wfn.org | Settlement Brings Conflict

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3474 notes).

Note 3474 by UMNS on March 6, 1997 at 15:52 Eastern (3495 characters).

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Linda Bloom                          120(10-21-71B){3474}
          New York (212) 870-3803                    March 6, 1997

New Israeli settlement
would isolate Bethlehem

               by United Methodist News Service

     From his kitchen window in Bethlehem, the Rev. Alex Awad has
a clear view of the mountain that has generated a new conflict
between Palestinians and the Israeli government.
     The United Methodist missionary fears that once the
bulldozers begin digging there it could mean an end to the peace
process.
     So far, peaceful protests, including a general strike on
March 3, have greeted the government's announcement to build a
Jewish settlement of 6,500 homes on the site known as Jabal Abu
Ghneim to Palestinians and Har Homa to Israelis.
     Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, worked to rally support
against the settlement in a March 3-5 U.S. visit, which included
stops at the White House and the United Nations.
     President Clinton, who met with Arafat, said the Israeli
government's decision to allow the construction had created
"mistrust" and could damage the peace effort there, according to
The New York Times.
     The new settlement, southeast of Jerusalem, would effectively
isolate Bethlehem from Jerusalem, according to Awad and the Rev.
Joe Hale, general secretary of the World Methodist Council.
     Noting that there is plenty of other land available for
Israeli housing, Awad said the isolation is a deliberate attempt
to keep Palestinians out of Jerusalem. "Their purpose is to make
Jerusalem the eternal capital of the State of Israel," he
declared. 
     The landscape would change radically, Hale said, pointing out
that the pine-covered mountain rises above the community of Beit
Sahour, the traditional "shepherd's fields" in Bethlehem and
contains archeological remains of ancient Christian churches.
     "When the trees are cut and a settlement built, Christian
pilgrims will forever be denied the serenity of a reflective night
in shepherd's fields," he added.
     "Even more alarming, and astonishing, is the utter disregard
by the Israeli government of the feelings of the people living
beneath the mountain in Beit Sahour, largely a Christian
community," Hale said.
     The settlement will hurt Bethlehem both economically and
socially. "There's nowhere for the people of Bethlehem to expand
[for future development]," Awad pointed out. A proposed tourist
resort in the settlement, he said, "will kill the Palestinian
tourist industry in Bethlehem."
     Hale said it "is difficult to not question" the Israeli
government's commitment to peace and co-existence with the
Palestinians. He called its actions "an implementation of an
Israeli version of apartheid that keeps the Palestinians 'in their
place ... '"
     As a seminary student, Hale said he learned from respected
rabbis the importance of the term, "never again," a watchword born
of the tragedy of the Holocaust.
     "Recent Israeli decisions and acts encouraged by the current
Prime Minister ask Palestinians to do what Jewish survivors of the
Holocaust said they never again would do -- let the state or any
person take away their property, their basic human rights or their
lives without resistance," Hale declared.
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