wfn.org | High Price of Christian Roots in Holy Land

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For Further information contact:

Fr. Raed Awad Abusahlia
P.O.Box 14152  Jerusalem  91141
Tel.  (972 2) 628.2323 / 627.2280
Fax  (972 2) 627.1652
Personal E-mail: nonviolence@writeme.com
Latin Patriarchate E-mail: Latinpat@actcom.co.il
Latin Patriarchate's Homepage: http://www.Lpj.org
"Nonviolence Homepage": http://go.to/nonviolence

JERUSALEM, March 25, 2002--Following is the text of a Holy Week reflection by 
a Christian woman concerned for her children's safety in the Holy Land:

By Dr. Maria C. Khoury

Nine terrorized school children under sixteen years of age lined up like 
criminals right outside our white van on a regular school day. 

The machine gun is pointing at them and the heavily armed soldier maintains 
his finger on the trigger while I hand over their passports to pass this 
fourth and final checkpoint before entering our Christian Village of Taybeh 
on the West Bank of the Jordan River. 

Never in my twenty years of traveling in and out of this region have I seen 
the soldiers so frightened and so intense as this current time in the Holy 
Land. In the back of my mind I was thinking this soldier has absolutely no 
common sense whatsoever or the violence has scared him so much it has stolen 
his logic and his common sense from him to treat a mother and children in 
this dehumanizing way.

I hated to see my three children and my nieces get out of the car and line up 
one next to the other, shoulder to shoulder like a police line up only three 
minutes away from our home. We were so close after such a long and hard 
school day why can't we pass? 

In the beginning I tried to argue with the soldier, "are you kidding, why do 
you want the children to get out of the car?" But my children immediately 
said: "Mom, we are used to this, can you please not argue, he has a gun." 

The youngest one was shaking so badly she could hardly get out of the van. If 
this type of harsh and cruel treatment continues with civilians in the Holy 
Land it should not surprise the world we produce "terrorists." 

We are being denied our very basic rights to move and to just go to school. 
Why does America's position for Arafat get stuck at "stop the violence." The 
American policy falls short of addressing the root causes of that violence: 
denial of Palestinian freedom.

We are so grateful the tanks went outside the center of Ramallah.  People are 
feeling it is a blessing not to be prisoners in their own homes.  But can't 
they take their soldiers, armored jeeps and their checkpoints with them and 
leave the occupied Palestinian territories for once and for all. 

The ways the Palestinian towns and villages are cut off from each other are 
physically and psychologically strangling us. Many tanks are parked at the 
outskirts of Ramallah ready to reoccupy the city at any moment. That military 
presence is what is so nerve wrecking. 

The weapons and the money the United States sends Israel are not only being 
used for Israel's security but to totally destroy and ethnically clean the 
Holy Land. The American military aid is being used to deny over three million 
people their human rights and to carry out a collective punishment of the 
worst type to the point where children cannot even go to school.

Every single day is a new way to school. Every minute the situation changes 
in our lives.  Sometimes we drive such a long way to get back home after a 
long and tiring school day just to find a military tank blocking the entrance 
to an important road that we need. We have to just turn around and drive the 
same way back seeking some other dirt road or valley way to make it home. I 
have totally destroyed all the vehicles that I own because the Israelis have 
closed the main roads for Palestinians since September 28, 2000.  

The back roads are full of rocks, holes and terrible bombs that ruin the 
bottom of the car. Thus, although the ride from home to school can take a ten 
to fifteen minutes ride during peaceful times it has taken up to four hours 
during the worst violence.

The situation can only improve if Israel ends the 35-year-old Israeli 
occupation of Palestinian territories.  It is not possible to have peace and 
occupation at the same time. The Palestinian Authority recognized Israel on 
78% of historic Palestine.  It is Israel that refuses to acknowledge 
Palestine's right to exist on the remaining 22% of land occupied in l967. 

The constant enlargement of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and 
Gaza will continue to be an obstacle to peace. There are about 250,000 
settlers on Palestinian territories and they require the protection of the 
army that constantly flares up the violence.  The reason I can get home every 
day from an Arab city to an Arab village is because the Israelis built 
the biggest settlement on the West Bank right next to our home. This fact 
alone causes more and more young people to turn into suicide bombers because 
the Oslo peace process stayed frozen for so many years and the Palestinians 
did not see a difference in their daily lives. 

It is clearly not just and not appropriate for Palestinians to be treated 
like last class citizens on the land of their birth. It is clearly wrong for 
the Israeli army to force us to leave our homes and immigrate because they 
continue to humiliate, degrade and demoralize us daily. Many people are 
willing to live under Israeli hardships not to leave their land and not to 
abandon their roots. However, we do have to pay a very high price to maintain 
our Christian roots.

Here in the Holy Land we have entered the first week of the Orthodox Lenten 
Period. We open our hearts to Christ to fill us with his love and everlasting 
hope so that we will not be forced to leave the land of His birth but stay 
and bare witness in the Name of our Lord. 

Christians, Muslims and Jews can live and prosper together because there are 
enough of us that are not fanatics and just want to raise a generation of 
children knowing their valuable traditions and roots. Many of us on all sides 
want the hate and the violence to just stop. 

Pray that peace will prevail in this sacred land and make your voices heard 
in appropriate forums urging the immediate withdrawal of all forms of Israeli 
military presence from the Palestinian territories. And knowing our story, 
glorify God for all the blessings that you have in your life and seek joy in 
the presence of the Lord.

-end-