Initial Reflections from the NCC Women’s Delegation to Jordan and
Israel/Palestine
Loey
Powell
United
Church of Christ (Justice and Witness Ministries)
May
27, 2007
One of
our first visits when we arrived in Jordan was to Mt. Nebo, the mountain
where Moses is said to have ended his long sojourn in the desert and
from which he viewed the Promised Land before dying. The day we were
there, windy conditions filled the air with sand and dust and we
couldn’t see anything from the top. One is supposed to be able to view
Jericho, the Dead Sea, and the hills of the West Bank on the other side
of the Jordan River. But we saw nothing. For me, this became a
metaphor for the entrenched political situation between Israel and
Palestine. Neither side has visionary leadership which could provide a
pathway to a true peaceful resolution. Most everyone we talked with
during our visit felt hopeless about current prospects for peace and
justice and, as we were told repeatedly, the United States must play a
pivotal role in negotiations between Israel and Palestine but it is not
doing so.
So
from the top of Mt. Nebo, the Promised Land is out of sight, lost in a
blur of violence, extremism, militarism and a blatant disregard for
international law. A two state solution, with a secure Israel and
justice for the Palestinians, is what most people on both sides
recognize as ultimately must happen, but it seems far off at the
moment. As one of the religious leaders said to us, “It is not so much
a matter of having a Promised Land as it is of having a promising
land.”
The
seeds for creating that promising land for all who live in the Israel,
the West Bank, Gaza, and surrounding countries, are present in the
people who live there. This was the most hopeful aspect of our trip –
talking with women and men who are working every day on issues of human
rights, women’s rights, and peace with justice. Displaced Palestinians,
living in refugee “camps” in Jordan or the West Bank, or in Palestinian
controlled cities like Ramallah or Hebron, know that current Israeli
policies and incursions into the West Bank are creating more of a
pressure cooker than ever. While the people with whom we talked reject
all forms of violence, they understand the high level of frustration
which exists. Endemic poverty, lack of access to their own land, to
their own schools, to their jobs, the constant harassment at
checkpoints, and the increasing hardship of getting from one day to the
next creates a vacuum into which extremism can thrive. More than half
of the Palestinian population is under the age of twenty – young people
who have only known occupation, harassment, and blockades to whatever
dreams they might have.
And
yet, we talked with Palestinians committed to peace and non-violence,
who are working to provide health care, keep schools open, offer women
economic opportunities and training for self-sufficiency, and create
support services to deal with the psychological trauma of being an
occupied people. We met with Israelis who are dedicated to human
rights, who monitor the checkpoints to keep soldiers from abusing those
crossing through, who meet with Palestinian Muslims and Christians
regularly, and who organize demonstrations for peace attended by
thousands of Israelis. Opposition within Israel to Israeli governmental
policies is growing, and leaders of these efforts and organizations were
glad to meet with us. But as we were also told, the majority of Israeli
citizens do not really know, or care, about what is really happening in
the occupied territories. “Security” for Israel – to which it has a
right – is being gained through strict control of the Palestinian
population in defiance of international law and basic human rights.
The
Middle East Council of Churches represents the shrinking presence of
Christians in the region. Before 1948, about 30% of the population in
Palestine was Christian. Now it is less than 4%. However, within one
square kilometer in Jerusalem, there are over 400 holy sites for the
three major religions, and many others in the surrounding region. There
is a real fear that if Christians do not maintain a significant ongoing
presence, those holy sites important to Christianity might be lost. The
offices of the patriarchs for the Greek Orthodox Church, the Armenian
Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church, and the bishop for the Lutheran
Church in Jerusalem are all acutely aware of the danger of the
diminishing Christian presence. The issue of who has control over
Jerusalem is a real one – not just the various sectors within the Old
City but also the whole municipality. While we were there, Israelis
were celebrating the 40th anniversary of the “reunification”
of Jerusalem, while non-Israelis were acutely aware of the past 40 years
of occupation. As one of our speakers said, “Who is being reunified
with whom?”
One
young Israeli man was proud of his t-shirt which depicted the
destruction of the Dome of the Rock mosque. Other posters showed a
rebuilt temple in place of the mosque. Clearly, emotions run high over
the holy sites - who has access, who can undertake reconstruction
efforts, how to handle archaeological finds and who designates their
significance. All zoning in East Jerusalem, on the Palestinian side of
the Green Line, is controlled by Israel. Under Jordanian control, the
total size of the city of Jerusalem was 8.5 square hectares. Under
current Israeli control since 1967, it is more than 850 square
hectares.
Control is the primary mechanism at play in Israel-Palestine, with the
Israelis having all the power to control the movement of the
Palestinians. The separation wall, which is being built inside of the
West Bank in many places, the roads going to and from settlements upon
which no Palestinians can travel, the hundreds of checkpoints within the
West Bank through which Palestinians must go to get to their schools, or
jobs, or land, all have one purpose – control of movement. The official
stated purpose is security for Israel – to prevent suicide bombers or
other potential attackers from entering Israel. But even the Israeli
defense department acknowledges that the internal checkpoints have
nothing to do with Israel’s security and everything to do with keeping
the settlers safe and separated from the Palestinians. There is growing
public opposition to the settlements within Israel, but the vast number
of existing settlements, established in violation of international law,
will be very difficult to dismantle or return to Palestinian control
should there be a two state solution.
In
Hebron, we visited a school for Palestinian girls. We passed through
Checkpoint 52, the same one that the students and teachers must pass
each day. The school is one block from the checkpoint. Some days,
teachers are unable to pass through if the list of their names has been
“forgotten.” They have teacher IDs, and they are known to the guards
who are there every day. But if the list of their names is “lost,” they
are not allowed to get to the school. There are 200 settlers in Hebron
and 140,000 Palestinians. And there are 1,200-2,000 Israeli soldiers.
One settler approached our group as we were preparing to visit the
school. Angrily, he said that we should let him tell us the truth about
what was going on in Hebron, that the World Council of Churches
Ecumenical Accompaniers who were with us would tell us lies. Shouting,
he refused to let the EAs talk, and so we gently moved along towards the
school.
The
school is across the street from a row of apartments occupied by
settlers. We learned that there are many shady deals between lawyers to
buy out homes from Palestinians at inflated prices (as in $1,000,000 for
a very modest home). Some owners are not even aware of these
transactions. Settlers buy them – or agents on behalf of the settlers -
many of whom are of limited means. The students at the school cannot
walk on the street in front of their school and use the steps from the
street to their classrooms. They have to climb precarious steps near
the checkpoint and walk along what was for many years a dirt path. It
took 6 months to pave over the dirt path, which turned to mud when it
rained, because every night, settlers would undo the work which had been
done during the day. The girl students have stones thrown at them
regularly. I learned from the principal of the school that she hears
the songs the children of the settlers are taught – hate songs about the
Palestinians. They learn them in Hebrew and in Arabic and sing them to
taunt the students.
In
another part of Hebron, the Palestinian marketplace is covered with mesh
wiring because the settlers who live in the buildings above the market
toss out their garbage, including dirty diapers, onto the marketplace.
The mesh is filled with trash. This marketplace is down the road from a
large mosque which the settlers have taken over for their own use as a
synagogue. They use three-fourths of the mosque while the Muslims have
use of the rest of the space.
Control – that’s what is going on. Palestinians who own land, who grow
olives and vegetables, whose families have owned it for centuries, are
in some places unable to cross the road to get to their land without
traveling miles to go through a checkpoint which may be open only 30
minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening. The road they
cannot cross goes to and from a settlement, crossing their land.
Hearing so many similar stories in the course of our visit was indeed
eye-opening. The inability of the international community – especially
the U.S. – to hold Israel accountable to international law, to the U.N.
resolutions it has ignored about its control in the West Bank and Gaza –
is troubling. Criticism of Israeli policies often results in being
called anti-Semitic, so there is a huge silence. At the same time, the
growing radical elements within Islam, fueled by the U.S. wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan and our “war on terror,” have gained a foothold among
Palestinians who have a long history of living peacefully within a
multi-faith and multi-ethnic society. The reality of being an occupied
people whose land was confiscated, who became refugees within their own
land or in neighboring countries, who live with an extremely high level
of poverty, including “deep poverty” in Gaza where people do not consume
the minimum number of calories required to sustain life, make many
susceptible to violent action, as many of our Palestinian speakers
said. These speakers oppose all forms of violence, but they understand
why some are tempted.
Seeds
of hope – they are there. In Ramallah, we learned that women who
experience domestic violence now have services to support them,
including the first shelters recently established in the West Bank.
Women are being trained in computer sciences and encouraged to stay in
school. Three West Bank cities have women mayors, including Ramallah,
and women serving on city councils. In a Palestinian camp, we visited a
women’s center where women and girls are encouraged to study, learn new
skills, and be more self-sufficient. It is in danger of being closed,
however, due to lack of funding. In Jordan, we visited another
Palestinian refugee camp, where a women’s health clinic provides needed
ob-gyn services, nutritional information, and where a young Muslim woman
is working with the hopes of being a doctor one day. They have no lab,
and no ultrasound machine, but do the best they can.
Seeds
of hope – they are there. We met with a woman active in the Parents
Circle, a group of Israeli and Palestinian parents who have lost
children in the conflicts. She lost her 19 year old son, an Israeli
soldier, and after a number of years, she learned about the Parents
Circle. Now she believes this is the most important organization in the
area. The parents understand one another’s loss, and they listen to
each other’s stories. The mothers have their own support circle, and
the Israeli women raise the $1,000 needed to help the Palestinian
mothers come to meetings. There are costs for transport, visas,
permissions, etc., to get to their quarterly meetings. They come
together because they are committed to ending the violence on all
sides.
When I
left Tel Aviv to return home, two days before the rest of the group, I
was stopped by security when they discovered the materials I was taking
back from B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization which documents
the closures in the West Bank and Gaza. It took me one-and-a-half hours
to clear security and get my boarding pass. My luggage was screened and
re-screened, I had to put things in my checked bag from my carry-on, and
I was accompanied through regular security after being wanded in a
private area. I thought about the Palestinians who must endure this
kind of scrutiny day in and day out, not to leave the country, but
simply to get to their own homes and places of business. I wondered if
the young security agents at the airport understood what they were doing
and why. I wondered what it takes to maintain fear and suspicion of
other human beings, of critical opinions that question the official
party line.
I
wondered how similar this is to some things which have occurred in
recent years in the U.S. in this post-9/11 era. I wondered what it is
going to take to truly have peace and justice in the world.
