the Israeli government reacted by punishing the entire civilian population. It announced that it was blockading the Gaza Strip in order to "pressure" its people to reverse the democratic process. The Israelis surrounded the Strip and refused to let anyone or anything out. They let in a small trickle of food, fuel and medicine – but not enough for survival. Weisglass quipped that the Gazans were being "put on a diet". According to Oxfam, only 137 trucks of food were allowed into Gaza last month to feed 1.5 million people. The United Nations says poverty has reached an "unprecedented level." When I was last in besieged Gaza, I saw hospitals turning away the sick because their machinery and medicine was running out. I met hungry children stumbling around the streets, scavenging for food.
It was in this context – under a collective punishment designed to topple a democracy – that some forces within Gaza did something immoral: they fired Qassam rockets indiscriminately at Israeli cities. These rockets have killed 16 Israeli citizens. This is abhorrent: targeting civilians is always murder. But it is hypocritical for the Israeli government to claim now to speak out for the safety of civilians when it has been terrorising civilians as a matter of state policy.
The American and European governments are responding with a lop-sidedness that ignores these realities. They say that Israel cannot be expected to negotiate while under rocket fire, but they demand that the Palestinians do so under siege in Gaza and violent military occupation in the West Bank.
Before it falls down the memory hole, we should remember that last week, Hamas offered a ceasefire in return for basic and achievable compromises. Don't take my word for it. According to the Israeli press, Yuval Diskin, the current head of the Israeli security service Shin Bet, "told the Israeli cabinet [on 23 December] that Hamas is interested in continuing the truce, but wants to improve its terms." Diskin explained that Hamas was requesting two things: an end to the blockade, and an Israeli ceasefire on the West Bank. The cabinet – high with election fever and eager to appear tough – rejected these terms.
The core of the situation has been starkly laid out by Ephraim Halevy, the former head of Mossad. He says that while Hamas militants – like much of the Israeli right-wing – dream of driving their opponents away, "they have recognised this ideological goal is not attainable and will not be in the foreseeable future." Instead, "they are ready and willing to see the establishment of a Palestinian state in the temporary borders of 1967." They are aware that this means they "will have to adopt a path that could lead them far from their original goals" – and towards a long-term peace based on compromise.
The rejectionists on both sides – from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran to Bibi Netanyahu of Israel – would then be marginalised. It is the only path that could yet end in peace but it is the Israeli government that refuses to choose it. Halevy explains: "Israel, for reasons of its own, did not want to turn the ceasefire into the start of a diplomatic process with Hamas."
Why would Israel act this way? The Israeli government wants peace, but only one imposed on its own terms, based on the acceptance of defeat by the Palestinians. It means the Israelis can keep the slabs of the West Bank on "their" side of the wall. It means they keep the largest settlements and control the water supply. And it means a divided Palestine, with responsibility for Gaza hived off to Egypt, and the broken-up West Bank standing alone. Negotiations threaten this vision: they would require Israel to give up more than it wants to. But an imposed peace will be no peace at all: it will not stop the rockets or the rage. For real safety, Israel will have to talk to the people it is blockading and bombing today, and compromise with them.
The sound of Gaza burning should be drowned out by the words of the Israeli writer Larry Derfner. He says: "Israel's war with Gaza has to be the most one-sided on earth... If the point is to end it, or at least begin to end it, the ball is not in Hamas's court – it is in ours."
Johann Hari is an award-winning political journalist for The Independent. For more about him, click on http://www.johannhari.com/about.php
Monday, 29 December 2008
The world isn't just watching the Israeli government commit a crime in Gaza; we are watching it self-harm. This morning, and tomorrow morning, and every morning until this punishment beating ends, the young people of the Gaza Strip are going to be more filled with hate, and more determined to fight back, with stones or suicide vests or rockets. Israeli leaders have convinced themselves that the harder you beat the Palestinians, the softer they will become. But when this is over, the rage against Israelis will have hardened, and the same old compromises will still be waiting by the roadside of history, untended and unmade.
To understand how frightening it is to be a Gazan this morning, you need to have stood in that small slab of concrete by the Mediterranean and smelled the claustrophobia. The Gaza Strip is smaller than the Isle of Wight but it is crammed with 1.5 million people who can never leave. They live out their lives on top of each other, jobless and hungry, in vast, sagging tower blocks. From the top floor, you can often see the borders of their world: the Mediterranean, and Israeli barbed wire. When bombs begin to fall – as they are doing now with more deadly force than at any time since 1967 – there is nowhere to hide.
There will now be a war over the story of this war. The Israeli government says, "We withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and in return we got Hamas and Qassam rockets being rained on our cities. Sixteen civilians have been murdered. How many more are we supposed to sacrifice?" It is a plausible narrative, and there are shards of truth in it, but it is also filled with holes. If we want to understand the reality and really stop the rockets, we need to rewind a few years and view the run-up to this war dispassionately.
The Israeli government did indeed withdraw from the Gaza Strip in 2005 – in order to be able to intensify control of the West Bank. Ariel Sharon's senior adviser, Dov Weisglass, was unequivocal about this, explaining: "The disengagement [from Gaza] is actually formaldehyde. It supplies the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so that there will not be a political process with the Palestinians... this whole package that is called the Palestinian state has been removed from our agenda indefinitely."
Ordinary Palestinians were horrified by this, and by the fetid corruption of their own Fatah leaders, so they voted for Hamas. It certainly wouldn't have been my choice – an Islamist party is antithetical to all my convictions - but we have to be honest. It was a free and democratic election, and it was not a rejection of a two-state solution. The most detailed polling of Palestinians, by the University of Maryland, found that 72 per cent want a two-state solution on the 1967 borders, while fewer than 20 per cent want to reclaim the whole of historic Palestine. So, partly in response to this pressure, Hamas offered Israel a long, long ceasefire and a de facto acceptance of two states, if only Israel would return to its legal borders.
Rather than seize this opportunity and test Hamas's sincerity, the Israeli government reacted by punishing the entire civilian population. It announced that it was blockading the Gaza Strip in order to "pressure" its people to reverse the democratic process. The Israelis surrounded the Strip and refused to let anyone or anything out. They let in a small trickle of food, fuel and medicine – but not enough for survival. Weisglass quipped that the Gazans were being "put on a diet". According to Oxfam, only 137 trucks of food were allowed into Gaza last month to feed 1.5 million people. The United Nations says poverty has reached an "unprecedented level." When I was last in besieged Gaza, I saw hospitals turning away the sick because their machinery and medicine was running out. I met hungry children stumbling around the streets, scavenging for food.
It was in this context – under a collective punishment designed to topple a democracy – that some forces within Gaza did something immoral: they fired Qassam rockets indiscriminately at Israeli cities. These rockets have killed 16 Israeli citizens. This is abhorrent: targeting civilians is always murder. But it is hypocritical for the Israeli government to claim now to speak out for the safety of civilians when it has been terrorising civilians as a matter of state policy.
The American and European governments are responding with a lop-sidedness that ignores these realities. They say that Israel cannot be expected to negotiate while under rocket fire, but they demand that the Palestinians do so under siege in Gaza and violent military occupation in the West Bank.
Before it falls down the memory hole, we should remember that last week, Hamas offered a ceasefire in return for basic and achievable compromises. Don't take my word for it. According to the Israeli press, Yuval Diskin, the current head of the Israeli security service Shin Bet, "told the Israeli cabinet [on 23 December] that Hamas is interested in continuing the truce, but wants to improve its terms." Diskin explained that Hamas was requesting two things: an end to the blockade, and an Israeli ceasefire on the West Bank. The cabinet – high with election fever and eager to appear tough – rejected these terms.
The core of the situation has been starkly laid out by Ephraim Halevy, the former head of Mossad. He says that while Hamas militants – like much of the Israeli right-wing – dream of driving their opponents away, "they have recognised this ideological goal is not attainable and will not be in the foreseeable future." Instead, "they are ready and willing to see the establishment of a Palestinian state in the temporary borders of 1967." They are aware that this means they "will have to adopt a path that could lead them far from their original goals" – and towards a long-term peace based on compromise.
The rejectionists on both sides – from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran to Bibi Netanyahu of Israel – would then be marginalised. It is the only path that could yet end in peace but it is the Israeli government that refuses to choose it. Halevy explains: "Israel, for reasons of its own, did not want to turn the ceasefire into the start of a diplomatic process with Hamas."
Why would Israel act this way? The Israeli government wants peace, but only one imposed on its own terms, based on the acceptance of defeat by the Palestinians. It means the Israelis can keep the slabs of the West Bank on "their" side of the wall. It means they keep the largest settlements and control the water supply. And it means a divided Palestine, with responsibility for Gaza hived off to Egypt, and the broken-up West Bank standing alone. Negotiations threaten this vision: they would require Israel to give up more than it wants to. But an imposed peace will be no peace at all: it will not stop the rockets or the rage. For real safety, Israel will have to talk to the people it is blockading and bombing today, and compromise with them.
The sound of Gaza burning should be drowned out by the words of the Israeli writer Larry Derfner. He says: "Israel's war with Gaza has to be the most one-sided on earth... If the point is to end it, or at least begin to end it, the ball is not in Hamas's court – it is in ours."
Johann Hari is an award-winning political journalist for The Independent. For more about him, click on http://www.johannhari.com/about.php
And we're going to finish it.
Israel has declared all-out war on Hamas in the Gaza strip. This means more and more Palestinian civilians will be killed by Israeli weaponry. Oh, right, Israel isn't targeting civilians; Hamas is using civilians to hide behind. So if civilians are killed, then it's Hamas' fault. I have a hard time believing that Israel doesn't have other options for ridding Gaza of Hamas leadership. I have a hard time believing that Mossad doesn't have the where-with-all to 'take out' the Hamas leadership. Mossad is supposed to be one of the top, if not number one, clandestine government agencies in the world. Check out their web site
http://www.mossad.gov.il/Eng/AboutUs.aspx
But the Israeli government has chosen the most destructive approach to destroying Hamas ... an approach that is resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian citizens. But remember ... this is only the tip of the iceberg -- an iceberg composed of Israeli harassment of Palestinians in so many ways -- harassment that has split families, that has resulted in homes being demolished, that supports the contruction of illegal settlements, that keeps Palestinians from going to work and school every day.
It's all about Israeli terrorism directed at Palestinians for decades. It's not about something that Hamas just started. It's about resistence, not terrorism. It's about one Semitic people destroying another Semitic people.
And God weeps.
http://www.mossad.gov.il/Eng/AboutUs.aspx
But the Israeli government has chosen the most destructive approach to destroying Hamas ... an approach that is resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian citizens. But remember ... this is only the tip of the iceberg -- an iceberg composed of Israeli harassment of Palestinians in so many ways -- harassment that has split families, that has resulted in homes being demolished, that supports the contruction of illegal settlements, that keeps Palestinians from going to work and school every day.
It's all about Israeli terrorism directed at Palestinians for decades. It's not about something that Hamas just started. It's about resistence, not terrorism. It's about one Semitic people destroying another Semitic people.
And God weeps.
They started it.
I've been watching and listening to the news as Hamas has lobbed their home-made rockets into Israel. One death until yesterday when another Israeli was killed by a rocket. Israel, on the other hand, is "protecting" its population will all the might of its air force and missile launchers, killing over 300 Palestinians to date. What's wrong with this picture? When asked about "overkill" on the part of Israel's response to the Hamas rocket lobbing, our administration says Israel has the right to protect itself. All Hamas has to do, the administration says, is stop sending their rockets into Israel. So we have resistance forces with virtually no military forces, no air force, no navy, no ground troops but who are responsible for Israel killing more than 300 Palestinians. And the overkill is Palestine's fault? But that's the US reaction -- Hamas started it so Israel has a right to defend themselves by obliterating the Palestinians in the Gaza strip. One might wonder when the Palestinians get to defend themselves against Israeli oppression and violence and illegal encroachment on Palestinian lands.Let's remember the context of this 'situation.' The Gaza strip is Palestinian territory that has been fenced in, blockaded by Israel. Movement in and out of Gaza is controlled by the Israeli military and their arbitrary decisions. Let's remember, too, that Israel has stopped food, water, medical supplies, and other life-sustaining basics from entering the Gaza strip. They have been strangled by the Israeli actions, and even the UN and the Red Cross have not been able to deliver much-needed supplies to those inside the Gaza strip. So Hamas starts lobbing rockets into Israel. And they're the ones who are called terrorists? For responding to a complete blockade of the Gaza population? Only in the last day or two has Israel allowed limited supplies into Gaza. This is a great example of Hamas being a force of resistance against Israeli terrorism and violence.
Hamas has certainly not been blameless over the years -- their leaders are power hungry as are many leaders of populations under constant attack. But they were democratically elected by the people, even though the US and Israel didn't like the results of that election. So Israel has consistently applied the screws at many levels to the people of Gaza and to other areas where Palestinians legally reside.
Once again the world watches as Israel slaughters Palestinians and calls it "defense." There are other words that come to mind --- genocide, ethnic cleansing, murder. How long will Israel be allowed to do as it pleases before there is a massive retaliation by other Arab states?
The Palestinians certainly do not have the resources to adequately defend themselves as the Israeli offensive continues to escalate. How long before someone -- some nation that does not support this genocide -- how long will it be before some nation has the courage to say enough? That nation certainly won't be the US because we continue to hear that the US has a "special" relationship with Israel. Anybody ever ask what makes that relationship special?Now we're hearing that Israel is surprised that Hamas won't stop firing rockets and come to the negotiating table. Why would Hamas think anything would change if they were to come to the table? Maybe Israel would stop its massive military offensive but "normal" life would continue to have blockades of essential supplies, constant harassment of Palestinians, arbitrary home demolitions, illegal settlements, and on and on and on. How long must the Palestinians live under these conditions while the Israel government continues to violate all UN "actions" regarding the so-called partition and while the Israeli government does everything in its power to rid Palestine of Palestinians?
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Always there.
It's been over a month since my last posting. But the plight of the Palestinians is never far from my consciousness. I just order a book called Sixty Years, Sixty Voices, focusing on 30 Palestinian and 30 Israeli women who have dedicated themselves to peace between the two groups. I wonder daily how my Palestinian friends are doing and I continue to be shocked at the continuing violence of the Israeli government and illegal settlers toward the Palestinians -- both adults and children. It's just not stopping.
Of course, preparations for Christmas have taken priority in my life but there continues to be an undercurrent that reminds me that all is not right in Bethlehem, even as we approach the anniversary of the birth of the Prince of Peace. I wonder how this will play out -- if it will -- in my Christmas sermon this year. I can't think of Bethlehem without thinking of the Wall, the Aida refugee camp, and the illegal Israeli settlement so close to the village itself. Those images will be forever in my mind.
So I move along in my daily work -- also very important -- but constantly thinking about what more we can do to bring peace to that part of the world -- a place from which peace should be emanating rather than being overcome by violence.
Of course, preparations for Christmas have taken priority in my life but there continues to be an undercurrent that reminds me that all is not right in Bethlehem, even as we approach the anniversary of the birth of the Prince of Peace. I wonder how this will play out -- if it will -- in my Christmas sermon this year. I can't think of Bethlehem without thinking of the Wall, the Aida refugee camp, and the illegal Israeli settlement so close to the village itself. Those images will be forever in my mind.
So I move along in my daily work -- also very important -- but constantly thinking about what more we can do to bring peace to that part of the world -- a place from which peace should be emanating rather than being overcome by violence.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Getting it right: The Palestinian Resistance Fighters
I had a little aha moment while driving to diocesan offices yesterday. The purpose of my visit there was to do a short video on m y reflections on the trip to Palestine-Israel. So that's what I was thinking about. And I suddenly realized that the Palestinians who are so quickly called terrorists are actually part of the resistance; they're part of the underground that continues to fight of those who insist on taking more and more of their land. Kind of like the French resistance during WWII or maybe the Viet Cong during the 60s and early 70s or the revolutionary Americans in the 1770s. I'm not talking about extremists on either end -- they will exist regardless of what else is going on. But rather resistance fighters who continue to push back at those who insist on violating their boundaries and killing their people.
By using the word terrorist after the adjective Palestinian, the media and responsible governments have made sure that the gullible public perceives Palestinians as bad people, as evil people who only want to kill good Christians and Jews. Nope. They're not evil. Their land was stolen from them and they're just trying to get the portion of it back that they were left with pre-1967. And when they fire their little missiles and guns at the Israelis, they're firing defensively. The Palestinians have nowhere near the arsenal of the State of Israel. But they won't surrender, either.
This is not to say that Hamas and Fatah are poor victims of the Israeli government. They're not. I think they're really not all that interested in the well being of the Palestinian people. They fight one another and Israel to gain whatever power and control they can. But they wouldn't even be around were it not for the continuing illegal seizures of Palestinian land for illegal Israeli settlements. This is what the Palestinian people are resisting -- illegal seizure of their homelands. It's what they've been fighting for decades while the world sits by and watches.
So not terrorists. But definitely The Resistance.
By using the word terrorist after the adjective Palestinian, the media and responsible governments have made sure that the gullible public perceives Palestinians as bad people, as evil people who only want to kill good Christians and Jews. Nope. They're not evil. Their land was stolen from them and they're just trying to get the portion of it back that they were left with pre-1967. And when they fire their little missiles and guns at the Israelis, they're firing defensively. The Palestinians have nowhere near the arsenal of the State of Israel. But they won't surrender, either.
This is not to say that Hamas and Fatah are poor victims of the Israeli government. They're not. I think they're really not all that interested in the well being of the Palestinian people. They fight one another and Israel to gain whatever power and control they can. But they wouldn't even be around were it not for the continuing illegal seizures of Palestinian land for illegal Israeli settlements. This is what the Palestinian people are resisting -- illegal seizure of their homelands. It's what they've been fighting for decades while the world sits by and watches.
So not terrorists. But definitely The Resistance.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Sacred writings - who cares?
Something that continued to be in my awareness while in Palestine and Israel was the way that both Muslims and Jews had integrated their faith into their daily lives. I'm not talking about governments or extremists -- God knows there are radicals in all three Abrahamic faiths. But I'm thinking about the people in the streets who see their lives in the context of their faith every day. This is supported, of course, by the chanting of the Quran over loudspeakers in the Muslim sections of the city and the fingering of prayer beads; by the dress of both Muslims and Jews every day on many streets; and by the number of synagogues, mosques, and churches throughout the land. The Eastern Orthodox churches also have services on a daily basis -- many are filled with tourists who stop in to hear this very byzantine version of the western Christianity with which they are familiar.
But there's one thing that I've noticed among the Muslims and the Jews that is not nearly as strong among Christians (or at least Episcopalians with whom I've come in contact). That's our level of literacy with our sacred writings. This became so clear to me when I suggested to one of our parishioners that she look up a verse in Matthew. I gave her the Bible and she started flipping through the first part. I couldn't believe it. Finally, I said, "Look in the second half of the book...." This was a cradle Episcopalian who didn't even know where Matthew is in the Bible. Not even close. She had been looking for Matthew where Genesis and Exodus are. Amazing.
Yet we encourage/push/nudge those in our faith communities to walk the talk. But how many don't even know the talk? Why is it that we care so little about at least being familiar with the book that is the foundation of our faith? In fact, why aren't we even embarrassed?
On the other hand, there's a group of 15-20 parishioners that shows up on Sunday mornings to spend time with our sacred writings so that they do become familiar with them and so that they know how to find books and passages and events. One hour every Sunday morning. Where are the others?
I'm starting to get a clearer understanding of why it's so easy for Christians to compartmentalize their religion and faith to Sundays and special holy days. They know so little about our sacred writings that they just don't think about them except for Sundays or in crisis. Maybe it's time to commit to a rule of life where we stop 3-5 times a day to focus on God and faith for at least 2 minutes.
I just really like the constant reminders of the Muslims and Jews in Palestine and Israel that we are of one God and need to acknowledge that regularly.
But there's one thing that I've noticed among the Muslims and the Jews that is not nearly as strong among Christians (or at least Episcopalians with whom I've come in contact). That's our level of literacy with our sacred writings. This became so clear to me when I suggested to one of our parishioners that she look up a verse in Matthew. I gave her the Bible and she started flipping through the first part. I couldn't believe it. Finally, I said, "Look in the second half of the book...." This was a cradle Episcopalian who didn't even know where Matthew is in the Bible. Not even close. She had been looking for Matthew where Genesis and Exodus are. Amazing.
Yet we encourage/push/nudge those in our faith communities to walk the talk. But how many don't even know the talk? Why is it that we care so little about at least being familiar with the book that is the foundation of our faith? In fact, why aren't we even embarrassed?
On the other hand, there's a group of 15-20 parishioners that shows up on Sunday mornings to spend time with our sacred writings so that they do become familiar with them and so that they know how to find books and passages and events. One hour every Sunday morning. Where are the others?
I'm starting to get a clearer understanding of why it's so easy for Christians to compartmentalize their religion and faith to Sundays and special holy days. They know so little about our sacred writings that they just don't think about them except for Sundays or in crisis. Maybe it's time to commit to a rule of life where we stop 3-5 times a day to focus on God and faith for at least 2 minutes.
I just really like the constant reminders of the Muslims and Jews in Palestine and Israel that we are of one God and need to acknowledge that regularly.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Telling the story.
It's been a little over a week since returning home and I find my brain is still processing all that I saw. The difference between life in Palestine and life in Hawaii is just so many worlds apart -- almost on opposite ends of the universe. I've had some interesting questions from folks who wanted to know how the trip went -- "Did you have a good time? Was it a fun trip? Did you see a lot? I'll bet it was a wonderful trip!" And so forth.... There is no single word to describe what we experienced; there aren't even a few good words that will do the trick.
Contrary to popular belief, the Palestinians are not the enemy; they are not the aggressors. This is their land that they are fighting for; they are the victims of Israeli illegal aggression. If someone could rid that piece of the earth of the Israeli, Hamas, and Fatah "governments," we'd probably have a much better chance for peace among Semitic cousins. But the Palestinians are not the enemy and they are not the aggressors.
I think about the woman whose grandparents and parents were run out of their home in 1948, shortly after Palestine was given away by the Brits and the UN to the new nation of Israel. Her family had lived in that place for 1700 years. Overnight they found themselves as refugees in the land of their ancestors. There were the teenagers in a refugee camp that backs right up to the Wall who are learning to deal with their anger and oppression through art and rap rather than through guns and bombs. And the instant settlements of Israelis that spring up illegally and in record time on Palestinian land -- daring the Palestinians and even the rest of the world to stop them. Or the young soldiers in the Old City who walk around among tourists, shopkeepers, and residents with their machine guns at the ready. I remember walking through one area to meet up with the Christian Peacekeeping Team and looking up to see a teenager's face watching us from the roof of a building. I didn't think anything of it until we found ourselves on another roof. The face that looked over had a machine gun and was watching us closely. "Don't let them see your camera!" I'm still trying to figure out how the Israelis wiped out over 500 Palestinian villages and towns. Many have literally disappeared; others have Israeli names and histories that don't go any farther back than 1948.
I learned about Rachel Corrie, a young American college student, who went to Palestine to protest in a non-violent way the violence that was being visited on the Palestinian people. I'd heard about her death in 2003 but didn't pay much attention to it. Just one more "crazy American who should have been minding her own business." What I learned was that she was indeed minding her own business as she stood in solidarity with her Palestinian brothers and sisters. She had shown great courage where her country had shown none. She was run over by a bulldozer -- twice. No question that the operator saw her. But he was doing the job he was told to do and ran over her so he could bulldoze the homes of Palestinians that were declared "security risks." I guess Rachel posed more danger to the bulldozer than it posed to her. Albert Einstein said, "The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." I fear we Americans know so little about the Palestinian people that we just don't do anything about what is happening over there nor do we insist our government stop supporting the violence of Israel.
Although Beverly and I will be making a presentation to the parish, I did talk a little about the trip in my sermon after returning home. I can't forget one comment that was made to me: "Remember that there are two sides to everything." I was stunned. I had just witnessed for two solid weeks how lopsided this situation is. I couldn't respond. I don't think anyone can truly understand what's happening in Palestine-Israel without witnessing it first-hand. What I am very clear about, however, is that the US government continues to publicly and with great vigor support the Israeli government in their efforts to wipe out the Palestinian population that has lived in that land for at least 2 millennia. This is all the more confusing and crazy-making because those who experienced such violence and extermination at the hands of the Germans are now visiting their own genocide on their Semitic cousins. The reports of Palestinian gunfire or missiles or bombs affecting the Israelis are really minor compared with the push of the Israeli government, its settlements, and its ongoing harassment and violent abuse of Palestinian Christians and Moslems.
I was told by some friends that reports like this are often squelched by our own government or by organizations that support the Israeli government. But the best we can do to support those who are regularly victimized by the Israeli government is to tell their story and continue to tell their story until the rest of the world has the courage to listen and stop this war-mongering and violence against an entire people.
I have no idea where this knowledge will lead me personally, but I need to make sure that I never forget to tell about what I've seen and that I never let those we visited think they've been forgotten.
Contrary to popular belief, the Palestinians are not the enemy; they are not the aggressors. This is their land that they are fighting for; they are the victims of Israeli illegal aggression. If someone could rid that piece of the earth of the Israeli, Hamas, and Fatah "governments," we'd probably have a much better chance for peace among Semitic cousins. But the Palestinians are not the enemy and they are not the aggressors.
I think about the woman whose grandparents and parents were run out of their home in 1948, shortly after Palestine was given away by the Brits and the UN to the new nation of Israel. Her family had lived in that place for 1700 years. Overnight they found themselves as refugees in the land of their ancestors. There were the teenagers in a refugee camp that backs right up to the Wall who are learning to deal with their anger and oppression through art and rap rather than through guns and bombs. And the instant settlements of Israelis that spring up illegally and in record time on Palestinian land -- daring the Palestinians and even the rest of the world to stop them. Or the young soldiers in the Old City who walk around among tourists, shopkeepers, and residents with their machine guns at the ready. I remember walking through one area to meet up with the Christian Peacekeeping Team and looking up to see a teenager's face watching us from the roof of a building. I didn't think anything of it until we found ourselves on another roof. The face that looked over had a machine gun and was watching us closely. "Don't let them see your camera!" I'm still trying to figure out how the Israelis wiped out over 500 Palestinian villages and towns. Many have literally disappeared; others have Israeli names and histories that don't go any farther back than 1948.
I learned about Rachel Corrie, a young American college student, who went to Palestine to protest in a non-violent way the violence that was being visited on the Palestinian people. I'd heard about her death in 2003 but didn't pay much attention to it. Just one more "crazy American who should have been minding her own business." What I learned was that she was indeed minding her own business as she stood in solidarity with her Palestinian brothers and sisters. She had shown great courage where her country had shown none. She was run over by a bulldozer -- twice. No question that the operator saw her. But he was doing the job he was told to do and ran over her so he could bulldoze the homes of Palestinians that were declared "security risks." I guess Rachel posed more danger to the bulldozer than it posed to her. Albert Einstein said, "The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." I fear we Americans know so little about the Palestinian people that we just don't do anything about what is happening over there nor do we insist our government stop supporting the violence of Israel.
Although Beverly and I will be making a presentation to the parish, I did talk a little about the trip in my sermon after returning home. I can't forget one comment that was made to me: "Remember that there are two sides to everything." I was stunned. I had just witnessed for two solid weeks how lopsided this situation is. I couldn't respond. I don't think anyone can truly understand what's happening in Palestine-Israel without witnessing it first-hand. What I am very clear about, however, is that the US government continues to publicly and with great vigor support the Israeli government in their efforts to wipe out the Palestinian population that has lived in that land for at least 2 millennia. This is all the more confusing and crazy-making because those who experienced such violence and extermination at the hands of the Germans are now visiting their own genocide on their Semitic cousins. The reports of Palestinian gunfire or missiles or bombs affecting the Israelis are really minor compared with the push of the Israeli government, its settlements, and its ongoing harassment and violent abuse of Palestinian Christians and Moslems.
I was told by some friends that reports like this are often squelched by our own government or by organizations that support the Israeli government. But the best we can do to support those who are regularly victimized by the Israeli government is to tell their story and continue to tell their story until the rest of the world has the courage to listen and stop this war-mongering and violence against an entire people.
I have no idea where this knowledge will lead me personally, but I need to make sure that I never forget to tell about what I've seen and that I never let those we visited think they've been forgotten.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Going home.
Beverly and I arrived in Honolulu around noon on Thursday the 16th. It was a very long trip home and we were both ready to be here. A couple of good things happened once we got to Ben Gurion Airport and flew out. We weren't at all given a hard time by any of the security people -- they were most pleasant. At 1:30 in the morning, that was a real blessing, especially with an airport that was quite full and quite busy.
The four-hour flight to Frankfurt was a bit uncomfortable. The plane was full and the two of us were in coach. Of course the person in front of me immediately moved his seat back as far back as he could, so I had about four inches between my nose and his head. Neither of us were very comfortable during that trip and were looking forward to relaxing in United Red Carpet Club when we arrived in Frankfurt.
We never found the RCC. One person told us it was in one terminal; another, in another terminal. We spent a lot of time on one of those little people movers between terminals, and even more time walking. We probably did a good three miles before deciding to crash the Lufthansa business club lounge. They let us in and we stayed there for about an hour until check-in for our San Francisco flight.
The 11-hour flight from Frankfurt to SFO was probably the best and most comfortable flight either one of us has ever had. It was a 747 and we were in the upstairs area. This particular plane had been retrofitted with new seats and accouterments; we were able to totally stretch out on seats that went back to 180 degrees.
The four-hour flight to Frankfurt was a bit uncomfortable. The plane was full and the two of us were in coach. Of course the person in front of me immediately moved his seat back as far back as he could, so I had about four inches between my nose and his head. Neither of us were very comfortable during that trip and were looking forward to relaxing in United Red Carpet Club when we arrived in Frankfurt.
We never found the RCC. One person told us it was in one terminal; another, in another terminal. We spent a lot of time on one of those little people movers between terminals, and even more time walking. We probably did a good three miles before deciding to crash the Lufthansa business club lounge. They let us in and we stayed there for about an hour until check-in for our San Francisco flight.
The 11-hour flight from Frankfurt to SFO was probably the best and most comfortable flight either one of us has ever had. It was a 747 and we were in the upstairs area. This particular plane had been retrofitted with new seats and accouterments; we were able to totally stretch out on seats that went back to 180 degrees.
We had our own good sized screens, cubby holes, lots of movies to choose from, and very good food. The service was great -- it's a small area upstairs in 747s and apparently flight attendants really like being up there. The trip couldn't have been more pleasant.
Once in San Francisco, we went off to our hotel for the night and were back at the airport for our 9:30 flight to Honolulu. By this time, Beverly had developed a full blown cold and was working hard not to spread germs. She did a good job! The flight wasn't too bad -- I think the stay in San Francisco for the night was important so we weren't as exhausted when we arrived.
But now it's adjustment time for jet lag --- Jerusalem is 12 hours ahead of Honolulu.
Lots of stuff still to write as I process the trip. I'm hoping to continue to add more postings and photos over the next few days...
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Rawdat el Zuhur.
I just found this post that I had written but not yet published. Here it is....
Rawdat el Zuhur is a wonderful little school only a few steps from the St George's Cathedral and College compound. We had supported them in the past with financial resources and were making a visit with some additional support and so we could touch base with their director and so I could get a first-hand experience of the school. This is one more of those little spots of hope in the midst of darkness.
We gave them $1000 from the Global Ministry silent auction fund. The principal, Salwa Zananiri, immediately determined that it would be used for fuel bills during the winter months. The school depends on organizations and foundations and individual donations to meet their financial obligations. It costs $1500 a year to educate each student. Depending on what families can afford, they're asked to pay up to $500 toward a student's tuition.
The school is set back from the road, behind a large parking lot. Walking across the parking lot is the only access to the school. The parking lot owner, an Israeli Jew, decided this year that he would no longer grant access through his parking lot for students to attend school. Then he died and the case is presently in the Israeli court system. When Beverly and I walked through the lot around 9 this morning to visit the school, there were absolutely no cars parked in the lot.
There's something wrong with this picture, I think. Obviously the owner has the right to grant access or not; it's his land. But to arbitrarily shut out children after so many years of access seems to hint of at least some level of just plain meanness.
There used to be 60 more children at the Rawdat el Zuhur School in Jerusalem. And then the Israelis built the Segregation Wall, ostensibly to protect themselves from Palestinian terrorists. As a result, those 60 little Palestinian children from low- to no-income families were prohibited from crossing into Jerusalem to go to school. I wonder how many of those children were terrorists...
As I said, this is one more school that our parish supports. That makes four institutions -- two medical facilities and two schools. This particular school started with only two children -- two children who were living in the streets. They were taken in by Elizabeth Nasir in the middle of the 20th century. Today her school serves 240 Palestinian boys and girls who would not otherwise go to school. It's worth visiting the school's website at http://www.rawdat.org/ I think just looking at the faces of the kids without any comments or captions works best -- they really were a joy to visit.
Lest anyone think all of the kids in these places are perfect, we did run into some young teens at this school who were in trouble for vandalizing one of the rooms. The director had just made a decision to call their parents in. Quite obviously it was unacceptable behavior and the approach to dealing with that behavior was to involve the parents. Made sense to us....
You can read more about the school at their website, but I can tell you about our experience as we walked through the building and visited the classes. In almost every room we entered, the children stood up as soon as we walked in to the room -- regardless of what they were doing. And in almost every room, they sang for us or recited a poem (Joyce Kilmer's Trees). Our visit was unexpected and unplanned. I can't begin to describe how we felt as we listened to them. Every student takes Arabic, English, and French, as well as other general courses that elementary students take. And they are put in front of computers when they're four years old. So by the time they leave the school, they can get into just about any other secondary school that is available to them. But there aren't that many that are available to Palestinian kids so they get in where they can -- they've been taught the importance of education and they've been taught the importance of a strong value system.
There's a character tree that sits halfway up the stairs to the second floor. It has 'ornaments' on it that each contain a value: humility, courage, compassion, unity -- I think you can read some of the words. Throughout the year, the kids (even the young ones) can pick a value for the principal to talk about in a short session and then discuss what that value means in their own lives.
We learned near the end of the tour that the four people who normally take care of the physical needs of the school did not show up this morning. Two were ill; one had an expired permit to cross the wall; one was denied crossing the wall just because. The ability or refusal to cross the wall makes every day iffy for those who live on one side and work on the other. There is no guarantee that they will be allowed through, even if they have all their papers in order. You can imagine the havoc this plays on organizations and institutions and businesses. I suspect that if it happens to often to an employee, it's just easier for the company to fire the employee and hire someone from this side of the wall. And then we can imagine what that does to the standard of living to those on the other side of the wall if they are unable to hold jobs because of arbitrary closures.
This morning after the tour, Beverly and I took a cab to the Old City and were blocked by a couple of soldiers who were turning cars back from the Jaffa Gate because -- I think -- today is another Jewish holiday (Succoth). Although some got through, they would not let us proceed even with Beverly's "incapacitation." Last week we did get through because she's using a hiking stick to help with balance. But today, no. So we got out of the cab and walked past those soldiers -- it was hard not to give them the raspberries or some other negative non-verbal cue -- and hiked up the steep hill to the Jaffa Gate.
But we had a productive and brief visit to the Old City -- I needed another small suitcase for the stuff I bought and am bringing home, and then we had lunch at one of the local restaurants on our way back out the gate.
All in all, it's been a good day so far ... it really helps to see these little pockets of hope in the midst of the Israeli harassment and violence and humiliation toward those who are Palestinian Jews, Christians, and Moslems.
Rawdat el Zuhur is a wonderful little school only a few steps from the St George's Cathedral and College compound. We had supported them in the past with financial resources and were making a visit with some additional support and so we could touch base with their director and so I could get a first-hand experience of the school. This is one more of those little spots of hope in the midst of darkness.
We gave them $1000 from the Global Ministry silent auction fund. The principal, Salwa Zananiri, immediately determined that it would be used for fuel bills during the winter months. The school depends on organizations and foundations and individual donations to meet their financial obligations. It costs $1500 a year to educate each student. Depending on what families can afford, they're asked to pay up to $500 toward a student's tuition.
The school is set back from the road, behind a large parking lot. Walking across the parking lot is the only access to the school. The parking lot owner, an Israeli Jew, decided this year that he would no longer grant access through his parking lot for students to attend school. Then he died and the case is presently in the Israeli court system. When Beverly and I walked through the lot around 9 this morning to visit the school, there were absolutely no cars parked in the lot.
There's something wrong with this picture, I think. Obviously the owner has the right to grant access or not; it's his land. But to arbitrarily shut out children after so many years of access seems to hint of at least some level of just plain meanness.
There used to be 60 more children at the Rawdat el Zuhur School in Jerusalem. And then the Israelis built the Segregation Wall, ostensibly to protect themselves from Palestinian terrorists. As a result, those 60 little Palestinian children from low- to no-income families were prohibited from crossing into Jerusalem to go to school. I wonder how many of those children were terrorists...
As I said, this is one more school that our parish supports. That makes four institutions -- two medical facilities and two schools. This particular school started with only two children -- two children who were living in the streets. They were taken in by Elizabeth Nasir in the middle of the 20th century. Today her school serves 240 Palestinian boys and girls who would not otherwise go to school. It's worth visiting the school's website at http://www.rawdat.org/ I think just looking at the faces of the kids without any comments or captions works best -- they really were a joy to visit.
Lest anyone think all of the kids in these places are perfect, we did run into some young teens at this school who were in trouble for vandalizing one of the rooms. The director had just made a decision to call their parents in. Quite obviously it was unacceptable behavior and the approach to dealing with that behavior was to involve the parents. Made sense to us....
You can read more about the school at their website, but I can tell you about our experience as we walked through the building and visited the classes. In almost every room we entered, the children stood up as soon as we walked in to the room -- regardless of what they were doing. And in almost every room, they sang for us or recited a poem (Joyce Kilmer's Trees). Our visit was unexpected and unplanned. I can't begin to describe how we felt as we listened to them. Every student takes Arabic, English, and French, as well as other general courses that elementary students take. And they are put in front of computers when they're four years old. So by the time they leave the school, they can get into just about any other secondary school that is available to them. But there aren't that many that are available to Palestinian kids so they get in where they can -- they've been taught the importance of education and they've been taught the importance of a strong value system.
There's a character tree that sits halfway up the stairs to the second floor. It has 'ornaments' on it that each contain a value: humility, courage, compassion, unity -- I think you can read some of the words. Throughout the year, the kids (even the young ones) can pick a value for the principal to talk about in a short session and then discuss what that value means in their own lives.
We learned near the end of the tour that the four people who normally take care of the physical needs of the school did not show up this morning. Two were ill; one had an expired permit to cross the wall; one was denied crossing the wall just because. The ability or refusal to cross the wall makes every day iffy for those who live on one side and work on the other. There is no guarantee that they will be allowed through, even if they have all their papers in order. You can imagine the havoc this plays on organizations and institutions and businesses. I suspect that if it happens to often to an employee, it's just easier for the company to fire the employee and hire someone from this side of the wall. And then we can imagine what that does to the standard of living to those on the other side of the wall if they are unable to hold jobs because of arbitrary closures.
This morning after the tour, Beverly and I took a cab to the Old City and were blocked by a couple of soldiers who were turning cars back from the Jaffa Gate because -- I think -- today is another Jewish holiday (Succoth). Although some got through, they would not let us proceed even with Beverly's "incapacitation." Last week we did get through because she's using a hiking stick to help with balance. But today, no. So we got out of the cab and walked past those soldiers -- it was hard not to give them the raspberries or some other negative non-verbal cue -- and hiked up the steep hill to the Jaffa Gate.
But we had a productive and brief visit to the Old City -- I needed another small suitcase for the stuff I bought and am bringing home, and then we had lunch at one of the local restaurants on our way back out the gate.
All in all, it's been a good day so far ... it really helps to see these little pockets of hope in the midst of the Israeli harassment and violence and humiliation toward those who are Palestinian Jews, Christians, and Moslems.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Christ in the world.
One of the questions asked about the posting about Gaza is "How does this experience increase your understanding of Christ's mission in the world?" I'll try to write about that...
The incarnational aspect of Christ has never been as clear to me as it is in this place. We are able to witness to the hope found through Christ and in God. Our presence here lets those who are oppressed know that they're not alone and that they're cared about. Feeling alone in an often hopeless situation is deadly. So we let them know that because of our faith and the hope that is such a major part of it, they are not alone. We let them know we Christians are with them by giving them financial resources to do the work that they are called to do -- whether that call comes from God or from Allah. A few thousand dollars does indeed make a difference and buys materials -- medical and educational -- that make it possible for there to be little oases of hope in Gaza or in Saffa or in Jerusalem or in Raineh. They are not alone. If we believe that God works through us (meaning women and men), then we are doing God's work in helping to bring even a small bit of hope and peace to creation and especially to this land that is the home of the ancestor of all three major faiths.
In the past couple of days we heard that a small village outside Jerusalem was under seige by the Israeli army. This is the same village in which the school we visited is located. Remember the new school they're building? And remember that soldiers had invaded a number of houses the night before? Well, the road to the village was blocked off and soldiers took over three houses in the village. The families were put out into the street. The road was opened again and our friend was able to get out. His family was not hurt --- yet -- but they don't know what will happen day by day. He was looking for a place to stay last night because he had to work in Jersusalem today. He doesn't know when he'll be allowed to go home.
But the sharing of hope does not go in only one direction -- not at all. Within a few days after we arrived, I asked someone how the people could live in constant fear of violence and oppression. And we can take both of those terms literally. (I think I wrote briefly about this early on.) He answered me by saying that they have to have hope -- a hope that comes through their faith in God or Allah to be able to wake up every day and raise their families and contribute to their communities and do the daily things that must be done not only to survive but to live. "Without hope, we have nothing," he said with a shrug. "When you come from the US to this place, that gives us hope that we are not alone and that our story is known in the rest of the world." "What can we do for you besides financial help?" "Tell our story. Tell people what you've seen here so they know that there is more than is told in the press. Tell our story."
A small slice of their story is told in this photo.
It's taken within the area that holds one of the holiest Moslem places in the world. By formal agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians, no Israelis are allowed in this Holy Islamic place. (Moslems were being turned back by military sentries from visiting the area around the Wall on the same day -- Yom Kippur.) But what happens is that a small group of Jews will enter this holy Moslem space anyway, protected by a soldier with a machine gun. That's what you see in this picture. And there's nothing anyone can do about it. This is part of the on-going pecking away of the Palestinian and Moslem populations by the Israeli government. Little challenges to the law and agreements that protect non-Jews, daring anyone to confront them. The government has done this on a much larger scale as they build settlements almost overnight in Palestinian areas. 
See those white buildings in the middle of the picture? That's a Jewish settlement of hundreds of apartments that has been built on Palestinian land. Totally illegal --- but who will stop them?So we visitors who go beyond the typical tourist sites, who get to know the people and the families and organizations are so important in helping to give hope, even as they teach us how hope can make it possible for a people to survive and live day to day. And we tell their stories -- stories that are not heard on the Evening News or CNN or MSNBC or FOX.
We are not tourists, "Tracing the Footsteps of Jesus of Nazareth"; we are Christians who are trying to bring some light into the darkness that has overcome the Holy Land of our common ancestor Abraham. And we cannot shut our eyes to the injustice and oppression and abuse and violence visited upon the non-Jewish population of Palestine-Israel.
We're called to be Christ's light in the world and this is one way we can accomplish that mission. I can't begin to describe the light that shines in their faces when we visit and talk with so many people here. But I can tell you that their small lights keeps our own candles burning. For us, it's a real privilege and honor to be able to help however we can. I'm hoping that we can convey that feeling to the parish after our return. What we have done in our own small ways as a parish over the past four years has made and continues to make a big difference in the lives of the people and institutions who have received our support. We are truly blessed to have the wherewithall to share so much of what God has given us. If we can remember that everything we have comes from God, our giving becomes compelling.I can't imagine knowing what we have seen and learned and not reaching out to help. That would take us to the line in the General Confession that refers to "those things we have left undone." We need to make sure that doesn't describe us as individual Christians nor St Clement's as a Christian community.(BTW - I just finished reading The Collaborator of Bethlehem by Matt Beynon Rees. It seems to be true to the actual situation in Bethlehem, both from what we saw and what we learned. It's not a pretty picture at all for a place that has traditionally been identified as the birthplace of Jesus.)
Gaza - not today.
I just returned from the first checkpoint to get into Gaza. Four of us went; two were allowed through to the actual military checkpoint. Neither Beverly nor I were given passes after waiting for two hours. No reason. Making people wait seems to be the major objective of the soldiers at these barriers. This was at the Erez Crossing where we were split up.
We had permission to go into Gaza; Nancy had received it from the government prior to our trip to Israel. But even with permission, one can be stopped from proceeding by any military person for any or no reason. So we parked the car and the four of us walked to the crossing point. We gave the attendant inside our passports and began what was to be a two-hour wait. There was already a group of four people from the French NGO, Handicap International, who had been waiting quite a while. It appeared they were getting passes one at a time over a period of hours. There was another woman with the UN who had been waiting at least an hour. And there was a Moslem family of women who had been waiting I-don’t-know-how-long.
There was no waiting area, of course. Just concrete sidewalks, roads, and curbs. The sun got hotter as the morning went on and we were able to find a little shade sitting on the curb in the shade of the guard’s kiosk. At one point, a Moslem man came along and he had his father (I’m guessing) with him – a small, old man who was quite frail. His father sat on the curb in the shade with some of the rest of us who were waiting for passes. Pretty soon, the soldier who had been patrolling on the other side of the fence and gate with a machine gun slung over his shoulder slipped under the barrier and told us all to not sit on the curb. I got up; far be it from me to argue with a young man with a gun. The Handicap Int’l women refused to and argued with the kid. He wasn’t sure what to do so he turned around and went over to the old man and told him to move. So the man’s son came and helped him to a part of the curb that was away from the kiosk but still in the shade. That wasn’t good enough. So there was a lot of back and forth between the kid, the women, and the son. Pretty soon the kid made some last comment in Hebrew and walked back under the barrier to the other side of the fence.
It’s a spy blimp. It played a significant role in the 2006 massacre of the town of Beit Haroun by the Israeli military.
The group of us (me, Beverly, Nancy, and Bob) decided that if Beverly and I did not get passes by 11:00, we would return to Jerusalem and Bob and Nancy would go on to the next checkpoint. A little before 11:00, Nancy asked the kiosk guard for our passports so we could return to Jerusalem. The guard said we would be given passes and it would only be 10 minutes more. Nancy said “You told us 10 minutes 2 hours ago!” We finally got our passports back about the time one of the soldiers, who was carrying more passes, was coming out of the big building on the other side of the gate. We waited just in case he had our passes. He had five passes, none of which belonged to me or Beverly. So we gave Nancy the $3000 to pass on to the hospital in Gaza that we’ve been supporting, and made our way back to the parking lot to get a taxi back to Jerusalem. Nancy and Bob went on to the next border crossing.
(As an aside, our taxi driver spoke absolutely no English and didn’t really know where St George’s Cathedral is located. That was a trip in itself. Every other taxi driver we’ve had knew some English; hand signals as communication were most unhelpful with this guy. Instead, he would stop along a busy street and yell for someone to tell him where Nablus Road was. Talk about a bad sit-com!)
As of about 11:30, we know that Nancy got through the military checkpoint and Bob was held back, ostensibly because a soldier didn’t include Bob’s surname on something. We haven’t heard since then so I’m assuming they got through.
We had permission to go into Gaza; Nancy had received it from the government prior to our trip to Israel. But even with permission, one can be stopped from proceeding by any military person for any or no reason. So we parked the car and the four of us walked to the crossing point. We gave the attendant inside our passports and began what was to be a two-hour wait. There was already a group of four people from the French NGO, Handicap International, who had been waiting quite a while. It appeared they were getting passes one at a time over a period of hours. There was another woman with the UN who had been waiting at least an hour. And there was a Moslem family of women who had been waiting I-don’t-know-how-long.
There was no waiting area, of course. Just concrete sidewalks, roads, and curbs. The sun got hotter as the morning went on and we were able to find a little shade sitting on the curb in the shade of the guard’s kiosk. At one point, a Moslem man came along and he had his father (I’m guessing) with him – a small, old man who was quite frail. His father sat on the curb in the shade with some of the rest of us who were waiting for passes. Pretty soon, the soldier who had been patrolling on the other side of the fence and gate with a machine gun slung over his shoulder slipped under the barrier and told us all to not sit on the curb. I got up; far be it from me to argue with a young man with a gun. The Handicap Int’l women refused to and argued with the kid. He wasn’t sure what to do so he turned around and went over to the old man and told him to move. So the man’s son came and helped him to a part of the curb that was away from the kiosk but still in the shade. That wasn’t good enough. So there was a lot of back and forth between the kid, the women, and the son. Pretty soon the kid made some last comment in Hebrew and walked back under the barrier to the other side of the fence.
In the meantime, the woman from the UN was finally given a pass to go through, and a young Spanish couple handed over their passports for crossing permission.
Next, a couple of UN cars with four people drove up and went to the kiosk. They were able to get through without going through a military check because they had yellow ID cards of some sort. But they told us that it wasn’t unusual for them to be held up for hours at a time for no apparent reason. Soon after that, a group from Doctors Without Borders came to the kiosk.
They were still waiting when we left about an hour later. A couple of cars from the International Red Cross drove up; they were still waiting when we left as well. A nun in full black-and-white habit also walked up to the kiosk after arriving in a taxi. She turned her passport over and began her wait. We didn’t see her go through, either.
During this entire morning, there was a blimp-like thing hovering high in the air. I had seen it on the ground on our way to the Erez Crossing. Turns out it carries a sophisticated camera that enables the Israeli army to watch the entire north Gaza area.
It’s a spy blimp. It played a significant role in the 2006 massacre of the town of Beit Haroun by the Israeli military.
The group of us (me, Beverly, Nancy, and Bob) decided that if Beverly and I did not get passes by 11:00, we would return to Jerusalem and Bob and Nancy would go on to the next checkpoint. A little before 11:00, Nancy asked the kiosk guard for our passports so we could return to Jerusalem. The guard said we would be given passes and it would only be 10 minutes more. Nancy said “You told us 10 minutes 2 hours ago!” We finally got our passports back about the time one of the soldiers, who was carrying more passes, was coming out of the big building on the other side of the gate. We waited just in case he had our passes. He had five passes, none of which belonged to me or Beverly. So we gave Nancy the $3000 to pass on to the hospital in Gaza that we’ve been supporting, and made our way back to the parking lot to get a taxi back to Jerusalem. Nancy and Bob went on to the next border crossing.
(As an aside, our taxi driver spoke absolutely no English and didn’t really know where St George’s Cathedral is located. That was a trip in itself. Every other taxi driver we’ve had knew some English; hand signals as communication were most unhelpful with this guy. Instead, he would stop along a busy street and yell for someone to tell him where Nablus Road was. Talk about a bad sit-com!)
As of about 11:30, we know that Nancy got through the military checkpoint and Bob was held back, ostensibly because a soldier didn’t include Bob’s surname on something. We haven’t heard since then so I’m assuming they got through.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Sisters and brothers in Christ.
A week ago Sunday, we were in Nazareth and went to church in Raineh at the Anglican Church of the Holy Family. Previous visits by St. Clement’s folks looking for the possibility of partnering with a parish in Israel-Palestine resulted in a connection with this parish and their priest, Samuel Barhoum. So we attended worship at Holy Family and after coffee hour (yes, even in the Middle East), we had dinner with Samuel and Susan and their family. It really was quite a wonderful time. Holy Family is a small church building with a good sized parish hall that has a pool table, fooseball, and ping pong for the young people. It’s used during the week for various community and church activities, and of course for the adults to gather after worship on Sunday mornings. We learned that this opportunity for young people to get together is very important because they don’t have the opportunity to meet one another in many other informal ways. So after-church activities and Sunday mornings are one of the best ways to get to know one another.
There were four acolytes for the service that morning. As I watched them and compared them to ours, it was interesting to see that they were quite coordinated as they worked together. They all turned the same way, attempted to walk in step with one another, and were quite focused on their tasks – much as we try to train our own acolytes. One difference was that this was a “bells” church – not smells and bells, just bells. There was a three-belled ringer set on a pillow on the floor in front of the altar. One of the acolytes knelt before that pillow during the consecration of the elements and rang the bells vigorously at the appropriate times. He did a commendable job. I’m convinced that he and others who have that task probably have pretty strong wrists, as well. The funny thing for me was watching the acolytes during the rest of the service between their tasks. They knew all of the service music and participated in the singing, and they knew the responses. But they were not above a little kohole-like behavior when they thought no one was watching. Kind of like our own kids. And they were intent during the peace to go down both sides of the church and exchange the peace with the people in the pews. They were good, they knew what they were doing, and they were pretty cute!
After some time in the parish hall for coffee and fruit and cookies, we were invited upstairs to the rectory for dinner. The Diocese of Jerusalem provided the funds for constructing a beautiful home above the parish hall for the rector’s family. So we all trooped up the stairs and had some very good conversation while the final touches to dinner were prepared and put on the table. It was a wonderful meal of traditional Palestinian food – some we’re familiar with and some new to us. The conversation was good, the company was comfortable, and we thoroughly enjoyed spending more time with Samuel and Susan and their children, along with a highly respected retired priest of the diocese who is attached to Holy Family.
The parish is like ours in so many ways – especially in their outreach ministries to the surrounding community. After I return, I’ll be suggesting to the vestry that we enter into a companion relationship with Holy Family – a relationship that can help both churches learn about another part of the world, another part of the Anglican Communion, and about Christianity in the Holy Land. We’ll also have the opportunity to work together in some common ministries. The potential for such a partnership is limitless – for both adults and youth. And the potential for expanding our understanding of God’s creation and humanity is boundless. Samuel and Susan and their daughter and son are a real pleasure to be around, they’re so warm and welcoming, and they’re fascinating to talk with.
Some photos from that visit –
The Rev. Samuel Barhoum and Nancy Dinsmore
The sanctuary of Holy Family
I love the acolyte with the pool cue!
Beverly and Nancy in the rectory living room
Beverly and Susan Barhoum
Nelly Barhoum getting ready to take a picture
Beverly, Liz+, Samuel+, and Susan
There were four acolytes for the service that morning. As I watched them and compared them to ours, it was interesting to see that they were quite coordinated as they worked together. They all turned the same way, attempted to walk in step with one another, and were quite focused on their tasks – much as we try to train our own acolytes. One difference was that this was a “bells” church – not smells and bells, just bells. There was a three-belled ringer set on a pillow on the floor in front of the altar. One of the acolytes knelt before that pillow during the consecration of the elements and rang the bells vigorously at the appropriate times. He did a commendable job. I’m convinced that he and others who have that task probably have pretty strong wrists, as well. The funny thing for me was watching the acolytes during the rest of the service between their tasks. They knew all of the service music and participated in the singing, and they knew the responses. But they were not above a little kohole-like behavior when they thought no one was watching. Kind of like our own kids. And they were intent during the peace to go down both sides of the church and exchange the peace with the people in the pews. They were good, they knew what they were doing, and they were pretty cute!
After some time in the parish hall for coffee and fruit and cookies, we were invited upstairs to the rectory for dinner. The Diocese of Jerusalem provided the funds for constructing a beautiful home above the parish hall for the rector’s family. So we all trooped up the stairs and had some very good conversation while the final touches to dinner were prepared and put on the table. It was a wonderful meal of traditional Palestinian food – some we’re familiar with and some new to us. The conversation was good, the company was comfortable, and we thoroughly enjoyed spending more time with Samuel and Susan and their children, along with a highly respected retired priest of the diocese who is attached to Holy Family.
The parish is like ours in so many ways – especially in their outreach ministries to the surrounding community. After I return, I’ll be suggesting to the vestry that we enter into a companion relationship with Holy Family – a relationship that can help both churches learn about another part of the world, another part of the Anglican Communion, and about Christianity in the Holy Land. We’ll also have the opportunity to work together in some common ministries. The potential for such a partnership is limitless – for both adults and youth. And the potential for expanding our understanding of God’s creation and humanity is boundless. Samuel and Susan and their daughter and son are a real pleasure to be around, they’re so warm and welcoming, and they’re fascinating to talk with.
Some photos from that visit –
The Rev. Samuel Barhoum and Nancy Dinsmore
The sanctuary of Holy Family
I love the acolyte with the pool cue!
Beverly and Nancy in the rectory living room
Beverly and Susan Barhoum
Nelly Barhoum getting ready to take a picture
Beverly, Liz+, Samuel+, and Susan
Friday, October 10, 2008
A bright light in the darkness.
The Princess Basma Center is in Jerusalem. It's a school that started with one person addressing the needs of a couple of children with polio and now it's a world class institution that caters to the needs of handicapped children of all ages. It's not a residential institution but a day school from nursery to grade 12. And it truly is world-class: It's the recipient of an ISO 9001-2000 award received in 2000. For those who don't know, this is an international quality assurance award given only to those corporations and organizations who meet high and exacting standards in their fields. It's a bigt deal. Although supported by the Lutheran World Federation for 10 years, the Center is currenlty under the auspices of the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem.
This is truly the happiest place we have visited during our journey. The people who work here are highly qualified professionals who love the children, love the parients, and love their jobs. We saw a lot of smiles during our tour. There is a carpentry shop where various forms of prostheses and aids are made; a pool for aquatherapy; computer and science labs; bright hallways and classrooms; and a fine library.
Quite a few wheelchairs and walkers. I had to smile at this little walker parking lot outside a couple of classrooms...
These are kids who are learning to hear and speak after receiving cochlear implants. Once they're adept in hearing and speaking, they'll be mainstreamed into either regular Center classes or in outside schools.
As much as possible, parents become part of the daily work with their children so that they can support the work at home and so that once children are brought to a certain degree of independancy, the parents know how to support them when they are finished with the program and return home to attend local schools. During every session, there are three participants: the child, the parent, and the therapist. Many of the toddlers and their mothers live right at the Center in what are basically large hospital rooms split into four areas by curtains.
The man on the left is constructing a new leg, while the man on the right is making little bootie-like casts for children.
We visited the center because it's one of the places that the parish supports through financial aid. They don't charge for their services so they have to constantly work to get the funds needed for maintaining their excellent programs for children.
It was a really nice change to see this little oasis of happiness and productivity and hope in the larger world of violence and oppression. I hope that, in the midst of the current international economic crises, we'll be able to continue our support.
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