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From PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>
Date Tue, 22 Mar 2005 14:52:00 -0600

Note #8678 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05156
March 21, 2005

No hosannas

Israeli army stops Palm Sunday procession short of Jerusalem

by Alexa Smith
BETHLEHEM, West Bank ? Israeli soldiers stopped about 200 non-violent
demonstrators trying to walk to Jerusalem for Palm Sunday services because
they had not obtained a permit from the Israeli government.
When the protesters were stopped at a military checkpoint here, their
leaders urged Israeli soldiers to "put down their guns" in defiance of an
unjust law that confines Bethlehem residents to an "open-air" prison.
Since 1993, measures taken by the Israeli army to protect the Israeli
population have restricted access to Jerusalem for residents of the West
Bank, including religious access for Christians and Muslims.
Worshippers cannot go to Friday prayer at the Al Aqsa Mosque, or to
Sunday Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, without the requisite
government permits.
The Israeli Civil Administration (ICA) said 2,950 Christians from
Bethlehem had obtained permits to worship in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and
3,694 permits had been issued for the entire West Bank.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA), citing 1997 census data, estimates that about 20,000
Christians live in Bethlehem.
Sami Awad, the director of the Holy Land Trust, told the Presbyterian
News Service that the goal of the demonstration was simply to "go to
Jerusalem and pray today."
"Today we are demanding to be in Jerusalem to pray with our brothers
and sisters," Awad told the throng gathered in Manger Square for the start of
the march.
Led by local Bedouin riding donkeys, Christians, Muslims and a large
contingent of international supporters began a march of about eight miles to
Holy Sepulchre Church, a cathedral that stands at a site believed to be that
of Jesus's tomb.
However, it was brought up short at the Israeli checkpoint about
three miles short of its goal.
The demonstration was to be a modern-day adaptation of Jesus's
triumphal donkey ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, just days before his
crucifixion and resurrection.
Dozens of children waved palms, olive branches, balloons and
Palestinian flags and banners emblazoned with images of the Holy Sepulchre
and the Dome of the Rock - the mosque that straddles the hill that both Jews
and Muslims claim as holy.
Pedestrians stared, laughing, as the donkeys headed slowly down the
city's main drag, stopping traffic. Shopkeepers waved from the sidewalks as
the crowd moved up the street, picking up people as it went.
Children giggled as Bedouin hoisted them onto the donkeys' backs.
When soldiers ordered the crowd to disperse within 15 minutes, many
of the marchers urged them to defy their orders. "You have rights," they
shouted. "You don't have to enforce unjust laws."
Most children and the Bedouin stayed at a distance from the
checkpoint.
Earlier Sunday morning, a border policeman had seriously wounded a
Palestinian at the checkpoint. The army said he had tried to grab the
soldier's automatic rifle.
Before turning back, Awad, just inches from the soldiers, read a
prepared statement while traffic continued to back up at the checkpoint,
which is nearly a half-mile from the Israeli-built cement wall that is slowly
coiling around Bethlehem.

The barrier is annexing hundreds of acres of agricultural land, in
essence extending the city limits of Jerusalem.
Soldiers and demonstrators stood virtually nose-to-nose, those on
each side locking arms in solidarity.
"We represent the family members and friends who are imprisoned by
these concrete walls and wire fences that now create the Bethlehem open-air
prison," Awad said. "You, like prison guards, control our freedom and ability
to live as human beings with dignity in this holy land.
"Our strong delegation of civilians comes to you without weapons but
with great strength and commitment to deliver the message of just peace," he
said. "In the name of security, you do not permit us to travel to
work, to school and to worship in the holy sites of Jerusalem. Your
government deprives us each day of basic human rights. ... Each day you keep
us from being with our families at weddings, funerals, graduations, birthdays
and religious holidays.
"Although Al Quds (the Arabic name of Jerusalem) is only 20 minutes
from Bethlehem, we have not been allowed to pray or worship at our holy
sites."
Still addressing the soldiers, Awad continued: "Each day as you come
to our city, you serve the system of violence that keeps our people
imprisoned. ... With your guns, tanks and insults, you teach our children to
hate.
"However, we believe each of you has the power ... to choose a
different ending to this story. We appeal to your conscience and humanity, as
individuals and as soldiers who may feel there is no way out of this system.
Put your guns away and join us in the fight for peace and freedom."
The army had no comment on the protest or on Awad's address.
The demonstration was the first in several years to employ
non-violent resistance in Bethlehem, a demoralized city of 150,000 people
that has weathered humanitarian and economic catastrophes since the violence
of the Palestinian Intifada stretched beyond Jerusalem about four years ago.
About that time, gunmen in Beit Jala sprayed rifle fire on Gilo, an
Israeli settlement on a hilltop above the city - and the Israeli army
retaliated with tanks, in a siege that lasted nearly 45 days.
For most of 2002, Bethlehem was a closed military zone, where
residents were confined to their houses for weeks on end, refused entry into
Israel and prevented from working or sending their children to school. The
tourism industry, on which many depended for their livelihoods, was virtually
shut down.
Ghassan Andoni, the director of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement
Between People in nearby Beit Sahour, a longtime pacifist, was the
demonstrators' chief negotiator with the soldiers at the checkpoint.
Andoni told the Presbyterian News Service that the army sees no
security threat in bussing Jews from Jerusalem and nearby settlements into
Bethlehem to pray at Rachel's Tomb, a site that is holy to Jews and Muslims -
but Christians and Muslims cannot easily go to Jerusalem to pray.
Bilal Mosque, near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, is inside a
military compound, inaccessible to Muslim worshippers.
Seventy-two of 80 businesses near Rachel's Tomb have closed or moved
since 2002, when the army built a wall across the main access road connecting
Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron, according to OCHA.
A Bible narrative holds that Rachel, the favorite wife of the
patriarch Jacob, was buried along the road to Bethlehem.
What once was a thriving commercial center became a sort of ghost
town. Many of the ruined businesses were operated by Christian families.
Kim Lamberty, a Roman Catholic pacifist from Washington, DC, and a
member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams program that intervenes in violent
clashes here, said the truncated march was an apt symbol of how the Israeli
occupation stymies Palestinian life, including religious life. Lamberty noted
that the organizers of the non-violent demonstration included Christians and
Muslims.
"Palestinian Christians are just following Jesus today ... but they
can't get from Bethlehem to Jerusalem; no Palestinian can," she said. "But
this is symbolic ... to emphasize the point."
Walking back inside the cement wall that is soon to surround
Bethlehem, George Rishmawi, also of the Rapprochement Center, said another
march is planned for March 30, a day commemorating Palestinians' resistance
to the Israeli government's confiscation of their land.
Asked to assess the Palm Sunday demonstration, he said: "They
threatened to use force if we did not turn around. We're not interested in
violence. ... But this isn't the end. We'll be back."

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