Seasonal Concerns

It is holiday season - to me a sacred season, although Spirit has to fight for air time. There are many distractions and concerns that clutter my mind. For the first time in many years I am not writing my annual letter, not even sending out Christmas cards. Still, I feel moved to write to my blog audience with a few thoughts and updates.

I’ll start with Palestine, birthplace of Jesus and where he walked many a dusty or muddy road. Funny how we know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but we don’t know he was born in Palestine, and we don’t know about Christian Palestinians. There a lot of Christian Zionists who build and support Israeli settlements inside Palestine in order to squeeze Palestinians out, but do they do this knowing that some Palestinians are descendants of the original Christians? Well, let’s not get started on Christian Zionists, because we can’t reason with their ideology. Let’s just remember that they support Israel’s expansionist, colonialist policies and military occupation of what is left of historic Palestine - the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

I need to say that Obama’s attempt this Fall to bribe Netanyahu was a most disgusting, pathetic, and even criminal offense. I am referring to his offer to GIVE Israel $3 billion worth of brand new F-35 fighter planes if only Netanyahu would agree to resume the freeze on settlement construction for a mere 90 days. That’s not all he offered: I remind you that he also said he would veto any Security Council resolution that did not favor Israel and would never again ask for a settlement freeze if just - pretty please - Netanyahu would put another temporary halt to construction inside Palestine. And probably you didn’t even hear that Obama would allow a future peace agreement to include a “residual” Israeli military presence in the Jordan Valley. That means INSIDE Palestine.

Who is Obama to give away Palestinian security and sovereignty in the Jordan Valley? And how does he justify further militarizing the already military occupation by supplying the latest in fighter planes? And how can he plead for a settlement freeze when the building of settlements is already illegal by international laws that we supposedly subscribe to?

The only good news in this is that Netanyahu, our staunch, never-to-be-abandoned ally, refused the offer. He pulled the plug on settlement freezes, and construction has been booming ever since, especially in Palestinian East Jerusalem.

There are many ideological settlers who think their government cannot grab more land and homes quickly enough, so they resort to violence and destruction to achieve their ends. One example: in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, a family of 14 was forcibly removed from their home on November 23rd. Settlers said the home was sold to them by one of the 5 brothers who inherited it from their parents. It appears that one brother sold his share to the Wohl Investment company, a front for Elad, which finances Jewish settlements in Jerusalem. There was not time to appeal for a judicial review of what should become of this home and its inhabitants. The Israeli police (and courts, when they are used) supported the settlers’ claims and executed the evacuation.

Another example: On November 25, settlers attacked and beat a 7 year old boy, Adam Mansour Al-Rishiq, as he was walking through his neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

Another example: in October, when I was in Palestine, settlers in the North burned down 2500 olive trees in one village, Burin.

Turning to Gaza, which may seem like another country as it is rarely mentioned in the same breath as the West Bank, it continues to be under siege by Israel. The pretext is security, lest the Hamas “terrorists” import some weapons to fire at Israel. The result is the impoverishment and imprisonment of an entire population - 1.5 million civilians. In early December reports from Gaza, verified by the U.N., showed a decline in the amount of wheat that Israel allowed into Gaza, bringing to a critical shortage the grain needed for bread and for animal feed, particularly chickens. In Palestine, bread is central to every meal, and chicken is the main source of animal protein for those who can afford it. Bakeries have had to cut back on hours of production, and farmers are also curtailing the number of birds they can raise. For the last two weeks of November, animal fodder allowed in dropped from 16,000 tons a week, to 2,000 tons a week.

As for construction materials, desperately needed to maintain sewage treatment plants and rebuild schools, clinics and homes since their destruction by Israel in 2008-09, they are at 11% of pre- 2007 levels. (June, 2007 is when Hamas assumed complete control of Gaza and the international community started the punishing sanctions that are mostly still in place today.) Even the U.N. run schools and clinics receive only 7% of needed materials for rebuilding.

Gaza has been allowed to export only strawberries and carnations, which doesn’t make for a vibrant economy. In response to international criticism, Israel recently said they would allow more exports, but promises are usually forgotten once outside clamor for justice subsides. Of Gazans who wish to travel outside their tiny homeland only 1% of the 2000 level are given permits by Israel.

One more item about Gaza that usually escapes our media. Israel has declared a buffer zone between Gaza and Israel, which is entirely inside Gaza and takes up 35% of its arable land and 85% of its fishing waters. The boundaries of the buffer zone are not marked, but anyone seen inside of it is shot. Fishing ships that stray outside of the 2 mile limit are shot at too. To date, six Palestinians have been killed and 50 injured in the buffer zone. To say that Gaza is a prison is a fairly accurate description - an Israeli prison funded by our tax dollars.

Well, friends, I didn’t know I had that much to say about Palestine in this Holy Day season, but to get back to the existence of Christians there, you should know that my friends in Bethlehem will be holding several days of demonstrations and celebrations, acknowledging the birth of Christ the Rebel and Redeemer. Maybe next year I will join them.

Not really giving it the space it is due, I want to mention my recent experience protesting the School of the Americas at Ft. Benning, Georgia. The train ride down and back was a little too long (22 hours each way), but the spirit of the 2 days of protest and song, workshops and film and solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Central and South America paid for the travel.

A kind of reverence infused the event, most poignantly felt when the names of the murdered and disappeared at the hands of graduates of the SOA were read one by one from the main stage, and we who marched by with our small white crosses responded, “Presente!” to each one. You would have cried to hear the name of a child five years old or 20 days old, or the young father, 27 years old, or the great-grandmother, 80 years old - without ever knowing how they were killed or tortured, but knowing that we North Americans are responsible.

I don’t go to Georgia every year, (this was only my fourth time), and I don’t risk arrest there because the penalty now is 6 months in jail, but I had to go this year following my visit to El Salvador last Spring with Father Roy Bourgeois, founder of the SOA Watch and this annual protest. Father Roy is one of those humans of such humility and courage that you just fall in love with him. In El Salvador I fell in love with Monsenor Oscar Arnulfo Romero, whose life we were honoring on the 30th anniversary of his assassination. It is fitting to end with a quote from him to inspire us to keep on trying to defend the rights of the poor against the abuses of the mighty, and to defend out planet Earth from our own ravages:

“Each of us has individual greatness. God would not be our author if we were something worthless. You and I and all of us are worth very much, because we are creatures of God, and God has prodigally given his wonderful gifts to each person.” (September 4, 1977)

I would add that God has given us this Earth, not to own but as a gift for us to treasure. So in celebration of the Solstice, and of Christmas, and as a promise to the New Year, let us take care of one another and of the Planet and be happy that we have this opportunity!  Sherrill

Hope for Palestine, or Not

I am just back from Palestine where almost everyone told me that they have lost hope. I hadn’t been hearing that in the past years, so it was pretty depressing.

Then today in church the pastor said that to lose hope is to fail to honor those who have gone before us.

And tonight I talked with a Palestinian who lives here in Massachusetts, and he said that there hasn’t been any hope for Palestine since the Oslo Accords set the stage for unfettered Israeli expansion.

Hope for what? The hope that has been lost since my last visit in 2009 was for the international community to finally come through with pressure on Israel to stop building settlements so that there might be the possibility of negotiating an end to the occupation. But when Obama said “please stop”, and Israel said “no thank you”, that was the end. It became crystal clear that Israel was going to continue to do just as they pleased, and no power on earth was going to stop them.

As for honoring those who went before, those who have struggled for Palestinian liberation since 1948 or before, right up to the Turks who died on board the Mavi Mamara trying to reach Gaza, and including the olive farmers killed in their fields this season, and the Silwan resident shot by a settler in September as he was on his way to early morning prayers at the mosque, do their deaths require us to have hope in a falsehood called “the peace process?” Maybe we honor them more by looking facts in the face.

That’s what my Massachusetts Palestinian friend was saying. Any chance of Israel changing course has long since vanished. Israel was founded with a plan in place to take the whole of Palestine, and now they are armed not just with military weapons, and a nefarious set of regulations, but with a propaganda machine that reaches right into the U.S. Congress and media.

Catching up on my mail today, one article illustrates the hopeless situation facing Palestinians in their daily lives. The article is from an Associated Press journalist, Diaa Hadid, reporting from Jenin, West Bank, Palestine. She tells of the Helou family who are trapped in this city because Israel will not recognize their residency in the West Bank. The father and four of the children were born in Gaza and have Gazan IDs. The mother and four younger children were born in Jenin. If they try to travel outside Jenin with a Gaza ID, they will be deported to Gaza. If they were to return to Gaza even to visit they would lose their West Bank home. There are about 20,000 Palestinians in this same predicament. They cannot travel between the two parts of Palestine, and with Gaza IDs they are subject to “deportation” to Gaza. This is one of Israel’s tools for clearing the West Bank of Palestinians. There are hundreds of such tools.

I don’t want to lose hope for Palestine. I know a lot of fine and loving people in there, and I want them to have a life. But the facts on the ground, put there by Israel and sustained by the United States, look hopeless. So I turn to a poem by Wendell Berry called “Practice Resurrection”. It was in my “to read” pile of papers and turned up today. Here are some of the lines:

“So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute....
“Expect the end of the world. Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable.
    Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.....
“As soon as the generals and politicos can predict the motions of your mind, lose it.
    Leave it as a sign to mark the false trail, the way you didn’t go.”

His words shake my mind loose from the facts on the ground and allow me to find hope for Palestine in the unpredictable, in miracles, in the farmer’s inexhaustible love for his land. And maybe that's enough.

The West Bank Is Also Under Seige

Here is a family I know quite well, having been a guest in their house in Nablus many times, and having hosted the father and his youngest son in my house as well. It s Mohammed's family: his wife, Samar, his older son, Yazan, 23 and 15 year old Majed. ( The daughter, Raya, is married and out of the house.) Not only are we friends, but Mohammed and I are both involved in the struggle to free Palestine from the grip of Israel's occupation.

I respect Mohammed's perspective and values which are informed by more than 15 arrests and times in Israeli prisons simply for his involvement in grassroots organizing, and by his deep Muslim faith. Further, this family is an urban, professional family, both parents being university professors, and the children either with advanced degrees or aspiring to such. Thus their opinions on Palestine's present status and future prospects are important to record.

Mohammed believes that it will just take one incident to set off a violent revolt among Palestinians, and that spark will come from the action of Israeli settlers. Settler violence is on the rise in rural and urban areas alike. If the reaction becomes a full Intifada, it will be different from the others, but he can't forsee what shape it will take.

For years settlers have stolen the sacks of olives from farmers after they have completed a day of hard work to harvest them, or they have burned and cut the olive trees in order to deprive Palestinians from this vital crop. But this year Israeli settlers have added a new tactic to disrupt the olive harvest: they are coming into the olive groves at night and stealing the olives off the trees. When the farmers arrive in the early morning to start picking, they find the trees are bare of fruit. The settlers thus avoid direct confrontation with the farmers while provoking them with a poisonous surprise. The settlers also get around the arrangement that the Palestinians have managed to make with the Israeli army whereby farmers are given from one to four days to harvest without fear of settler interference. These arrangements do not allow enough time to complete the harvest nor to provide time for pruning trees and conditioning the soil. Under normal conditions, a farmer attends to his trees all year round.

In urban East Jerusalem, settlers have been steadily expanding their holdings, but now their armed "guards" are roaming through Palestinian neighborhoods at night and in September shot and killed a man on his way to early morning prayers. In the neighborhood of Sheik Jarrah, Palestinian families have been forcefully evicted from their homes of which they are the lawful owners, in order for settlers to move in. So far the reaction from Palestinians has been non-violent demonstrations, in which they are joined by outraged Israeli peace activists and by international supporters. However, with many more homes already targeted by settlers for take-over, one has to wonder how long the Palestinians' anger will remain corked.

Mohammed’s wife adds that the so-called peace talks won't give Palestinians their rights. "I am not optomistic," she says. " Israel doesn't want peace, so things will get worse." Maybe there will be another Intifada. She wants to see two states, and believes that many others want that solution also.

Yazin's anger at Israel simmers just below the surface. He was arrested on trumped up charges three years ago, tortured and imprisoned for 2 years. (As in most cases of arrest of young Palestinians, the charges were vague, the military trial unfair, and the sentencing arbitrary.) As a result, Yazin suffers from bleeding ulcers and "fire" in his lower legs where he was beaten, by inability to sleep and difficulty concentrating on his university studies. Mohammed says that his son's personality has been changed by the prison experience. He used to be gentle and generous; now he is moody, defiant and angry. I have little doubt that he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

In answer to my questions about prospects for peace with Israel, Yazin said, " There is no Israel." I was puzzled by this statement and pressed him for an explanation. In essence, he said that Jews came to Palestine and took the land. It wasn't theirs before the state of Israel was formed, and it still isn't theirs. So there is no Israel-- only Palestine.

Yazin finds it hard to stay interested in his university major in Business Administration, which he was forced to suspend while in prison, because there is little prospect of finding work in Palestine when he graduates in 2 years. The occupation, with its goal of squeezing Palestinians out of Palestine, has destroyed the economy. Still, he is thinking ahead and wants to get his Masters in the U.S., and then go wherever he can find a good job.

I later asked Mohammed what Palestinians think of the Free Gaza flotilla movement. He said that they support it from the humanitarian point of view,, but want the international community to realize that the West Bank is also under siege, and that Gaza is not a separate entity. We must create interventions that address all parts of Palestine.

I wonder if we must think of an over-land caravan through Jordan to the Allenby Bridge crossing into the West Bank to coincide with the flotillas aimed at Gaza.

Al-Walaja Village Gasps for Breath

We went to see Al-Walaja with professor and activist Mazin Qumsiyeh who wanted us to witness how the Separation Wall is encircling the village of 2300 people in order to separate it from the agriculutral land from which it survives. The benefits for Israel are: 1) that the village's land that will be on the other side of the wall will be available for expansion of the settlements of Gilo and Har Gilo, and 2) villagers who can no longer make a living, will leave, thus reducing the overall Arab population that Israel has to deal with.
To put today's crisis in perspective, Mazin gave us this history. The original Al-Walaja was completely demolished in 1948 by Jewish forces fighting the indigenous Arab inhabitants in order to establish a Jewish state free of an Arab population. It had been a prosperous food-producing area on its 17,793 dunams (4440 acres) of land. When the 25,000 villagers were forced to flee, they dispersed to Jordan and to refugee camps all over the Middle East. Among them was Abu Nidal (Ahmed Bargout) who was hosting us on this visit. He was also among the 10% who came back in 1963 to rebuild. By then the village was reduced to a quarter of its original size and under the control of Jordan.
However, life was to take another sorry turn in 1967 when Israel conquered the Jordanian territories and started the military occupation that endures until today. At that time, and without notifying the citizens of Al-Walaja, Israel annexed most of the village into Jerusalem. Al- Walaja did not come to realize what that meant until 1982 when all of their homes and structures received demolition orders for being erected on land claimed by Israel. The orders were promptly executed. Having nowhere else to go, and determined to hold onto their ancestral lands, the villagers lived in caves and shelters until they could once again rebuild. This time they knew that their new homes, schools and mosques would be considered illegal by Israel and subject to demolition at any time. Many have been demolished.
Fast forward to 2006 when Al-Walaja heard of the Israeli plan to build the separation wall around the village. They went to court - Israeli court - and though a case is still pending to decide if the wall can be put there, the wall is under construction. We could see parts of the tall, concrete structure that have been finished, and, just below Abu Nidal's living room where we sipped tea, we could see the heavy equipment moving up and down the dirt road where the wall will soon be. Like many things in pPalestinian daily life, there was a surreal quality to this view. On the near side of the dirt road are Abu Nidal's house, animal pens, fruit trees, gardens, and us sipping tea as if everything were normal. On the other side of the dirt road and down the hillside into the valley below are Abu Nidal's olive groves, grape vineyards and sheep pastures--90% of his land. Also on that side is his family cemetery where his mother is buried. The view out another window shows one of the village roads, which has been blocked from use while the wall construction goes on. When the wall is finished, he has been informed, the reopened road will be about 5 feet wide, which cannot accommodate a car.
When the wall is finished...which won't be long now, the houses inside of it will not be exempt for demolition orders. More than half of them already have the orders. Part of the torture is that no one knows when the bulldozers will come...
Abu Nidal is a distinguished-looking man with white hair who must be in his 70's. He has seven grown children. Three of his sons have not married because they don't have any money. He ended his explanation of what is happening here by mentioning the emotional stress everyone is under which shows up in the increase of tensions within families. One of the biggest strains is the separation from parents, siblings and children caused by the restrictions on travel. For example, he has a sister in Jerusalem, but he is not allowed to go to Jerusalem from the West Bank. And soon his sister will not be allowed into Al-Walaja because only its residents will have passes to cross through the gate in the wall.
We asked Abu-Nidal what he thought about the future. He laughed. "Bleak," he answered. There is alot of animosity towards the occupier, the world doesn't do anything to help, and there are those within Palestine who collaborate with Israel. The PA doesn't do anything and "this is more dangerous than the settlements." He called it a "conspiracy of silence."
Before we said goodbye to Abu-Nidal, he took us up to the roof for a better view of Al-Walaja and Jerusalem just across the valley. As a parting gift he cracked open his home-grown walnets and handed us the fresh meats.
Mazin then took us to meet with the leader of the Village Council of Al-Walaja, Abu Ahmad. He added more history and analysis to the picture. Before the occupation there were 26 water wells in the village. Now there are only 2, and these are being tapped by the nearby settlements. When the wall is finished, the 2 wells will be on the other side, and the occupation does not alow Palestinians to dig new wells.
Sixty percent of villagers now depend on U.N. aid, for which they are eligible due to being officially designated as refugess from '48. I asked Abu Ahmad what he thought of the PA's economic development plan. Did he see any benefit for Al-Walaja? He answered, "The PA is under occupation." To illustrate his point, he pointed out that Israel forbids Palestinians to import fertilizers or pesticides.
As for pledging allegiance to a "Jewish state" as Israel's parliament is now considering, he said he was shocked that the U.S. would support this idea because it takes away the rights of all Palestinians, those who live in the diaspora and want to return and those who live inside Israel but could not swear loyalty to a state only for Jews. He concluded that moderates in the Arab world who want a peaceful solution for Palestine are losing credibility, which will leave the radicals in charge of the field. Here in Palestine, people voted for Hamas in 2006 because they were fed up with Fateh, not because of Hamas' ideology, but if they voted today, the resistance parties would win because they are willing to fight.
Meanwhile, Al-Walaja is gasping for breath.
　

Applying Israeli Justice to Palestinians

Mazin Qumsiyeh is a Palestinian activist, known to many in Palestine because of his courage in contronting Israeli soldiers at demonstrations or home demolitions, for his astute analysis of the Israeli occupation, and his knowledge of Middle Eastern history. He is a genetecist, a professor at Bethlehem University and has taught at several American universities, including Yale. He is just finishing his second book, this one about the history of nonviolent struggle in Palestine going back to the early 1900's. Mazin decided to move from the States back to Palestine 2 and a half years ago, to share in the hardships of the occupation while continuing the struggle for freedom for his homeland.
He is now being summoned to court by the Israeli military. The manner in which he was informed of this demand speaks to how Israel treats Palestinians:
--On October 19 Mazin received a hand-delivered registered letter dated October 3rd.
-- It is written entirely in Hebrew, for which he must seek translation.
--It gives him 30 days to answer "the charges against him", which are not stated in the letter.
This means Mazin must get an Israeli lawyer to investigate the charges and prepare an answer within eleven days--actually 7 working days.
This is Israeli military justice, the system that enforces the law in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. All Palestinians who are detained for any reason and need to appear before a judge, must do so in a military court. Israeli civil law does not apply to them.

Amira and Sammeh:Saving History to Save Palestine

Amiral, whose name means , Princess was born in Palestine, in Al-Bireh, the twin city of Ramallah, in the house her parents built in 1950. She was politically active in high school, for which she was arrested and held in prinson several times. By the time she started college, Israel had banned her from traveling outside the country, but she attended Bir Ziet University, graduating in 1981 with a degree in economics. When the First Intifada broke out in 1987 she and her husband, Ahmad, were helping to coordinate the civil resistance. For this activism, her husband was deported in 1989 to Lebanon, and she was deported in 1990 to Jordan. It took a year and a half for them to reunite.
In 1994, after the Oslo Peace Accords were signed, Amal and Mohammed were among the first Palestinians to take advantage of the amnesty for deportees and return to their homeland. They knew that the Accords would not deliver peace and end the Israeli occupation, but they were hoping they could start an a-political life. But very shortly they could see that the situation was not Accordsgoing to improve. Already Gaza was isolated, Jerusalem was closed off, checkpoints were set up all over the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority was corrupt from the beginning, and was controlling the press. It felt like a big jail. They left for Australia in 1997, looking for freedom from restrictions for their children.
However, life in Australia was not satisfying, so the couple decided in 2001 to move to the U.S. where Amal had a sister. After a few years in the States, Amira began to make frequent trips back to Palestine because she really wants to live there. But her husband's application for a green card has been held up for 7 years because of accusations that he belongs to a terrorist organization - the very organization, Amira points out, that the U.S. is now negotiating peace with - the Palestine Liberation Organization. Currently, Amira is free to travel back and forth, speaking out for Palestine in both countries, while Ahmad must wait until his status is settled. Their three children are doing well, two in the States and one here. Her son is a computer engineer in California, one daughter is a podiatrist on the medical faculty at An-Najah University in Nablus, and one daughter is a senior at Ohio State Univesity, studying biology.
Because of her history as an activist, I wanted to hear Amira's opinions on various aspects of Palestinian politics. I asked about the popularity of the current regime in charge of Palestine. She explained that President Abbas' party, Fateh, employs 160,000 people which gives it a base of people who want to keep their jobs. However, many of them had been active in other political parties, and are not necessarily happy with Fatah's policies. A huge amount of money enters Palestine from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries through the so-called "Donors", but it does not reach the people. Development is practically non-existent. While the PA announced it is implementing an economic plan for the West Bank, it is mostly cosmetic: a movie theater opened in Nablus, some public places have been beautified, and there is a new Palestine Satelite Network to show to the business world.
As Amira sees it, this economic plan is designed to make people forget about the occupation. All the while, the education and health systems are deteriorating and public discontent is rising. People see President Abbas (Abu Mazin) collaborating with the Israelis, and it is not acceptable. She thinks a third Intifada is coming, first against the PA and then against the occupation, and it will not be pretty. "I can't imagine what a third intifada will look like." She sees no leadership on the national level that could bring order out of chaos. Will the popular committees play a role in the uprising? Yes, but it is not possible to know how strong they will be by then.
Meanwhile, it seems like Abu Mazin will not be long in power. Already his term in office has expired, and he has no power to strike a deal in the peace negotiations. When the talks fail, so will he, and Israel and the U.S. will need to prepare someone else to take over the puppetry. Could Marwan Bargouthi be released from Israeli prisons and become the next President, selling himself like Abu Mazin is now doing? (This assumes that Israel and the U.S. will have to approve of the next president of the PA and will chose someone whom they think will do their bidding.) Amira knows Marwan from their joint time in exile, and she does not think he can make a difference. Besides, there are several others vying for the job of President. For example Jibril Rjoupe, now head of the powerful Palestinian Soccer League and popular with the U.S. And Mohammed Dahlan, who was charged by Hamas with complicity in overthowing their newly elected government in 2006 and with collaborating with Israel for the attack on Gaza in 2008-09.
At present, Amira's energies are devoted to the foundation she just created, the Sheik Husan Foundation for Culture and Science. She has named it for Sheik Hasan Al-Labadi, a little known patriot who spent 44 years in solitary confinement in British and Israeli prisons after receiving a life sentence for killing a British officer in 1939. Before he was imprisoned, he was a respected imam and a teacher in several Palestinian villages. By honoring him, the Foundation fulfills part of its mission - "to preserve Palestine's cultural and historical heritage from theft and distortion by the Zionist colonial entity." The Foundation will promote sustainable development in Palestine by "intensive investment in education, health, and agricultural and industrial cooperatives."
Amiral is working on a Palestinian Memory Museum for which the Foundation will engage in extensive research into the displacement of Palestinians during the '48 war and before that under the British Mandate. She explains that in 1938 there were 50,000 Palestinian prisoners in administrative detention (without charges) in British prisons, 2,000 received life sentences and 148 were executed. What is the story behind this and Britain's collaboration with the Zionist terrorist groups that were fighting to take over British controlled Palestinian lands? The Foundation will explore this history with an eye toward prosecuting prior and current Zionist governmets for war crimes.
The Foundation will also strive to provide scholarships and support services to families of political prisoners and martyrs and create student exchange programs that will encourage Palestinian students to maintain their cultural identity and foreign students to increase their understanding of the Palestinian reality.
SAMMEH HAMMOUDEH
Doris and I had been invited to Sunday dinner with Sammeh and his wife, Nadia. When Sammeh learned we were staying with Amira, he invited her to come too, as they already knew each other through their common interests. For me and Doris this was our third annual visit with Sammeh and his family. Doris knew him when he was a co-defendant of Dr. Sami al-Arian of Florida, who has been unjustly held in the custody of the American judicial system for the last 7 years. That is a story in itself, but not the one for today.
Sammeh teaches political science at Bir Ziet University and has just finished writing his second book. He and his wife have six healthy children. His oldest, a daughter whom I met two years ago, is just starting a PhD. program in public health at Brown University in Rhode Island. His second daughter, on full scholarship, is getting her masters in human resources in London. Hanan, daughter number three is in her last year at American University in Lebanon, majoring in international relations. The younger three children were born in the United States while Sammeh was studying for his PhD at the University of Southern Florida. He was months away from getting his degree when he was arrested along with Dr.Al-Arian. The three citizen-children were deported by the U.S. government along with their parents, even though Sammeh was exonorated of all charges against him.
Sammeh's wife, Nadia, teaches elementary age children, in English, at a private school for Palestinian kids who were born abroad and whose parents want them educated in Palestine.
Our conversation turned to analyzing what is happening in today's Middle East. "Israel is doing anything it wants to do," said Sammeh, "because of the weakness of the Arab and international communities. Its supporters are embarrassed because they can't defend what Israel is doing. The Turks, on the other hand are smart; they have good relations with everyone in the area. The U.S. is not dominating the scene as before and is losing power because of the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and its economic policies at home. It has created enemies; other countries are boycotting American goods and currency."
Will there be another intifada? Sammeh doesn't think so. "We didn't get anything from the first two." Coming soon will be another war between Israel and Lebanon due to the rise of Hezbollah and Israel's inability to accept its defeat in previous conflicts with Lebanon. Neither Israel nor the U.S. will attack Iran because Iran's Shia population is allied with Iraq's Shia, and any attack on Iran would ignite extreme violence within Iraq.
Like Amira, Sammeh is interested in promoting the histories of Palestinians who have struggled to protect Palestine. The book he just finnished is about Daoud Houseni, born in 1903, and a leader who fought all his life against occupiers of Palestine. I asked Sammeh what drew him to write about this particular man. He answered that he has always been drawn to the history of Palestinians under the British Mandate (1921-1949), thought this man should be known, but research on this period is difficult because the only records are family papers. Britian did not keep statistics or records on the local population that they controlled. He heard about and contacted Houseni's daughter (who happens to be my new friend Dyala Dajani), and she handed him reams of detailed journals kept by her father, thus providing him with most of the documentation he needed for his research.
Amira and Sammeh are themselves invaluable resources for my understanding of what is happening in Palestine, in the whole Middle East, and in the world. On the one hand, the story is complex and puzzling. On the other hand, it is very simple. Israel is illegally occupying what is left of historic Palestine, and is oppressing the people who live there. A just peace must see the end to this occupation, however long that takes. People like Amira and Sammeh are part of the resistance, keeping Palestine alive by capturing and teaching the rich legacy of Palestinian culture and resistance.

You Have to BELIEVE in Peace
Iyad Bournat is the head of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in the small rural village of Bil'in (pronounced Bila-een). I spent one hour with him before the weekly demonstration against the wall that has cut off 55% of the village lands. I want you to hear his voice, because he is someone who carries an unshakeable hope in his heart, and it inspires his leadership.
Iyad started with a short history. As soon as Israel started to build the Wall in June of 2002, Bil'in could see it coming, even though it was still far to the North. Eventually, Israeli engineers began to frequent village lands, and the people organized a committee to plan their resistance. As soon as the bulldozers appeared on the scene, villagers chained themselves to olive trees that were in the path of the bulldozers and demonstrated every day to stop the uprooting of trees that not only represent income, but embody the spirit of the land and its people.
However, as the days passed and the destruction continued, protected by Israeli soldiers who detained as many demonstrators as they could catch, the demonstrations became a weekly event, while simultaneously the Popular Committee hired sympathetic Israeli lawyers and took their case to the Israeli Supreme Court. Their argument,- that the wall was not anywhere near the border with Israel but was routed in order to expropriate more land for nearby settlements, and therefore had nothinng to do with security, was upheld in court, and the army was ordered to move the wall closer to the border. That victory was in 2007, but not until 2009 was action taken to move the wall. Now one can see where the "new wall" is being consstructed in the distance, while the current wall is still in place.
In spite of winning the court case, Iyad listed several ways that Israel tries to stop the demonstrations, which are attended by villagers, internationals, Israeli activists, and the media. It tells Israelis that it is illegal for them to come, because their mere presence proves that the two sides CAN live together and cooperate. It imposes curfews and conducts night raids to harass villagers and frighten them. It kidnaps children from their homes in the night and during detention tries to get them to say that the leaders tell them to throw stones. It arrests the leaders based on the accusations of frightened children.
Israel denies exit to the leaders like Iyad who are invited to speak abroad. Iyad has twice been turned back at the border with Jordan ( the only point of departure allowed to Palestinians without foreign passports). Internationals who are discovered to have demonstrated in Bil'in are often barred from re-entering Israel on their next visit.
The odds seem stacked against Iyad , against Bil'in, against a Palestinian state. Others I have met on this trip have lost hope. So what keeps Iyad going? " You need to BELIEVE," he says. "If I didn't have hope, I couldn't continue this work. And he points to successes. The wall is being moved. Other villages now have weekly demonstrations. The international boycott campaign is growing.
After the demonstration today, when I am soaked in sweat and tear gas, I listen to another member of the Popular Committee, Basil, orient a group from Norway. From him I learn that these demonstrations are not labeled "nonviolent resistance", but "popular resistance." which in part answers my questions about stone throwing. There is an unwritten agreement not to throw stones until after the demonstrators have reached the wall and delivered the message of the day, which today is about freeing political prisoners. After that, stones will fly, sometimes from a powerful sling shot. But...
But stones are not guns. And international law protects the right of occupied people to armed resistance. Israel is the occupier. Israel has the tanks, guns and airpower. The children cannot sleep at night, and the youth can't find jobs, but they can throw stones at their oppresor. Even for someone committed to nonviolence, it is hard to argue with this formulation.
Iyad believes peace will come soon, but he admits that others need to believe it too. If enough people really believe, they will make peace happen.

Reacting to Lies and Distortions

Yesterday I read the lies and distortions of truth coming from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a piece in the Washiington Post by Joel Greenberg. I assume his quotes are accurate. The issue is whether Israel should be recognized as a Jewish state.

The issue is also that lies that come through the media from a political leader tend to be believed by an undiscerning public, which in turn may support the politician to the detrement of his opponents. In the case of Netanyahu's lies and distortions, it is the Palestinians who suffer the consequences.

(The problem is, when political leaders are quoted in the media, their words tend to stick in people's minds as if they were true.)
 Netanyahu said that Palestinian acceptance of Israel as a Jewish state is not a precondion for peace talks, which makes it sound like no big deal if they do or don't accept it.  But in reality it is a precondition, because unless Palestinians accept this new definition, Netanyahu  will not extend the settlement freeze.  Palestiinians cannot continue the talks if settlements continue to be built. Settlements equal the death of a Palestinian state.

 Even talking about a settlement freeze is more than misleading.  First of all, the freeze was never enforced; settlement construction went on, albeit at a slower pace, the entire nine- month period.  Secondly, the freeze was lifted on September 25th, so why talk about extending it as if it were still in force?  Since I arrived in Palestine on October 1st, I have read almost daily reports of settlement expansion.

Netanyahu says, in an apparently even-handed way, "Just as the Palestinians expect us to recognize the Palestinian state as their nation-state, we are permitted to expect that they recognize the Jewish state as our nationn-state."  This sounds reasonable.  But 20% of Israeli citizens are Palestinian, also known as Arab-Israelis. How can they be expected to pledge allegiance to a Jewish state?  Furthermore, if a state is for only one ethnicity and excludes all others, is that not racist?    Already many Israeli artists and intellectuals and even members of the Knesset have said just that.

In another distortion of reality, the Israeli prime minister tries to shift the peace process from ending the occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza to defining the nature of the state of Israel.  "Undoubtedly such a step (i.e. to accept Israel as a Jewish state) by the Palestinian Authority would be a confidence-building measure that will open a new horizon of hope as well as trust amoung broad parts of the Israeli public, which in light of events of the last decade, have lost faith in the desire of the Palestinians to end the conflict."

What this ignores is that Israel has closed the door on hope and trust  among Palestinians over and over  by continuing its takeover of Palestinian lands, starting with the 1948 war that resulted in the expulsion of 2/3's of the indigenous Palestinians and the establishment of the state of Israel on 78% of historic Palestine.  O.K. - conquest by war, which was accepted by the U.N. at that time, ( although the refugees were supposed to be able to return to their homes, which has not been allowed by Israel).  But in 1967 Israel militarily occupied the remaining 22% of Palestine, and has held onto it ever since, in violation of international law (the Geneva Conventions of 1948 and multiple U.N. resolutions).

After '67 Israel started to build settlements inside of occupied Palestine, also in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions.  In the years following the Oslo Accords of 1993 until the 2nd Intifada errupted in 2000 settlement building doubled in volume.  Thus Israel's response to the peace accords was expansion on Palestinian lands. Indeed, some say that Oslo prepared the way for this expansion.) There are now about 500,000 Israeli settlers living on land that was supposed to be the future state of Palestine.  The location of these settlements, along with the roads that connect them to each other and to Israel proper, the military instalations built to protect the settlements, the checkpoints, closed roads and military invasions of cities and towns adds up to a tangle of obstructions which make the establishment of a state impossible to imagine.

Linking a settlement freeze to recognition of a Israel as a Jewish state adds a new dimension--actually a new obfuscation to peace talks, already choked by many thorny issues, such as the status of East Jerusalem, refugees, borders and water use.  As a Palestinian spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority said, "There is no connection between halting settlements and recognizing the Jewish character of Israel."

To  further confuse the public, Netanyahu is stalling on accepting an incentive from U.S. President Obama that would require a mere 60-day extension of the settlement freeze. Why stall unless to make it seem as if Israel is the agrieved party to whom something more is owed.  Sixty days of halting an already illegal activity?  Sixty days instead of a complete end to settlement building?  A settlement "freeze", not even close to removal of all the illegal settlements?  What are they talking about?  How easy it is to lie and distort until indeed no one can figure out what they are talking about.

Today's news says that the U.S. recognizes Israel as a state for the Jewish people. The curtain falls. Having the backing of the most powerful country in the world, along with its enormous amount of military aid, proves that lies and deceit work.

Corrie Family Seeks Justice, Not Just for Rachel

Last night, October 9th, in the small Bethlehem suburb of Beit Sahour where I am now living and working, the Alernative Information Center hosted Cindy, Craig and Sarah Corrie. They are in Israel to attend the trial surrounding the killing of their daughter and sister, Rachel, in 2003.  Rachel's death under the blade of an Israeli military bulldozer as she was trying to protect the home of a Palestinian family in Gaza may have faded from our memories, but has consumed the lives of her family for the last seven and a half years.

The first to speak, after being introduced by one of the Palestinian hosts, was Craig, Rachel's father.  He addressed the packed audience of mostly international visitors and volunteers and described his initial shock and grief, that at first he feared would paralize him with hate. Instead, he was able to take action to seek accountability, not revenge, for Rachel's death. He quit his successful job in business, and within six months went with his wife to Gaza to visit the people and places Rachel had being writing home about.  Meanwhile, then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had promised the family that Israel would conduct a thorough, credible and transparent investigation into Rachel's death.  Even the U.S. Department of State agrees that such an investigation never took place. 

The Corries persued every diplomatic and legal channel available to them in the U.S. before filing a civil case in Israeli courts.  That case was opened last March, temporarily closed, and, in an unusual move, it was reopened this month in the Israeli city of Haifa, giving the family another chance to reach understanding.   As Sarah told us, she wants to look the responsible soldiers in the eyes and hear what they were thinking and feeling when they killed her sister.  But it seems she will not have that chance, as the soldier witnesses will testify behind a screen "for security reasons." 

Cindy Corrie spoke about how the court procedings are trying to hide the reasons Rachel was in Gaza in the first place, so she told us how Rachel decided to join the Palestinian-led International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and go to Gaza to learn and to help.  Not to know why Rachel took this action, is to turn this trial into a narrow examination of facts, such as how visible Rachel was to the bulldozer driver.

She said the trial is revealing in exposing what Israel's investigation didn't include, such as visiting the site of the killing or getting into a D9 bulldozer to check on visibility of people in front of it.  She added that the crime site was smoothed over withi 24 hours of the killing, destroying any possible evidence against the military.

I asked the Corries what they thought internationals like us should do to  be most effective in our work to end the occupation.  They said most important thing is to hold our government to international standards of human rights and law. One way to do this is to pressure Congress through our individual congressmen.  While we all know how frustrating this can be, Congress has shown movement on this issue.  We should develop relationships with our congressmen so that they will listen to us. Only the grassroots will bring change, not the so-called leaders.

The Corries also support the BDS movement ('Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), but they stressed that we should each do what matches our individual talents.  The Corries will follow this trial to its conclusion, but they want us to know that it is not just for Rachel.  They use the trial to speak of the many Palestinians who do not have the same resouces nor access to lawyers and courts as they do; to speak of the Palestinians who are being attacked, jailed or killed for trying to protest nonviolently; and to fight the notion that the military are immune from prosecution simply because they are involved in a war. One military officr told them that "there are no civilians in a war."  Should that become accepted truth, it will be a huge shift in the conduct of wars and a huge loss for human rights.

Craig Corrie was applauded when he concluded, "We must DEMAND that our Constitution be upheld."

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Creating Understanding in order to Create Peace

George N. Rishmawi is my Palestinian boss for these three weeks that I am volunteering for the International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC), which delivers a daily English-language radio broadcast of Palestinian news.   George is a peace activist, a promotor of nonviolence and the Director of the Rapproachment Center, the umbrella NGO for the radio station.  On October 8 my friend Doris was interviewing George for her Tampa Bay, Florida radio program, while I took notes.

George was an English literature and translation major at Beir Zeit University, but as soon as he graduated in 1991 he started working with the newly formed Palestinian Center for Rapproachment Between People (PCR).  Starting during the First Intifada when tensions ran high,  PCR tried to bring Israelis and Palestinians together in dialogue groups to get to know each other.  A large group of activists and intellectuals from both sides met for 12 years. "Human recognition is needed for any progress to be made," says George, "and, while we had other options for how to deal with the occupation, we chose dialogue."  This attitude is still at the heart of the work of the Center, including the radio station.

"Our mission is to close the gap between Palestine and the rest of the world, to create understanding and to stop the sterotypes.  We reach out beyond our borders and encourage people to come here. ' Alternative Tourism' is the work of another branch of PCR, the Siraj Center.  Come to enjoy the culture, yes, see the holy  and historical sites, AND get to know the people." 

Doris asked George about the peace process now going on.  "Peace process? The term is tricky.  Everyone wants peace, but we need a 'just peace' that will provide a place to live in dignity, security and safety on our own land."  The current talks are not between equals; solutions will be imposed.  So why should Palestine sign on?  If the leaders do sign, it will because of money and support.  "Are the leaders honest? It's hard to judge."

George believes that the whole discourse has gotten sidetracked by  the issue of freezing the settlements. Palestinian negotiators are now focusing on continuing  the freeze instead of demanding removal of the settlements and ending the occupation.  While the official position of the Palestinians calls for the two state solution, George says that a viable state is not possibe while the West Bank is chopped up by settlements and the wall - entities that also increase separation and misunderstanding. He advocates for one state --"a human solution" for all Israelis and Palestinians.  A country based on one religion or ethnicity is inherently racist.  "How can we recognize Israel as a "Jewish state"?

Peace Depends on Israel...

Interview with Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, October 4, 2010


Jeff was born and educated in the U.S, and became a professor of anthropology.  He moved to Israel in 1978 to explore his Jewish roots. By 1997 he was founding an anti-occupation organization known by the acronym ICAHD  (Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions).  He looked for an issue that would represent the abuses of Israel's military policies toward Palestinians, and found it in the practice of demolishing homes of Palestinians who had built without the un-obtainable permit.

Since 1967, Israel has torn down more than 25,000 family dwellings, making homeless that many large families. Children often returned home from school to find their toys and clothes in a heap of rubble. Or families would be awakened at 2 or 3 a.m., evicted from their homes in their pajamas, and forced to watch the house-eating bulldozer crush all that they owned. Jeff and ICAHD approached this issue from several angles.

 ICAHD organizes summer work crews of international volunteers and Palestinian construction workers to rebuild houses as an act of resistance. Some of these homes - 170 so far - have been re-demolished by the Israeli army, but those who have resisted have delivered their message: we will not give up.

Jeff has traveled all over the U.S. and Europe to educate the international community about the truth of what is happening in Israel/Palestine. He has a keen analysis of the "facts on the ground", and insists that the core problem is the occupation by Israel of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. "Israel is not the victim; it is the occupying power; it is the only player that has a government and an army.  So peace depends on Israel much more than on the Palestinians."

As for the " peace process" Jeff says that the American government "won't do anything meaningful." He believes that only grassroots organizing will bring about a change. Meanwhile, and that may be a very long while, ICAHD is busy throughout the year showing up at non-violent demonstrations against the "apartheid wall", settler violence or the uprooting of olive trees, and going to the olive harvest to help protect farmers from settler attacks and harrassment. Jeff has stood before bulldozers to prevent their devasting advance on homes and orchards, and he was on the first Free Gaza ship, the only one so far to actually land in Gaza's port. For these actions he has been arrested numerous times.

"Obama gets it, " says Jeff, but Congress won't let him act to pressure Israel. In the absence of significant action by the U.S., a new anti-occupation strategy is developing in the international community: "anyone BUT the U.S." needs to step in. "The United States should be concered about its growing isolation as other countries start to step into the breach. He named Turkey, Brazil and South Africa as examples.

ICAHD is now participating in the international Boycot, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign with  the clear position that this campaign is not against Israel, but against the occupation.  However, as Jeff's 6 year old granddaughter played at his feet, he said that her future is at stake, and he does not want her to grow up in such a militarized society as now prevails in Israel.

Would the Israeli public accept a Palestinian state within the '67 borders, taking the settlements out of the West Bank and East Jerusalem? Well, says Jeff, 65% would go along with that, but they are completely uninvolved. "Their life is too good."

From Sweet to Bitter

I started today in a semi-leisurely way, having only one errand to fulfill before a 10:30 appointment. While out, I also bought a bottle of water, the English language newspaper, and some more cookies - my defense against possibly missing a meal. When I got back to the hotel, Dyala was there, chatting with Doris. Dyala invited us to go have a special treat at a tiny place that bakes sweets to order. Of course we accepted, and were soon devouring gooey pastry filled with either cheese or walnuts and soaked in syrup-"mutabak". The setting was special too, being under the arched and plastered walls of the Old City, where humidity triumphs over all efforts to keep the plaster afixed to the stone walls. At one end of the shop were a few tables where we sat, ate and talked; at the other end was the table where the baker tossed the dough til it was paper thin, then spread it with the fillings and baked it in the oven behind him.
Dyala filled us in on more details about the situation in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheik Jarrah which I wrote about yesterday. For example, one of the first families to be evicted from her home so a settler could move in, has just returned from a trip to Jordan with her lawyers to recover the original deeds to the lands that the settlers claim are theirs. With these deeds in hand, she feels 90% sure that she and the other 3 families will be returned to their homes and the rest of that group of threatened homes will be safe. Of course, adds Dyala, there is the other 10% chance that Israel will disregard the deeds and give the homes to the settlers. This will be decided in court maybe as early as this week.
Now I turned my attention to Dyala herself, since I really didn't know her except that she lives in Sheik Jarrah and is involved in the struggle there to ward off the settler take-over. Dyala, 69, retired from teaching art in refugee camp schools, has helped to found a community center for kids in the Old City of Jerusalem. After graduating from American University in Beirut, she went to the Art Students League school in Manhattan. She is married and has 4 children, one of whom is a Senior at Smith College in Northampton, MA. (After learning about this daughter, Zeina, I looked her up last year.) So, I assume Dyala is a woman of some means, who has dedicated a huge amount of energy, time and money to create the Burs al-Auqluq Center for children where she has volunteered for the last 15 years. She took us there when we couldn't eat another bit of sweets.
(I say "us" because my co-hort, Doris, is traveling with me on this trip, collecting material for her radio station in Tampa Bay, Florida.)
The Center is located on 2 acres of open land inside the Old City --two acres which are being eyed hungrily by an adjacent Jewish settlement. Wouldn't those 2 acres make a wonderful site for new Jewish homes! But now they contain a large courtyard with brightly painted walls, a kindergarten for neighborhood 3-4 year olds, a library and computer lab for after-school use, and -marvel of marvels, a soccer field and basket ball courts for boys and girls teams. The sports program is a lure for kids who drop out of school, which is a growing problem due to the occupation. Kids and parents are beginning to give up on education since there are few jobs for college graduates. "Jerusalem used to pride itself in its pursuit of education," says Dyala, so this is a sad development. Anyway, the Center tries to get the kids interested in school through sports, offers tutoring to all who need it, and tries to empower the children through art, counseling, theater, and pure determination.
We had to drag ourselves away from the Center in order to meet up with Jeff Halper at his office, but that segment of the day will wait for a different report. After grabbing a sandwich at 5:00 p.m., we hopped on a bus and joined the rush hour traffic towards the village of Anata to catch the opening of an exhibit of children's mosaic artwork and women's embroidery, which was organized by Amal, the woman I wrote about yesterday. The opening was over in less than an hour, and we were invited to have coffee at the home of one of the women whohad created beautiful embroidered dresses, handbags and pillow covers. Her name is Im Yahiy.a. She led us a short way down the road to her home, and then down over a construction site where she was adding on to her house. (As the house is in the West Bank, she can build without an Israeli permit.) Though it was very dark, we picked our way carefully in order to get to where she could show us where the Separation Wall was built on her land, about 50 feet from her house, and confiscating 3/4 of her property. The Wall is down in a very deep ditch, which dropped off from where we were standing. She said a sheep had already fallen into the ditch and died, due to the distance of its fall. The danger to small children is obvious, but not of concern to the architects of the Wall.
We then went inside of Im Yahiya's nicely appointed living room for tea, followed by a cup of bitter coffee.

Does it matter when you lost your home/

Does it matter if you lost your home ten years ago, or 15, or in 1967 or 1948. Does it hurt any more the second time or the third? Today I met with a man who lost his home in the last 10 or 15 years. He can't even be sure exactly when it happened that Israel changed the rules and would make it impossible for him to continue to call East Jerusalem his home. When I met Majdi today, he was covering for his brother who owns a very progressive bookstore in one of the most beautiful, old hotels in the world. I wanted to thank the other brother for a favor he had done for me last year. In chatting with Majdi I learned that both he and Munther, having achieved U.S. citizenship, had been deprived of their Jerusalem I.D. cards, which made both of them unable to consider living permanently in the country of their birth. They don't know when that law was passed, only that when they traveled back "home" one day they were told by the Israeli immigration people at the airport that they could only stay for 3 months, and could only be in Palestine a total of 3 months in any calendar year.
Majdi is a tall, handsome man in his 30's or 40's with a broad smile. He has 4 children under the age of 12 who were born in the U.S.. He wanted to raise them in E. Jerusalem where he was born and raised--right near this hotel, but now that is not possible. He must settle for living in Amaan, Jordan in order for his children to grow up in the same culture that raised him.
So you could say that Majdi lost his home. He is grateful that one brother chose to stay in E. Jerusalem where he can look after their 75 year old mother. Munther, the bookstore owner is fighting his case in court, hoping that there will be an exception made because he is a business owner, and it is hard to run a business if you are only there 3 months of the year.
Earlier today, before I met Majdi, I went to the home of Im Nabil who is 88. I had met her last year on the day that Israeli settlers had barged into her garden and right into her living room to tell her that the house was theirs and not hers. Since then she has been to court over and over to protest the takeover of her home, while still living in it. And she has met with hundreds of supporters and reporters to tell her story as she was doing today when I arrived.
Not that she was prepared for this destiny. My friend Amal, who also lives in this neighborhood of East Jerusalem called Sheik Jarrah, says that Im Nabil may have come from a middle class background as she married young to a man who ran a very successful cafe in the city of Haifa before Israel became a state. In 1948 the couple was forced to flee from the Jewish army, and went to Jerusalem, where Im Nabil had family. Her husband secumbed to what came to be called "the sickness of the Palestinians" - what we might call PTSD with major depression. He died soon after, and she raised their 5 children.
So Im Nabil lost her home in 1948 and now is likely to lose it again. Last week the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that her house and 25 others in Sheik Jarrah neighborhood belong to the settlers in spite of being built by the United Nations in 1953 for these refugee families. ( You might guess that there is more to this story, but my battery is running low, and not charging properly, so I willl write as long as I can. ) After that ruling, Im Nabil received an eviction notice, as did the other families. Amal believes that if the settlers get away with these evictions, the whole neighborhood in which she lives, will be exposed to the same sort of injustice - the same loss of home.

"I reach the world through love." - Peace House, Mt. of Olives, East Jerusalem

I has cost a bit of anguish to get to this page - and I dont know how I got here. The hotel owner did it for me. I will write this story before learning that technology, because it may take a while to do so. Forgive typos, which will be many as I am not yet used to this keyboard.
Yesterday, October 1st, Doris and I took the bus that goes from Damascus Gate of the Old City to the Mount of Olives, which today is a small Palestinian village atop the hill to the East of the Old City. When we got off the bus, not really knowing our way, we just asked people "Where is Ibrahim?" and they would point the way. He runs the Peace House, but there is no sign pointing the way.
Ibrahim, 68, is one of 7 surviving children, and the oldest male. His father was a Sufi Muslim, who apparently taught Ibrahim a rare set of values. Or rather, a set of values which are rarely practiced. As a child, he saw his parents welcome, feed and house strangers such as those who would come at Eastertime to view the pagentry of Palm Sunday. From this he learned that all people are children of one God - a God of peace and love, and we are to take care of each other. From this Ibrahim has added his own message: to love one another, you must know one another.
When we got into the Peace House, Ibrahim greeted Doris with a big smile and hug because they had met last year when Doris needed a cell phone and he lent her one of his. That's another story that says alot about Ibrahim. He simply overheard Doris saying that she needed to buy a cell phone, and, never having seen her before, he offered her his. So now they are like old friends. I got a hug too, seeing I was with Doris. I should interject here that the Peace House serves as a hostel for anyone who finds it or whom Ibrahim finds as he bustles about the city.
We sat down in the modest foyer to chat, making a circle of plastic chairs that included an old sofa upon which was sitting a guest named John. John was quite the pushy talker, so we quickly heard that he was from Oklahoma and had come to Jerusalem for Suchot, the Jewish celebration of harvest. But I don't want to talk about John. I brahim has traveled so much, and met so many people, that it takes a while to get under his public persona. He started by telling us that his extended family consists of 14,000 people , about half of the population of the Mt. of Olives, and that he is not a citizen of any country, has no passport, and that he does not want to live in the States, where he has family, b ecause the people there are so poor.
By "poor" Ibrahim means poor in spirit - people who don't know their neighbors. If you don't know your neighbor, you won't help your neighbor, and you might even hate your neighbor. Another thing he dislikes about America is that family memberrs live far apart and rarely see each other. By contrast, he lives with his wife, several of his married children and many of hiis 30 grandchildren. Not in this house that he grew up in, but nearby. He has added onto that house to accommodate his married children, and has therefore been issued a demolition order for building without a permit. (Palestinians cannot get building permits, build anyway and pray that they will be among the thousands that don't get targeted by Israeli authorities.) Ibrahim is trying to argue his case in court (Israeli court), which can take months, years, and much money, and meanwhile his freedom to leave the country has been recinded.
If you want to google an article that appeared in the Sept. 24 issue of the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, you can read about Ibrahim and the Peace House - "The hostel that doesn't ask."
The Separation Wall is being built in order for Israelis and Palestinians not to touch each other. Ibrahim makes a lose analogy: If one hand claps, no one can hear it; if you talk to yourself, who will hear you? We must see and know the Other in order to make peace. He calls himself "the key in the middle." He goes where there has been violence, such as settlers burning a mosque, and, along with the rabbis that go with him, asks for forgiveness.
I will close with this confusing yet illuminating snapshot of Ibrahim in action. He goes frequently to Bedouin camps near Jericho in the Jordan Valley, taking toys for the children and used clothing that he gets from Christian Friends of Israel. He visits the Bedouin because they are treated so miserably by Israel, who is constantly trying to remove their camps by bulldozing them and refusing them access to water. The Christian Friends of Israel know this, and Ibahim knows that CFI supports Israel's expansion. When I question this bizarre alliance, Ibrahim tells me, "What people don't know is that there are alot of good people doing good things."

El Salvador: One Community's Struggle for Land

EL SALVADOR: ONE COMMUNITY’S STRUGGLE FOR LAND

El Salvador. A tiny elite and huge poverty. Violence against anyone suspected of organizing the poor and impunity for those crimes – since before the civil war of 1980-1992. An Archbishop, now looked on as a martyr and a candidate for sainthood because he demanded a "preferential option for the poor."
Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero took on the cause of the poor against the ruling oligarchy, the armed forces and the landowners so unequivocally as to be very like the Jesus whom he served. Because of this he was targeted for assassination, which was carried out as he was saying mass on the morning of March 24, 1980, unleashing a cruel war that killed 80,000 mostly poor civilians.
My delegation to El Salvador in March, 2010 visited a rural community that named itself after Romero, and heard a story that exemplifies the life of the poor in El Salvador today, the strength of their organized struggle for human rights, and the barriers to justice that they still face. We drove up to a cluster of tin shacks in Monsiegnor Romero Community and were ushered to chairs in the community’s open-air meeting space, sheltered from the sun by a roof of corrugated plastic. The elected president of the community, Ruth Serrano, started the telling of their history, and was followed by Raul, the head of "watch and discipline." Raul is a tall, lanky farmer/engineer who came to our meeting with reams of tattered folders and hand-drawn maps that were a meticulous record of everything the community had done over the last 5 years to obtain land and housing.
This is a squatter community, formed in 2005 when people from several different towns found out that they were not eligible to receive a USAID/government sponsored house that had been promised to poor people who had suffered displacement by the war. They had gone to meetings for 2 years only to be told that they had to own land in order to receive a house. They tried to buy land on credit, but noone would sell to them. By then, the excluded ones had gotten to know each other, and they decided to organize themselves and attempt to squat on some vacant land in the area. Their first attempt failed, ending in the arrest of 7 of the leaders. Their situation was dire, as they had given up their rental apartments and had no where to go. So two months later, they tried again. This time they approached the desired plot of land, not by road, but by bushwacking over rough terrain in the middle of the night.
Ruth described their group. There were babies, toddlers, old people along with the men and youth. It was difficult terrain and it even rained. When they got to their destination, there was no shelter, no food, nothing. Well, yes, there were ants. They erected a plastic tarp to shelter the youngest and oldest. Dawn found them there, and so did the authorities. Nearby landowners threw stones at them. But the group leaders had called a press conference, which may have saved them from immediate eviction. Three days later the National Social Fund for Housing promised to sell them this small corner of state land totaling about 10 acres, if they would get a guarantor to back them up. They scrambled. They found a guarantor! A miracle!
It was not to be so easy. The Fund for Housing raised the asking price and wouldn’t negotiate
Their bureaucratic nightmare was just beginning. Some families left, but ninety remained - and still remain. Next they went to the Human Rights Commission and to the National Legislature. The whole community went and stayed from 9:00 a.m. to midnight. They won approval to stay on the land while they continued to look for a solution.
In 2006 they found a new guarantor, Fundasol, only to find out that the government was about to sell the same land to some business for 800 times less than what had been quoted to them. They protested. The government responded by saying it wouldn’t sell the land to anyone. At this point, the community lost hope. "Why are you playing with our poverty?" they pleaded.
At that point, in February of ‘08, they were discovered by the NGO that was facilitating our delegation, CIS (Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad - Center of Exchange and Solidarity). CIS was able to put things in perspective for them and also donated the tin and wood to replace the tattered plastic that had comprised their homes for three years.. Hope and determination returned.
We asked how the community supports itself. The men work as laborers, in farming, construction and in bricklaying. The women do domestic work in cities or sell food items at roadside stands. As they put it, "There is no dignified work." Raul, who abandoned university studies in Mexico to join this struggle, has devoted so much time to it that he has not been able to look for work for three and a half years. He has received death threats for his efforts. Water comes from a little river behind the acreage and from one faucet which is on loan to them. So far they have been denied permits for water and electricity.
Three days before our visit, the community received word that they would be granted the right to build. They think this is timed with the commemoration of the assassination of their namesake, Romero, and they would like to believe it, but they do not yet have paperwork in their hands. They know not to believe in promises, but, as Archbishop Romero said in January, 1980, "The cry of liberation of this people is a clamor that rises to God, and that now nothing nor anyone can stop."
Just as we were about to leave this small, determined, faith-filled squatter community, Candelaria stood up. She had been sitting in the front facing us because she is vice-president of the community. She looked to be about 50. She wanted to tell her story, and in doing so, she told the story of millions of poor Salvadorans. In 1975 she was among the landless peasants working in agriculture. Laborers were fed one or two meals a day consisting of one large corn tortilla with a spoonful of beans in the middle. . The beans often had dead rats and cockroaches. One day she saw the polluted beans and could not tolerate it anymore. She gathered a few co-workers and they went to the landowner to complain. The landowner’s response was, "Who are these people (who dare to complain)?" The next day bombs were dropped on their village.
Candelaria could not finish her story because we had to leave, but I knew I had just heard an oral history that matched the facts I had been learning. The year 1977 was a watershed year in terms of growing unrest in the countryside, while lay people and priests suspected of organizing the unrest were being disappeared or killed. When Archbishop Romero was assassinated on March 24, 1980 for advocating the cause of the poor, there was no turning back from civil war. I don’t know how Candelaria survived, but I now understand why she is a leader in the community named for Romero.
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Sherrill Hogen
April, 2010

El Salvador - A Story of Popular Resistance

EL SALVADOR - A STORY OF POPULAR RESISTANCE

To continue the story of Cinquera, a village of 1500 souls at the end of a 15 mile rutted dirt road, it is Rene’s voice that I am repeating. Pedro Ramon Fuentes, nicknamed Rene, is a handsome, strong man of 52.. His activism started at 19 when he was involved in the local peasant struggle to take over private land. Since so much of the country was in the hands of private landowners, there was no land for the peasants and no relief from poverty. This situation was the major issue in the civil war (1980-92), and El Salvador still lacks an effective agrarian reform policy.
In 1979 Rene entered the University of San Salvador – a difficult and costly project for any rural youth. Six months later, the University was closed down following the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero. Rene decided to join with the guerilla movement against the ruling oligarchy. He was wounded in the fighting and had to withdraw to recover. When he returned to the front, it was as a paramedic in charge of the area around Cinquera. Thus, when the war ended, he chose to settle here. He tells us this as he embraces his curly-headed three year old son, the youngest of his six children. (PHOTO OF RENE AND SON)
During 12 years of civil war there was no formal governmental structure – no mayor, no town council, no security, and no connection to a national government. Only two years after the peace accords were signed did all that return, and along with it a flood of government and non-governmental organizations rushing in to offer help - 28 in all. It was chaos. Rene tells how the people formed the Cinquera Association for Reconstruction and Development to formulate a plan that would make the influx of aid accountable to the local community. After three years, the townspeople were able to proceed with just three outside agencies under their supervision.
The Association is an example of good leadership and a well organized membership. It has created a micro-loan program, women’s and youth groups and a scholarship program. Their board of directors now includes teachers, engineers, lawyers and social workers, three of whom had been scholarship students. They established a land-purchasing program to conserve the environment, especially the forests that sheltered them during the war, water sources and native plants and animals.
It may be hard to appreciate the size and success of these efforts until you hear that up until 1992, most of the village of agricultural laborers and their children had to travel far from home to pick coffee for three months of the year in order to earn barely enough to survive. The conditions during the coffee harvest were life-threatening. It was cold, there was no water, and only the adults were served the meager ration of one large tortilla and a handful of beans twice a day. Although the children worked, only the adults were paid. Many died.
Another of Cinquera’s successes is in education. Before the war there was one primary school in Cinquera and the only high schools were 15 miles away over rough roads, with no public and little private transportation. Most families could not afford school fees. Hence, there were only 4 high school graduates. Now education is a priority. Until 1997 volunteers taught primary school, as the Ministry of Education had not yet assigned teachers here. Yet by 2008 Cinquera had its own high school and now boasts 14 college graduates. The scholarship fund is a precious commodity, and students are expected to contribute 50% of their post-graduate salaries back to the fund. Meanwhile, the Association has purchased computers and provides training to all sectors of the society, because they recognize that computer technology is necessary to enter competitions for any of the country’s scarce resources.
Archbishop Romero, now seen by many faithful in El Salvador as a saint, stated shortly before his death: "An unorganized people is a people with whom one can play games; but a people who is organized and defends its values, its justice, is a people that commands respect."
Sherrill Hogen
April 16, 2010
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EL SALVADOR - COUNTRY OF LOSSES AND POSSIBILITIES
This article is written after a week in El Salvador under the auspices of the Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad - the Center for Exchange and Solidarity. They arranged for us to visit two government ministries and four rural communities, as well as participation in two national marches and masses to commemorate the life of Archbishop Romero.
"El Salvador" in Spanish means The Savior, and a man like Jesus walked here among the poor as Jesus did in Palestine. Both Palestine and El Salvador hold onto the spirit of their respective martyrs to give them hope as they face today’s harsh realities. El Salvador’s hero is Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who was assassinated by order of the Armed Forces as he was saying mass on March 24, 1980.
The size of Vermont but hosting six and a half million people, El Salvador is densely populated by mostly poor peasant farmers who don’t own the land they work on. The beauty of its landscape of mountains, volcanoes, the Lempa River that crosses the entire country and its long Pacific Ocean coastline hides deep economic injustice. The unemployment rate is so high that young adults see only three options: enduring poverty, delinquency, or emigration. Over l.5 million have risked death and paid up to $10,000 on credit to get to the United States. Another half a million live in other countries. This means that over 30% of the population lives abroad in order to send money home in remittances. The country depends on this income mainly because the landowning and corporate elite siphons off the agricultural and mineral wealth of the land.
Into this scenario came the current president, elected in March of 2009. Mauricio Funes, candidate of the FMLN party that represented the interests of the poor in a bloody civil war from 1980 to 1992, made speeches and promises reminiscent of President Obama’s. And it seems that Obama is his guide and mentor on how to govern. Unfortunately for the poor, this means not disturbing the economic structures now in place. A professor of economics told us that Funes does not have power over corporate interests nor over the military, and the only hope for real change to occur lies in the power of an organized populace.
The town of Cinquera (Sinkera) IS organized. We met with two of its leaders, Mari (Ana Marina Alvarengo) and Rene (Pedro Ramon Fuentes) who told us its story. During the civil war it was completely destroyed by bombs dropped from the air. All 7,000 people, had to evacuate. They fled into the forests and mountains, or they crossed into Honduras but they were seen as guerilla sympathizers and denied work and shelter everywhere. So, after 11 years seven families returned, before the war was over, but after the guerillas had driven the National Guard from the town. They started to rebuild in spite of official military opposition and continued bombing. I try to imagine rebuilding my destroyed home and destroyed village while bombs are dropping to stop me. I imagine the desperation, the courage, and the level of organization needed to start over.
Now Cinquera has grown to 1500 people, some in search of cheap land, and there are some divisions among them. However, Mari told us, the original villagers are standing up to a concerted attempt to bulldoze their beloved church. To explain why, she told us how the people learned about Liberation Theology. Back in the 1970's a priest came to serve their church and taught a new way to read the Bible - one that spoke of a loving God who did not wish them to suffer. For example, instead of it being "God’s will" that babies died after 6 days, they found out about Tetanus and could save their babies. They learned that diarrhea could be treated, instead of having to accept it as "the evil eye." Neither did they have to accept dying in childbirth as punishment for sins. They learned to talk to each other about their problems and to help each other. It was a revolution in thinking and it brought them together for the first time. They had been kept in ignorance in order to be submissive to the ruling elite.
Then, as happens in the Catholic Church, their priest was reassigned and a new priest came. The new priest was entirely different. He tried to divide and confuse the people, saying they should be worried about communists who would destroy the Church. He denounced anyone who was organizing farmers, students or parishioners. He called in the Bishop and they ripped down all the posters in the church – posters which had biblical passages that supported liberation theology and images of M. Romero. The priest excommunicated all the parishioners when they protested his actions. Then, as the people were no longer "Christians", it became all right to massacre them, and there were many killings. Leaders were arrested from their homes in the middle of the night, so they began to sleep outside their homes. If the National Guard came for the men and didn’t find them, they killed their wives. One 16 year old girl, Aida, was raped, tortured and killed in order to instill terror.
Mari’s father had to flee, leaving his wife and eight children without support. She remembers doing farm labor as a child to help feed the family. Later, her mother fled while the children slept. It was the only way she could save her life, but what a price to pay! The National Guard took over the town and made it into a base. By 1983 it was a ghost town. When the war was finally over and rebuilding underway, the church hierarchy of this area stayed the same, part of the elite. The local priest and bishop wanted to tear down the little church, symbol of popular resistance.
To the parishioners it was inconceivable that they could lose this structure. For them too it had become a symbol. During the wartime bombardments, its facade and tower were the only things in the village left standing, which the people took as a sign. They rebuilt the church around the parts that had survived and painted the facade with a portrait of Oscar Romero and one of his sayings: "In the diverse political articulations what is of interest is the poor."
The Bishop, on the other hand, called Romero a "garbage leader", and on Good Friday of 2009 he interrupted the traditional solemn procession and abruptly kicked the people out of the church, bringing the police to enforce this unusual move. When the police withdrew, the people re-entered the church to pray. However, on Easter Sunday, the priest returned and declared that the church was private property, and not theirs to use as they wished.
Tensions grew between the church hierarchy and the parishioners. On October 13, 2009 three trucks and 4 cars parked in front of the church. One hundred and fifty men got out, intending to finish the job of destroying the church building. The first to see them were five women, who formed a line in front of the church, prepared to give their lives to save it. They sounded the town alarm gong, a spent bombshell, and soon hundreds stood with the women. The priest, in charge of the assault brigade, ordered the destruction to proceed, but the men didn’t obey. They began to leave, and soon only the priest, town mayor and riot police were left facing the defiant townspeople.
For the next seven days 90 parishioners occupied the structure around the clock. Finally the Minister of Culture came and said the church should be saved as an historical site. However, the story doesn’t end there. Right after that, the area bishop closed the church until December 23 when he came to "purify" it. This included ripping down the photos of disappeared and assassinated family members, as well as drawings, verses from the Bible and quotes from Romero. The people saved what they could. After Christmas, the bishop closed and locked the church, and so it remains...
Mari concluded her story by saying that the bishop and mayor are good at sowing seeds of discontent. As a result there is no functioning government, and a federal office is investigating charges of corruption. Looking at Mari, I could only admire the strength of the organized poor.
(More stories on El Salvador to follow.)
Sherrill Hogen
Conway, MA
413-625-9959