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