wfn.org | Arafat Tells Church Delegation: "We Face Disaster"

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Contact:  Jim Solheim, press officer
Notre Dame Center
Jerusalem
Tel: (973-2)627-9111

Episcopal News Service 
New York City, NY USA
Tel: 800-334-7626

Website: www.loga.org or www.loga.org/delegationhome.htm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

[Ecumenical Delegation to Jerusalem
December 7-12, 2000]

By James Solheim

GAZA CITY, December 11, 2000--"We are facing a disaster, (catastrophe?)" a 
grim-faced President Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Authority (PA) told a 
visiting delegation from the United States during a morning conversation. 

"Sorry you are coming in such crucial circumstances as we face more 
aggression. In spite of that, we are doing our best to return to the peace 
process."

Arafat thanked the delegation for its visit in spite of the difficult 
situation and encouraged the delegation to make a strong push to save the 
peace process.  "With your help we will be able to overcome what we are 
facing," he added.
   
"Unless we can put an end to the confusion" between the what the politicians 
talk about and what the military leaders are implementing, Arafat warned, the 
situation in the region could become "very, very dangerous." He indicated 
that a non-military solution must be found.

"All of our cities and towns are under siege," Arafat said. "What they are 
doing in Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour is unbelievable-a big crime." 

The three West Bank towns have been shelled recently and the Israeli military 
authorities have made movement difficult in the area. The economic issues are 
also critical, he reported, since 340,000 laborers have lost their jobs, 
forcing the PA to support "some of our people facing real tragedy."

"We recognize peace comes with a price--justice," said the Rev. John 
McCullough of Church World Service, the relief arm of the National Council of 
Churches. "We are committed to be an agitating voice to establish justice."

Bishop Theodore Schneider of the Metropolitan Washington D.C. Synod of the 
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, told Arafat about the ecumenical 
prayer vigil for peace in the Middle East that began in many American 
churches on the first Sunday of Advent--a vigil that would continue until the 
violence in the region ended and peace is achieved. 

"Prayer excites God's people to know and care," he said. "This is not the way 
to live-and we know it."

De facto apartheid

The collapse of the peace process and the renewed intifada is creating a 
social and economic suffocation in the occupied Palestinian territories, a 
"de facto apartheid," argued Raji Sourani, director of the Palestine Center 
for Human Rights in Gaza City. 

"Nobody should have any illusions about what is happening here," he said. 
"They are building Berlin Walls all over the occupied territories.  "How can 
victimizing human rights be the price of peace?" he asked.  "Who has a real, 
genuine interest in peace?"
   
He called the political rhetoric used by the Israelis "very scary."  He said 
that the search for peace is complicated by the guilt resulting from 
persecution of the Jews.  "But we are not responsible for the Holocaust," and 
he argued that having been victims does not now give Israel the right to make 
victims of others. 

"Fair-minded Jews realize that what is happening is de facto apartheid."
   
Palestinians are not ready to be "good victims," Sourani said.  When pressed, 
Israeli friends told him that "you Palestinians don't exist for us," except 
perhaps as a security problem, and the Israeli Army can handle any threats.  
He concluded that many Israelis think Palestinians should "take what we offer 
or things will continue."  But he is convinced that "we exist for them right 
now--because of the blood." 
   
He talked about the "vicious cycle of blood" and argued that the intensity of 
the Israeli military actions are the worst since the 1967 war.  But he was 
worried that people are beginning to become insensitive to the violence. 

"Last night there was five hours of shelling in a village and it didn't even 
make the news," he said, other than reporting the number of victims.  "We are 
in bad need of your prayers and support," he concluded.

Standing by the truth

Dr. Haider Abdel Shafi, a highly respected Palestinian leader who led the 
negotiation team at the Madrid Conference, is also convinced that the Israeli 
strategy is to establish facts on the ground, especially through the 
expansion of settlements on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.  He agrees 
with the United Nations condemnation of the settlements as "illegal and 
obstructions to peace."
   
Although he had "no illusions" when he went to Madrid, he harbored hopes that 
the United States would adopt a more balanced approach to the peace process.  
"Our hopes were frustrated when we asked the Israelis to stop the 
settlements. 

He said that he did not know about the secret negotiations in Oslo but 
concluded it was "a bad agreement. 

"I hope no one expects us to make further concessions. We have already made 
great concessions," he said. "Our demands are legitimate-we want a sovereign 
state within recognized borders with Jerusalem as the capital. And we can't 
understand that the world stands by when they can see the tragedy going on in 
this part of the world." 
   
He asked, "Why should Israel be accommodated in its aggression?  Basically 
because it enjoys the support of the U.S. government." He said that Arafat 
had been "very accommodating," showing his flexibility and risking 
credibility and the support of his people.  "We think he's giving more than 
he should."
   
The doctor admitted that Palestinians had "not done enough and our failures 
are many," especially telling the story to the American society.  "It is very 
crucial to try to affect Congress and the Americans about the realities of 
the problems here," he added.  "My friends argue that the churches might 
help.  We are certain church people are the kind who seek and support truth."
   
He concluded, "Despite what we have suffered and are suffering, we are sure 
that people will stand by the truth when they know it."

Staring truth in the face
   
The delegation was exposed to the harsh realities of the situation when they 
traveled south of Gaza City and met with farmers whose homes and orchards had 
been destroyed recently.
   
Walking through a field where almost 500 trees had been systematically 
bulldozed in the last few weeks by Israelis who claimed that youth were 
stoning convoys of settlers on the nearby road, the delegation met the human 
face of the issue.
   
"We ask for international protection," pleaded nine-year-old Maran. She 
described her walk to school, detouring around Israeli tanks recently 
deployed to block the main road through the area.
   
The bulldozers came without warning in the early hours of the morning and 
leveled a house where families were sleeping.  Members of the delegation 
sifted through pieces of furniture and clothing.  

"How can you explain this to your children when you are trying to teach them 
peace?" asked one of the farmers.  "We are here to stay. We're not going 
anywhere."  Local Palestinians are convinced that Israel wants to "eradicate 
our history and make it difficult to live here."
   
In a brief stop for prayers at the chapel at Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, 
the delegation was shown fragments of an American-made missile that had 
killed one of the hospital's ambulance drivers.

Bishop Vincent Warner of the Diocese of Olympia in Washington prayed for the 
hospital "where brokenness is made whole.  Heal Palestine, heal Israel and 
heal us.  What we have seen here is breaking our hearts and all we can do is 
turn to God."
   
At the Gaza border, Constantine Dabbagh, Executive Secretary for the Middle 
East Council of Churches' Committee for Refugee Work in Gaza, urged members 
of the delegation to couple their prayers with action and, accepting the gift 
of a crystal dove, he urged them "to give the dove wings" through their 
efforts for peace."

Meeting with rabbis and Jewish peace activists
   
At the end of a long and sobering day, the delegation met with four Israeli 
religious peace activists.  They were very open about their hopes for 
continued dialogue with their Palestinian counterparts.  At the same time 
their fear for their personal safety has been heightened since the outbreak 
of the second intifada. 

Midway through the conversation it was reported that the shelling had resumed 
in Bethlehem and Beit Jala with the likelihood of further casualties.
   
"Our hearts are breaking every day," said Rabbi Yehezkiel Landau. "This is a 
very dark period. How do we get people to hear the fear?"
   
"Do the Palestinians and Israelis hear the fears of each other?" asked Bishop 
Browning of the Episcopal Church USA.
   
You can't blame a people whose humanity has been denied from rising up and 
demanding their rights, argued McCullough…..If one people fail to recognize 
the humanity of another, you cannot blame them when you suffer.  Deal with 
the reality of what created the crisis."

* * *

--Jim Solheim is director of the Episcopal Church's Office of News and 
Information and is serving as press officer for the peace delegation. To 
follow the stories and photos check the Web site of the Lutheran Office for 
Governmental Affairs: www.loga.org. 
   

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