wfn.org | Anglican Bishop Speaks of Attack and Reconciliation

[JerusalemRelOrgs@aol.com]

For additional information:
Bishop Riah Abu el-Assal
St. Georges Cathedral
20 Nablus Road
Jerusalem
Tel: 02.627.1670
Fax: 02.627.3847
Email: ediosces@netvision.net.il

BEGINNING OF THE PALESTINIAN HOLOCAUST

JERUSALEM, 23 Apr 2002--The Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem has circulated today 
an update of the situation he and Christians in the West Bank are facing.  He 
describes both the continued military pressures from the Israeli army and the 
impact that is having on his efforts at reconciliation.

The text of his message follows:

Dear Friends,
 
Salaam and grace in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and blessed greetings 
from Jerusalem,
 
I want to thank you all for your continued support, your messages, and all 
your thoughts and prayers at this time.  As we continue our ministry in this 
land, we continue to witness the attack on the entire people in Palestine, 
and the impact of it all on our work and our ministry of reconciliation. 

I am sending this letter on my return from Nazareth to Jerusalem. I left 
Nazareth early enough this morning to be able to attend the Heads of Churches 
Meeting in Jerusalem at 10:00 a.m.  However, there were 14 checkpoints on the 
Jordan Valley way, I was stopped at several of them.  At the 4th checkpoint, 
a soldier said: "You do not look happy", to which I replied: "Only abnormal 
people would look happy in this abnormal situation."  

The drive was scary with hardly any movement, except for settlers, who looked 
at me with suspicion, not to mention also the many army vehicles with many 
soldiers carrying death in their hands, inflicting terror upon us all.  The 
scene and the experience reminded me of the song that the Rev. Garth Hewitt 
wrote:  
 
"What's this war against the Children?
Against Women, too?
What does it make to your soul, soldier?
Power only makes you weak!
You have become what the gun has made you.
You are the terror on the street".
 
Antonela Notari, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross 
in Geneva, stated in an article in the Guardian on 17 April, 2002 that "it is 
the responsibility of those fighting a war to look after the well being of 
civilians.....  Israel has failed on this count on a massive scale in the 
West Bank as a whole.  

"Nineteen days of curfew and siege have deprived two million Palestinians of 
access to medical care, food and drinking water. Israeli tanks trundled over 
water maims and cars, and ploughed through electricity and telephone wires, 
depriving most neighbourhoods of basic services.......  The bodies had been 
left to rot in homes and streets for days, and the wounded to bleed to death, 
because the Israeli army banned ambulances from entering the battle 
zones.....  The army regularly seized male civilians of all ages from their 
homes and used them as human shields." 
 
This gives a good overview of the dire humanitarian needs of the communities 
at this time.  Many families of our Churches have lost their professions, as 
a result of the destruction of their shops, offices, or clinics.   They all 
have to start from scratch, and they are people who had nothing to do with 
any armed activity. 

The story of the camp in Jenin will become a paradigm for Palestinian 
struggle and survival and the basis on which they will continue to voice 
their history and their right of their own state.  

The Amnesty International report about Jenin states that it is "one of the 
worst scenes of devastation" they have ever witnessed.  It is almost 
impossible to conceive that what was once a town is now a lunar landscape.  
Who knows?  Who cares?  

This may be the beginning of a Palestinian Holocaust. However, [Amnesty] 
added that "If this was an earthquake the international community would be 
asked for and give urgent help.  It is shocking that the authorities have not 
asked for help and that the international community is not offering it.  Let 
this be the wake up call that help is needed now to save what life there is 
left". 
 
We have been receiving many letters of support that do not only speak of the 
thoughts and prayers of many, much as this is important, but also of the need 
for action. It is the wake up call for all of us.  It is incumbent upon us 
all to rise and voice the need for Justice, for those who have no hope.  A 
poignant statement from Dante says: "The hottest places in hell are reserved 
for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality".  
This comes to compliment what Edmund Burke also says: "The only thing 
necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing". 

There is an urgent need to work to influence public opinion and to provide 
the atmosphere that might influence the decisions that are being made.  Many 
are writing to their MPs and others seeking to force their governments to 
pressure their decisions, to see a different reality, and work for justice in 
the Middle East.  The media does not always provide the picture that reflects 
the reality as well as the sufferings of many in this land. 
 
Keep up your prayers, for they are very important.  We may at times feel 
helpless, and we do.  But we offer all our helplessness to God in prayer, 
always hoping to meet him in the future, not only in the past, as he appears 
to us risen from the dead, proclaiming Peace among his disciples, and all his 
followers, but also showing his wounded hands and side, and manifesting forth 
that there can be, and there is another way for the world, other than that of 
power, and retaliation. 
 
May God bless you all, and know that this comes with my prayers and best wis
hes,
 
In Christ,
 
+Riah Abu El-Assal.

-end-