Title: Arafat Warns That the Palestinians Are Facing a Disaster
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

December 12, 2000

ARAFAT WARNS THAT THE PALESTINIANS ARE FACING A DISASTER
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          GAZA CITY -- "We are facing a disaster," a grim-faced President
Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Authority (PA) told a visiting
delegation from the United States during a morning conversation.
            "Sorry you are coming in such crucial circumstances as we
face more aggression. In spite of that, we are doing our best to
return to the peace process."
            Arafat thanked the delegation for its visit in spite of
the difficult situation and encouraged the delegation to make a
strong push to save the peace process. "With your help we will be
able to overcome what we are facing," he added.
            "Unless we can put an end to the confusion" between what
the  politicians talk about and what the military leaders are
implementing, Arafat warned, the situation in the region could
become "very, very dangerous." He indicated that a non-military
solution must be found.
            "All of our cities and towns are under siege," Arafat
said. "What they are doing in Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour is
unbelievable, a big crime." The three West Bank towns have been
shelled recently and the Israeli military authorities have made
movement difficult in the area. The economic issues are also
critical, he reported, since 340,000 laborers have lost their jobs,
forcing the PA to support "some of our people facing real tragedy."
            "We recognize peace comes with a price--justice," said
the Rev. John McCullough of Church World Service, the relief arm of
the National Council of Churches. "We are committed to be an
agitating voice to establish justice."
            Bishop Theodore Schneider of the Metropolitan Washington
D.C. Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America told Arafat
about the ecumenical prayer vigil for peace in the Middle East that
began in many American churches on the first Sunday of Advent, a
vigil that would continue until the violence in the region ended and
peace is achieved. "Prayer excites God's people to know and care," he
said.  "This is not the way to live and we know it."

De facto apartheid
            The collapse of the peace process and the renewed
intifada is creating a social and economic suffocation in the
occupied Palestinian territories, a "de facto apartheid," argued Raji
Sourani, director of the Palestine Center for Human Rights in Gaza
City.
            "Nobody should have any illusions about what is happening
here," he said. "They are building Berlin Walls all over the occupied
territories. How can victimizing human rights be the price of
peace?" he asked. "Who has a real, genuine interest in peace?"
            He called the political rhetoric used by the Israelis
"very scary."
            He said that the search for peace is complicated by the
guilt resulting from persecution of the Jews. "But we are not
responsible for the Holocaust," and he argued that having been
victims does not now give Israel the right to make victims of others.
           "Fair-minded Jews realize that what is happening is de facto
apartheid."  Palestinians are not ready to be "good victims," Sourani
said. When pressed, Israeli friends told him that "you
Palestinians don't exist for us," except perhaps as a security
problem, and the Israeli Army can handle any threats. He concluded
that many Israelis think Palestinians should "take what we offer or
things will continue."  But he is convinced that "we exist for them
right now because of the blood."
            He talked about the "vicious cycle of blood" and argued
that the intensity of the Israeli military actions are the worst
since the 1967 war. But he was worried that people are beginning to
become insensitive to the violence. "Last night there was five hours
of shelling in a village and it didn't even make the news," he said,
other than reporting the number of victims. "We are in bad need of
your prayers and support," he concluded.

Standing by the truth
            Dr. Haider Abdel Shafi, a highly respected Palestinian
leader who led the negotiation team at the Madrid Conference, is also
convinced that the Israeli strategy is to establish facts on the
ground, especially through the expansion of settlements on the West
Bank and in the Gaza Strip. He agrees with the United Nations
condemnation of the settlements as "illegal and obstructions to
peace."
           Although he had "no illusions" when he went to Madrid, he
harbored hopes that the United States would adopt a more balanced
approach to the peace process. "Our hopes were frustrated when we
asked the Israelis to stop the settlements." He said that he did not
know about the secret negotiations in Oslo but concluded it was "a
bad agreement."
            "I hope no one expects us to make further concessions. We
have already made great concessions," he said. "Our demands are
legitimate we want a sovereign state within recognized borders with
Jerusalem as the capital. And we can't understand that the world
stands by when they can see the tragedy going on in this part of the
world."
             He asked, "Why should Israel be accommodated in its
aggression?  Basically because it enjoys the support of the U.S.
government." He said that Arafat had been "very accommodating,"
showing his flexibility and risking credibility and the support of
his people. "We think he's giving more than he should."
           The doctor admitted that Palestinians had "not done enough
and our failures are many," especially telling the story to the
American society. "It is very crucial to try to affect Congress and
the Americans about the realities of the problems here," he added.
"My friends argue that the churches might help. We are certain church
people are the kind who seek and support truth."
           He concluded, "Despite what we have suffered and are
suffering, we are sure that people will stand by the truth when they
know it."

Staring truth in the face
            The delegation was exposed to the harsh realities of the
situation when they traveled south of Gaza City and met with farmers
whose homes and orchards had been destroyed recently.
            Walking through a field where almost 500 trees had been
systematically bulldozed in the last few weeks by Israelis who
claimed that youth were stoning convoys of settlers on the nearby
road, the delegation met the human face of the issue.
            "We ask for international protection," pleaded
nine-year-old Maran.  She described her walk to school, detouring
around Israeli tanks recently deployed to block the main road through
the area.
            The bulldozers came without warning in the early hours of
the morning and leveled a house where families were sleeping. Members
of the delegation sifted through pieces of furniture and clothing.
"How can you explain this to your children when you are trying to
teach them peace?" asked one of the farmers. "We are here to stay. We
are not going anywhere." Local Palestinians are convinced that Israel
wants to "eradicate our history and make it difficult to live here."
            In a brief stop for prayers at the chapel at Ahli Arab
Hospital in Gaza City, the delegation was shown fragments of an
American-made missile that had killed one of the hospital's ambulance
drivers.
            Bishop Vincent Warner of the Diocese of Olympia in
Washington prayed for the hospital "where brokenness is made whole.
Heal Palestine, heal Israel and heal us. What we have seen here is
breaking our hearts and all we can do is turn to God."
           At the Gaza border, Constantine Dabbagh, Executive
Secretary for the Middle East Council of Churches' Committee for
Refugee Work in Gaza, urged members of the delegation to couple their
prayers with action and, accepting the gift of a crystal dove, he
urged them "to give the dove wings" through their efforts for peace.

Meeting with rabbis and Jewish peace activists
   At the end of a long and sobering day, the delegation met with
four Israeli religious peace activists. They were very open about
their  hopes for continued dialogue with their Palestinian
counterparts. At the same time their fear for their personal safety
has been heightened since the outbreak of the second intifada. Midway
through the conversation it was reported that the shelling had
resumed in Bethlehem and Beit Jala with the likelihood of further
casualties.
            "Our hearts are breaking every day," said Rabbi Yehezkiel
Landau. "This is a very dark period. How do we get people to hear the
fear?"
            "Do the Palestinians and Israelis hear the fears of each
other?" asked Bishop Browning of the Episcopal Church USA.
            "You can't blame a people whose humanity has been denied from
rising up andemanding their rights," argued McCullough.  "If one
people fail to recognize the humanity of another, you cannot blame
them when you suffer. Deal with the reality of what created the
crisis."
―---
   *Jim Solheim is director of the Episcopal Church's Office of News
and Information and is serving as press officer for the peace
delegation. To follow the stories and photos check the Web site of
the Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs: http://www.loga.org.

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