wfn.org | Arafat warns that the Palestinians are facing 'a disaster'

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Note #6309 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

19-December-2000
00453

Arafat warns that the Palestinians are facing 'a disaster'

Renewed fighting is creating "social and economic suffocation," U.S.
delegation told

by James Solheim
Episcopal News Service

GAZA CITY -- "We are facing a disaster," 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

	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."

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