wfn.org | 'We face disaster,' Arafat tells church delegation

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Dec. 12, 2000 News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.     10-71B{562}

NOTE: This is the third story from an ecumenical delegation of U.S.
Christians visiting Israel.  Accompanying the group is UMNS photojournalist
Mike DuBose.  His photos may be found at the UMNS photo gallery
http://umns.umc.org/jerusalem/ online. For related coverage, see UMNS
stories #559, #560, #561 and #563.
  

By James Solheim*

GAZA CITY (UMNS) -- "We are facing a disaster," a grim-faced President
Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Authority told a visiting delegation from the
United States during a morning conversation Dec. 11. 
 
"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 there can be an end to the confusion between 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 Palestinian Authority 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 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 is to continue until
the violence in the region ends 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," declared 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," he
said.
    
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."  
    
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
worried aloud 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," other than the number of victims being reported, he
said. "We are in bad need of your prayers and support."
  

Standing by the truth
 
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," he said. "We have
already made 
great concessions. 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 said Israel is accommodated in its aggression 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 9-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," McCullough said. "...  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."
 
#  #  #
 
 *Solheim is director of the Episcopal Church's Office of News and
Information and is serving as press officer for the peace delegation.  

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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